CEDU 581 Computer Architecture Week 2b

Watching the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" was a hoot. I like how it jumped around in time, at least at the beginning. I tend to like stories (movies, books, etc.) that involved flashbacks and show the main characters at different ages. This one started in 1984, went ahead to 1997 and then jumped back to when Jobs and Gates were young adults (early 20s?).

In the flashback to the riots at UC Berkeley it was interesting to note that these people were not so interested in the political goings on of the time, but were embarking on a separate but equally (or even more) revolutionary path.

The parts of the film that involved the early IBM PC and Apple Lisa were fun to watch. I also liked some of the film's music, with some 80s rock and funky 70s stuff.

Different subject:

Last week my computer was attacked and pretty much taken out of commission by a virus. I did reinstall the OP (Vista) but it is still having problems. The Geek Squad says the problem could be one of two possibilities. Either the OP was not installed properly or there is a problem with the hard drive. To have the Geeks run diagnostic tests would cost $70 so I am going to try reinstallation again and this time I am going to wipe the hard dive first. If I still have problems, I will take it back to the Geeks. Even though I was not able to install a new patch or service pack this week, I think this trouble should earn me one point toward the OS assignment. I have learned things from this problem.

CEDU 581 Computer Architecture Week 2a

Windows 7

The next operating system I will use will likely be Windows 7, so I decided to explore it. I was able to do some looking around on a computer that uses this operating system (actually two - I went to Best Buy and tested some of their computers). I am considering buying a new computer because there are some online games I want to play and I want a mean machine that has more than enough of the recommended features, so all of these assignments we are doing definitely have real world application for me.

The feature that really stands apart from other versions of Windows is Windows 7's taskbar. Nicknamed the Superbar, it allows for some interesting new capabilities. One capability, which the Best Buy salesperson called "Aero Peek", allows the user to minimize all windows at once to get a quick peek at the desktop. This is useful if you want to open something else on the desktop. Now you don't have to minimize the windows. Also, the "Aero Snap" feature will automatically maximize a window when dragged to the edge of the screen. The Best Buy person noted that there are usually few problems with upgrading from Vista to Windows 7, even less than from XP to Vista. This was in response to my question about the ease or lack thereof of upgrading to a different operating system.

I did check out Windows 7 on a friend's machine and it seemed to boot up and shut down a little faster than my machine, which uses Vista. My machine is not more than a few months older, so it is a good comparison. Features such as Movie Maker, Photo Gallery and Windows Calendar were available in Vista. These features are still present in some form in Windows 7 as part of the Windows Live Essentials. Other very important features that were cut from Vista are now available again in Windows 7, such as internet spades, backgammon and checkers.

My current machine certainly has the minimum requirements for an upgrade to Windows 7. they are 1 GHz 32, 1 GB of RAM, DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM driver model 1.0, 16 GB of available disk space and a DVD drive.

CEDU 581 Computer Architecture Week 1

I didn't have a whole lot of previous knowledge about computer history. It's not something that has been touched on very much in my education, probably because it is a relatively recent development and has happened so fast. You could really call people like Gates and Jobs pioneers. It's possible that they share some of the same traits as people such as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell.

I have looked inside a computer before, but did not pay too much attention to what I was looking at. Now I know a little better what to look for when I want to find specific parts. I think our projects will force us to really become familiar with the ins and outs of our specific computer part.

Questions:

If we wanted to find a manual or more information about a particular computer model, is there a good place to look?

In a different class you showed us several technology journals / newsletters that you read and it sounded like there was one in particular that you thought was really good. Which one was it?