Spam is a curse to anyone online. One way to manage it is by using filters to move suspected spam into your trash without bothering you with it. You can also use filters to organize incoming messages. Its really a great tool but its under-used. It too bad too because it could make working with email easier and quicker.
Kevin Kelly speculates on how the World Wide Web will advance in celebration of its 5,000th day. I’m sharing this talk with the students in my Machine Organization course during its second week because I want them to have a modern context in which to examine the internal workings of the black box.
I agree with Kelly’s depiction of the web as a single machine. Complex as it may be it is interconnected. Each part can communicate with any other part. Information can be shared freely. The video clip you just watched actually lives on one of Google’s servers. Its not at EduBlog. Its not at my site. We don’t even know where the server is and its doesn’t matter. All we need to know is how to access the information we want.
SETI has been using a collaborative network of volunteer computers to search of extraterrestial life for years. This is one of the first cyber collaborations that will become common soon.
Web based applications such as Google docs free users from the limitations of their operating systems because the actual work is done by the web browser and server located around the planet. UNIX, Windows, and OS/X machines can all collaborate regardless of their differences.
Open source software developers have been leading the way. UNIX was the prototype. Since its very inception a loosely knit community of co-developers have been adding functionality to it for the good of mankind rather than personal profit. There are a host of other open source products available today. GNU actively promotes the open source philosophy and offers a host of free products you can download for free. Now there is a movement to provide open source textbooks to help reduce the cost of higher education.
No one really knows what the future holds but it seems to be a better place and time than we have ever enjoyed. All it takes are more bright young minds to make it happen.
CSC475 Machine Organization teaches students how the machinery inside the black box works. Students learn how the system works. Focus is placed on the design trade-offs computer designers are confronted with and the challenges they face. It is also a first exposure to machine language.
I’m using a speech by Bill Gates on the advent of his retirement from the helm at Microsoft Corporation. The speech was given to the community of scholars at Carnegie Mellon University. It gives a vision of the future by someone viewing it from a unique perspective.
Gmail is quickly becoming the standard email software for power users. Since my students are enrolled in computer science courses they might as well start using it now. Besides its full of benefits and features from the folks at Google.
