{"id":7123,"date":"2010-01-03T05:54:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-02T21:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/01\/03\/computer-assembly-part-1\/"},"modified":"2010-01-14T09:36:22","modified_gmt":"2010-01-14T01:36:22","slug":"computer-assembly-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/01\/03\/computer-assembly-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Computer Assembly – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the ideas that I lecture about in Software Engineering is the concept of how one views testing objects. You can either look at an object either in \u2018black\u2019 or \u2018white\u2019 box fashion. In the former, internal processing details are hidden and opaque, so you\u2019re really concerned only about whether you get correct outputs based on what inputs you feed into the object. \u2018White\u2019 box<\/a> viewpoints on the other hand suggest that you\u2019re looking at the object in terms of processing and its internalized components since it\u2019s \u2018transparent\u2019.<\/p>\n

Now when you put it into a computer analogy; most people are really quite happy using computers as black boxes<\/a> \u2013 they don\u2019t care what goes inside a thing, as long as the thing works. For this group of users, choosing a new computer really involves just selecting from brochures an assembled system, paying for it, and waiting for the delivery guy to show up.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the reasons why Apple operating systems and their machines have been so successful: they hide all the details behind a pretty facade, does what it\u2019s supposed to do well, and absolves its users from having to deal with the underlining hardware. Windows operating systems took a while longer to reach the same level of abstraction, but with the newest iteration \u2013 Windows 7 \u2013 it\u2019s finally reached parity, and in some ways may have even surpassed the Mac OS.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\"blogassemblingcomputer\"<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a large group of users however who enjoy treating their computer systems as white boxes. These are also the same people who\u2019re frequent patrons of Sim Lim Square, and the activity of assembling one\u2019s own computer today is practically a hobbyist skill with a huge body of knowledge accumulated over the years from enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

Why do people bother with it though? Well, building things is a lot of fun. Once you get past the fact that the PC components that go into a system don\u2019t usually just cost spare change, it\u2019s pretty much like assembling Lego bricks otherwise. Many components \u2013 whether it\u2019s a wire, a cable, or a computer card \u2013 have distinct connectors that it\u2019s actually hard to connect the item in the wrong way.<\/p>\n

\"blogassemblingcomputer02\" There\u2019s also a significant aesthetic perspective. Lots of enthusiasts compare notes on how  they go about beautifying the internals of their computer \u2013 which interestingly also has a strong effect on how the assembled system performs.<\/p>\n

Briefly, computer components contain millions of transistors. They generate a lot of heat, so one of the basic ideas that one has to learn is how air is moved inside a computer casing. Ideally, you want to create airflow in the casing that\u2019ll take in cool air from the outside and push out hot air through exhaust. This isn\u2019t as simple as putting huge fans into a casing and letting them rip though. You don\u2019t want pockets of still air for one, and secondly, fans can cause a din.<\/p>\n

And the payoff of spending a couple of hours or an evening of assembling a new computer is incredible. You often hold your breadth when you\u2019re booting up your assembled computer for the first time \u2013 and when it boots up properly, it\u2019s hard not to shoot your first up into the air and say \u201cHell yeah!!\u201d It\u2019s like you\u2019re creating life.<\/p>\n

Continued in the next post.:)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the ideas that I lecture about in Software Engineering is the concept of how one views testing objects. You can either look at an object either in \u2018black\u2019 or \u2018white\u2019 box fashion. In the former, internal processing details<\/p>\n

Read More Computer Assembly – Part 1<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home","category-toys-technology","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-16-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}