Final Blog #20

Well, another semester comes to a close. I finished my paper yesterday and had it proofread by a friend. I worked on the final paper for a week, usually working on it one hour every day. Out of all the books assigned this semester Made to Break was my favorite. So, I can say I enjoyed writing this paper. Giles Slade made his argument very convincing and thorough, but most of all his style of writing made it enjoyable to read. The subject of “planned obsolescence” is a concept I have thought little of, but I have to say this assignment and this class has opened my eyes. As I went through Slade’s book again, I began to think about the point he is making about Americans becoming more concerned about the e-waste that is starting to pile up. I covered this in my paper and used Slade’s ideas throughout. His last chapter, which I based most of my paper on, Slade comes to the point of his book, that All American must become more aware of the problem of e-waste and to find a solution.

 I agreed with Slade’s point of view. I thought about the “going green” movement in America and how it only became popular when the media started to report on it. I went looking on the internet for articles on the green movement. What I found seemed one sided and leaned too heavy on optimistic view. It is not easy to suddenly change our ways and teenager especially, due to the stigma of not “fitting in”. I wrote about the cell phone in my paper and its toxic chemicals when it is discarded.  

Technology assists in making our lives easier to live and it cuts our stress factor in half. With this gift, we should be more responsible about how we dispose of these tools/toys. Slade’s argument is sound and I hope my paper is convincing, as convincing as the argument I covered.

Final Assignment: Blog No. 1

This week we received the two topics for our final assignment. It did not take me long to choose Giles Slade’s book, Made to Break. Out of the five books I read for this class, I enjoyed Slade’s book the most. That is due to the topic and his way of writing. Also, I feel his topic is quite relevant to our times. There is a large amount of information on going green and planned obsolescence in articles, books and the Internet. I realize this assignment is not about my opinion and it will be difficult to keep it out of this paper, but I will try. Slade does a good job in his argument and due to the cost to go green; I will see where my argument goes. As far as the social aspect of this topic is concerned, Slade feels people like the newest toy more than keeping the Earth healthy, but I plan on finding articles about going green and see what they have to say about new toys that are more environmental friendly. I plan on starting my paper very soon, so that I am not bogged down the night before it is due. I like the idea about blogging during the process. It helps to focus on the topic and the direction the paper will go. This way when I start I can narrow in on the topic at hand. I have already found three articles off the Internet about going green, two that have a positive spin and the third with a negative spin. After a start my paper, I will blog again with my progress. This is all I have for now. I’ll be doing more reading and research and will back with more information later.

Facebook Blog: Part 3

In this third and final blog of Kirkpatrick's book, The Facebook Effect, he continues to discuss the rising value of Facebook.  Also, he writes about Zuckerberg’s announcement to development platforms for programmers to create social applications within Facebook. Within a matter of weeks, many applications had been built and some already had millions of users. Zuckerberg explained, “We want to make Facebook into something of an operating system, so you can run full applications.” (pg. 217) I think Zuckerberg wanted to have Facebook be like Microsoft, where it is very much like a monopoly on the social network. Microsoft wiped out all the other competition and Zuckerberg wants Facebook to dominate the social network.

What I found interesting was Kirkpatrick’s comment about Facebook taking the burden off itself to built better applications. In becoming a platform, Facebook did not have to keep building better applications; it can now rely on others to do it for them. Yet, with this simple plan Facebook can reap the benefit and share these applications with the whole world.  (pg. 218)

When it came time for Facebook to make money, Zuckerberg’s personality showed itself.  To him, everything was about the “long-term” plan. Zuckerberg believed, “Long-term financial success depended on continued growth, he believed, and even his grand declaration at the Facebook Ads launch just meant the company would start seeking new approaches.” (pg. 259)  Zuckerberg could not see anything but, “...growth and continued improvement in the customer experience...” (pg. 258) it is fascinating to read about a young man not dazzled by all those billions!

