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October 25, 2006
Hardware Questions
These are our group members:
- Stefanie Wiener
- Katherine Nicholl
- Rachel Gutierrez
- I always have been annoyed when using my home computer that uses a dial-up internet connection. It is significantly slower than my wireless connection that I receive on campus with my laptop. Why are there such speed differences between internet connections, broadband vs dial-up speeds, and also wireless? The website that sparked our interest with this question is: internet connections
- I was watching a Mr. and Mrs. Smith on a DVD the other day, and I started reading the back cover, where all of the technical information is listed along with the description of the movie. The DVD I watched used MPEG-2 format. What does this mean? How does this affect what I am watching? How does it work? Then I started search for the DVD online (I wanted to buy it…I had rented it) and I came across a website selling the DVD for European countries. I know that DVD players in Europe are not compatible with DVD players in America, and the DVD still uses MPEG-2 format. That leads me to another question…why aren’t DVD players compatible from country to country? Furthermore, I know that there are some specialized DVD players that work with everything. What makes this possible?
- For the first time this year, my apartment is using wireless internet. We were having trouble installing the wireless router, so we went to the website www.linksys.com. There I learned that the router has firewall capabilities. Can the firewall for my computer come from an outside source? I thought the firewall had to be installed on my individual computer for it to work? How does a firewall work?
- I was looking at mp3 players, and as I was browsing through the options, I came across two differnet types of memory storage. What is the difference of a flash drive and a hard drive? What are the advantages and disadvantages for each of them?
- Once hearing about the new technology in video watching, called Blu-ray, we were immediateley curious as to how this will be better than the standard DVD player. We looked up the Samsung Blu-ray High Definition Disc Player on Bestbuy.com. We are curious about how the Blu-ray is capable of having five times greater resolution than a DVD? Also, it says in the advertisement that it has built-in decoders for next-generation Dolby Digital. What exactly is a built-in decoder?
- I was on the apple website (http://www.apple.com/), looking at the new ipods, when I came across the new laptops available. The apple pro laptop looks very enticing because it had so many amazing features. There was a list of techniques that the Mac pro could perform, and in this list there was an article titled The (Hidden) Glyphs Palette. I havce no idea what a glyph is. Why is having glyph capabilities important? Does it enhance the performance of the computer, or is it a special feature used to attract artistic users to this computer?
- When surfing the internet, I have come across HT technology in many different places. From desktops, to video game systems, to servers, everything uses HT techonolgy! What does it do? What enables it to be used in such versatile ways?
- While looking through articles on de.lic.ious.com, we came across a website on Webtools. This website claims to provide the most useful computer tools for college students, and it mentioned PDFs. We were wondering what a PDF is, and how would a website that converts documents into PDFs help college students?
- I was tagging websites for the term project, and I came across a website about bandwidth. What is bandwidth? Does it affect the speed of my internet?
- New types of television technology are coming out each day. What is the difference between an LCD panel and a plasma flat panel? Is the main difference the amount of pixels?
LCD TV
Posted by ragutier at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2006
Microsoft Vista
Our blog focus for the term will be Microsoft Vista, the newest upgrade Microsoft has released since Windows XP. Vista, which will be released in early 2007 is expected to have heightened security, and be more visually appealing.
Posted by stwiener at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2006
Google Earth: Blog 1
I installed Google Earth onto my computer last year, and didn't think anything of it. The first thing I did with the program was try to find my house. I couldn't actually see my house clearly, but I could tell that I had found my neighborhood. It was nothing too impressive.
Recently, I was tagging websites on del.icio.us and I came across an article about Google Earth entitled "The Growing World of Google Earth" that rejuvenated my interest in this program. I searched for my house a second time, and the image was very clear and detailed. Instead of being impressed I was startled. Google has now created a virtual stalking system. Sure, it does have lots of practical uses, such as looking for a hotel that you would book for vacation, but the bottom line is technology makes the world smaller and smaller at a frightening pace.
In fact, this article talks about the increasingly detailed imagery available on Google Earth and its widespread growth. About one country per month is added to this program, and it seems that I'm not the only one concerned about privacy. Many of the countries being added are raising concerns about national security, though Google insists they regulate their satelite pictures according to international treaties. Some countries however, have found a way to fight back and retain more privacy: They restrict the quality of images commercial satellite companies are allowed to take, because these are the companies that sell information to Google Earth.
I just hope that in the future, when my house is googled, you won't know that I'm eating a sandwich on my deck and drinking a glass of lemonade.
