CEdu 581 Computer Architecture Closing

On Value: It is difficult to comment on the value of anything until an adequate amount of time has passed to let us assess our experience objectively. I say this because I fully intend to discover some great use for a seemingly useless bit of knowledge from every class in the coming years.
That said if I had to nail down a piece of value from CEdu 581 I am quite certain that it is the information on the "how". I like computers and technology and I am often consdered to be pretty geeky but I had no real concept of what was going on in that processor or how a computer started itself up. The fact that I have little to no use for this information at the present does not deter me from the belief that this is useful information. Part of owning a Mac is the realization that I might not ever have to tinker around with my hardware and thus I accept a little be too much on what I'm being told. I now know better.
Also, watching the Cringley and Pirates videos were interesting because the drama that went with the personal computing revolution adds to the story and gives us a greater understanding of these companies that we have seemingly handed our wallets.

Devaluing: Honestly, I'd have to say that the Build Your Own PC ativity was lost on me simply because, as a Mac user, I'm pretty railroaded in. Also, as a Mac fanboy of sorts, I have spent free time idlely building a Mac Pro that I could never afford for fun. There was value to the excercise in that I was able to conceive a bit better why I was buying what because of the class, but at the same time I've done that before too.

And that as they say is that.

This is Quinn Loucks signing off. Thanks for all the fish.

Computer Architecture CEdu581 Week 5

What were the most valuable pieces of information that you learned from
presentations in class tonight.

Let's face it, Ron had the most obscure subject of all of the presentations in class. The holiday ads don't have Bios at low low prices and there won't ever be a Superbowl commercial extolling the latest big thing in BIOS flashing. On that level then BIOS held the most new information available. Unfortunately, there is little to take away that I can apply in the rest of my life. BIOS is so obscure that it usually does its job without making any waves, causing any problems, or even letting the user know it is there.
The one thing of value that I will take away above all others though is the following realization: there is a reason we wait fifteen seconds before restarting a malfunctioning computer. I have done this on everything from my laptop to my DVR box and never really understood why those ten to fifteen seconds made a difference. From Ron's presentation I surmised that the wait time will trigger the BIOS to do a full POST on the system components whereas there are items it might skip on a straight restart. It is always a good day when I can remove some of the voodoo surrounding the computer. Now if I can only figure out why I need to cluck like a chicken in order to get my printer to work... ... ...
As a runner up, the fact that flash drives have a limited number of read writes was a new bit of information that I have already passed onto a friend. I liken this to the unpublicized fact that Batteries have limited numbers of cycles. No one told me. (My laptop battery is at 270 cycles and 47% health. That isn't good and might explain a few abrupt shutdowns. Looks like I'll be needing to use AppleCare. Wait, does AppleCare even cover that?