In chapter fifteen, Kirkpatrick writes about Zuckerberg’s concept of “gift economy”. He believes that, “The whole culture works on this framework of mutual giving. The thing that binds those communities together and makes the potlatch work is the fact that the community is small enough that people can see each other’s contributions.” (pg. 287) When Zuckerberg talks about a community is small enough, he means since Facebook has made the world smaller and closer. Zuckerberg goes on to say, “When there’s more openness, with everyone being able to express their opinion very quickly...” (pg. 287) He felt companies would become “more good, and trustworthy”. Maybe I am more jaded, but I found this ideology idealistic, but it can also be his youth. That said, Facebook has come a long way in a short time and it has shown it resilience. Facebook keeps on improving itself, maybe it can improve the way the world works.

facebook: Part 2

In the second part of David Kirkpatrick's book, The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World, he continues his story about the rise of a ground breaking Web site and the young men responsible. Kirkpatrick writes about the amazing job Sean Parker did to recruit several investor for Facebook. Say what you will about the man’s personal behavior, he was a good talker. Zuckerberg's personality was another matter all together. Kirkpatrick’s descriptions of Zuckerberg’s characteristics bring the reader face to face with the young man. Although I could understand why his employees worried about all the meets he took with all those companies who wanted to buy Facebook. As CEO of the company, open communication with his employee would have stop their fear of Zuckerberg selling Facebook.

I found the second part of the book exciting following Kirkpatrick’s written map of Facebook’s rise to a "real" company. The picture of all the employees pushing their office chairs, full of their equipment, to their new office was really funny. What really interested me was all this money offered for Facebook, billions of dollars, and yet they were going through the money they had borrowed from Accel.

Through all the wheeling and dealing, Zuckerberg and his fellow workers stayed firm. Aaron Sittig, the graphic designer said it best, “We wanted to get the site out of the way and not have a particular attitude. We didn’t want people to have a relationship with Facebook so much as to find and interact with each other.” (pg. 145) Zuckerberg only liked working with young people, because they were smarter, but I think, like his ambition for Facebook, he wanted to interact with people he enjoyed being around. So, I’m sure it was sad when he had to ask Sean Parker to step down. He had contributed a large part of Facebook’s success.

When Zuckerberg added the photo feature to Facebook, the Web site took off! This step in Facebook’s journey most definitely assisted in people interacting with each other making the world a little smaller and closer to Zuckerberg’s dream of socializing the world. The success of the “photo-hosting application” on Facebook “...was magic of overlaying an ordinary online activity with a set of social relationship.” (pg. 156) By adding photos to the Web site, Facebook gave their customer “a sense of companionship” never felt from the Internet before. (pg. 157) With this success, Zuckerberg now wanted to open Facebook to adults and from there the world. Zuckerberg’s dream was very close to becoming a reality. While I continue to read this book, I could not help think of the book, Made to Break, and planned obsolescence. Zuckerberg has successfully made the world vastness obsolete, it is now just a button away and you can now have a relationship with a large number of friends.

Internet Privacy: What are they doing About it?

Internet privacy is a major concern for anyone who signs on to a computer. Privacy on the Internet is a status where an individual can work on his or her information without fear of said information being used without the user permission. With each passing day, more and more people are signing on to a computer, unaware their private information is being collected and used without their knowledge.

Businesses should be aware that consumers are looking for privacy protection and a privacy statement can help to ease consumer's concerns. If businesses do not provide privacy protection, people will start to abstain from buying products off the Internet. It is not only businesses that need to implement privacy protection. To protect consumer’s privacy, legislation, self-regulation, and technical solutions are some of a few solutions ways that can be implemented.

Another tool that can be used for the protection of Internet privacy is the use of anonymity by the user. This is a good tool for some users and dangerous for others.  For example, any stalker can use this particular tool against another user with any repercussions. While for some using a fake name can protect some users and their personal information.

 Recently, well known journalist, Esther Dyson stated the problem, “The biggest challenge right now is ignorance: People aren’t worried enough, and are careless. Other people are worried too much, and are paranoid. No one knows what is known and what isn’t. It’s the one-way mirror effect that makes people so uneasy” (1)

A large number of services have been provided by online businesses that are posted on the home page; this is to reassure customers of their privacy. These services usually require a web site to pay a fee and also to enter in a contract, even go through an audit just to display a “seal of approval” to cover the consumers privacy. When using the Internet, the user should search diligently for these seals.

1 http://lorrie.cranor.org/pubs/networker-privacy.html

Facebook, Part 1

In David Kirkpatrick's book, The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World, he describes the history of Facebook and its creator, Mark Zuckerberg. With an unusual twist Kirkpatrick starts his book in the middle of the story. The book begins with a story about Oscar Morales and his hatred for FARC, terrorist located in Colombian. Morales used Facebook to form a group against the hostile guerillas and because of that, the group attracted thousands of people, in the end millions. The story ends with a march against the guerillas. This was thanks to Facebook. By starting the book with this story, Kirkpatrick demonstrates how powerful Facebook has become.

