Tech Final Blog Post #3

I finished the final paper by 11:30pm. I was happy with the way it turned out. I analyzed the book the best as I could and thought I was able to come up with a pretty good argument. I really enjoyed this book and felt that it had a lot of good points. All the books we read in the class shaped my outlook on the way technology affects our culture. I really have learned a lot in this class and enjoyed the discussions we had in our class. It allowed me to examine the many different viewpoints and perspectives that society has on our culture.  The media truly does have a dramatic effect on the way we live our lives and we all must decided what type of media is beneficial and what is just for the purpose of entertainment.

Websites

One website that I have visited that has been extremely useful for me was www.cookingbynumbers.com. I am a sophomore this semester and living off campus on my own has created many obstacles. One in particular is cooking for myself each day. I got a minimal meal plan this year and needed to be able to prepare a meal with what I had in my refrigerator. Being away from home and not having the constant support from my parents I was forced to buy my own food and didn't have every ingredient at all times. This is where this website came in handy. The website allowed you to plug in everything you had in your food cabinet and it would come back with recipes that you had all the ingredients for. This helped me out on many occasions and provided many delicious meals. Unfortunately this website is no longer online, there are many other website that were inspired by it.

Tech Final Blog Post #2

I am in the middle of writing my paper now. Everything is coming together nicely and I am finding that writing about this topic is quite enjoyable. The main idea of my paper is that our society is conditioned to buy products based on convenience instead of extended, long time use. Every product is now designed around its ease as opposed to its durability. Basically we have became extremely lazy as a society and if something is not made to be easy we are often reluctant to do it. This is why many of our products have become disposable to decrease the amount of care and upkeep we need to maintain them. Although this is convenient for us, it does create a lot of waste putting a strain on our environment. There are many attempts to "Go Green", but many of its practices require some effort, which is a turn off to many people. The only way the "Go Green" initiative will catch on is if due to advanced technology, green alternatives become more convenient. I will write my final post once I am done with the entire paper.

Tech Final Blog Post #1

I chose to write my essay based on Made to Break by Giles Slade. I based this decision on the fact that I enjoyed this book much more than Technopoly and the author's writing style was much easier to follow than the writing of Neil Postman.  In order to complete this assignment I decided to re-read over the important topics in Made to Break to create my argument. I did research on our "disposable society" and "going Green" and used specific examples in Made to Break to support my argument. I outlined my thoughts and now I am ready to start putting everything together and writing my paper. I will write a follow-up blog once I am done with the whole essay.

The Facebook Effect Analysis Pages 215-325

Facebook had blown up far beyond anyone had ever expected in its early stages. Facebook was now being valued at over a billion dollars. Zuckerberg continually tried to come up with new and innovative ideas to expand Facebooks social connection. His next endeavor was to create a platform for third party developers to create applications that would expand Facebook’s features. It was announced at the f8 convention and was an immediate success. Entire companies were based around creating applications for Facebook and made enough money to survive. Today, it is its own industry.

Facebook’s “social” applications had an automatic advantage over similar applications that were on external sites, a huge built in user base. As Kirpatrick writes of an interview with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “ Our photo site lacks features that anyone would built,” Zuckerberg told me in early May 2007, “ We don’t store high resolution photos. The printing function is down right bad. And until recently you couldn’t even change the order of photos in an album. And yet somehow, this application became the most trafficked photo site on the Internet by far,” (216). They also had created an online invitation application called Events, that developers put almost no effort into and yet, it became much larger than similar website Evite.com. They even allowed you to log into other site with your Facebook account log-in, which many of the executives advised against, but Zuckerberg pushed it through to create a greater social experiene. Finally, Zuckerberg didn’t want to make it the site like a cable TV commercial, so they devised a way to integrate information from the user’s profile to target the advertisements towards their interests.

