W3schools HTML Tutorial
(http://www.w3schools.com/HTML/html_intro.asp)
This was a tutorial about the basics of HTML and how websites are built using it. It explained everything step by step and was clearly aimed toward beginners, so I was able to get a lot out of it. As has been the case with past readings, a lot of the content I knew already but had a hard time putting together in my head. I knew the absolute basics of HTML from posting in blogs and things before, but this tutorial brought it all together in terms I was able to grasp quickly. I thought it tended to repeat itself a little, but overall it seems like a really good resource for beginning to build webpages, and I’ll probably be using it sometime soon in the future.
HTML Cheat Sheet
(http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/reference/html_cheatsheet/)
I got a 404 Error when I tried to view this page, and nothing came up when I tried the search feature for the website, so I was never able to view it.
W3 School Cascading Style Sheet Tutorial
(http://www.w3schools.com/css/)
I know a lot less about CSS than about basic HTML, so here are some notes (I put spaces between tags so it wouldn't show up in Blogger):
“What is CSS?
• CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets
• Styles define how to display HTML elements
• Styles were added to HTML 4.0 to solve a problem
• External Style Sheets can save a lot of work
• External Style Sheets are stored in CSS files
Styles Solved a Big Problem
• HTML was never intended to contain tags for formatting a document.
• HTML was intended to define the content of a document, like:
o < h1 > This is a heading < /h1 >
o < p > This is a paragraph. < /p >
• When tags like < span >, and color attributes were added to the HTML 3.2 specification, it started a nightmare for web developers. Development of large web sites, where fonts and color information were added to every single page, became a long and expensive process.
• To solve this problem, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) created CSS.
• In HTML 4.0, all formatting could be removed from the HTML document, and stored in a separate CSS file.
• All browsers support CSS today.
CSS defines HOW HTML elements are to be displayed.
Styles are normally saved in external .css files. External style sheets enable you to change the appearance and layout of all the pages in a Web site, just by editing one single file!”
This seemed a lot more complicated and harder for me to understand, but it was interesting to learn how it came about as a solution for difficulties with newer versions of HTML. This was the same kind of step-by-step tutorial as the HTML one, using examples and giving you the opportunity to try each step of the process after every example.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Assignment #4
The topic I chose was how to make a LOLcat from www.icanhascheezburger.com.
Link to video
Links to annotated images:
(One) (Two) (Three) (Four) (Five)
Link to video
Links to annotated images:
(One) (Two) (Three) (Four) (Five)
Monday, October 12, 2009
Week 7 comments on others' blogs
http://suzydeucher2600.blogspot.com/2009/10/reading-notes-week-7.html?showComment=1255377882981#c6947361342896832011
http://knivesnmatches.blogspot.com/2009/10/1020-readings.html?showComment=1255385910228#c6308310386173832883
http://knivesnmatches.blogspot.com/2009/10/1020-readings.html?showComment=1255385910228#c6308310386173832883
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Week 7 reading notes
How Internet Infrastructure Works
By Jeff Tyson
(http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet-infrastructure.htm/printable)
This article basically explained in simple terms how the internet works, how it is essentially a series of connected networks. It talked about how companies attach their own networks to the internet, and how internet networks rely on Network Access Points (NAPs), backbones, and routers to communicate with each other. It went into details about how routers work, and what their purpose is – making sure information gets to where it needs to be, and keeping information from going where it isn’t needed. This is how information is sent to separate networks – it joins two networks together, passing information from one to the next.
More quotes:
“Internet Backbone:
Today there are many companies that operate their own high-capacity backbones, and all of them interconnect at various NAPs around the world. In this way, everyone on the Internet, no matter where they are and what company they use, is able to talk to everyone else on the planet. The entire Internet is a gigantic, sprawling agreement between companies to intercommunicate freely.”
“The IP stands for Internet Protocol, which is the language that computers use to communicate over the Internet. A protocol is the pre-defined way that someone who wants to use a service talks with that service. The "someone" could be a person, but more often it is a computer program like a Web browser.”