While Facebook took several people to get it off the ground, it is Mark Zuckerberg tenacity that is the backbone of Facebook. Kirkpatrick describes Zuckerberg as a “geek” that wore jeans and tee shirts, as a matter of fact; Kirkpatrick describes all the collaborators of Facebook as “geeks”. Yet, each person involved with the creation of Facebook did their jobs extremely well. But like all college students, Zuckerberg and his group of “geeks” wanted to have fun and creating Facebook was fun, up until egos got in the way.

What I found interesting was that Zuckerberg was not that interested in making money, but he did want Facebook to be its best and for people to reach out to each other. Another aspect of Zuckerberg’s personality that aided in Facebook’s success was his commonness in making huge executive decision. Kirkpatrick attributes this to Zuckerberg vision on where he wanted Facebook to go.

While reading this book, I could not help but think about the young people who created the website, Texts from Last Night. They too are college age, and started a website for the fun of it, much like Zuckerberg and his group of friends. Another thing Ben Lator and Lauren Leto have in common with Zuckerberg is these young people have tapped into a market that student can identify with and they share this with millions of people worldwide. Lastly, you cannot overlook the money these two sites have brought into the lives of these students who just wanted to have fun.

Carry Your Classroom with You, the Disconnection

In today’s world, the classroom has taken on a new look and shape. It is no longer a room full of desks and a chalk board. Today’s classroom is now anywhere a person can carry their computer (laptop hopefully). Using the Internet is the norm for today’s youth and adults going back to school. Of course, there is also how the Internet is used as a tool in the conventional classroom. While the use of the Internet is more structured in the classroom, a student’s educational use of the Internet occurs outside of the school day, outside of the school building, outside the direction of their teachers. Students report that there is a substantial disconnect between how they use the Internet for school and how they use the Internet during the school day and under teacher direction.

In this isolated classroom students find many different educational uses for the Internet. All students use the Internet to do research to assist them in doing homework, study for tests and write research papers. The Internet is a virtual reference book, teacher, tutor, desk, and so on. My first experience with an online class was very disconcerting, but I got use to it very fast. No going to class when you are tired, you can do your work when you have the time. Alas, I feel eventually, there will be no need to drive to school with a teacher and classmates. Yet, this is the direction that education is taking its students.

One problem with using the Internet for school is the lack of instructions teacher give their students in using this tool. That is due to the fact the student has more knowledge about the Internet than the teacher. Also, some teachers decide not to use the Internet for an assignment because of their concern that not all kids have access to the Internet at home.

Nonetheless, as students, we are changing due to the out-of-school use of the Internet and our reliance on it. Students have different skills, different opportunities and most of all different resources at their finger tips.

Our Group Presentation

Hello everyone, this past Wednesday evening in class my group (Stephanie, Kristen and myself) presented our Wikipedia article to the class. Our topic was on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in the United States. In our search, we were surprised to find the lack information about the topic. It is a brief overview on the topic, a good starting point, but not for an in-depth research on the topic. Another surprise to the article is that there are no recent cases mentioned in the article.

My group did some additional research on euthanasia and found the case on Terri Schiavo. I found it puzzling that our article had no mention of such a famous case. We also mentioned the famous Dr. “Death” Jack Kevorkian and a basic outline of his work and convictions.

For the most part, our group agreed that Wikipedia is a good place to start when doing research on this particular topic. There is no real in-depth information, only a basic outline of the topic. Of the resources at the bottom of the page, there were dead links, articles and even someone blog. The only article of primary source was from The New England Journal of Medicine.

Because of Wikipedia’s format, this article is not that well rounded, anyone can write and edit this page. This is a double edged sword, because this is also Wikipedia’s strength as well. Wikipedia is a tool found in the easiest position of Google, which makes it the obvious choice when looking for a topic. Like with any research one does for either school or one’s self, no one source is good enough to solely rely on. While I feel Wikipedia is a good starting off point, I would never rely on it for my only information. The Internet is a great tool, with information we could never find sitting at home, and yet now we can.

Even though Wikipedia has its strengths and weaknesses, people are lazy by nature. Since Google places Wikipedia in a top position, people will always go for the most obvious Web page. Because of their laziness, some wrong information will be citied. I learned a lot from this project, due to the fact I knew nothing about our subject. Granted, I only learned about basic facts and not the emotional side to our topic. I take away from this project how much I enjoyed the process of team work and researching an interesting topic.