Facebook has become one of the most highly visited websites on the Internet. Mark Zuckerberg started the site out of his dorm room and now it has become a billion dollar company. Much of Facebook’s success could be attributed to Zuckerberg’s continued involvement in decision-making and new developments. He was quoted as saying that he would not sell Facebook unless he could stay involved with the company. Facebook will continue to grow and expand with the ever changing society.

The Facebook Effect Analysis Pages 107-214

Thefacebook was expanding at an extraordinary rate. Zuckerberg befriended Sean Parker and the two of them began to create this internet sensation into a thriving business. They began talking to many companies all interested in investing in Thefacebook. Parker was the main negotiator and he put in a hard bargain. Parker and Zuckerberg were very interested in working with the Post and Zuckerberg developed a great admiration its CEO Donald Graham. The Post offered a very large investment in the company, but there was many other competitors. One in particular were the partners at Accel. Kevin Efrusy was a venture capitalist in training and he was directed by Jim Breyer, a partner at Accel, to find an up and coming social networking website in which they could invest. Efrusy put a tremendous amount of work into convincing Zuckerberg and Parker to take his deal. At this time they were much more interested in the offer by the Post, but Efrusy did not give up. He did whatever he could to help convince the two to take his offer. As Parker continually turned down Accel, the offers kept coming, each one considerably higher. Finally, Accel came down to an offer that Thefacebook could not refuse. Parker and Zuckerberg were extremely happy with the offer, but Mark was worried about his moral agreement with Graham. With Graham's blessing Zuckerberg decided to go with Accel as long as they agreed to a few minor changes. They wanted Breyer to join the board at Thefacebook and although Efrusy was somewhat offended since he did all the work, he understood. Accel and Thefacebook came to a final agreement and the company was able to expand with all the money Accel had invested. 

Now Thefacebook was in need of better equipment and a larger staff. They invested millions of dollars in servers to make the network run smoother and they needed to find engineers and other workers. Initially they had a very difficult time finding employees. Not many people were willing to work for a company that was run by a bunch of twenty-something year olds and especially with Sean Parker's reputation many people were hesitant. They even tried to convince people to drop out of school to come work for Thefacebook full time. Finally they found people interested in working with the popular and extremely successful company and the eventually had to move from their original location into a bigger space. 

Now they paid specific attention to the features of Thefacebook. They wanted to make it easy to upload new photos and share them with the rest of your social network. Finally they created a platform that was suitable for what they wanted it to do. Photo sharing was a major feature of Thefacebook website. Zuckerberg continually came up with new ideas that he wanted to add to the website and he wrote them all down in a small notebook. He wanted to create a Newsfeed and allow others to add applications to the site for others to use. The employees at Thefacebook were always adding new features and options to the site. They changed the website depending on the new trends of the world in order for it to not become obsolete. Thefacebook showed no signs of slowing down. 

It is incredible that in a few short years the company had expanded into a multi-million dollar enterprise. It  shows how anything is possible if a twenty year old drop-out can create such a successful business. None of this success came to them without a considerable amount of work. They were responsible in their work ethic and every moment was put to creating a better social network and business. Facebook continues to grow and as society changes so do the features of the website. Today, Facebook is just as popular as it was when it first started out and it shows no signs of becoming obsolete any time soon.  

Midterm Presentation Evaluation

Through our evaluations and analysis of the Cloning Wikipedia article we came to realize that this entry was not a very scholarly source. When we researched the information on our own the majority of it seemed to be accurate, but there is no way that this information could hold up in a college research paper or something along those lines. There is too much information that is missing or inaccurate and cannot fully be trusted without outside research. It may be a good idea to browse the citations on the article because they may lead you in the right direction. It can certainly be a good jumping off point.

Wikipedia though is very convenient and it is no wonder that it is the first resource many people view when looking up information. If you just want general knowledge for your own benefit then this is the perfect site to choose, but for all scholarly purposes it is quite flawed. I use Wikipedia for quick facts and information. I constantly use Wikipedia to catch up on Reality TV shows in case I missed them to find out who was eliminated.

