Blog 8:The Late Blog on the Future

"In the future there will be robots" an advertisement once said. While that in some capacities is true, I don't think we have to worry about a cyborg takeover in the world similar to the one we see in "The Terminator" series. Needless to say though technology I believe can be our friend if utilized correctly. I believe in the future that every child would have used a computer at least once whether it be at home or in school by the age of 8 and the technology they'll be using will be on a smaller screen similar to the tablets. I believe in a future where storage data will be at a ridiculous number and that people will be able to buy simple DVDs of films cheap and you have the ability to fit a TB of data onto a disc. I believe there will be an operating system inside of cars, inside of planes, inside of almost every mechanical device. It is happening now but it will grow to a larger rate will people will be able to drive places without actually driving, the cars will do it for them by simply setting a destination. The technology will have it's glitches but eventually will work to perfection using Google Maps or whatever is around by that stage. I believe airflight travel will be a lot quicker and that crashes will be significantly lessen, if not gone forever. Unfortunately I also believe movie theaters themselves will fade away and that the money will be made by films via digital downloading which you can store on either your hard drive or on USB technology, which will have even faster transfer rates. I believe that all programs will have the option to either be voice operated or manually operated by its user and that hacking will become tougher and tougher as years go on to the point where it'll slowly become a thing of the past. Social networking will still exist but whether or not its Facebook is unknown. E-mail and Instant Messaging will be merged into one. Your cell phone will resemble a computer moreso than an actual phone with stronger graphics and memory. My biggest fear of the future is communication getting worse than ever. I don't mean just online or via text, those will always remain, I speak of personal communication, the kind of thing that makes us human being, human. Being able to speak and understand with one another on a personal level. I fear that will vanish as technology continues to grow and we'll resemble more or less zombies with little to no emotion than people. Its quite terrifying but I see the signs already in my own generation. I tried to speak with a friend a while back at their place but they always insist on just messaging them on AIM (yes that still exists). I only see more of his type with each passing day and I don't see a way to counter this. People have forgotten that communication involves more than just speaking to someone, its relating to them on a personal level and communicating moreso than with just written words but with gestures and faces and such. Its a scary future if we ever do lose that.

Comm 352 Blog 7: Reading Rainbow as an App

I think when it comes to the news article, I get the feeling the internet is the future for cancelled program such as "Reading Rainbow" and such. This isn't just for shows that are on PBS, I'm talking about the Big Four Networks (FOX, NBC, ABC, and CBS) as well. Because of the need for a certain number in ratings networks tend to be very trigger happy with killing their shows often before the shows have a real chance to establish an audience. A very recent example of this happening is the show "Arrested Development". It aired in the mid-2000s from 2003 until 2006 and was ultimately cancelled by the FOX Network for low ratings in spite of its fanbase. The result is that the show is now being revived on Netflix as a series and will ultimately lead to a feature fillm. I'm not the first say but I ultimately think the internet as it currently is will not go away. I don't really see an end to this, in fact I see all of this as just the beginning of television programming going to the web rather than television. You especially read articles these days about how school districts are giving I-Pad computers to children, shows like the Reading Rainbow and such would be easily accesible to any child and with the older generation starting to fade out, and younger more tech savvy people of the upcoming generation being born, you are practically guaranteed to see this more and more. I actually envision a future where television as we know it would no longer exist and there will be a system where networks and programming packages are in the form of applications that you can download and watch programming at any time with the "set times" only being when the show is available for downloading. The way they will determine ratings will not be with the Nielson Rating System but rather the number of views and downloads each show receives. I don't see this happening to a full extent for at least another 30-40 years however. It is a shame to envision a future without television but at the same time, I feel that this could ultimately be the best thing to happen in programming as far too often TV shows are simply cancelled due to low ratings when they are really good critically and do have a small fanbase. I say this as a fan of the TV Show "Titus", a great show cancelled by FOX in 2002 for a combination of low ratings (created by Network sabotage) and suggestive content. In the idea I thought of, things will cancellation may ultimately end up being a thing of the past.

Blog 6:Tablets Tablets Tablets

One of the biggest advances in computer technology over the last couple of years has been the creation and popularization of the tablets, a medium sized device designed to browse the internet, communicate, take photos, and run various apps. It is my personal opinion that tablets such as the I-Pad, the Microsoft Tablet and the Amazon Kindle are just the beginning of a future where tablet PCs become the norm over the traditional laptop and desktop computers. Now that isn't to say that they will lead to the extinction of these as I believe desktops are forever due to the popularity of them, but I feel that the tablet is here to stay and will be even more widely used as time goes on. I mean you look at the tablet; it is light, easy to carry, easy to use once you get the hang of it and the quality that which it runs currently is remarkable all things considered to how young the device is compared to the laptop or desktop and it can only go up from here. There are public schools even that are issuing tablets out to students as young as Kindergarten and it is catching on like wild fire. I would not be surprised to see them implemented into public schools just like the PC was back in the mid-90's and just like how laptops have slowly been implemented in public schools on a “borrow from the library” basis over the last 10 years. Tablets by this logic will only continue to gain popularity and grow on terms of how they're designed, how well they sell, and how much you see them. They've already caught on to the mainstream public, its just a matter of time before it becomes a permanent fixture with the desktop and the laptop. It's light; it can be used for a lot of things (including as said, video, pictures, recording audio, and even just browsing the internet). I believe in the tablet, I see it everywhere I go. At work I see customers on Sundays watching NFL games on there tablet and the quality is just as good, if not better than what you would see on TV. Just being light enough alone makes it a popular choice for the people. It isn't something to be playing high end video games on but for now given its current technology it works perfectly.

Blog 5: Annoying Tech

Out of all of the annoying technology I feel the most obnoxious one is the use of radar detectors by drivers. I say this because I know of a group of people in my own area that own them as a way to "evade the police". Its weird to say this...but just don't speed. You do not need to go on a road at 100 mph when the speed limit is 45, it is what is for a reason and if you get caught its your own damn fault. Using a radar detector is like wearing a ski mask to a bank in my opinion, it is just as wrong and illegal and provides a hazard to anyone else on the road due to the high speeds these drivers hit. You don't like cops using radar guns to detect how fast you're going? Get over it oh and as Jim Carrey said in "Liar Liar" simply, Is it really that hard to not go over the speed limit? I mean seriously, if you can't drive the speed limit then don't drive on the road, I understand having to drive fast to get somewhere very important but if you're going 25 over on your way to McDonalds to get a Big Mac, Fries, and a soda, then you're out of your head and unqualified to drive let alone make a rational decision. Personally, I like the Virginia law on this, no driver should have a radar detector they really don't need one. On top of that, its a distraction to the driver, I have been in a car

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.