Part 3 of Made to Break

In the third and last segment of Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, by Giles Slade, he continues to discuss obsolescence in America. Slade writes about the invention of the chip in chapter seven, the cold war in chapter eight and lastly cell phones and e-waste in chapter nine. I have to say, chapter seven was a repeat of what I have already read in the book Computers. Much of this chapter is about the competition between the company’s Apple, Microsoft, and IBM. So I found chapter seven a little boring. What I did find interesting was the different characters that made up the cold war chapter. I had no idea that the Soviet Union was holding on by a thread in their competition with the United States. 

Slade credits Gus Weiss as, “…the brilliant cold warrior responsible for turning planned obsolescence into a weapon against the Soviet Union…” (pg. 228) I had always wondered why the USSR stole from the United States all the technology they did, and in reading the section on “Industrial Espionage” I took note on the fact that Western technology “stolen or covertly purchased” from the Soviets assisted in their equal strength. (pg. 233)

Slade went on to describe the “Farewell” documents and how with these documents and the dissatisfaction of a KGB officer assisted in the downfall of Soviet’s neck and neck race with the United States. It is this race, the “Cold War” and the men behind the scenes that were major factor in the obsolescence of weapons. What I found fascinating in the reading were the two men, Gus Weiss and Vladimir Vetrov. Slade wrote detailed descriptions on both men and their part in the Cold War.

Slade closes his book discussing the cell phone and e-waste. He writes, “In the United States, cell phones built to last five years are now retired after only eighteen months of use”. (pg. 261) This statement gave me a moment of pause, because I am guilty of this very act, as are so many other Americans. But it is not just cell phones, computers, televisions and so on, we want it fast and shiny, like all our toys. Yet, this fascination with the new never last for very long, that is why our e-waste is growing out of control.

As Slade has stated throughout his book, consumers “…are creating unmanageable mounds of electronic waste…” (pg. 261)  He closes his book with a warning, as consumers of e-waste, we must stop and think about not only our next toy to buy, but we also need to address the “disassembly and reuse” of that same product. (pg. 281) I feel Slade has backed his argument with well documented examples, and gives his reader a lot to think about.

  

Part 2: Made to Break

In chapters four through six of Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America by Giles Slade, Slade begins by writing about the numerous ways in which obsolescence became a way of life in America starting with radio, and television. Using multiple examples, Slade explores how companies marketed their product for profit, through consumer manipulation. Slade starts chapter four with the introduction of a rivalry that lasted for decades, a rivalry in the advancing field of radio. This rivalry was between two very different men, David Sarnoff and Edwin Armstrong. Sarnoff business sense was all about making a name for himself at all cost. He built up radio, only to destroy it with the introduction of television. Armstrong had great faith in his product, FM radio, and he spent his life trying to make it great.

Continuing with chapter four on radio, Slade discusses the invention of transistor radios and how even the old way of listening to the radio became obsolete. Case in point, many companies invented smaller radios so that the radio could be taken with you anywhere. This made listening to a radio a mobile event, instead of sitting around the radio with your family. As America became a modern society, transistor radios aided in the person on the go. This makes me pause; I think with the transistor radio, America began to move away from the close knot family unit. While families could watch television together, as future can tell, that would not last long. Once again “planned obsolescence” moves people away from the family unit to more isolation, but for now in the reading, television moved people away from the radio.

Also, another aspect of family life that became obsolete was the front porches and basements of houses. When new houses started going up in the suburbs they were built without front porches and basements. This was to keep costs down on their construction, but the public were told through advertisements, that this was a break from the past. Once again the idea of the new was projected as better for the family than the old way. In chapter six, Brooks Stevens said it best, “We make good products, we induce people to buy them, and then next year we deliberately introduce something that will those old fashion, out of date, obsolete”. (pg. 153)  Again I ask, what will America leave behind for the new generations? While reading this book, I have taken a good look at how we as America are driven and manipulated into running after what is new, whether we need it or not. I guess I should be more opened minded; one of the foundations this country is built on is freedom of religion. For make no mistake, America’s belief system and new God is to buy the new toy out each and every week.

Made to Break, Pages 1-81

In this week’s reading, Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, by Giles Slade, I found I was fascinated from the start. Slade states that America has become a throw-away society, where “deliberate obsolescence…is a uniquely American invention”. (pg. 3)  From the start Slade maps out a compelling and solid argument. Each of Slade’s statements are backed by examples in history. His example of the Egyptian and American is a sad image of our society. Slade writes, “…the ancient Egyptians built great monuments to endure for countless generations, just about everything we produce in North America is made to break”. (pg. 7) While reading the introduction to this book, I hoped the rest of the book would be as interesting. Much like previews at the movies, so many times the previews are better than the movie. In the case of this book, I was not disappointed.

