The Time To Buy A New Computer

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We all curse at the moment we see the computer we bought last month go on sale. You walked into a store, shelled out 1.000$ for a brand new machine and 3 weeks later it goes on sale for 800$. It gets frustrating sometimes. Almost the same feeling comes to mind when you buy an old model which gets an upgrade in a couple of months. This is the way technology works, new products are always ready, just around the corner, waiting to be released on the market.

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But how do I profit from these constant changes, you might ask. We are here to help you determine the best time to change or upgrade your machine, so you keep up with the current tech level, but without losing too much money.

Do you need a new machine right now?

When you do all the math, the answer is quite simple. The best moment to get yourself a new computer is the moment when you need one. For example, when your old computer breaks down or your job demands better performance. The same is when you need a first computer for your children. Then it is clear that there is no reason for the delay. But, if you already have a computer or a laptop which can serve your needs, then a bit of strategic thinking will save you a bit of money.

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For instance, Apple has the policy to refresh their machines once a year. There is no regular schedule to it, and not all models get new versions at the same time, but if you wait for the right moment, you can profit. Wait for discounts and sales during the holidays. Also, Black Friday is always a good chance to snatch a deal.

Sales are the key

PC manufacturers usually release new machines three times during the year. These are the summer holiday season (June-August), the autumn holiday season (Sept to Dec) and spring time (Feb to Apr). Our experience shows that, among these, the best periods are late July/early August and early December.

IF you want to get yourself a new laptop and not spend too much money, but still get a decent machine, go shopping during the back-to-school shopping frenzy. So, get some cash ready in early August, and you might hope for the best deal.

Where Is The Internet Stored?

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Try to find a person who does not use the Internet – you will have to travel far to find one. The world wide web is an integrative element of modern society. We use it every day, and it is almost impossible to imagine life without it. Not only in the personal sphere but business, finance, industry, education. Practically every segment of society utilizes the Internet. But many people do not understand the nature of this network, and they want to know where they can find it, where is it stored?

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This question is a challenge for everybody, even for IT experts.  Most of us do not think about it, but the Internet has to be somewhere, it has to have a source, a medium on which it is stored. And indeed, the Internet does have a physical home. And it is massive. It is global, in fact.

The size of the Internet

The network which connects us all encircles the Earth. It spreads across millions of computers, interconnected servers, to be exact. And the true number of servers is hard even to guess, most estimates place the number at 75 million and more. The number of devices, on the other hand, is mind-blowing. Some estimates reach almost 10 billion connected computers, smartphones, and other devices.

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When you think about the beginnings of networking in 1960, we’ve come a long way. The Arpanet project, a network which connected two gigantic computers on two universities worked on 2.4 kbps connection. Today, the speed at which we exchange information reaches light speed through optical cables which run under our oceans, through thousands of miles of cable. Only 40% of the total human population is connected at the moment. The number will only continue to rise in the years to come.

The invisible giant

The Internet is all around us. We access it every day without thinking about where does it come from. The infrastructure which distributes it is under the oceans; it is in our satellites and millions of wi-fi routers.

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The Internet influences every aspect of our lives and makes a modern way of life possible. We cannot see it, but it is a gigantic organism spread all over the globe. So, if someone asks you where can we find the internet, the easiest way to respond is everywhere.

 

History And Evolution Of Digital Media

Any media device which can be read by a machine is called digital media. What makes the difference between digital media devices and the classical, physical is the fact that digital media is created, modified and distributed on digital electronics devices.

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The impact of digital media brought about a technological revolution. The Internet, personal computing, and digital media gave us a chance to handle information on a level which we could only dream about with traditional information storage devices like books. Digital media created a whole new world in the fields of journalism, entertainment, education, publishing, commerce, and politics. It brought about new challenges concerning copyrights and intellectual property.

Because digital media had such wide-ranging influence on modern society, we call this new period in industrial history The Information Age.

Early history

It may be difficult to believe, but in 1986, only 30 years back, we had as little as 1% of total media storage capacity in digital form. By 2007, this number came up to 94%, which best illustrates the speed at which digitalization came about.

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Machines could read the information on computers, even though this may seem strange to modern generations. Way back in the early 1800s, people started to think about how to create machines which could process information faster than humans. The first concepts on machine-readable codes came from Charles Babbage, and he envisioned that these codes could help machines solve calculation problems. The first notion of a rudimentary computer program came from Ada Lovelace in 1823, when she wrote the first instructions for calculations performed on Babbage’s machines. Other media which machines could read back then include, for example, instructions for player pianos.

Digital era

The defining difference between the modern and the early age was the fact that early machine-readable media was analog – it needed physical, mechanical parts. The first media we could truly call digital appeared with digital computers. They employ binary code and Boolean logic to process and store information.

This way, one machine can work on a variety of tasks, all at once. The first digital computers were the EDSAC, invented in 1949, and the Manchester Mark 1, which appeared a year earlier. The main difference between these new age machines compared to analog ones from the past was the fact they had digital software which ran their logical operations.