“In 1983, the University of Wisconsin created the Domain Name System (DNS), which maps text names to IP addresses automatically. This way you only need to remember www.howstuffworks.com, for example, instead of HowStuffWorks.com's IP address.”
“Internet servers make the Internet possible. All of the machines on the Internet are either servers or clients. The machines that provide services to other machines are servers. And the machines that are used to connect to those services are clients. There are Web servers, e-mail servers, FTP servers and so on serving the needs of Internet users all over the world.”
“Any server machine makes its services available using numbered ports -- one for each service that is available on the server.”
“Once a client has connected to a service on a particular port, it accesses the service using a specific protocol. Protocols are often text and simply describe how the client and server will have their conversation. Every Web server on the Internet conforms to the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).”
I liked how this article was apparently aimed toward readers without possibly a lot of knowledge about the terms and processes. How the internet works seems pretty abstract to me – it’s not a physical thing like a letter being mailed from one place to another, it’s information being sent invisibly across great amounts of space in small amounts of time. If you’re like me and still have a hard time wrapping your head around that huge concept, it seems almost like magic – clicking on things or typing in words, making things appear on your screen intangibly and instantaneously from nothingness. This article did a good job of describing how exactly the internet works to retrieve and communicate information from network to network without getting too bogged down in technical terms that might become confusing.
*&*
Andrew K. Pace. “Dismantling Integrated Library Systems,” Library Journal, vol 129 Issue 2, p34-36. 2/1/2004
(https://sremote.pitt.edu/ehost/,DanaInfo=web.ebscohost.com+detail?vid=2&hid=105&sid=3f9c9661-29b4-4cd7-be06-47e0a0b294c7%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=hch&AN=12125485)
The link in the syllabus didn’t work, but I was able to find the article through Pitt’s ULS article search.
This article talked about how libraries are dismantling older systems and creating new ones “out of frustration with the inflexible and nonextensible technology of their proprietary systems.”
More quotes:
“Librarians and their vendors have created a tougher world for themselves, with interoperability the only solution.”
“In the newly dismantled library system, many expect that new modules will communicate with old ones, products from different vendors will work together, and a suite of existing standards will make distributed systems seem transparently whole. But in an ironic twist, most of the touted interoperability is between a vendor's own modules (sometimes) or between a library's homegrown solutions and its own ILS (sometimes). Today, interoperability in library automation is more myth than reality. Some of us wonder if we may lose more than we gain in this newly dismantled world.”
“Whenever one tinkers with either the back or front end of such a sophisticated system, there is a temptation to start from scratch. This can be daunting, even crippling…. Not only is creating a completely new ILS unrealistic, but Roland Dietz, Endeavor's president and CEO, suggests that even "incremental functionality improvements [to existing systems] are more and more expensive." Moreover, libraries no longer want to search myriad information silos but desire one-stop search and retrieval.”
“Librarians are also motivated to seek solutions because of healthy competition with peers and disparate information resources. When libraries try to meet new needs with technology, such as federated searching, their ILS can rarely answer the call. Libraries are forced to look at new technology and create a solution themselves or purchase a standalone product.”
“Libraries don't pay enough for their ILS. Compared with fees for other technologies--relational database management systems, server hardware and software, desktop replacement cycles--ILS maintenance fees are cheap. However, librarians' resistance to paying for development is often cited for the lack of technological advancement within the traditional ILS.”
“Some of the best ideas in online library services have come not from vendors but from librarians themselves… Open source software (OSS) has offered libraries the freedom to experiment with, develop, and offer innovative services. Nonetheless, a full-scale OSS library system that would work for the largest institutions has yet to emerge. Efforts like Koha have success with only the most basic functionality.”
“Our future, like our past, lies in integration. Maintaining standalone modules with loosely integrated or moderately interoperable functions is too expensive for libraries. This is why libraries sought integrated systems in the first place.”
“Library vendors have two choices. They can continue to maintain large systems that use proprietary methods of interoperability and promise tight integration of services for their customers. Or, they can choose to dismantle their modules in such a way that librarians can reintegrate their systems through web services and standards, combining new with the old modules as well as the new with each other.”
*&*
Sergey Brin and Larry Page: Inside the Google machine.