This book examines the issue of "planned obsolescence" and its role in causing Americans to buy more products from companies who are not committed to quality. On the other hand, Slade points out about Henry Ford and his stubbornness in not making a less durable car. It is amazing to read about a man concerned about durability in his product. Slade then writes about Alfred Sloan who did not have Ford’s ethics. Sloan’s General Motors' 1923 introduction of annual car model, urged consumers to trade in perfectly good cars for more stylish updates, this is in direct conflict with Ford Durable Model-T.

In chapter three, the section on the “Obsolete Man” hit close to home in that today’s America suffers from joblessness. In 1932, “…a band of critics began to decry the growing trend toward the mechanized replacement of manpower”. (pg. 67) The “coin-operated vending machine” was the item criticized in 1932; today it is the computer and the Internet that the critics blame for most of America’s bad economy. I do not believe it is that simple, but the Utopian society of the Depression had some interesting doctrine.

Technocracy, a Utopian society that sprang up during the depression seemed to be on the right track. This society believed, “…the Depression required that society be restructured by engineers and economists around the principle of production for use and prosperity of the many, rather than the profit of the few”. (pg. 71) After reading about this society, again, I saw a parallel to our time as well. There is so much greed in this country and that was never truer than a few years ago, when so many banks were having problems and we learned about those few men whose greed knew no bounds.

That said, we are also to blame, because of our need for the newest and fastest toy. In many ways we were manipulated into this desire to buy more. Psychological obsolescence leads to obsessive purchasing. Both company’s advertising and consumer's love of the new have aided in a huge outbreak in both sales of new products and the mounting pile of garbage that is thrown away each year

Solo current event presentation – October 20, 2010

My discussion was on 3D is it a fad or the future? I found a lot of material on the subject; it seems to be a hot topic. The article I decided on is very informative and interesting to read. Alex Kartman wrote an article entitled, 3D Cinema - A Fad or the Future? which I found to cover both the past and the future of this technical phenomenon. The 3D experience has been around a long time, since the 1890’s and yet its heyday was in the 1950’s. Hollywood needed another cash cow because of the invention of the television. This pattern of using gimmicks to lure audiences into empty seats would be used every time attendance was down at the movies.

While 3D resurfaced in 2003, it was the opening of Avatar in 3D that skyrocket this gimmick to super big profits. Hollywood had found an answer to not only bring people back to the theater; they now could cut down on the pirating of movies on the Internet. Two problems stilled remained, those annoying glass you have to wear in order to see the movie, and 3D television will be released in the next year. If someone can perfect the concept of autostereoscopic 3D (glass-less viewing), and release to the public before the 3D televisions are released, the Hollywood will be able to hold on to their cash cow a little longer. When asked if 3D was a fad or the future, everyone in the class said it was a fad, and yet you cannot argue with the success of Jackass 3D. This movie’s opening weekend is the biggest opening in October ever, $50 million dollars! If 3D becomes less annoying and more accessible, I feel it will move to television and the computer and the Internet. While I do not feel personal films like The Hurt Locker or Up in the Air can benefit from 3D, the cartoon genre is made more exciting when shown in the 3D format.

Wikipedia part 2

In the second half of the book, The World of Wikipedia: How We Are
Editing Reality, by Andrew Dalby, I was quite surprised to find out that
it runs like one big giant blog.  Dalby starts off the second half o
his book by giving the reader reasons as to why we love Wikipedia, why
we do not trust it and lastly why we will trust it. This view of
Wikipedia is foreign to me as a reader and not a contributor. Dalby
sites time after time examples of vandalism and mistakes and how they
were handled. What I did find interesting were the reason we love and do
not trust Wikipedia. Dalby states plainly each reason and then goes on
to write, sometimes in too lengthy detail, examples of the specific
reason.
For example, the first reason we love Wikipedia is the virtual world it
has created. Jimmy Wales in an interview states, "We, the people of this
virtual world, can be shy and anonymous as we like, and yet our work,
good and bad, is listed and others can explore it." (pg. 120) We have
talked about this in class, about how small the world is now due to the
Internet, and here is a website that allows you to write a page, along
with scientists and professors. Which brings me to the fifth reason; we
are all equal in this virtual world. (pg. 136)
This reason goes along with another reason we love Wikipedia,
"...because it lets us write whatever we want." (pg. 130) Alas, with
this reason comes excessive editing, vandalism and poor research skills.
Which brings me to the reasons why trusting Wikipedia is sometimes very
difficult to do, how do we know without extensive research if there are
mistakes in the information we have found. Many users, including myself,
go to Wikipedia looking for information, not to write or edit an
article. The information is handled by a community of writers and
editors, the reader hopes the editors knows of which they speak or in this case post
on Wikipedia. What I like about Wikipedia is you can search footnotes
and sources at the bottom of the page, but I doubt many people have the
time or the desire to search all of them.
I think Wikipedia has become too large to be monitored effectively for
mistakes. The staff would have to be massive to support the searches
that need to be done to correct all the mistakes and vandalized pages.
What is in the future for this website that has become invaluable to
many? Will we have to pay a fee to use Wikipedia or is it so big now
that the mistakes to harm its popularity?

