The topic of this week's access science article was the Internet. This reading was an encyclopedia article that had a lot of information about the Internet. The article described how and when the Internet or was created and how is has expanded to the scale that it is at now. This article also talks about the features and systems of the Internet. It also goes into the number of ways that the Internet is used to communicate, including e-mail and instant chats. The Internet is generally a massive network where almost all computers can connect with and share data. The sharing of information is why the internet is so relevant to intelligent buildings. With it people working on the same project will be able to communicate with each other so the work would be able to be done with less error and more quickly.
For the additional article this week I read "WorldDesk and Dropbox introduce cloud collaboration". This article talks about a new revolutionary idea that will allow you to uses your desktop from any computer with access to the Internet. WorldDesk is currently working with DropBox to create a service that will allow a user to access a personal virtual desktop anywhere. WorldDesk is a company that works with desktop visualization and DropBox uses cloud storage. Combining these two technologies will allow a virtual desktop to be reached via a cloud based delivery platform. A beta version of this technology was just released a few days ago for 32-bit Windows 7 machines. This is a large step in utilizing cloud technology. This service would almost eliminate the need for owning a personal computer, especially if these virtual desktops could be accessed from public computers. Not only will a user be able to access their information or data that is saved but also the user’s settings and applications from the desktop
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Tuesday, February 21, 2012
A7- Internet and Its Future
I think
that everyone is aware of what the internet actually is. This article is
interesting though, because it takes you on a timeline of the internet from 1969
to today. The department of defense essentially invented the internet over 40
years ago, and since then it has developed into a global phenomenon that I’m
pretty sure no one under the age of 50 could live without. The growth of the
internet certainly followed a parabolic curve, where it hadn’t grown much the
first 20 years and then suddenly took off over the past 25 years to where it is
today. Part of this definitely had to do with the availability of computers and
the level of technology available to the developers. I think part of this also
has to do with the internet craze that stemmed from companies like AOL in the
early 90’s.
The data
involved in the internet is incredible. Just sending an email involves an array
of networks passing data around until the correct line of communication is
reached. It’s hard to fathom how this was actually designed. The next topic in
the article addresses internet speeds. I can’t help remembering the horrors of
the dial-up internet connection. Not just the painfully slow speed, but the
shrill noises coming out of the computer as the connection was made. Thank God
for newer technology. Cable and DSL have similar speeds in my experience,
contrary to the commercials downplaying the other’s speeds.
Domain Name
Systems, or DNS, are basically web addresses, i.e. Drexel.edu. The article then
defines email addresses. The ICANN is the organization in charge of making sure
no one web or email address is copied or stolen. Email attachments are defined,
as well as forums, chats, internet phone calls, and intranets and telnet.
The World
Wide Web is basically how the internet links addresses and documents to others
globally. This is only done because all data is set up so that it can be
transferred through any server globally. This global data protocol system is
our “http”. We use a web browser to search and locate these documents. This
section was particularly interesting to me because I didn’t realize “http” was
actually an important prefix to any web address because it helps exchange data.
The article
finishes with a small passage on commerce via the internet, and how businesses
can be created on the internet or be introduced to the internet to help do
business.
Since this
article is essentially common knowledge to most of society, I decided to read
an article on “The future of the Internet” http://www.economist.com/node/16941635
, to see where this phenomenon is going. This article starts by reflecting the
“anarchy” of the internet as it started. It was a beautiful place where anyone
could post or create or share anything with anyone, worldwide. It then
discusses how this freedom has been somewhat taken from us through privacy
laws, antitrust acts, etc. It says that the government, IT companies, and
network owners are toying with the internet to fit their specific wants and
needs, which is effecting our use in a sometimes negative way. It says that the
internet may become segregated by government entities across the world, where
different countries will experience different “internets”. Nevertheless, the
article then documents the great success of the internet. It mentions how
people can communicate worldwide with similar minds to create fantastic things
where they ever could have had to ability before. It references Amazon,
Facebook, and Google as some of these successful internet-based inventions.
Next, the
article approaches the uneasy future the internet is headed in. It discusses
bans by national governments like China on searches for specific content, where
it acts like a company’s firewall which restricts employees’ online content
available to them. This would be a real step in the wrong direction from the
original concept of a freedom concept via the world wide web. The article also
mentions trends that are potentially turning the internet into a competition
once again between big companies to control the market. Again, this is taking
the ideas behind the internet in the wrong direction. Lastly, the article talks
about how companies controlling online data flow are charging private companies
to allow their websites to be traveled to via the “fast-lane” data lines, and
therefore the smaller companies are being slotted to the “slow-lane”. This is
also taking the hopes of the internet’s freedom to the direction of
“internets.”
This
article is very interesting because even though it is a year and a half old, it
is still very accurate in terms of where the internet seems to be going. I just
hope that we can figure out a way to stop it before the internet becomes the
“Apple-Amazon-Facebook-Google”, where the government controls what websites you
can view.