(http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sergey_brin_and_larry_page_on_google.html)
This was a video of a talk with Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the creators of Google. They begin by showing a model of the earth and how strong internet activity was in various places in the world during a particular time of day. Also how different areas of the world are wired to each other through internet activity, the strongest being across the United States and from North America to Europe.
Sergey Brin says that the way to expand the Google company is to get more searches, and he talks a little about the Google Foundation and what organizations they were involved in. Larry Page talks about some projects of Google like Googlette, and also different innovations of Google like Google Deskbar, Google Answers, Froogle, and Blogger. He also talks about AdSense, which puts relevant ads on websites instead of random ads, so it’s a little more useful to the reader and generates more money for the author. He gives the example of people generally thinking Google is smart when it isn’t really, it’s just programmed to give automatic answers based on the content of a page. Also how algorithms were giving people offensive responses that seemed like they were being written by real people, when it was really an automatic response the algorithm gave based on the person’s blog’s content.
I thought it was very interesting and funny, and a good look at the inner workings of the Google company.
By Jeff Tyson
(http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet-infrastructure.htm/printable)
This article basically explained in simple terms how the internet works, how it is essentially a series of connected networks. It talked about how companies attach their own networks to the internet, and how internet networks rely on Network Access Points (NAPs), backbones, and routers to communicate with each other. It went into details about how routers work, and what their purpose is – making sure information gets to where it needs to be, and keeping information from going where it isn’t needed. This is how information is sent to separate networks – it joins two networks together, passing information from one to the next.
More quotes:
“Internet Backbone:
Today there are many companies that operate their own high-capacity backbones, and all of them interconnect at various NAPs around the world. In this way, everyone on the Internet, no matter where they are and what company they use, is able to talk to everyone else on the planet. The entire Internet is a gigantic, sprawling agreement between companies to intercommunicate freely.”
“The IP stands for Internet Protocol, which is the language that computers use to communicate over the Internet. A protocol is the pre-defined way that someone who wants to use a service talks with that service. The "someone" could be a person, but more often it is a computer program like a Web browser.”
“In 1983, the University of Wisconsin created the Domain Name System (DNS), which maps text names to IP addresses automatically. This way you only need to remember www.howstuffworks.com, for example, instead of HowStuffWorks.com's IP address.”
“Internet servers make the Internet possible. All of the machines on the Internet are either servers or clients. The machines that provide services to other machines are servers. And the machines that are used to connect to those services are clients. There are Web servers, e-mail servers, FTP servers and so on serving the needs of Internet users all over the world.”
“Any server machine makes its services available using numbered ports -- one for each service that is available on the server.”
“Once a client has connected to a service on a particular port, it accesses the service using a specific protocol. Protocols are often text and simply describe how the client and server will have their conversation. Every Web server on the Internet conforms to the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).”
I liked how this article was apparently aimed toward readers without possibly a lot of knowledge about the terms and processes. How the internet works seems pretty abstract to me – it’s not a physical thing like a letter being mailed from one place to another, it’s information being sent invisibly across great amounts of space in small amounts of time. If you’re like me and still have a hard time wrapping your head around that huge concept, it seems almost like magic – clicking on things or typing in words, making things appear on your screen intangibly and instantaneously from nothingness. This article did a good job of describing how exactly the internet works to retrieve and communicate information from network to network without getting too bogged down in technical terms that might become confusing.
*&*
Andrew K. Pace. “Dismantling Integrated Library Systems,” Library Journal, vol 129 Issue 2, p34-36. 2/1/2004
(https://sremote.pitt.edu/ehost/,DanaInfo=web.ebscohost.com+detail?vid=2&hid=105&sid=3f9c9661-29b4-4cd7-be06-47e0a0b294c7%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=hch&AN=12125485)
The link in the syllabus didn’t work, but I was able to find the article through Pitt’s ULS article search.
This article talked about how libraries are dismantling older systems and creating new ones “out of frustration with the inflexible and nonextensible technology of their proprietary systems.”
More quotes:
“Librarians and their vendors have created a tougher world for themselves, with interoperability the only solution.”
