Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Hot Topic

It's been noted near the beginning of the quarter that everyone would have to partake in a student presentation on a topic, but I have no idea if the topic(s) we choose will be what we present or if it's from a randomized list. Regardless, I'm not too sure what I would want to present on since there's nothing related to technology that I have a strong opinion on as of right now.

However, if I were to choose something to talk about, I would probably choose within the subject of robots. Because technology has advanced so much, the usage of robots have dramatically increased exponentially. This is because they have been used to help individuals within facilities (such as factories) to help increase the rate of work. What I would elect to present would be on how robotics have advanced technologically, whether it was based on specific machinery that was invented or (re)discovered and addressing their functions.

I guess I'm sort of interested in this topic because I was sort of immersed in it back in the day. During one of my high school years, I decided to join the Robotics Club that was available at my school mainly to see what it was all about and to get a little bit of an idea of what robotics was. I was a total rookie, so I often would require the assistance of other veterans to complete whatever tasks were provided to us. The main takeaway I got from this small experience was that so many different mechanical parts were necessary in order for a robot to do a relatively simple command like tossing a ball.

Yes, I may not know much about robotics at all, but I was able to see what it was like for a brief moment, which can help me formulate some sort of presentation if I had to present on the topic of robotics and its evolution in machinery.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Who Can You Trust?

It's no unknown fact that technology has drastically shaped and changed the world in a vast number of ways, but at what cost? Journalism is one but many things that have been by affected by the inclusions of technology. By definition, journalism is the process of writing or gaining information that can then be made available for the general public; in a sense, that can be done by anyone, and that's a big problem. Who is it that you can trust to get your information?

In my case, most of the news that I get or at least become aware of is from Twitter, and then followed by television. This is partially thanks to how the search engine in Twitter works as topics are set up with a hashtag; the more content there is in the hashtag, the greater the quantity of the news. This helps for me if I want to know something on the fly since anyone at any time can write up a tweet to briefly describe the issue or news at hand. However, I am well aware that that's not always reliable.

For your average day-to-day citizen, there's no real repercussion when it comes to delivering news; anyone can do it and can create it in any manner they so choose. Clickbaiting has become quite a regular thing in the current world since certain titled web pages or articles can be used to interest you into reading their product, but it could end up displaying incorrect or incomplete information.

Journalism might not necessarily be dying, but it is being changed in such drastic ways that completely deviates to what journalism once was, making it seem like traditional journalism is dead. I think traditional journalism will continue to suffer as the years go by since we live in a technology-driven world; people will continue to discover or reinvent new technology so that it can be applicable in everyday situations. The general basis of journalism will never die, but will just be redefined.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Stringing the Web

I have had a few experiences when dealing with creating a web page of some sorts through coding classes, and they are not the most fun to deal with. The main thing that makes making web pages difficult is the convention that is required in order to have your page published and presented the way you want it to be presented.

However, the few cases where I have created a couple of web pages for other classes wasn't to hard to construct; just to organize. I once created web pages with function-able hyperlinks to my other web pages, which was what I considered the hardest part. To have links that can be clicked upon, I had to specifically type: <a href="nameofhtml.html">Hyperlink Title</a>. Luckily, I have the notepad program on my computer which enables me to easily save said txt.file into html so that it can be converted to a web page, making the process a lot easier.

The next hardest thing for me when making the web pages was the specific notations for things such as header, body paragraph, etc. The main thing was that for each label inside of the "< >", I had to make sure that I correctly close it with the backslash inside the "< >" with everything else I want to say written right in between.

Based on what I have done, I can only imagine how crumpled up an html document can be if one is trying to create a long, detailed, expansive web page as anyone else can find up on the world wide web (by Tim Berners-Lee). I guess my experience overall with this assignment (creating a web page) was average; just manageable enough to not stress too much over it.

Sunday, October 7, 2018

No More Privacy

Everything changed when technology came into fruition, traditional tasks included. This is no different from mailing, which has completely adapted into every day lives. While the concept of mailing is fundamentally the same between email and the traditional postal service (that is, sending something to someone from one place to the other), they are applied much differently than they appear to be.

The traditional postal service procedure has been introduced centuries ago and is still relatively used in today's society (though pales in the comparison to electronic mailing). The sender packs in contents to be sent in some envelope or package and then writes down the mail address of sender and receiver, as well as applying a stamp. It is then a continuous process of the mailmen sending said mail to a multitude of regional and international postal offices before the receiver finally receives his/her mail. However, the concept of electronic mail completely bypasses the typical postal service procedures making it time efficient and easier to do; you can usually expect to send and receive email in an instant.

While it's easy to construct and deliver an email, ideas of said mail is now no longer under your protection; it becomes a part of the World Wide Web (which was created by Tim Burners-Lee) for everyone to see and abuse. While ideally, the traditional postal service takes and delivers mail to its rightful owner, emails can leave a whole lot of information that can be used by any creature on the keyboard which can make us vulnerable to endless spamming and unnecessary content. As we continue to evolve, so does technology, meaning hat these sorts of underlying problems will never go away and that we will have to continue to adapt to these constant changes.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

How it All Began


We all now live in a world where technology has become a dominant part in our lives. At this point in time, even if you are not immersed into technology, it would be best to understand where it came from and its implications as everyone should know what technology is capable of. It's hard to go wrong when it comes to being more aware of the world you live, being notified of what is currently going on in the world at this very moment since something is always happening.

Taking a course such as TINST 207, with the course being titled as "Living and Working in a Virtual World: Technologies of the World Wide Web," I sure hope that such a course will be able to show us the roots of the world wide web and everything that had been created from it. However, what I will be interested in is if lectures will revolve around computers or if the professor will also have the content divided into other forms of technology as well. What I mean is that the history of technology will also go over things such as gaming electronics, printers, interactive tech (such as smart-boards and tablets), among any other types.

Personally for me, I don't think that this course is going to be a lot of things that will truly shock or surprise me, but rather that it should help me become a bit more enlightened as a whole since I don't always keep up with the daily news. Overall, it should be interesting to see what this class will provide for everyone involved in it.

Let's see what you got Andrew Fry! Surprise me.