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.

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.

Quiz 1: Discussions

I like the idea of a news show that combines that aspects of Shepherd News, Local News and Student News. It can help reach out to people both on campus and in the community about current events that are happening in the area, on campus, and with other students. The first segment can be the Local News as it helps give exposure to the whole area. The second segment can be the Shepherd News portion where it talks about upcoming events on campus and gives students reminders of important events such as Finals schedules, advising and perhaps some tips on certain things on campus. The final segment of Student News can be a short segment where a different student organizations are able to go on and promote events they're doing or even help promote their fraternities or sororities. I also would like a quiz show idea that is similar to Jeopardy on terms of categories, with points substituting for dollars. There would be 5 categories with 5 questions each. The easiest question would be worth 2 points, then a slightly difficult question for 4, even more difficult for 6, another even more difficult question worth 8, and the hardest question would be worth 10 points. The 5 categories would be 5 different academic topics (ex:Mathematics, Chemistry, Sociology, Psychology, and History) and the way it would work is that each team would have to "win" categories by gaining the most points from that category and whoever wins 3 categories first would win the game. Here is a catch though that I like, while the teams are together, they are also competing against their own team mates to get points for themselves. Because the winning team gets prizes, but the person who scored the most points on the winning team would get the primary prize which can be something like a PS3 or something similar that would be considered a "high priority" prize for any player to win. The secondary scorer would get something that's below it, although I'm not very sure what that would be while the 3rd place player would get the smallest prize which can be a gift card or a DVD or something. A music show would be brilliant. I feel that the time constraint of 14:30 could be a little bothersome but I think there is enough time to do at least 3 songs and an interview with the performer afterward whether it be a local rock band, a classical music player, or perhaps even a beat poet (which I know is rare but they still exist). It can help give local musicians exposure in this area and help them promote their music. I know a band from my old High School who I know would love the opportunity.