Blog #1: How Technology Emerged

 I used google as my search engine because I was most familiar with it.

 I searched three times using

• "history of the pc" 
• "early development of the computer"
• "development of the pc"

The two websites that I found most helpful for researching the historical development of the PC were

• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/130429/computer/216019/Early-history
• http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/?category=cmptr

       The first site is Britannica, which is an encyclopedia company and is one of the leaders in online encyclopedias. Its mission is to be one of the leaders in learning, and they take pride in being one of the most reliable sources of information. They are mainly funded by advertisements. The information is very current; it was last updated April 6, 2011.

       It is very useful if you are researching all of the factors that went in to the development of the computer. They explain what the computer is today and what it is composed of. In particular, they offer how every facet of the computer has evolved ever since the early development stages of computing with the abacus in 1100 B.C.E. All of these details are extremely helpful, however, there is almost too much information. It is hard to just scroll through the article because there is so much there and you can't just start reading anywhere. There is a table of contents where you can select what section you wish read, which makes it a little more helpful. 

       For our project in particular, this posting doesn't offer any information regarding the pc and its affects on the environment. This sight, and the other sight, are mainly useful for finding information about the technology development of the pc, not its current environmental side effects. This would certainly have to be researched to complete the project.

       The second site is a website for the Computer History Museum. They are a nonprofit organization which was founded in 1999 on the basis of celebrating computing history and preserving artifacts and information about the computer. They are funded through donations and revenue from their museum and have been growing steadily ever since opening. The information is fairly recent (2006), but that isn't as necessary because the history of the computer development shouldn't be expected to change all that much. 

       This website is pretty helpful in the sense that it offers a timeline with pictures so it is easy for people to see the images if they aren't familiar with the terminology in the timeline description. There isn't an overflow of information like Britannica seems to have, but there also isn't any information about the environment or any side effects of the computer development just as Britannica lacked. In addition to these helpful sources, further research about the environmental impact of pc hardware needs to be done.