Second Readings

"Moore's Law"

It is interesting how the articles states common misconceptions that many people have with Moore's law - the belief that it applies to everything in computer-technology products. Although "almost every measure of the capabilities of digital electronic devices is linked to Moore's law..." (goes to list a few) not everything, such as software and RAM increase exponentially. I believe that Moore brings an interesting topic to discuss or debate up when he states, "Moore's law has been the name given to everything that changes exponentially. I say, if Gore invented the Internet, I invented the exponential." Most of us would argue that he did not invent the exponential and that inventions are usually combined works of inventors throughout time, especially the Internet (now more quickly connected than ever). I think others more technological savvy and those with interests in the "invention" of the Internet could comment better on this quote. Finally, I agree that Moore's law is only a self-fulfilling prophecy to the marketers and engineers of these products because they, themselves so truly believed in Moore's law that they made it come true.

Muddiest Point: The computer terminology. I tried to get past the terminology, look up a few that I thought would be useful and tried to get the main ideas out of the article rather than all the technological jargon.

"Computer Hardware"
I am actually glad that we had this article - I was finally forced to read something I have avoided for years. A lot of computer physical parts and terminology seems a bit more clear to me now after reading this article. Interesting point made: that most computer hardware is not seen by normal users and that our personal computers only make up .2% of all new computers produced in 2003 (1). Another interesting thing to note is actually a conversation I was having with a student this past spring about HD DVD being discontinued because of Blue-ray. It seems as though almost everyone finally had the spectacular HD DVD equipment (and all the movies were advertised as HD DVDs) when low and behold, Blue-ray became the rave and the hottest "new" thing in computers.

Computer History Website
I'm glad I read the articles in the order that I did because this allowed me to understand what I was viewing once I was on the website. This website also further helped me to understand what exactly the articles were saying.

Important Point: The problem lies of understanding these articles lies within myself - I'm just not interested in all of the technology talk. I believe that if I had more interest in learning the jargon I would pick up a great deal more than I have from these articles and website. But at least it made a dent in my clueless about computer technology terminology.