Wikipedia: Tool or Joke?

For this week's assignment, I have read the first half of the book The

World of Wikipedia: How We Are Editing Reality, by Andrew Dalby. From the first time I searched the internet, Wikipedia has been a part of my computer experience, so this book held an interest for me from the start. Dalby begins his book with a short history about early encyclopedias and how this assisted in the development of Wikipedia. He then goes into how Wikipedia is used and how it works. Dalby also goes to great lengths and examples of the open editing that has caused many false statements to appear in Wikipedia. Before reading the first half of this book, I had heard about the mistakes found on Wikipedia. That said Wikipedia has become a powerhouse of success. This is due to its location on Google and with this location; Wikipedia has become a worldwide search tool.

What I found of interest was that Wikipedia, launched in 2001, began as a project for Nupedia, a free online English-language encyclopedia project by two men, Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales, with Sanger receiving most of the credit. As of 2009, Wikipedia has collected over three million articles and is translated into over 265 languages. That is an amazing success story. When reading this book, I also looked up on Wikipedia, on its own story. Dalby did a good job with the facts, but as a side thought, you do have to wonder, are all the facts correct? Just a thought.  (p. 39 and p. 49) (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia)

In chapter three, Dalby writes about many different types of Wikipedia mistakes, and he also writes about Wikipedia’s biggest enemy, Nicholas Carr. Yet, when the magazine Nature published a survey on the mistakes of both Wikipedia and Britannica, most newspapers ignored the numbers. Wikipedia turned out to have 162 errors compared to 123 errors in the Britannica. What this says to me is that the damage had already been done with all the bad press Wikipedia had received previous to this survey. (p. 56)

The partnership if Google and Wikipedia have assisted in both becoming household names. Dalby writes, “Google therefore took the conscious decision to favour Wikipedia because, though its faults are many, Wikipedia is the largest available source of serious text across all subject areas”. (p. 86) It is because of the enormous available information Wikipedia offers and the placing in the top five on Google, that is due to its success. That and the fact, yes I am guilty too, most people do not look any further for information. Yet, I feel Wikipedia is a good tool, not to be used as the only source. In researching anything, people should use four sources and see which ones have a common thread, but I must close by saying Wikipedia is a great tool!

Part 2: Technopoly

Once again, while I read the second half of Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman, I was very much entertained. He is a great story teller, but I cannot say he changed my mind, although he did make me pause and think further about certain subjects. I agree with some things he wrote and but others I feel Postman over reacts. Neil Postman comments on the affects of technology on our culture ranges from I.Q. scores, statistics, polling techniques, visible television, computers, and automobiles to education and the medical field.

Postman’s comments about how technology has made doctors less competent, I do not agree with that. I do not think doctors lean too heavily on technology. Do I think doctors are more competent due to technology?  Yes I do. I think of all those people who have died and suffered because our advancements had yet to be invented. As I stated in my last blog, Postman goes for the dramatic, leaning heavily on the negative extreme. Sure technology can be used too much, but most doctors use technology as a tool, so that humans live a longer better life. (p. 100-106)

Where I do agree with Postman is the over use of words and symbols to the point where they “are stripped of their power”. (p. 166) Postman states, “…Uncle Sam, God, or Jesus is employed as an agent of the profane world for an essentially trivial purpose”. (p. 167) Like obscene (bad) language, when we hear or see something over and over, we begin to not notice it anymore. Over use of words or images weakens its impact and as human beings we need to step back and remember its importance.

Postman goes on to write, “With the erosion of symbols there follows a loss of narrative, which is one of the most debilitating consequences of Technopoly’s power”. (p. 171) This loss takes away the importance of our past, our present and definitely our future. (p. 172) Also, with the loss of images, important symbols, then life has no meaning because then we have nothing to strive or go after.

