Comm 352 Blog 4: The Growth of Technology

In the last 50 or so years technology has evolved and it is truely remarkable when you look at it. The picture above displays one of the very first supercomputers ever created, a computer whose power is nowhere near as strong as the very MAC and Windows computers we use today. A computer whose strength isn't even as great as the mobile devices we use and whose capabilities have skyrocketed in such a ridiculous amount of time. Its funny when you look at how 50 years ago bigger schools would have computers like these kept on campus for maybe one student to access, and that one student having to be someone exceptionally trained in that department. Nowadays we take a room like that and can fit 22 computers inside of it for better efficient use by all students. The evolution of the technology has lead to such great creations as e-mail that can be used on a simple computer and the ability to process so much data at once when the concept of memory in Gigabites wasn't even possible 30 years ago, we've now hit the age where you the concept of "too much data" and "too much memory" don't exist. You even look at things like Video Games. Things for the Super Nintendo that were considered "high end" as recent as 1994 can now be played with ease on a cell phone or even a low-end graphics card. Overall, the growth of technology has been impressive and a beautiful thing to behold especially when you consider just how people viewed computers as recent as even 20 years ago. Here is a video from 1995 that discusses the future of the computers and Internet that we use in our every day life.

Comm 352 Blog 3: Social Media - Tool or Menace?

In the last 5 years, social media has become a norm in society. At first it was MySpace with there music pages, personal pages, and 1 billion dollar purchase by News Corp. in 2005. Now the two social media giants are Facebook and Twitter. The advent of both has brought many positives and many negatives to the world we live in. The question is, "Is it a tool or a menace?" Personally, I believe its a little bit of both. In the world that we live in, everything has its positives and its negatives and social media is no exception. What makes it great is that it can be a great communication tool between people. You're more likely to contact somneone and reach them via FB IM or a tweet than you would be to e-mail or even call them. At the same time, with that positive comes a negative as most people prefer talking via these two websites than any other method, which causes damage to interpersonal communication. Another big positive to Facebook and Twitter is it can be a great way to promote yourself, your brand, and anything you want promoted on your page. At the same time, you can get negative press from Facebook as well with just a simple incorrect post or even a misuse of your page whether it be not responding to people or using it as a forum to make "controversial" remarks or insulting someone just because they disagree with you. It can be great PR or bad PR to have one. Another problem with communication is that there is such a thing as too much communication. This happens easily and accidentally. Most times you don't know you're doing it because you think that you're just doing service to someone by communicating with them. This is what is referred to as "Spamming" and it is a big reason people avoid social media. They don't want 20 messages a day from someone over the same basic thing over and over. It just gives a bad reputation to the user and causes migraines to the people who suffer from it. Overall however, if you were to ask if I would use social media for my webpage, I would say yes. A Facebook page allows the site to be promoted through people seeing a link the page and "liking it". The same for Twitter, sending out small, 140 character messages can go a long ways as it is quick, efficient, and an easy way to promote. But in general, I'm neutral in the whole "Good vs Bad" debate. I feel that Social Media has it positives and its negatives, and personally I prefer "Grey" over "Black and White" in this situation.

Comm 352 Blog 2: The Real Victim of Technology

In the technology world, there are two things consistent: risk and money. Everyone involved in the technology world knows this. For the company who makes the product, they take a risk with every product made and the product will either make money or lose money depending on the consumer. For the consumer they take a risk each time they purchase a product as it is a large investment to make for the hundreds of dollars it will cost. But there is a third group who seems to take a bigger risk and financial loss/gain for the technology the company makes and we buy--the worker. A little under a week ago it was found at 6 different Samsung factories that there were cases of worker abuse that included: unpaid labor, forced and excessive overtime hours, and physical and verbal abuse that featured workers having to be forced to stand up for 12 hours at a time. This isn't the first case of this at Samsung either as there was another report of similar allegations months ago at another Samsung factory in China. To make matters worse, Samsung isn't eh only company that has allegations of such like these. Apple's Foxconn factories in China have also come under similar allegations as was detailed in an article written in March by The Guardian in the U.K. Allegations included: more than 43% of workers reporting that they experienced or witnessed an accident at the three plants, blocked exits, faulty equipment, 46 percent of employees clocking in at 70 hours a week in December 2011 (when the max is 49 by Chinese law), unpaid over time hours, and most alarmingly, 15 suicides by there own workers since the beginning of 2010. This being a risk much more higher than the ones taken by the consumer and the company itself, as life is on the line and at the same time its for little pay. My personal opinion on how I feel toward the product is that while I do like the stuff they make, the cost of it is just too high. No one should have to suffer just to make an I-Phone and at the same time the workers should be awarded for all the effort they put into making the product that is Apple's biggest revenue driver, the same said for Samsung. There is no excuse for this, this is something that the companies need to have more control over. As cheap as it is to outsource jobs overseas, its ultimate cost of someone else' life just doesn't seem worth it. It isn't a matter of "these things happen", it can be controlled and it can be prevented, it just takes some effort to reform and rebuild these places with new, more sophisticated management. No life is worth taking over a phone people. That should be a risk that should never be taken and a cost that no one should have to pay.

Comm 352 Blog 1: Samsung vs Apple

It was a roughly 2 weeks ago the United States courts ruled in favor of Apple in there suit against Samsung. In the lawsuit, Apple claimed that Samsung violated there copyrighted patents on certain apps and features on Samsung IOS phones. The amount of damage estimated by Apple was proected to be 450,000,000 dollars claiming such Samsung phones as the Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II Epic 4G, Droid Charge, Galaxy Prevail, and Galaxy S Showcase violated there patents on certain features and thus should be removed from the market in the United States. The issue has me split on the topic. While I do feel a man's invention and right to use that invention for profit should be protected, I feel that Apple has gone to an extreme here where they're using it as an excuse to kill Samsung. I say this because of the whole notion that this has damaged Apple's finances somehow. I can get where it damaged it in the sense of that Apple has likely spent 450,000,000 dollars on lawyers but the honest question I raise here is, "Will a consumer really mistaken Samsung products for Apple's?" It isn't as if Samsung blantantly copied and pasted everything from the iPhone onto there phone and called it some b.s. name like the iFone or even iOS, they took the premise of the apps and modified them to try and make something with a difference, which is something that has been going on in computer technology since at least the 70's. That is sorta the idea with patents, you have a copyright on something you created but at some point people are allowed to take the premise behind them and make there own, even if its a similar interface and everything. I see this as somewhat of a setback for the iOS Phone industry as it forces people to either create from scratch or be deathly afraid of Apple throwing its weight around and suing people left and right. Either way, its a win for Apple on terms of there profit, a major loss for Samsung and likely an even bigger loss for any developer or consumer out there. I can only hope that this doesn't discourage progress in the computer world and doesn't lead to more things like this down the road where Apple tries to continue its obsession with ruling the world in technology. Scary times be ahead in this case.