Week 2 Reading Notes

Wiki: Personal Computer Hardware
This article was a bit of a wake up call for me.  I did not realise how much and how little I knew about personal computers.  Many of the components mentioned in the article were things that I knew about and had a rough definition for but for the most part I did not really know what they did, what it meant, or what it was for.  For instance, I knew that a DVD was a type of CD but because I've always associated it with movies I never made the connection that it was a CD just with more storage capacity (nor did I know it stood for digital versatile disc which rather ironic because previously I associated the term CD or disc with more versatile functions than DVD.)  Being a wiki article, I found the links very helpful as well for allowing me to further learn about each component as well as to get specific definitions of things I previously took for granted. 

Moore's Law: Wiki and Video
I think Christie Nicholson in the video described it best when she said that Moore's Law is not really a law but more of a "technological trend."  The exponential doubling has become more of a goal rather than a rule.  This seems to have been quite beneficial over the past 40 years because it has motivated us to take great leaps in computing hardware.  Will it last forever, most agree the answer is "no."  However, that doesn't mean that we will stop building faster computers.  As the transistor replaced the vacuum tube (1947-computer history museum website) is it possible that we may need to look for replacements for the transistor in the future?   One concern about Moore's Law I have from reading the wiki is whether or not the need for quantity over quality will eventually affect its sustainability.  Under the subheading "Density at minimum cost per transistor" the article says that the need to sustain Moore's Law leads to an increase in defects.  Do we allow ourselves time to iron out these defects before another another increase has occurred?  If not, will these defects eventually add up making it more difficult to produce a quality product?

Computer History Museum
This was a fun website to explore.  Oddly enough when I first visited the site I thought it was a digital museum because of all the information on it.  While I am sure there are many computer enthusiasts who would love to go to the actual museum, not being much of a tech. buff, I think the website may be a bit more informative for me.  The timelines were the most informative part of the website (although I am a bit perturbed that they consider anything before 1940 "ancient") because it helped to put the history of computers into perspective; something that is becoming increasingly harder to do in my opinion as computers become more and more a part of our daily lives (like the person who wonders why there are no photographs of George Washington.)