Bits & Bytes Lesson 3 The Data Game

The amount of information the average person deals with on a daily basis is mind boggling. You are inundated with news and events from television, radio, and the Web. You receive enough emails and snail-mail to overflow your inbox and mailbox on a weekly basis. Add to that weblogs, magazines, announcements, and telephone messages, and it is no wonder we sometimes feel like we are losing the battle of the data bulge. As overwhelming as this is, the amount of personal data generated and collected is miniscule compared with the production of data from companies and research institutions. Knowledge discovery and generation through research and business activities generate a doubling of stored data every nine months! Luckily computers have come to the rescue for many of the tasks of handling all of this data. They are the perfect device for storing, organizing, and in general, managing the deluge.

To better appreciate how computers can process the data that we, as humans, just can't get a handle on, it's useful to understand data from the ground up and in the most elementary form-this is the form that computers can crunch on! Join me as we explore how computers process and store data.