“In the newly dismantled library system, many expect that new modules will communicate with old ones, products from different vendors will work together, and a suite of existing standards will make distributed systems seem transparently whole. But in an ironic twist, most of the touted interoperability is between a vendor's own modules (sometimes) or between a library's homegrown solutions and its own ILS (sometimes). Today, interoperability in library automation is more myth than reality. Some of us wonder if we may lose more than we gain in this newly dismantled world.”
“Whenever one tinkers with either the back or front end of such a sophisticated system, there is a temptation to start from scratch. This can be daunting, even crippling…. Not only is creating a completely new ILS unrealistic, but Roland Dietz, Endeavor's president and CEO, suggests that even "incremental functionality improvements [to existing systems] are more and more expensive." Moreover, libraries no longer want to search myriad information silos but desire one-stop search and retrieval.”
“Librarians are also motivated to seek solutions because of healthy competition with peers and disparate information resources. When libraries try to meet new needs with technology, such as federated searching, their ILS can rarely answer the call. Libraries are forced to look at new technology and create a solution themselves or purchase a standalone product.”
“Libraries don't pay enough for their ILS. Compared with fees for other technologies--relational database management systems, server hardware and software, desktop replacement cycles--ILS maintenance fees are cheap. However, librarians' resistance to paying for development is often cited for the lack of technological advancement within the traditional ILS.”
“Some of the best ideas in online library services have come not from vendors but from librarians themselves… Open source software (OSS) has offered libraries the freedom to experiment with, develop, and offer innovative services. Nonetheless, a full-scale OSS library system that would work for the largest institutions has yet to emerge. Efforts like Koha have success with only the most basic functionality.”
“Our future, like our past, lies in integration. Maintaining standalone modules with loosely integrated or moderately interoperable functions is too expensive for libraries. This is why libraries sought integrated systems in the first place.”
“Library vendors have two choices. They can continue to maintain large systems that use proprietary methods of interoperability and promise tight integration of services for their customers. Or, they can choose to dismantle their modules in such a way that librarians can reintegrate their systems through web services and standards, combining new with the old modules as well as the new with each other.”
*&*
Sergey Brin and Larry Page: Inside the Google machine.
(http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sergey_brin_and_larry_page_on_google.html)
This was a video of a talk with Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the creators of Google. They begin by showing a model of the earth and how strong internet activity was in various places in the world during a particular time of day. Also how different areas of the world are wired to each other through internet activity, the strongest being across the United States and from North America to Europe.
Sergey Brin says that the way to expand the Google company is to get more searches, and he talks a little about the Google Foundation and what organizations they were involved in. Larry Page talks about some projects of Google like Googlette, and also different innovations of Google like Google Deskbar, Google Answers, Froogle, and Blogger. He also talks about AdSense, which puts relevant ads on websites instead of random ads, so it’s a little more useful to the reader and generates more money for the author. He gives the example of people generally thinking Google is smart when it isn’t really, it’s just programmed to give automatic answers based on the content of a page. Also how algorithms were giving people offensive responses that seemed like they were being written by real people, when it was really an automatic response the algorithm gave based on the person’s blog’s content.
I thought it was very interesting and funny, and a good look at the inner workings of the Google company.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Assignment #3
Link to my CiteULike Library:
http://www.citeulike.org/user/asea85
My topics were: Elizabethan Theater, Homer's Odyssey, and the Russian Revolution.
Articles from Google Scholar/Zotero are tagged "googlescholar" and "zotero", and articles from CiteULike are tagged "fromciteulike".
http://www.citeulike.org/user/asea85
My topics were: Elizabethan Theater, Homer's Odyssey, and the Russian Revolution.
Articles from Google Scholar/Zotero are tagged "googlescholar" and "zotero", and articles from CiteULike are tagged "fromciteulike".
Week 5 comments on others' blogs
http://mdelielis2600response.blogspot.com/2009/10/week-5-rfid-technology-in-libraries.html
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Week 6 reading notes
Local Area Network
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Area_Network)
“A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to wide-area networks (WANs), include their usually higher data-transfer rates, smaller geographic place, and lack of a need for leased telecommunication lines.”