Technology has a tremendous effect on our culture. Everything is made so convenient for us that now we have trouble going out of our way to do something. Everyone wants to use Wikipedia as a scholarly source even though we all know it is not, because it is the quickest and easiest tool to find information on whatever we are searching for. It is also amazing how there are so many people who are willing to continually update the material so we are constantly informed with recent news.

I learned that although Wikipedia is always my first stop when it comes to finding information, I must be wary about what I read on the site because I never know what is accurate or not. If I’m just looking for a basic knowledge of something, Wikipedia is a great resource. If the information I need is of grave importance, I might want to view some more scholarly material.

The Facebook Effect Analysis Pages 1-106

The Facebook Effect was by far my favorite book we read this year. It had a very interesting story line and kept me entertained the whole time. The beginning detailed Mark Zuckerberg early college life and experiences. It described him as being very technology oriented and could spend hours on end, without sleeping, designing and improving different programs and applications. He even got his room mates involved in his projects, brainstorming different ideas and writing them on the white board. Zuckerberg aimed to make life's tasks easy, convenient, and connected. He embodied this principle in the program he created, called Course Match, which allowed students to find out who was in their classes. From this idea he created Facemash. Facemash, although extremely popular, got Zuckerberg into quite a bit of trouble. Many people were extremely offended by a program that put Harvard students face-to-face, in a battle of looks. From these two ideas, Zuckerberg began to develop The Facebook. 
I went to see The Social Network and I found that the first half of the book pretty much followed the plot of the movie. There were only a few instances where additional people involved with the creation of Facebook were mentioned. The later half of the reading got very technical and swayed away from the movie, going into detail about all the business aspects of Facebook. There was a lot more information listed here then there was in the movie, due to the fact that the movie was strictly for entertainment purposes. 
It was odd reading about something that is so entrenched into my life and sometimes I forget there was even a time before Facebook. When these types of tools seem to come to us so naturally and with such ease, it is easy to forget how much work went into creating them. One harvard undergraduate student came up with a brilliant idea to connect people all over the world and has become a billionaire and a tremendous success.

Made to Break Analysis Page 186-281

The third part of Made to Break examines the importance of computer technology. The culture of society was changing due to advancements in computer programs and microchips. Products were being produced to include this new technology into toys and entertainment. Children's toys and other games were becoming more electronic. This technology lead way to the first video games. Earlier designs such as the pinball machine became widely popular and as technology improved, better interfaces and graphics were created for new and improved products. Eventually they were able to make these chips and hardware quite small and discrete. Nintendo used this technology to develop the Game Boy which became instantly popular amongst the world wide market. This hand-held device greatly threatened the arcades and home-systems due to its portability quite possibly making them obsolete. More and more new products are created each year and many people will go out and buy the latest technology even if their old system is still working. Slade describes this process as E-waste. Another product that greatly contributes to E-waste is cell phones. Every year so many fully functioning cell phones are discarded just because the consumer wants the newest features and designs. He states "Cell phones have now achieved the dubious distinction of having the shortest life cycle of any electronic consumer product in the country and their life span is still declining." (284). E-waste is quite a major issue. So many electronics are so often forgotten, not due to their lack of functionality, but because they do not contain the new and improved programming introduced on the market. It is expensive to disassemble these products to recover usable parts and some of these electronics are so small that they can easily just be thrown in the trash to be lost in landfills. Overall, with so many new advancements in this field of electronic devices and technology, the old products become obsolete as we as consumers are always searching for the next thing.