-Stefanie Wiener
Posted by stwiener at 12:51 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2006
Stefanie's Tips and Tricks!
In the beginning, it was challenging to find IT related information. I knew nothing about this field, so I didn't know where to start looking.
I soon discovered that deliscious is an excellent resource for technology information. I went to the popular page, and clicked on information technology tags. Once I clicked on these tags a plethora of information was at my fingertips. After doing this for a few days, I noticed that certain users were continuously tagging IT related sites. I added these users to my network, and since then it has been much easier to find IT information because I can see the IT sites they are tagging each day.
I have discovered other useful tips in addition to adding users to my network. Whenever I tag a website I look at the website which provided the article or link. That way I am aware of websites that produce IT related news articles or information. I add all of these websites into a tag I named spider. Then when I want to go to any of these sites, I just click on my spider tag, and they all appear, ready for me to use. For example, in spider right now I have CNN's technology section, slashdot, infoworld.com, ExtremeTech, and other sites.
-Stefanie Wiener
Posted by stwiener at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)
Welcome Blog
Welcome to our Term Project. We will be blogging about general IT trends, throughout the semester. I hope you enjoy it!
Authors of this Blog:
- Alyse Athans
- Catherine Chao
- Stefanie Wiener
Basic Information:
- section 001
- wednesday
- 11:30am-1pm
Posted by stwiener at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2006
Hardware Questions
These are our group members:
- Stefanie Wiener
- Katherine Nicholl
- Rachel Gutierrez
- I always have been annoyed when using my home computer that uses a dial-up internet connection. It is significantly slower than my wireless connection that I receive on campus with my laptop. Why are there such speed differences between internet connections, broadband vs dial-up speeds, and also wireless? The website that sparked our interest with this question is: internet connections
- I was watching a Mr. and Mrs. Smith on a DVD the other day, and I started reading the back cover, where all of the technical information is listed along with the description of the movie. The DVD I watched used MPEG-2 format. What does this mean? How does this affect what I am watching? How does it work? Then I started search for the DVD online (I wanted to buy it…I had rented it) and I came across a website selling the DVD for European countries. I know that DVD players in Europe are not compatible with DVD players in America, and the DVD still uses MPEG-2 format. That leads me to another question…why aren’t DVD players compatible from country to country? Furthermore, I know that there are some specialized DVD players that work with everything. What makes this possible?
- For the first time this year, my apartment is using wireless internet. We were having trouble installing the wireless router, so we went to the website www.linksys.com. There I learned that the router has firewall capabilities. Can the firewall for my computer come from an outside source? I thought the firewall had to be installed on my individual computer for it to work? How does a firewall work?
- I was looking at mp3 players, and as I was browsing through the options, I came across two differnet types of memory storage. What is the difference of a flash drive and a hard drive? What are the advantages and disadvantages for each of them?
- Once hearing about the new technology in video watching, called Blu-ray, we were immediateley curious as to how this will be better than the standard DVD player. We looked up the Samsung Blu-ray High Definition Disc Player on Bestbuy.com. We are curious about how the Blu-ray is capable of having five times greater resolution than a DVD? Also, it says in the advertisement that it has built-in decoders for next-generation Dolby Digital. What exactly is a built-in decoder?
- I was on the apple website (http://www.apple.com/), looking at the new ipods, when I came across the new laptops available. The apple pro laptop looks very enticing because it had so many amazing features. There was a list of techniques that the Mac pro could perform, and in this list there was an article titled The (Hidden) Glyphs Palette. I havce no idea what a glyph is. Why is having glyph capabilities important? Does it enhance the performance of the computer, or is it a special feature used to attract artistic users to this computer?
- When surfing the internet, I have come across HT technology in many different places. From desktops, to video game systems, to servers, everything uses HT techonolgy! What does it do? What enables it to be used in such versatile ways?
- While looking through articles on de.lic.ious.com, we came across a website on Webtools. This website claims to provide the most useful computer tools for college students, and it mentioned PDFs. We were wondering what a PDF is, and how would a website that converts documents into PDFs help college students?
- I was tagging websites for the term project, and I came across a website about bandwidth. What is bandwidth? Does it affect the speed of my internet?
- New types of television technology are coming out each day. What is the difference between an LCD panel and a plasma flat panel? Is the main difference the amount of pixels?
LCD TV
Posted by stwiener at 02:38 PM | Comments (0)