“Ethernet was developed at Xerox PARC in 1973–1975, and filed as U.S. Patent 4,063,220. In 1976, after the system was deployed at PARC, Metcalfe and Boggs published their seminal paper, "Ethernet: Distributed Packet-Switching For Local Computer Networks."
ARCNET was developed by Datapoint Corporation in 1976 and announced in 1977. It had the first commercial installation in December 1977 at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.”
“The development and proliferation of CP/M-based personal computers from the late 1970s and then DOS-based personal computers from 1981 meant that a single site began to have dozens or even hundreds of computers. The initial attraction of networking these was generally to share disk space and laser printers, which were both very expensive at the time.”
- Novell NetWare – 1983-mid 90s
- Windows NT and Windows for Workgroups – mid 90s-onward
This article had useful information about LANs and what they were used for, what their history was, and examples of types of LANs that are used now and were used in the past.
Computer Network
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network)
“A computer network is a group of interconnected computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics.”
“A computer network allows computers to communicate with many other and to share resources and information. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) funded the design of the "Advanced Research Projects Agency Network" (ARPANET) for the United States Department of Defense. It was the first operational computer network in the world. Development of the network began in 1969, based on designs begun in the 1960s.”
“Computer networks can also be classified according to the hardware and software technology that is used to interconnect the individual devices in the network, such as Optical fiber, Ethernet, Wireless LAN, HomePNA, Power line communication or G.hn. Ethernet uses physical wiring to connect devices. Frequently deployed devices include hubs, switches, bridges and/or routers.”
“Wireless LAN technology is designed to connect devices without wiring. These devices use radio waves or infrared signals as a transmission medium.”
Wired Technologies
Twisted-Pair Wire
Coaxial Cable
Fiber Optics
Wireless Technologies
Terrestrial Microwave
Communications Satellites
Cellular and PCS Systems
Wireless LANs
Bluetooth
The Wireless Web
“Networks are often classified as Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), Personal Area Network (PAN), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Campus Area Network (CAN), Storage Area Network (SAN), etc. depending on their scale, scope and purpose.”
“An Internetwork is the connection of two or more distinct computer networks or network segments via a common routing technology. The result is called an internetwork (often shortened to internet).”
“All networks are made up of basic hardware building blocks to interconnect network nodes, such as Network Interface Cards (NICs), Bridges, Hubs, Switches, and Routers.”
This article had more information on other types of networks besides LAN. It told a little bit about the history of computer networks (starting with ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet in the 1960s). it also talked about hardware and software different networks used and how they are used to classify different types of networks. It described different types of wired and wireless technologies used in different networks, and all of the different types of networks there are and how they are used. One thing I didn’t know that I thought was interesting was that the name “Internet” comes from the term “Internetwork”, which is the connection of two or more computer networks through a common routing technology. I’ve used the term “Internet” for so long that I never stopped to think where the name might actually come from, and what it all meant in simple terms.
YouTube – common types of computer networks
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dpgqDdfUjQ)
This short video basically talked about different types of networks that were explained in the Wikipedia article above. He talked about which networks were the most common and how they are used differently. He explained that the most common type of network is the Personal Area Network, which is basically things connected to a single computer, like a printer, copier, scanner, etc. I found PANs to be the most interesting, as I had never really thought about devices connected to a computer being considered a network themselves before. I guess when I think of the term “network” I think more of computers being connected to each other rather than devices being connected to a single computer.
Management of RFID in Libraries
Karen Coyle
(https://sremote.pitt.edu/,DanaInfo=ejournals.ebsco.com+Direct.asp?AccessToken=9I55X5D8X9MZKZRZDPXM5X9U4ZD98I4X5&Show=Object&msid=931959202)
“Briefly, the RF in RFID stands for “radio frequency”; the “ID” means “identifier.” The tag itself consists of a computer chip and an antenna, often printed on paper or some other flexible medium. The shortest metaphor is that RFID is like a barcode but is read with an electromagnetic field rather than by a laser beam.”