Made to Break Analysis Page 83-185

The second part of Made to Break began with Radio transmission. David Sarnoff was the head of RCA and he made his fortune in AM Radio. He envisioned the obsolescence of radio once the television was introduced to the American public and he believed that RCA would make a profit from it either way. This did not work out exactly as planned for him. The obsolescence of radio came from to two inventions. One was a technology that eliminated static and improved the sound quality, and the other replaced vacuum tubes and wire circuitry and transistors. Both of which were out of the control of Sarnoff. Another important person in Radio was Edwin Howard Armstrong who is considered the father of FM radio. Armstrong and his team dedicated themselves to improving radio and they finally developed a reception system that eliminated static and produced a much wider range of sounds than AM radio. FM radio posed a huge threat to AM radio, almost making it obsolete. There was so many more advancements made to radio since then, and in the 50's they even developed a radio that could fit right into your pocket. Although, with these advancements came obsolesce. "Product life spans were no longer left to chance but were created by plan, and it is at this moment (from about 1957 on) that the phrase planned obsolescence acquired the additional meaning of death dating," (113).
When the depression hit, common products became luxury items for Americans since they could no longer afford them. The depression not only affected U.S but also other countries we traded with. Japan had a very hard time since we were no longer importing from them and they could no longer afford raw materials that they needed. This caused much stress between the two counties and many people thought that a war would break out because of it. An even a scarier thought which caused much anxiety was that Atomic technology was being worked on and as Bradley stated, "there is no defense against atomic attack," (149).
In the 50s and 60s, there was increase in automobile and industrial obsolescence. Tailfins were a new invention during this time and they were put on most American cars. Planned obsolescence was often blamed on the automobile industry based on a Teague's Rotarian article. This caused many people to stop buying new automobiles and it caused a small depression in the industry. When asked why people stopped buying cars they stated there reason was due to the fin put on the cars. 
Planned obsolescence continues throughout the history in America and the rest of the world. Without it the consumer industry would not exist. Products need to become obsolete at a certain point so there will always be costumers buying the product at all times. Henry Ford tried to resist planned obsolescence by making his products reliable and long lasting, but eventually he had to give in to the pressures because without the obsolesce of his products he did not have a continual flow of costumers, as other automobile companies did. Planned Obsolescence is entrenched in our culture and our buying habits and without it many industries would cease to exist.

Made to Break Analysis Page 1-81

              Made to Break by Giles Slade analyzes the introduction of advertizing and obsolescence into American production. Thanks to industrialization, products were being manufactured at much faster rate than ever before. At times the amount of inventory was overwhelming because production was much higher than consumer demand. This issue led to the implementation of effective marketing strategies and advertizing campaigns to get their name known and have a loyal costumer base. Another problem was distribution. In order to combat this issue, highways were built and cheap, reliable railroads were used. Also during this time, manufacturers began making products based on planned obsolescence, which guaranteed that they would have returning costumers and a constant inflow of revenue. Companies created products, at reasonable costs, that would be used once and then be thrown away. Popular examples used in the book were Yankee watches, Gillette Razors, and disposable clothing. Yankee watches were cheap and the consumer preferred to just buy a new watch when it broke instead of sending away for a “free” new one. Razors got dull after a few uses and had to be sharpened often. Gillette came up with the idea of disposable razors that were cheap and could be thrown away after use. Disposable clothes made out of paper were also very popular at the time, since laundry was not so convenient, especially for men. They would wear paper cuffs and collars and just throw them out when they got dirty. This sales strategy was very effective and people were willing to spend the money to buy new products that were more convenient for them. Another type of obsolescence was progressive obsolescence, first coined by Justus George Frederick. Progressive obsolescence was the idea that products should constantly be traded in after a short period of time, more for new style, then waiting for them to break. This was a very affective strategy and people were drawn to the idea.

             Obsolescence is key in the production industry. As consumers we are always looking for the next best thing and often buy new products way before they have reached their end of use. We often trade in our cell phones at the end of our contract to get an upgrade even though our old one might work perfectly well. We also are constantly getting new electronics, such as iPods, whenever a new model comes out. We fall for the marketing strategies and clever packaging every time.

