Blog 5

this is my favourites tab -

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j24/alexandraalecu/favourites.jpg

Review on "Bits and Atoms" -

Negroponte's online archive discusses the difference between atoms and bits.
The atoms being real things such as newspapers, books and magazines and bits being information held within the computer.

He informs readers about the pros of bits such as -

• bits are able to travel quickly all over the world
  
• bits are not heavy and did not need to go through the hassles of customs - unlike atoms
  
• Everything being converted to bits is a reality far in the future.
  
• Bits are digital and always there - unlike atoms that can stop being produced.
  
• Bits are cheap unlike books which require expenses such as the paper, inventory and shipping

Negroponte makes atoms seem like they are inferior to bits as he sees them as slow and not as productive as bits are. For example the dilemma with the FedEx company holding up some CD’s and videocassettes in customs which were needed for a meeting that day. Negroponte believes that if this information was transferred through bits there would have been no trouble.

Pros about Atoms -

• We can hide them
• Difficult to Change and Copy
• easy to protect

Cons about Atoms -

• Bulky
• Expensive
• Difficult to Distribute

Pros about Bits -

• Easy to edit
• Easy to Broadcast
• Cheap

Cons about Bits -

• easy to fake
• easy to copy & steal
• spam

5 things learnt from this lecture

• The difference between atoms and bits
• how atoms and bits are changing the world
• common file extensions such as .jpeg (image file) & swf (shockwave file)
• how to create metadata about my documents
• use search when looking for documents - much easier than going through files and files of documents