“In considering the introduction of any technology into the library we need to ask ourselves “why?” What is the motivation for libraries to embrace new technologies? The answer to this question may be fairly simple: libraries use new technologies because the conditions in the general environment that led to the development of the technology are also the conditions in which the library operates.”
“There is, however, a key difference to the library's inventory as compared to that of a warehouse or retail outlet. In the warehouse and retail supply chain, goods come in, and then they leave. Only occasionally do they return. The retail sector is looking at RFID as a “throw-away” technology that gets an item to a customer and then is discarded. Yet the per item cost of including an RFID tag is much more than the cost of printing a barcode on a package. In libraries, items are taken out and returned many times. This makes the library function an even better use of RFID than in retail because the same RFID tag is re-used many times.”
“Second only to circulation, libraries look to RFID as a security mechanism…. Although RFID can be used in library anti-theft systems, this does not mean that it is a highly secure technology…. The reason to use RFID for security is not because it is especially good for it, but because it is no worse than other security technologies.”
“This is an area where RFID can provide great advantages because the tags can be read while the books sit on the shelf. Not only does the cost of doing an inventory of the library go down, the odds of actually completing regular inventories goes up. This is one of those areas where a new technology will allow the library to do more rather than just doing the same functions with greater efficiency.”
This article had lots of information on RFIDs and how they are already used in other capacities, and how they can be used in libraries. She gives a good argument about why RFIDs can be very useful to libraries – they are more practical with libraries than with items of a warehouse or in retail, since a library’s resources are used multiple times compared to a retail item that is generally bought once and doesn’t come back. It also works as a security mechanism, alerting the library at any time to where an item is if it isn’t where it’s supposed to be. She notes that it might not be highly secure, as there are ways to remove it from a book or block the signal using mylar or aluminum, but it isn’t worse than any other type of security measure. It also is extremely useful when doing inventory, since with bar codes the books need to be opened and scanned, while with RFID technology they can stay on the shelf and be read without being moved.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Area_Network)
“A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to wide-area networks (WANs), include their usually higher data-transfer rates, smaller geographic place, and lack of a need for leased telecommunication lines.”
“Ethernet was developed at Xerox PARC in 1973–1975, and filed as U.S. Patent 4,063,220. In 1976, after the system was deployed at PARC, Metcalfe and Boggs published their seminal paper, "Ethernet: Distributed Packet-Switching For Local Computer Networks."
ARCNET was developed by Datapoint Corporation in 1976 and announced in 1977. It had the first commercial installation in December 1977 at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.”
“The development and proliferation of CP/M-based personal computers from the late 1970s and then DOS-based personal computers from 1981 meant that a single site began to have dozens or even hundreds of computers. The initial attraction of networking these was generally to share disk space and laser printers, which were both very expensive at the time.”
- Novell NetWare – 1983-mid 90s
- Windows NT and Windows for Workgroups – mid 90s-onward
This article had useful information about LANs and what they were used for, what their history was, and examples of types of LANs that are used now and were used in the past.
Computer Network
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network)
“A computer network is a group of interconnected computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics.”
“A computer network allows computers to communicate with many other and to share resources and information. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) funded the design of the "Advanced Research Projects Agency Network" (ARPANET) for the United States Department of Defense. It was the first operational computer network in the world. Development of the network began in 1969, based on designs begun in the 1960s.”
“Computer networks can also be classified according to the hardware and software technology that is used to interconnect the individual devices in the network, such as Optical fiber, Ethernet, Wireless LAN, HomePNA, Power line communication or G.hn. Ethernet uses physical wiring to connect devices. Frequently deployed devices include hubs, switches, bridges and/or routers.”
“Wireless LAN technology is designed to connect devices without wiring. These devices use radio waves or infrared signals as a transmission medium.”
Wired Technologies
Twisted-Pair Wire
Coaxial Cable
Fiber Optics
Wireless Technologies
Terrestrial Microwave
Communications Satellites
Cellular and PCS Systems
Wireless LANs
Bluetooth
The Wireless Web
“Networks are often classified as Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), Personal Area Network (PAN), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Campus Area Network (CAN), Storage Area Network (SAN), etc. depending on their scale, scope and purpose.”