Current Event: Bing Friends Facebook

     The article examined the collaboration of Facebook and Bing to create a social aspect to the search engine. They want their users to be more socially connected when they use their site. Microsoft, who is already a share holder of Facebook, has worked on many occasions with the social networking site. Bing is already embedded into Facebook’s search box and now they’re looking to integrate the social aspect of Facebook into their own search results. In the article they gave an example. If you search Motorolla Droid on Bing you will see related links that your friends have shared of Facebook or if you search a movie it will show which of your friends liked that movie. Also if you are searching for people, Microsoft will scan through your profile and friends to narrow down which person you might be searching for. In regards to the privacy issue, they stated that this search will only work with information that is listed as public on your page and you can opt out of it if you want. Also, Bing and Facebook have always been rivals of Google and in response to their announcement on Wednesday, Google has also reported their own efforts of becoming more socially connected with a feature they are calling Google Me. Microsoft’s president of online services stated, “We see the web going far beyond a web of documents to a web of the world. The social graph enables our users to access and discover information and complete tasks more efficiently. We will be able to harness and unlock the power of Facebook’s platform and take search to the next level.”

     In class I posed the questions, "Do you think this will be a useful tool and how much do you value the opinions of your friends when it comes to your own decision-making?" and "Do you think this new feature will take away some of the users from other search engines such as Google?" Responses to the first question proved that this new technology will not be a useful tool. People want the facts rather then their friends opinions when searching the internet. Also how could the likes of your friends possible spread across the vast knowledge of the internet, making it an inadequate technology in most cases. In regards to Google, most people felt that their search results far surpass that of Bing and they would not be swayed by Facebook's involvement with Bing. On the other hand though, if Google was to make a social networking site it would not be very successful because Facebook is already too entrenched in our culture. Overall, I believe that Google and Bing should stick to what they do best and just offer the best possible search results system that they can and leave the social aspect to Facebook.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/10/bing-friends-facebook/

Wikipedia Analysis Page 114-225

Whereas the first half of Andrew Dalby's "The World and Wikipedia: How We Are Editing Reality" talks largely about the history of encyclopedias and Wikipedia, the second half focuses on its pros, cons, and societal impacts. He begins by talking about why we as a culture like Wikipedia. Anyone can edit or create a new article, which puts users in a position of power. This allows Wikipedia to add a great amount of new information every day. This is incredible, especially compared to traditional encyclopedias, such as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Scholarly authors create the Encyclopedia Britannica, which allows it to be a credible academic resource. However this limits the range of topics that it can add every edition. Wikipedia can offer many thousands of new articles all the time, but their quality is sometimes lacking.  Andrew Dalby said, "No one can claim that Wikipedia, as a whole, is a reliable source. Instead accepting it as not the least reliable of online guides, and drawing thirstily on its footnotes and external links, we - I'm speaking now for myself and all the others, writers and journalist, scholars and scientists, who actually use Wikipedia already - judge each article for reliability on its merits" (Dalby, 220).  I predict that one day Wikipedia will have killed off its competitors and be considered a credible academic resource. It only remains to be seen when that will happen.

Wikipedia Analysis Page 7-113

     Wikipedia has revolutionized the age of the encyclopedia. With thousands of articles being created each day, Wikipedia offers an incredibly wide range of information, from the most obscure issues to worldwide phenomena. The act of collecting information from a broad range of topics and ideas and compiling it into an enormous group of text began thousands of years ago with the work of Pliny the elder. Pliny constantly took notes and wrote down excerpts of what he read until he had collected enough information to create the Naturalis Historia. Pliny was the first person to use the term encyclopedia. Many followed in Pliny’s footsteps to assemble another encyclopedia and throughout the years it has evolved to become a competitive industry. Among the most popular was the Britanica. They faced many drawbacks trying to keep an updated text, due to the fact that many people did not feel the need to purchase a new edition each year. They faced even more competition when encyclopedias began to transition to online databases. Microsoft created a program called Encarta, which could be sold quite cheaply, causing the Britanica to significantly reduce their prices. 

