thoughts on week 6

The first article I read was the wiki on Local Area Networks. I understood that I use LAN’s at home and at work. I wondered when a LAN would switch to a WAN and if a MAN was the same as a WAN.

The second article I read was the wiki on Computer Networks. Luckily, my earlier questions were answered, so know I knew that a LAN switched to a WAN after it became a CAN and a MAN. Who knew. I also learned that a MAN was slightly smaller than a WAN, so to answer my second question, no they are not the same.

I wonder if RFID is going to be similar to the VHS/DVD saga. When VHS movies came out, everybody owned them. Then DVD’s came out and VHS movies started to become sparse. Now you cannot buy a new movie on VHS. If a library is using a barcode system and the RFID system begins to take effect in a small amount of libraries, then adds more and more, will eventually all libraries be forced to buy into RFID, or will it be like the VCR/DVD players where something would be built to accommodate both the barcodes and the RFID until barcode systems become altogether nonexistent?