“An Internetwork is the connection of two or more distinct computer networks or network segments via a common routing technology. The result is called an internetwork (often shortened to internet).”
“All networks are made up of basic hardware building blocks to interconnect network nodes, such as Network Interface Cards (NICs), Bridges, Hubs, Switches, and Routers.”
This article had more information on other types of networks besides LAN. It told a little bit about the history of computer networks (starting with ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet in the 1960s). it also talked about hardware and software different networks used and how they are used to classify different types of networks. It described different types of wired and wireless technologies used in different networks, and all of the different types of networks there are and how they are used. One thing I didn’t know that I thought was interesting was that the name “Internet” comes from the term “Internetwork”, which is the connection of two or more computer networks through a common routing technology. I’ve used the term “Internet” for so long that I never stopped to think where the name might actually come from, and what it all meant in simple terms.
YouTube – common types of computer networks
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dpgqDdfUjQ)
This short video basically talked about different types of networks that were explained in the Wikipedia article above. He talked about which networks were the most common and how they are used differently. He explained that the most common type of network is the Personal Area Network, which is basically things connected to a single computer, like a printer, copier, scanner, etc. I found PANs to be the most interesting, as I had never really thought about devices connected to a computer being considered a network themselves before. I guess when I think of the term “network” I think more of computers being connected to each other rather than devices being connected to a single computer.
Management of RFID in Libraries
Karen Coyle
(https://sremote.pitt.edu/,DanaInfo=ejournals.ebsco.com+Direct.asp?AccessToken=9I55X5D8X9MZKZRZDPXM5X9U4ZD98I4X5&Show=Object&msid=931959202)
“Briefly, the RF in RFID stands for “radio frequency”; the “ID” means “identifier.” The tag itself consists of a computer chip and an antenna, often printed on paper or some other flexible medium. The shortest metaphor is that RFID is like a barcode but is read with an electromagnetic field rather than by a laser beam.”
“In considering the introduction of any technology into the library we need to ask ourselves “why?” What is the motivation for libraries to embrace new technologies? The answer to this question may be fairly simple: libraries use new technologies because the conditions in the general environment that led to the development of the technology are also the conditions in which the library operates.”
“There is, however, a key difference to the library's inventory as compared to that of a warehouse or retail outlet. In the warehouse and retail supply chain, goods come in, and then they leave. Only occasionally do they return. The retail sector is looking at RFID as a “throw-away” technology that gets an item to a customer and then is discarded. Yet the per item cost of including an RFID tag is much more than the cost of printing a barcode on a package. In libraries, items are taken out and returned many times. This makes the library function an even better use of RFID than in retail because the same RFID tag is re-used many times.”
“Second only to circulation, libraries look to RFID as a security mechanism…. Although RFID can be used in library anti-theft systems, this does not mean that it is a highly secure technology…. The reason to use RFID for security is not because it is especially good for it, but because it is no worse than other security technologies.”
“This is an area where RFID can provide great advantages because the tags can be read while the books sit on the shelf. Not only does the cost of doing an inventory of the library go down, the odds of actually completing regular inventories goes up. This is one of those areas where a new technology will allow the library to do more rather than just doing the same functions with greater efficiency.”
This article had lots of information on RFIDs and how they are already used in other capacities, and how they can be used in libraries. She gives a good argument about why RFIDs can be very useful to libraries – they are more practical with libraries than with items of a warehouse or in retail, since a library’s resources are used multiple times compared to a retail item that is generally bought once and doesn’t come back. It also works as a security mechanism, alerting the library at any time to where an item is if it isn’t where it’s supposed to be. She notes that it might not be highly secure, as there are ways to remove it from a book or block the signal using mylar or aluminum, but it isn’t worse than any other type of security measure. It also is extremely useful when doing inventory, since with bar codes the books need to be opened and scanned, while with RFID technology they can stay on the shelf and be read without being moved.
Muddiest Point for Week 5
We learned Raster images are bitmaps and other compressed forms like GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, etc. But what are Vector images called, and why aren't Vector images used more often if their resolution is so much better when the image is enlarged?
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