JoJo's Blog- Peek into my Life

Wk 4 Digital Ground

“Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing” by Malcolm McCullough is quite a different read when compared to “Leonardo’s Laptop”. Though it is not difficult to read through it seems as if when you are finished not as much has been grasped. The book is not “put you to sleep boring” but it is a bit drier and very abstract. Though it flows, the context itself seems to encompass extreme examples that do not seem to relate. It is nice how McCullough draws so much on Mark Weiser’s ideas about ubiquitous computing.
The introduction and first two chapters seem to deal more with the psychology and anatomy of people and how that effects how technology should be developed. Some interesting facts are included but most of the time how everything relates is pretty unclear. Another positive aspect of the book is the definitions for terms being introduced for the first time. In that aspect he goes right to the point. Similar to Ben Shneiderman’s book graphs are included. Since I do not think I am that much of a visual learner they do not really help me remember how it all works but its availability is should be useful for others.
Being that I have commented on the Orwellian Big Brother complex it was a plus to see that I am not alone. It does make sense though that the problem is not necessarily the government using technology to keep an eye out on us but the thousands of “little brothers”. It is similar to how I open up my e-mail and have so many from “people” I do not know. I always wonder how they have my e-mail address and know my name when I make a point when signing up for something to check the box stating they will not give out my information. The example using the Microsoft Word paperclip hopefully never reaches the streets because it would be a serious nuisance.
The part that discussed finding out your home’s software crashed reminds me of a Disney movie I seen in which a family won a house that was completely technologically advanced and could probably be considered ubiquitous for them until the system “crashed”. As we have discussed in class as horrible as it would be for the system of our home to crash people would probably accept it because they would figure they did something wrong. Having a home system crash would not have to be a crisis though if measures are taken from the get-go to allow things to function without the advanced technology. For example if the modern house does not need keys to lock and unlock doors they should still be available just in case. A house “crashing” should not be equivalent to when a computer crashes even though it seems as if it would be much worse.
I like the list of common objectives to pervasive computing since I could imagine people actually saying, most of those comments. The list brings to light many of the advantages and disadvantages of pervasive computing.

Week 3

When it comes to Shneiderman’s idea of e-learning there are apparent advantages and disadvantages. Since e-learning does not appeal to everyone’s needs or preferences technological advances such as that should not eradicate current teaching methods. Real life face- to- face interaction still has its own advantages too. E-learning does indeed resemble some of the goals Montessori and charter schools share. Advances in education seem to be inevitable when e-learning is discussed but equality within school systems still have to be addressed because only the economically capable schools will have the ability to finance such educational tools. Even if the school were able to fund a sufficient amount of computers how are less fortunate, poverty stricken children be able to do their homework if they do not have their own computers at home.
Completely unrelated is The Wall Street Journal article dealing with the copyright issues. It is odd that a compromise has not yet been reached. Making stricter laws and enforcing them through strict punishments placed on a few unlucky people is apparently not making much of a difference. This may be a long shot but this might be similar to the prohibition if indeed it becomes legal to share music. During the prohibition it was useless to remain that way since so many people were breaking the law by making bootleg alcohol and now people are making bootleg CDs and movies. The big difference is that before the prohibition drinking beer was legal and to my knowledge “sharing” music has never been. It is in my opinion their fault for undermining people by providing them with the technology and capability to do exactly what they prohibit and expect it to not be done.
Illegal or not people do not relate to the musicians and producers of the music they “steal” through piracy because how can I put this they are extremely rich and do not know what to do with all the money they already have so whatever amount of money they are losing does not seem worth crying about. People say if it were the other way around people would feel different but that may not be the case. It basically is greed because it is not right for people to buy an entire CD whose album only has one decent song and $.99 seems cheap but that adds up really fast if you are trying to use up the majority of your space on your iPod.
Lastly, Leonardo’s Laptop was actually a good book to read. The spin it took by including so much biographical information about Leonardo DaVinci made it very interesting. It was difficult for me to see us getting close to many of the technological advances mentioned because of the few misspelled words that could be found. If the spell-check is still not up to par after so long it is hard to imagine being so developed technologically. It would be nice though if people could always feel comfortable knowing that no matter where they are a doctor has access to their medical records when needed. Then people would just have to feel comfortable knowing that they are only being viewed when necessary.

