The Life Story of a Technology ( Second Blog )

     Technology is everywhere! There is no way to escape it, especially here at college. Everyone is either on a desktop or laptop socializing or getting work done. Personal computers are so important that "Time Magazine also noticed the importance of the microcomputer when they chose the PC as their Man of the Year for 1982, the only time they chose a machine for an honor that usually went to important international leaders." ( Swedin and Ferro pg 96 ) PC's in my mind are the only machines that have single handedly revolutionized the world again and again. The invention of a personal computer itself is an amazing feature, but that fact that it can be used to communicate with others to create a cyber community seems fiction. To many people the computer and internet is considered a "norm", but it was not always like this.
     The first personal computers created only did commands by the user actually typing in the extremely tedious command prompts. Once that was resolved by Graphic User Interface, more problems arose due to lack of memory and speed. Gradually the PC became what it is today thanks to better technology in microprocessors and software. Programs such as Visicalc, the first spreadsheet program "that was so successful it drove people to go purchase the Apple II", made the PC a business machine. ( pg 32 ) The creation of search engines, have made computers a powerful tool when it comes to research. Using engines such as Google has become such a norm to people that, "the success of Google became apparent as a new meaning to the word rapidly emerged, its use as a transitive verb, as in she googled the information." ( pg 130 ) What people fail to realize is the dependency humans have to technology!
     The fact that we incorporate the name of a search engine as a verb is proof in itself. I know I have used that phrase when I mean search some information. Another example would be social networking. Some people can not live without going on Facebook, Twitter, or other social websites. These websites have in a way have brought people closer together since the telephone. Some people feel more comfortable going online and talking to a person through Facebook chat that actually talking to them in person. We as humans have incorporated technology into our lives, being a pro and con at the same time. Ultimately, I do not feel that humans have a choice, you either acknowledge the technology around you and become a part of it, or get left behind as technology leads us into the future.

TFLN

     I haven't attended many Rutgers programs, but I'm glad I went to this one. The event plain and simple was funny and relaxing. The two creators Lauren Leto and Ben Bator made the experience better by being laid back and open minded about certain questions they were asked. They definitely tried their best to get the audience involved by asking them if anyone submitted a text to their website. Obviously no one wanted to participate, but eventually one person shared his text to the audience. ( Even if I did submit texts to the website my mouth would have kept shut LOL ) I find it amazing how they used technology to make a profiting company out of a blog that they created! They started off with a blog filled with hilarious texts from their friends that they shared with each other and before you knew it, it took off. That goes to show you that technology can turn a simple investment into a multi-million or even billion dollar company. Technology opens a window for entrepreneurs or even people just doing something funny, like Lauren and Beto's creation of Text From Last Night.   
     One important thing that the creators mentioned a few times was that their websites success comes directly because of us. All the ridiculous texts that we feed to the website keeps the website going. The best part of the program was when they showed everyone a ton of texts submitted to the website and we kinda chose which ones would be posted on the site. A few of them were hysterically funny, but they couldn't read the text themselves because it was inappropriate. ( A few texts were from Jersey so thats a cool thing ) Overall it was a good experience and I will keep an eye out more on their website and upcoming TV show. 

The Life Story of Technology ( pages 1-83 )

     War brings out the worst in people, but it is a proven fact that it also brings out the best in people. Technology would not be where it is today if it was not for war. World War I, WWII, and The Cold War brought together some of the most brilliant minds all over the world to fix and invent technology, on an amazing scale in a short period of time. Yes it is true that technology advances as time goes on, but war accelerates technological advances astonishingly. To think that personal computers emerged from tally sticks and abacus's is unbelievable. By no means do I condone war, but advances have been achieved because of it. Ancient civilizations wanted a way to calculate the weather and their location at sea, but never did they envision their inventions setting the way for the computers we have today.

     As time progresses humans need faster, cheaper, and more efficient ways to get things done. Starting from creating a numeric system to solving differential equations, the human mind is limited. Thus, computers came to existence! The fist declared digital computer was Atanasoff Berry Computer, a computer that was built in a basement that "could only add and subtract binary numbers, but the machine presaged the future." (Swedin and Ferro pg 27) From that moment MANY computers came to existence, whether they were created for business or government purposes is a thing of the past. Thanks to technology banks can process thousands of checks a day and airlines can book your flight in just minutes. However, technology as brought us weapons such as the atomic bomb and helped mankind reach outer space. 

     Technology will always be an important aspect of society because in a way it determines who is the superpower in the world. Technology is so important that Swedin and Ferro state "The greatest war in history, World War II, was fought on the battlefields and in the laboratory." (pg 47) Guns and soldiers have always played an important part in wars, but with the invention of smarter and faster computers thanks to technology thousands of lives can be spared. Who knows maybe one day Artificial Intelligence will succeed and machines can be used to do human tasks. I am not a huge fan of AI, but I do feel that it is inevitable because mankind pushes the envelope. A few decades ago technology helped humans create machines that are the size of buildings, but the tasks that these machines did can now be done by a cellphone in your pocket. Who knows what technology is going to do next, but I am very eager to find out!

First Blog Entry

     Welcome to the world of Joel (well to my blog anyways). This is my first time creating a blog and to be quite honest, it is a little awkward. If it wasn't for this class I probably would have never even created a blog in the first place. I actually found it a bit difficult to create the blog at first, probably because I couldn't even remember my Gmail password (which is more my fault than the blog's fault). Thankfully, once I signed in things became a lot smoother. We'll see how interesting and fun blogging becomes, who knows I might even become hooked on it. To be fair I think I have a bigger chance of becoming a blogger if I actually blogged about topics of my interest and not homework (no offense to the class of course).
    One of our first assignments besides creating a blog was creating a technology log. I was actually very surprised to see that I was able to go practically a whole weekend without using much technology. I used my laptop to go online Friday evening to do some math homework which took about four hours! But that's the price I get for being an engineer. Saturday was just about a technology free day to my surprise, I played soccer and hung out with friends. I used my phone to go online for about ten minutes but it was to check out my Gmail account and pay my term bill (which was paid late unfortunately, so there goes $125 for the late fee). The next day, I woke up today to check my Facebook and find the information needed to get this homework assignment done. My total technology log for this weekend was about 6 hours! Even though that does not seem like much, 6 hours is one fourth of an entire day!
     On any school day however, I would probably go crazy if i didn't have my phone to go online and check my Gmail or Facebook. I normally use Facebook and the internet to help me survive class as sad as that sounds. Then after class I would use the rest of my day to do homework which always takes at least three hours. Quite simply I would die without being able to use the internet to make time go by on a normal basis.