I think technology is an important part of our culture. It entertains as well as makes life easier. Of course, where there is money to be made, someone will over produce the very tool that has made life easier. It will turn this tool into something ugly, if we are not careful. Going back to the basics is not the answer. It does not work anyway, because cultures move forward, not backwards.

A blog on Technopoly: The First Half

In Neil Postman's book, "Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology," he writes about the benefits and the downfalls of technology. In the opening of his book, Postman quotes King Thamus on his outlook on the evils of writing, “Those who acquire it will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful; they will rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance…” (p. 4). What I surmised from that passage is Postman feels that technology has made us lazy and forgetful, with more evils to come. At times, Postman paints a bleak picture about our love for new technology. Postman also writes that society is all too willing to turn over independence, individuality, and free will to the all consuming technology.

While I did not always agree with Postman’s ideas, I did find his theories well thought out and at time quite interesting. When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, educating the masses started society down this road and while it started at a crawl, we are now racing down that road at rocket speed. Postman goes on to write about every major invention and how the people in power feared their loss of control over the common man. Yet, with every new invention the common man’s life become easier. That is what technology does for us at this time, but in some cases, it is a luxury we do not need. Someone please tell me why we need a camera on our phone?

Postman writes about “information” and before we owned computers the world’s   "information" was found in books and encyclopedias. Now, information is found on Blackberries, computers, and other handheld devices, it is literally at our finger tips. Postman writes about “information glut”, and the dangers of the “long-range result”. Information is not asked for, it just appears. Here again Postman traces “information glut” back to the Gutenberg press and its introduction to educating the masses. (p. 61)

Technology has become the foundation of the United States and our lovely new toys, and there is definitely no going back. I found Postman to be a little dramatic in his thoughts, although I did find him to be an entertaining writer. After reading the first half of Postman’s book, I have to say he made me stop and wonder. I agree that technology should be monitored, it is a powerful tool. Our culture needs to step back and take a good long look at the direction technology is taking us and the affect it will have on our future. I have to say I have my doubts this will happen, due to the billions, maybe trillions of dollars technology brings into the companies that manufactures the new toys.

A blog on the 2nd Half of the Reading

I am happy to write in my second blog about the second half of Computers: The Story of Technology by Eric Swedin and David Ferro, that it was not as boring as the first half. In chapter five, the two authors got my attention right away when they wrote about the Altair 8800. I am a big Star Trek fan maybe that is why I became interested in this computer. When I read about the cost, $397 unassembled and $100 already assembled, I thought that sounded like a reasonable price, but then I remembered this was the 1970’s. What I also found interesting is the way the CPU communicated with the “expansion slot”, through a bus. An “electronic roadway” so the computer can find out what needs attention. (p. 86)

After reading an article about the Altair 8800 in the magazine Popular Electronics, Bill Gates and Paul Allen notified Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the manufacturers of the new microcomputer, and reported to them that they were working on a BASIC language for the Altair. They gave Edward Roberts, the inventor of the Altair, a demonstration on the BASIC language. Everything took off from there and almost every computer now is based on the Altair 8800. It is fascinating to read about the beginnings of an empire.

Another interesting part of computer history is the separation of software and hardware in the merchandising industry. The sales of software “completely revolutionized the software industry” as stated in the book. The numbers are staggering, “$10 billion” in 1982 and “$25 billion in 1985”. (p. 103)  I did some research on the Internet and according to the IT Channel Planet website, “Global Enterprise Software Sales to Exceed $232 Billion for 2010”. These numbers are mind blowing!

As we all know, the invention of the Internet changed the face of the planet! I remember thinking while I was reading about the IP numbers and how hard they were to remember. At the time, I was so happy when they started giving addresses names instead of mile long numbers. It was fascinating to read about the six specific domain endings that are used for the addresses: “.com: commercial, .edu: educational, .net: network, .gov: government, .mil: military, and .org: organization”. (p. 120)

After finishing this book, I could not help think of how close science fiction has come to reality. With the invention of the computer and the Internet, our culture will see science fiction and technology’s world get closer and closer. As a society who worships the next convenient gadget, only our imagination can either hold us back or catapult us into what the future holds. The book closes with a thought about how society will look back at us and think how primitive we seemed. I do not think they will be far off, think where we were fifty years ago and what inventions where created even in the last thirty years!

