Blown to Bits: Ch 1, Blown to Bits: Ch 2,
Blown to Bits: Ch. 3, Blown to Bits: Ch 4
Koan 1: It's All Just Bits - correct answer ✔Your computer successfully
creates the illusion that it contains photographs, letters, songs, and movies.
All it really contains is bits, lots of them, patterned in ways you can't see.
Bit - correct answer ✔A binary digit, or bit, is the smallest unit of information
in a computer. It is used for storing information and has a value of true/false,
or on/off. An individual bit has a value of either 0 or 1, which is generally used
to store data and implement instructions in groups of bytes.
Koan 2: Perfection Is Normal - correct answer ✔To err is human. When
books were laboriously transcribed by hand, in ancient scriptoria and medieval
monasteries, errors crept in with every copy. Computers and networks work
differently. Every copy is per-
fect.
Error detection and correction - correct answer ✔It is possible in theory that
a single bit of a big message will arrive incorrectly. But networks don't just
pass bits from one place to another. They check to see if the bits seem to
have been damaged in transit, and correct them or retransmit them if they
seem incorrect
Moore's Law - correct answer ✔Gordon Moore, founder of Intel Corporation,
observed that the density of integrated circuits seemed to double every couple
of years. This observation is referred to as "Moore's Law."
Koan 4: Processing Is Power - correct answer ✔The speed of a computer is
usually measured by the number of basic operations, such as additions, that
can be performed in one second. The fastest computers available in the early
, 1940s could perform about five operations per second. The fastest today can
perform about a trillion. For at least three decades, the increase in processor
speeds was exponential. Computers became twice as fast every couple of
years. These increases were one consequence of "Moore's Law".
Koan 5: More of the Same Can Be a Whole New Thing - correct answer
✔Computing poer has experienced exponential growth. Exponential growth is
actually smooth and steady; it just takes very little time to pass from
unnoticeable change to highly visible. Exponential growth of anything can
suddenly make the world look utterly different than it had
been. When that threshold is passed, changes that are "just" quantitative can
look qualitative.
Koan 6: Nothing Goes Away - correct answer ✔Data will all be kept forever,
unless there are policies to get rid of it. For the time being at least, the data
sticks around. And because databases are intentionally duplicate, backed up
for security.
Koan 7: Bits Move Faster Than Thought - correct answer ✔The Internet
existed before there were personal computers. It predates the fiber optic
communication cables that now hold it together. When it started around 1970,
the ARPANET, as it was called, was designed to connect a handful of
university and military computers.In the bits world, in which messages flow
instantaneously, it sometimes seems that distance doesn't matter at all. The
consequences can be startling.The instantaneous communication of massive
amounts of information has created the misimpression that there is a place
called "Cyberspace," a land without frontiers where all the world's people can
be interconnected as though they were residents of the same small town.
Basic Moral 1 - correct answer ✔The first is that information technology is
inherently neither good nor bad it can be used for good or ill, to free us or to
shackle us.
Blown to Bits: Ch. 3, Blown to Bits: Ch 4
Koan 1: It's All Just Bits - correct answer ✔Your computer successfully
creates the illusion that it contains photographs, letters, songs, and movies.
All it really contains is bits, lots of them, patterned in ways you can't see.
Bit - correct answer ✔A binary digit, or bit, is the smallest unit of information
in a computer. It is used for storing information and has a value of true/false,
or on/off. An individual bit has a value of either 0 or 1, which is generally used
to store data and implement instructions in groups of bytes.
Koan 2: Perfection Is Normal - correct answer ✔To err is human. When
books were laboriously transcribed by hand, in ancient scriptoria and medieval
monasteries, errors crept in with every copy. Computers and networks work
differently. Every copy is per-
fect.
Error detection and correction - correct answer ✔It is possible in theory that
a single bit of a big message will arrive incorrectly. But networks don't just
pass bits from one place to another. They check to see if the bits seem to
have been damaged in transit, and correct them or retransmit them if they
seem incorrect
Moore's Law - correct answer ✔Gordon Moore, founder of Intel Corporation,
observed that the density of integrated circuits seemed to double every couple
of years. This observation is referred to as "Moore's Law."
Koan 4: Processing Is Power - correct answer ✔The speed of a computer is
usually measured by the number of basic operations, such as additions, that
can be performed in one second. The fastest computers available in the early
, 1940s could perform about five operations per second. The fastest today can
perform about a trillion. For at least three decades, the increase in processor
speeds was exponential. Computers became twice as fast every couple of
years. These increases were one consequence of "Moore's Law".
Koan 5: More of the Same Can Be a Whole New Thing - correct answer
✔Computing poer has experienced exponential growth. Exponential growth is
actually smooth and steady; it just takes very little time to pass from
unnoticeable change to highly visible. Exponential growth of anything can
suddenly make the world look utterly different than it had
been. When that threshold is passed, changes that are "just" quantitative can
look qualitative.
Koan 6: Nothing Goes Away - correct answer ✔Data will all be kept forever,
unless there are policies to get rid of it. For the time being at least, the data
sticks around. And because databases are intentionally duplicate, backed up
for security.
Koan 7: Bits Move Faster Than Thought - correct answer ✔The Internet
existed before there were personal computers. It predates the fiber optic
communication cables that now hold it together. When it started around 1970,
the ARPANET, as it was called, was designed to connect a handful of
university and military computers.In the bits world, in which messages flow
instantaneously, it sometimes seems that distance doesn't matter at all. The
consequences can be startling.The instantaneous communication of massive
amounts of information has created the misimpression that there is a place
called "Cyberspace," a land without frontiers where all the world's people can
be interconnected as though they were residents of the same small town.
Basic Moral 1 - correct answer ✔The first is that information technology is
inherently neither good nor bad it can be used for good or ill, to free us or to
shackle us.