The internet
The assigned article about the internet on Access science was informative and comical. It was informative because it explains all the basics of the internet and how it got started. It was also very funny to read about dial-up connections and chat rooms. It brought me back to my elementary school days when one person couldn’t be on the internet when another was on the phone. But besides bringing me back down memory lane the purpose of this article was clear. Break down the internet into clear categories and explain them in detail. It was an easy but dry read. It’s amazing to see how far technology has come since the start of the internet.
The second Article I read this week was called “US government to set up internet Ministry of Truth as communist-style government-run media”. This article talks about a proposed branch of the government to help censor the internet and news throughout the United States. The author, J.D. Heyes, goes on to say that former President Bill Clinton proposed this idea. Clinton said the “ministry” would be like a news station that would not deliver opinions but instead identify “relevant factual errors”. Article continues to relate President Clintons proposal to Cass Sunstien’s idea that all website with opposing viewpoints have pop ups filled with government propaganda. The article continues to say that a call to limit internet opinion is also a call to limit free speech. Then Heyes quotes Thomas Jefferson “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” He then warns readers to be aware of the governments attempt to oppress American freedom.
There is a large time gap between the assigned article and my second article. About 15 years of internet advancement. The assigned article it talks about all the possibilities the internet can bring and now the second article talks about limiting the use of the internet. Its interesting to see how times have changed and now what can be done with the internet.
Link to Second Article here
Internet
The
Access Science article on the internet was interesting. The introduction paragraph raised a good
point about how the success of the internet is hard to determine as a whole,
but in different markets it is considered good or bad. I had a brief knowledge of how the internet
worked before reading this article but after reading I have a much better
understanding of everything that is actually needed in order for information to
be transmitted to a personal computer. I found the information in the TCP/IP section particularly
interesting, as it explained how a person can go on any computer anywhere and
access their files on a server without any problems. I wish the article contained more information
on the options for different internet speeds, such as how different modems
limit the speed of the connection. I
would have found this a very interesting area to read more about. I found the article to be a very good summary
of how many of the various components of the internet actually work together. For a first time researcher this is a very
good article to gain an understanding of the concept and the finer points. The article was a bit generic in certain points
and could have contained a bit more information, which would still not have
made it to complex. More information on
domain names, such as hosting or website domain names, could have been given and
would have been worthwhile learning about.
The
first additional article that I read was titled “Integrated Information: Technology Is The New IT”. This
article talks about how the building industry is moving very rapidly to being integrated
completely. The beginning of the article
hints almost at the fact that buildings may be considered full computers in the
very near future, based on how much integration occurs between all of the
systems. One point the article uses to
hint at this potential fact is how both the building industry and IT field use
the same terminology for many similar concepts.
The article focuses on the concept of the intelligent hotel, which the
main function of the intelligence would be to enhance the customer service. Hotel Technology – Next Generation (HTNG) has
been developing ways to personalize the experience at a hotel, such as: being
called by name upon arrival, mini-bars stocked with preferred drinks and
snacks, the room conditioned to the desired temperature, and even calling the
front desk and being answered by name.
The use of RFID is being looked into as a possibility to increase the
experience. For example a guest could be
mailed the RFID card and when they walk in the front door a message is relayed
to the front desk and the bell stand, so they can be ready. Many different technologies are discussed in
the article along with example of how they could be applied to increase the customer’s
experiences. These technologies would also
make the jobs of the hotel staff easier by not needing to remember as much
personal information and being able to check preferences instantly on a
network, anywhere in the building.
The second additional article I read
was called “The Future of the Internet”. The article points out the major trends that
the internet has been following along with containing extrapolated
predictions. The first trend is globalism,
which is mainly just about the benefit to the future generations to be able to
access any information that they desire extremely easily. The share of information will allow for the
ability to become less country dependant, but more “earth” dependant, essentially
having one country. The next interesting trend mentioned
by the article is that of virtual reality.
This trend is developing with the advancements in computing power, along
with the desire for more realistic animations.
These virtual realities are very close to looking very really, as many
current games use extremely high performance graphics, which are occasionally
mistake for real. One example of this
was in the Battlefield 3 trailer, where game play footage was used with actual
footage, and it is hard to determine which clips are real or animated. The increase in bandwidth allows for the
ability to upload download more information faster, which is of benefit to
everyone as less time is required for large files to become public. The movement to completely wireless networks
is still one of the end goals of the internet advancement. Significant advancements have been made in
the past few years, specifically the N wireless networks. These networks allow communication to the
router at a speed up to 300 Mbps, which is extremely fast. Very large files can be downloaded almost
instantly on a network with this speed connection. The efforts to define the next generation of the
internet are ongoing and will hopefully allow for a more versatile internet.
A Series of Tubes
The Access Science article about The Internet provided a lot
of information about the networking architecture both in a hardware and
software sense. Just as the previous
article on databases brings to light, people use the internet multiple times every
day yet few people know how this phenomenal system of transporting data
actually functions beyond clicking on the internet explorer icon on the
desktop. The internet is so vast that with the current interne t protocols in
place we are actually beginning to run out of unique urls to assign to new
websites. Despite having all of this
information and knowledge available nearly instantaneously, the internet weighs
only about 2 ounces. The video below goes through the math of how this is
possible. When you realize this, the
magnitude of just how immense an accomplishment the internet is made self-evident.
