Reading Notes #6

Tyson Internet Infrastructure
How stuff works makes difficult topics very simple by putting them into more common language. The Internet is a series of networks. You can connect with an internet service provider (we have Comcast at home) or a LAN. There are also different points of connection, like NAP and POP (Network Access Points and Points of Presence).

An internet router helps to send information from computer to computer, making sure the right information gets to the right location. Routers are common in personal internet computer connections, both wired and wireless.

The internet backbone was created by the National Science Foundation in 1987 called NSFNET and made of fiber optics, making the internet faster and able to handle a larger capacity for information.

IP, or Internet Protocol, addresses are in decimal format but represent a binary code that computers can read. There are different classes of IP addresses, but it identifies an individual user/computer.

The domain name system makes it easier to remember the names of websites, instead of memorizing their IP addresses. This way, a URL as we know it connects to the right IP address. It was created in 1983 at the University of Wisconsin.  A URL is a uniform resource locator that includes the domain name, allowing users to access specific content, by automatically retrieving the IP address.

An internet server and clients have a static IP address, usually connected to your home modem, but if you dial up for internet, you are assigned a new IP address every time.

Ports also make the internet possible and HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol. I knew some of this information, but howstuffworks.com definitely explained the internet step by step.

Dismantling Integrated Library Systems
This article addresses the introduction of technology to libraries and its incompatibility with ILS, leaving libraries to either create their own programs or purchase new options. However, these programs can be expensive, but the author of this article maintains that compared to other library costs, it is more based on stubbornness of librarians' budgets than true expense. The advent of this new product has also led businesses who sell these products to reassess their business models. The "chicken and the egg" appendix/thing I think is the focus of his thoughts: do librarians or vendors truly control this market? 

Inside the Google Machine 
This video features a talk with Google's co-founders, Brin and Page. I really loved the earth graphic, showing people logging on to Google from all over the world, showing Google's international reach. For Google, power= internet= google searches. Visualization definitely helps one to understand Google's global scale, and the way in which information literally travels. Even showing all the search terms that occur in ONE SECOND on their slideshow was amazing. I think we are all aware of how much Google is used, but to see all those words together was remarkable. Google also has the ability to track popularity by location and time, which gives us additional data about how we as a social function. I also thought it was really interesting to hear that the U.S. is only 30% of Google's searchers.

They also discussed the Google Foundation and Google Grants given to other charities by using Google advertisements. He also mentioned Okrut, which I had never heard of, who wanted another social network, that sounds a lot like an early version of Google +. The innovation comes from Google's 20% policy, where 20% of an employee's time can be spent on a budding project they believe in, and this was how Google News was created. They cited Mendel as the inspiration.

They also mentioned "new" projects, though this video was filmed in 2004: Deskbar, Google Answers, Froogle, as well as physical projector enclosures.  Google itself is really employee-friendly, from laundry machines and dogs!  They even talked about how the Google logo changes daily and user-relevant ads, that keep the Internet growing and searching becoming more productive.