Monday, April 11, 2011

Final Reflection: Computer Systems - How They Work

Looking back, I think I learned more in this course than I like to admit. Most of the topics were very familiar to me. Personally, I would have liked to learn more about networking because it is my weakest point in computer knowledge though I know networking is probably beyond the scope of this course and program.

The topic of security and disaster recovery made me think a little more about my personal computing and what I should do. I also learned a lot more about audio processing than I knew before. I wish I had time to get more into hobby recording and digital audio creation so I could use all the nice toys.

I was around when the first PC wars started but too young to pay real attention. I liked the video series a lot. Someday I'll probably be watching History Detectives on PBS and someone will have an old floppy disk that they claim was the first copy made of MS-DOS with Bill Gates' handwriting on the label. I'm sure it would be interesting if it happened.

Trying out some new OSs was fun. I actually tried about 10 or 12 different ones before I decided what to report on. I found a minimal variant of Ubuntu, JoliOS which manged to get the correct screen resolution for my monitor. It's really made for netbooks with a minimal installation and lightweight processing. I might try it out again and see if I can load it up with all the things I need and want for a desktop. I also tried without luck to install variants of BSD operating system. I'll be watching and playing around with the two I reported on, Sugar on a Stick, a desktop of the One Laptop Per Child Program and Haiku, a modern remake of BeOS operating system that is very quick but is still under development.

The part I'm going to like the least is the Building the Perfect Computer part. I settled for less than I desired with my new computer because the money wasn't there. Building my perfect system will just make me cry because It would be very nice to have the system I come up with.

It's been good working with my team, Rob Granger and Lawrence Mala, getting to know them a little better and I look forward to whenever we get new teams to get to know more of my classmates.

*******IDEA******* Here's an invite. I'll throw a BBQ sometime this summer on a Thursday and whoever is here we can do the class together, I've got WiFi and two computers we can sit around for class???

3 comments:

  1. That is a whole lot of different operating systems to try. I had the opposite reaction to the perfect computer project, though. I was surprised at the kind of machine I could get for my budget (minuscule).

    I had a good time in these class too, and count me in for a BBQ. I'm not the type to turn down food.

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  2. You had me at BBQ...haha. I am in the same boat with wanting to really improve my networking acumen. There are times when I am sitting in on our technology committee meetings and the networking buzzwords and acronyms are flying right by me. I looked ahead at the rest of the classes in this program and I think we are out of luck as far as networking goes. Maybe that'll be next on my 5 mile long list of "things to do", lol.

    I'd really like to try that Sugar on a Stick. I totally forgot about that one. I was too busy being impressed with Linux Mint. Anyways, it was great getting to know you through our group work and I look forward to your insights in future classes.

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  3. I would love to meet everyone at a BBQ, but not sure if I will be traveling from MN!? I can't believe you tried so many alternate OS systems. I was overwhelmed and afraid with trying one. Now that I have tried one, and it wasn't scary, I should try a few others! Any suggestions on your favorite one?

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