14/03/09.
It’s amazing how much content you can cover in such a short period of time. Our lectures have each covered a different but major topic, all important pieces in the puzzle of understanding and hopefully helping us become familiar with what is currently emerging technology.
Week 1has covered just a general intro in what the digital revolution is, and also helped us to understand just how deeply information technology has penetrated our culture. It also gave a brief insight into the technologies which have helped bring about these changes.
It’s amazing seeing just how deeply technology is ingrained in modern culture, and our class activity this week was to plan a skiing trip using nothing but online services. Oh, and we had about half an hour to do it. The results of my trip were as follows:
A flight to Queenstown was as cheap as $326, flying with jetstar and only taking one bag of up to 25kg.
Accomodation at Blue Peaks Lodge Queenstown is $114 per night, or a total of 456 in accomodation. This 4 Star Lodge has been reviewed by various people who have stayed there, in general it has rated well, with 29/34 visitors rating it 4 stars or better (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g255122-d292930-Reviews-Blue_Peaks_Lodge-Queenstown_South_Island.html)
210 for ski pass http://bookings.nzbookit.com/pub/search.aspx?s=a74e87bf-4fca-447b-b06e-9027b334ba53&b=NZSKIC&a=NZSKIC&sgi=207
330 for 3 jumps
1322 without food and equipment hire.
In half an hour! It’s amazing that this much is possible and so quickly!
Week 2 followed up this with an introduction with what’s inside a computer. It’s not something you often think about, but consoles are just specialised computers. I could say that they are specialised for games, but that would be a lie. The PS3 for example has been found to be an excellent folder, as the cell processor within it is especially suited to the program that they run. Not only that, but it can be used to build supercomputers (here and here). It’s amazing just how close consoles can be to our pc’s, and also that they can also be superior.
Week 3 covered the operating system and also software. I’d never thought of software in the way that was portrayed in the lecture, which is that there are 3 major types, Application Programs, Utility Programs and System Software. Learning about basic memory management was also enlightening. I thought I’d also briefly mention what hyperthreading was in here, as it was a question posed to us in the lecture. Hyper-Threading was a technology that Intel developed for its Pentium 4 Processors, so that they could give the illusion (and some of the performance) of a Dual Processor (or SMP system) in a single CPU socket. It accomplished this by duplicating some areas of the cpu, which allows the Operating System to schecdule 2 threads simultaneously. But, it still is not as efficent or as fast as the real thing, and until recent releases of Intel CPU’s (the i7 and new versions of the Atom processor) intel seemed to have abandoned the idea. Something interesting to note is that in some cases, hyperthreading on the i7 can actually degrade performance… something to think about if you purchase or own one.
Here is a question from my work that week.
Discuss why users might possibly want to use Ubuntu (or other OS)? Note that you should be as detailed as possible
With the constant trend of globalising companies, WAN’s are going to become an object of necessity for future businesses, and we can only hope that eventually Australia’s bandwith capabilities will be at a level that will keep us up with the rest of the world, otherwise it’s going to become a struggle to effectively globalise. Is cloud computing the answer? I don’t think it is, due to the inherant security risks that will put off businesses, but only time will tell how businesses will approach this new technology.
Ever since computers first went mainstream, in the public eye it has been generally viewed as being windows, windows, windows. Maybe a little bit of Macintosh in there, but it is hard to find someone who hasn’t heard of Windows before. If you ask them about linux, they just don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.
Until recently, Linux had only been used by a majority of very vocal and loyal supporters, who are dedicated to making it the best operating system out there. But, compared to the other operating systems there was one remarkable difference, it is free. Not only that, but it was also possible to get a copy of the source code and modify it freely for your own purposes.
Now, editing code is not something that appeals to the average computer user, but getting the software for free is completely different. When you are looking into purchasing a budget computer, you can get put one together yourself for around $750 including a XP Home License. If you were to install Ubuntu instead, suddenly the machine is $126 cheaper, making it only $624. That is a huge saving, and could alone could be enough to usher in a new era of cheaper pc’s.
Of all arguments that can be said about using Ubuntu, cost will always be a big one, especially in today’s current economic climate. Nobody wants to waste money.
Now, they may worry about their current programs, documents and pieces of hardware no longer being usable, which is not something to worry about.
Out of the box, Ubuntu will recognise and install the majority of major hardware components in any system, and will also auto configure them to the correct settings. In my test case I installed Ubuntu x64 (which should have more incompatibilities) onto the following system configuration:
Gigabyte X38-DQ6 enthusist motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU overclocked to 3.4ghz
6GB DDRII RAM
1×160, 2×640, 1x320GB HDD’s
Nvidia GeForce 8800gtx
2x Dell S2409W 24” HD LCD monitors (1920×1080)
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 Keyboard
Logitech G5 Mouse
After a less painful install than most major applications, I was greeted with a pleasant login screen. I logged in, was amazed to actually hear sound, and realised that my monitors were even running at their native resolution (albeit cloned). After some initial automated system setup, I was at the desktop and was immediately able to connect to the internet and listen to my music.
To say I was astonished is to say the least. As this version of Ubuntu is starting to get old, (sort of like installing XP off a disc from when XP was first released), some of the software was a little old (Firefox was only version 2.0 and OpenOffice was only version 2.4) but even OpenOffice 2.4 could open Microsoft .docx files, so I had no incompatibilities to start with.
After using the system updater everything just worked. It was quick, efficient and most importantly, easy to use.
I really have no criticisms with this at all, and I cannot really think of any reason of why you would not want to use ubuntu, unless you had an application that you have to use that does not work under Linux (or WINE).
Week 4 – Networks:
Our lecturer covered the internet in our lecture, so it got me thinking, how long has the internet actually existed before? I set out to see. According to various sources, December 5, 1969 the first 4 computers were connected to the first ever WAN, and the beginnings of the internet, the ARPANET. From here the concept of the internet would grow and eventually become the juggernaut that it is today. One thing I’d never considered is that there are so many devices required to simply connect a computer or server to the internet. You need a modem to connect to the routers, and then a phalanx of routers around the world work to ensure that your transmitted data finds the correct location. It is truly mind boggling just to think of the complexities involved in transmitting data even just to somewhere else in Australia.
