BLOG ASSIGNMENT 2 - MOORE'S LAW

Moore's law, published in 1965 by Gordon Moore, states that the number of transistors that can be fit onto a circuit will increases exponentially every two years, this has been a driving force of many technological advances.(source) this means basically that computer capabilities increase at a very rapid pace.(source) . even without doing serious research anyone can see this trend in effect. by comparing cell phones, lap top computers, digital cameras, and PDA's today with similar products from 5 or 10 years ago even a casual user of these devices would notice the increased  capabilities and power of these devices.

some believe there are limits to this law however: "In terms of size [of transistor] you can see that we're approaching the size of atoms which is a fundamental barrier, but it'll be two or three generations before we get that far - but that's as far out as we've ever been able to see. We have another 10 to 20 years before we reach a fundamental limit" -Gordon Moore(source). others believe that rapid increase in technological capabilities will lead to a singularity. in this scenario it is suggested that "if machines could even slightly surpass human intellect, they could improve their own designs in ways unforeseen by their designers, and thus recursively augment themselves into far greater intelligences"(source). if technology keeps advancing exponentially and artificial intelligence improves then a technological singularity would be feasible.

in conclusion, Moore's Law states that about every two years the number of transistors that can fit onto a circuit doubles. this seems to mean that technology advances and will advance at an exponential rate. some feel that this type of technological progress is not infinitely sustainable, others feel that progress will continue until artificial intelligence is smarter than human intelligence and a kind of "technological explosion" will occur.(source)

sources

http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsid=3477

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4446285.stm

info 102 HW1 blog

(1) when looking at the different blog sites i noticed that they all had a few things in common. blogger, livejournal, and wordpress all mentioned how easy and fun it was to blog and the many different uses a blog could serve. each of the different blogging sites had relatively similar features, all though some minor differences, such as layout syle, did exist. i ended up choosing blogger because i am already somewhat familiar with it and i like the layout styles.

(2)one phenomenon related to blogging that i find interesting is the amount of illigal music sharing that occurs on blogs. over the years the government and the music industry  have been trying to stop illegal music sharing and piracy.(1) when many people think of donwloading music illegally services like napster, kazaa or limewire might come to mind, but i have found that blogs offer equally easy access to free music.

while investigating this phenomenon i visited many blog sites that featured  posts which included links to download music for free.(2) the way this seems to work is that when someone wishes to share music online they will include in their post a link to music they have uploaded on to a file hosting site. this allows people to download songs, albums, or entire discographies for free.

many of these blogs are themed, often specializing in a specific type of music or focusing on a certain artist. some of the blogs are run by bloggers who simply post whatever music they feel like posting while others seem to allow people to request music they want to download. 
links to sources
(1) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18644781/
(2) http://postrocklounge.blogspot.com