I used Ask.com because it is usually a reliable search engine to being primary research on various topics.
I searched twice using the terms “History of the computer” and “computer development.”
The two sites that I found to be the most useful for researching the history/development of the computer were:
The first website listed is the one where I based my information below on.
The organization that is responsible for the site I thought to be most valuable out of the ones that I viewed was the Computer History Museum. The Computer History Museum is a nonprofit organization set up to preserve the history of the computer and the information age.
The website and the physical site of the museum are funded through donations, endowments, and by the lectures and series that the museum puts on for a cost.
Although the website is current, the section dedicated as the historical timeline of the computer ends at the year 1994. This might be a problem for learning about recent developments, but for the primary goal of this part of the project is to research the development of the computer. Therefore, this site has plenty of information regarding major software, company, hardware, and much more.
The information on the website about how the technology works is not as good as it could be. The information about the hardware talks about the improvements made upon existing technologies and how these advances allowed computing to develop in a certain direction and or have faster/better processing. The images given on the website are great because they show the gradual development of computer hardware from its original conception to more current models.
The information on the website about how the technology works is not as good as it could be. The information about the hardware talks about the improvements made upon existing technologies and how these advances allowed computing to develop in a certain direction and or have faster/better processing. The images given on the website are great because they show the gradual development of computer hardware from its original conception to more current models.
The information missing on the site is the crux of the presentation: the information regarding the impact upon the environment, impact upon people regarding the toxic chemicals and materials, and the question regarding the short lifespan of current computers and other similar devices. As stated above, though this information does not directly relate to the main part of the presentation, I feel it is important to understand because it gives a good summary of the history of the computer. In order to find the missing information, I would need to delve into sites and articles that are primarily written about the relationship between computers and the environment/people. Secondly, to find information regarding the short lifespan of current computers, one would need to find sites that describe the production process, the needs of software (which somewhat force the current lifespan due to the ever increasing need for more space and faster processing), and research and development of any new technologies that might provide for longer lasting products.
I used the same website as your first one, so by default I liked it. I think it offers an easy-to-look-at style with just the right amount of detail for our project. The second website is similar to the first, but with less detail and information. So for our project, I would say the computer history website would be much more useful and informative than the investors site. The sole reason being that they are similarly structured websites, but the first one is just slightly better.
ReplyDeleteLike both of my websites, these do not offer any information about the environmental side effects of the development of the PC, which we will both have to research further.
The computer history museum site provided more detailed information than I was able to recover from the sites I listed. I didn't realize how many small developments there were. More beneficial then the second site, although I will have to spend more time reading it over.
ReplyDeleteEnvironmental side effects were missing from all of our sites, which is characteristic of the problem. Negative environmental impacts are always put on the back burner for the sake of progressing technology. Maybe concern about environmental effects is fairly recent in comparison to the creation of these sites.