How Much Does the Internet Weigh
The second article I read was about the history of fiber
optic networking, link. This method of
transferring data, whether the internet or telecommunications, is performed by
sending pulses of light through individual optical fibers. This light then gets
forms into an electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated so that information
may be transferred and carried. While first developed in the 1970’s the fiber
optic cable can carry roughly sixty five thousand times the amount of data than
the copper cables that it would eventually come to replace. This advent of
technology allowed the internet to become a more realistic invention with the
need for giant copper cables to be run all across the world by internet service
providers. The security that may be
accomplished over fiber optic networks is better due to the difficulty of
splicing into the network cables. An
issue known as “last mile” has plagued fiber optic networks where the
distribution lines for teledata are run through fiber optic lines but from the
distribution to the premise of the end user is still using older technologies
which still cause a bottleneck of network speeds. More companies, such as Verizon, are now
offering consumer level fiber optic networking capabilities and in the future
this will most likely become the norm.
Deep Web
Access Science’s article on the internet, while perhaps a little outdated (i.e. needing a dial-up account for email) it provided a decent overview of the basics of the internet and how it is available the public to use. Some of the interesting points that the articled provided was in the discussion of the protocols involved in computer to computer communication. I also had no idea what routers do: keeping track of data fragmentation to provide compatibility between the two computers in communication. Finally, the explanation of the workings of the web was interesting. The web is only a part of the internet, yet the majority of the internet we utilize is via the web.
The second article, "Going beyond the Web's surface," I read examined what most surfers hardly ever get a glimpse of: the internet beyond the web; sometimes referred to the deep web. The deep web, by some estimates is twice as large as the world wide web. This additional data is unavailable because search engines are unable to search the files and there is no domain name associated with the location. Most of the data resides on databases that can only be accessed if a web site provides indexing and search of the database or if the user knows the directory information of the data or files desired. Interestingly, a large part of the deep web data is on U.S. government databases as the U.S. government is the world’s largest publisher.
The accessibility of the deep web is not static, however. PDF files, for example, were once a part of the deep web, but search engines have been able to index the files and now can be searched. I believe with time, eventually all of the data available via the internet will be part of the surface web as search engines improve.
R7 - Internet
The
assigned reading from Access Science about Internet covers the topics I am more
or less comfortable with and that's why was easier to understand for me. It
talks about the terms we come across and use all time when we are on the
internet. Average user either has somewhat or no idea about some of them or knows
what he/she is doing. For example TCP/IP protocols, a set of protocols that
allows cooperating computers share data across the networks. Another topic is
the internet speeds starting with dial-up connections -the old, familiar
dialing sound-, cable, DSL, and ADSL. The article explains Domain Name System
(DNS) which converts an IP address to a mnemonic equivalent and also ensures
every site on the internet has a unique address. It also talks about the ways
to communicate on the internet such as Usenet, chat, internet calls, and intranet, then intranet, telnet, WWW, and
http. I knew most of the terms before reading the assignment but it helped me
clear the vague ideas I had on some of them.
The
first article I read is "6 Web Pioneers on What the Internet of the Future Will Look Like". The author summarizes her interviews with some
top figures from well-known companies like AOL, Open Source Matters, Yelp, and MapQuest on
the question of "What do you think the future Internet will look
like?". Their common belief is that the internet will become more
ubiquitous then it is. Today people are increasingly relying on the internet with habitual ways
especially in social life. Steve Case, co-founder of AOL, says the internet will
become like water or electricity and it's focus will be more important things
like education or health care. People won't even think about it since it will
be inter-woven to our lives, as Jeremy Stoppleman, CEO of Yelp states. Another
important thing stated by Ryan Ozimek, president of Open Source Matters, is
that the internet will be more mobile with more cloud capabilities. Also, Bary
Glick, founder of MapQuest, says the internet will be like an invisible power
supply that will take over many of the devices we use today like television. There
will be the internet and the devices, connected to the internet, we use for our specific needs.
The
second article I read is "6 Predictions for the Future of the Internet". The author makes 6 predictions at the end of 2009
for the future of the internet: audio web surfing, web surf on any device,
input revisited, mobile networking, the end of .com domination, and IE stops
being used. After 2 years some of those are already in our life and others are
approaching. Today audio web surfing and much more is available with Siri
coming with iPhone 4S, much better than
any previous attempts. Web surf on any device is still on the progress I guess
since we don't have serious daily use yet. Better input methods are also increasingly
used, at multi-touch phones, tablet PC's, and even computers. Mobile networking,
multi-tasked use of contacts on mobile devices has been well introduces as
well. A recent change is the end of .com domination, I read an article about
this recently saying more extensions will be on the way soon (though I don't remember the particular
information). The last prediction the author does is the end of use of IE6.
Today we are on IE9 and IE10 is on test drive but the author was right. Many questionnaires
show that IE is used by a great majority of people to only download Google
Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
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