Week 2 Henry Louis Gates

I attended the Henry Louis Gates speech on Thursday. I was glad I arrived a little bit early since it became crowded relatively quickly. I had heard about him coming to speak within my first week of school and was embarrassed because it was assumed that I knew who he was. I did not know though that people from so many other schools were invited. I think more students from Case should have attended. I was impressed by the introduction he was given since it seemed so sincere.
I am not really good at history so I really enjoyed the manner in which Gates told his story. I had never realized all that W.E.B. Dubois had done. I basically just recognized the name as belonging to an affluent African American because he was only brought up during Black History Month. Unlike Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X that are discussed in Political Science classes, he does not get much attention in my eyes. The parallels shown by the focus of his having a dream was interesting because I always associate such phases with Martin Luther King Jr. I also like how Gates would go back and forth from speaking about Dubois to telling his own personal anecdotes. Unfortunately like I said earlier since I am not much of a historian I got a little confused when I was trying to remember some of the facts he had stated since I mixed up what was from his own life and what referred to Dubois’s.
I had never heard of the Africana Encyclopedia and believed it was a novel idea when he first mentioned it. Every time he mentioned a setback I felt like I was so involved, like when you watch a movie and get really into it. I assumed that his story would end happily but I was not too sure when he got to the part when Dubois died. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that if the encyclopedia would have been invented I would have heard of it by now. It seems as if everything else has been brought to my attention somehow.
When Gates finally showed us the CD-Rom presentation of the encyclopedia I was excited and now I plan on buying my own. In terms of technology I’m shocked it is not available online by subscription or that it has not been advertised to a greater extent. Since the concept of the encyclopedia was created as a means to fight racism by eradicating ignorance it needs to be available to the mass public. If not then it is useless. The comment the student made about having a cell-phone or iPod version is interesting because since this encyclopedia is relatively new compared to its successors, it should not fall behind with technological advances. If anything it should set the pace for others.
I also thought about technology when Gates spoke of all the letters and phone calls that were made. Probably since the encyclopedia was developed in Gates generation instead of Dubois’s e-mails and cell phones were involved. I’m not quite sure though since Gates did not know what a CD-Rom was at first.

Week 1 Ubiquitous

Since the Weiser article was written in 1991 and certain technology advances mentioned were expected to start taking off in 1994 that I myself have not come in contact with, I wonder if we are behind in our technological advances or if Weiser and others were just getting ahead of themselves. I figure that some of the ubiquitous technologies mentioned in the article probably have been attempted but because of glitches and realizations of the negative consequences, there have been delays concerning the devices being revealed to the public. It seems as if at times they already have the technology figured out, but they just choose to keep it in the closet until they believe the public is ready and can handle it. It is terrible for a person to invent something and get it rejected just because it is ahead of its time.

Another issue is if the different types of technology will actually become ubiquitous quickly or if they will take a while to if they are only affordable to the wealthy. There is a chance that these devices may not even be accessible to the general public. Whichever the issue, the technology must be presented in a manner that does not overwhelm or annoy people. The technology should be uniting people instead of creating gaps between the young and old or the poor and rich. As long as a sense of humanity is not lost within the technology and preventions are made to defeat those with mal intentions, the technological advances will at least grow on people until eventually reaching “ubiquitous status”. Since the media is so influential even if on a subconscious level, ideas about the worst that can happen with technology gone wrong surpass that of the benefits. The “Twilight Zone” and other Sci-Fi shows come to mind. Instead of viewing these new types of technology as tools we will use in our everyday life that at times we feel we can’t live without, we are afraid at some level that it can get out of hand and we will lose the control, we value most.

Most of the devices described I have to admit did sound appealing but some were a little out there. For instance the doll that has a budget and can spend money to buy its own accessories caught me off guard. I had to start laughing because Americans are already viewed as very materialistic and to have an inanimate object spending money on its own behalf is going a little too far. I did like the idea of the thermostat being able to bargain and control how much money was spent on heat. It is very practical and can help people keep a budget. My mom would really enjoy that since I freeze all winter at home because we are trying to manage how much is spent on the heating bill but it doesn’t deem to help.

While reading the articles I kept thinking about the book “1984” and how it would be so much easier for the government to undermine our right of privacy. If all this technology were available when “1984” was written I wonder how much different it would be.