 

An Evening at Rutgers

On Friday, September 17^th, I attended a lecture on the website, Texts from Last Night, (http://www.textsfromlastnight.com). The lecture was hosted by the two creators, Ben Lator and Lauren Leto. These two friends started this website late one night in February 2009. The website grew at an astonishing rate overnight. This is a website where can voice your opinions to comments about your drunken experiences. What is great about the website is that you post your comments anonymously. Due to the success of this website Ben and Lauren have a full time job; it is a bona fide business. Ben and Lauren created a website where the poster can write whatever they want without fear of revealing themselves and this is a freedom that can be quite fun. Unfortunately, not all entries can be posted due to the volume of the website. I looked it up on the Internet and TFLN receives about 3.5 million page views a month. During the lecture Ben stated he is the reader of all those posting!

While I cannot argue about their success and the Internet has made quite a few people rich, what these two people accomplished is impressive. I think that is the point to how the Internet works. Here are two students going to school to get a degree, so they can be a success. They were not looking to get rich, but to entertain their friends. Now they have a million dollar business, with merchandise, book deals and an upcoming television show. Speaking of their book, during the lecture, there was a raffle to hand out copies of their book based on their website. No, I did not win one of their books, but the students that did win seemed very excited. As, I sat there I began to think about the attraction of this website. I realized college students and teenagers need something that is their own, even if it is about a drunken night and the morning after. I agree with Stephanie, Ben and Lauren sure do know their audience.

Blog for the First Reading

This book, Computers: The Story of Technology by Eric Swedin and David Ferro, presents a timeline for computer technology. It starts with both the history of computing and also the key ideas present in today's computers. I can see were this would be an interesting book for someone interested in technology, but I found to be written like an extended laundry list. Although I have to say, I marvel at how technology has changed and how much I use it every day.

Swedin and Ferro write about a complex subject. The story of computer technology is complex and involving not merely the technology, but also the politics, personalities and the clash of cultures from various scientists.

Even though technology is not an interest of mine, there were aspects of the history of the computer I found attention-grabbing. In the very first chapter, the book starts with any interesting story about the find of old wreck, possibly of Roman in origin. Through the modern invention of x-ray photography, it was discovered that a corroded lump of metal found in the wreck was a mechanical computer for calculating solar and stellar calendars. I was shocked to read that a machine, even a type of computer was used as far back as Roman times.

Another interesting section in the book was the discussion on human computers. I was interested in finding more about people who used “slide rules, abacus, pen and paper”, and later on used mechanical adding machines. The most amazing thing was that this term “human computer” was used up until WW II. Unfortunately, this was a small paragraph in the reading.

With World War II came the von Neumann architecture, the basis of most current computers and then the solid state transistor at Bell Labs in 1948. Progress seemed so slow, in retrospect. But then the narrative speeds up, as Moore's Law took effect in the late 1960’s and the invention of microprocessor in the late 1960’s. The reading seemed to pickup just as this week’s reading came to a close. I hope the rest of the book moves this smoothly.

While reading the first half of “Computers”, I could not help notice that with every new invention, the speed at which technology was traveling accelerated even faster. We are a society that wants “it” now and better. In today’s time line and with the invention of the internet, we are traveling like a rocket to the stars. My question is: when will that speed level out? Will there come a time when we have all we want and in a speedy turn over? I think the answer is we will never stop wanting the latest gadget or the newest toy or tool. That is only human nature, but will we over speedy out of control?

 

Keeping a Journal

I started a journal on how often I use a computer during the day. I started on a Thursday and finished the next week on Tuesday night. It was 6 days in total. What I found interesting was how often I use the computer at home. I am a librarian and I work on a computer all day, from 7:30AM to 4:30PM. I enter new material in an online database and check my email every few minutes, as this is the fastest way to communicate with my customers. This is what I do 5 days a week. When I get home, unless I have homework, I use to stay away from the computer, due to the fact I am on the computer all day. That was until I bought a laptop computer last February. The convenience of a laptop has made it much easier for me to watch movies online. I am what is called a cinephile. That is a person who is a devoted moviegoer, especially one knowledgeable about the cinema. I check on and revise my Netflix account every day online.
While keeping my journal, I recorded 3 nights where I watched episodes of TV show I had missed during the year. Netflix makes it possible to watch movie and TV shows on their website, if you have an account with them. Another aspect of working on a computer both at work and at home is the use of email. Up until this class, emailing was my primary source of communicating with friends and family. I also recorded that I do not spend as much time on the computer over the weekends. Although, since buying a laptop, I do spend more time that I did a year ago before I bought the laptop.
Recently, I started texting on my cell phone. I do not like it as well as email, due to the small keys and multi-letters on one key. Although texting is the only way I can communicate with my nephews and nieces. Now, I have started this blog, and having a new experience on the computer.