     Finally in January of 2001, Wikipedia was created as an expansion of the former Nupedia by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. Wikipedia was different than Nupedia because new information could be added or altered by the public wherever they saw fit. This feature created much controversy since anyone, no matter their level of intelligence or background, could create and update new Wikipedia articles without proper citations, leading to many inaccuracies. Ira Matetsky was quoted as saying, “The best feature of the site is that anyone can edit virtually anything contained on it. The worst feature of the site is that anyone can edit virtually anything contained on it.” This statement is quite true. Wikipedia is a great resource when it comes to its vast range of topics, but can also be detrimental due to its lack of reliable sources. Many peoples’ biographies have been altered with misinformation that could defame their character. One example of this was the Seigenthaler incident. Brian Chase, an employee at a Nashville delivery company, added information to John Seignethaler’s Wikipedia page stating that he might have been involved in the Kennedy assassination. What was intended as a joke, turned into a highly publicized event that cost Chase his job, smeared Seigenthaler’s name, and greatly affected the credibility of Wikipedia.

     Postman, the author of Technopoly, would surely find issues with the usage of Wikipedia, as do many others. He might view this as society taking advantage of technology and power, and altering information for their own sadistic purposes. In retrospect this may be true, but the amount of information that is factual and beneficial to users all over the world, to me, seems to greatly outweigh the negatives. I use Wikipedia quite often when I want to expand my knowledge on a specific subject. For quick searches, Wikipedia almost always yields the top results. Although there are some drawbacks to the site, Wikipedia will continue to grow and overflow with new information each day which will be used all over the world.

Technopoly Analysis Page 92-199

     In the second half of Technopoly, Postman talks about three specific types of technologies; medical, computer, and invisible technologies. One issue in particular that Postman argues is how nowadays, due to the use of technological advancements and the integration of machines into the practices of physicians, that they have become less competent and do not take responsibility for their actions. Postman also lists statistics that show how the United States has an elevated rate of aggressive health care practices, compared to competing countries, such as a more surgeries and elevated doses of medication. This claim only supports Postman’s claim that the U.S is a technopoly based on our reliance on scientific advancements, but does that make us any less competent? In my opinion, I strongly disagree. With the technology we have today doctors are able to be increasingly more productive and are able to diagnose and treat an exceptionally higher amount of ailments than was possible in the past.

     Postman writes that although the U.S might be closely matched in technological advancements to other countries around that world, what sets us apart is our complete acceptance of technology as an ideology. He states, “We have devalued the singular human capacity to see things whole in all their psychic, emotional, and moral dimensions, and we have replaced this with faith in the powers of technical calculations,” (pg 118). It appears that Postman looks down on the U.S for its omission of traditional processes that shape society and create a morality and culture, but I believe that we have progressed so much due to this technology and there is still so much to explore and discover that can assist us in everyday life. There are still moral implications to uphold, but as long as we stick within the guidelines, there’s no reason why we should hold back the development of any further technological advances. I believe that Swedin and Ferro would disagree with Postman’s argument. Not all the outcomes in the history of Computers have been successful, but they still focus mostly on the benefits that technology brings to the world. Although he does raise some valid points at times, to me, Postman’s beliefs seem flawed and very one sided. Where would we be today if we did not push the boundaries of science and technology?

     P.S I don’t often take notice of algorithms, but sometimes they can be useful. One instance of this was when I was shopping on Target.com to buy a comforter for college. Under the page for the comforter was a list of suggestions for items that were similar to what I had bought and it helped me put my room together quite nicely. I don’t usually pay attention to the ads on facebook, but at times it creeps me out how much they pertain to what is going on in my life at the time.

Technopoly Analysis Page 1-91

     Technopoly examines the substantial effect that technology has had on society as it becomes increasingly integrated into our everyday life. In previous centuries, our way of life was defied by the political and religious values set forth by higher authorities. God was considered responsible for all of the world’s activity and advancements in science and technology were often modified or completely ignore if it went against this belief. Many scholars, such as Copernicus, even refused to go public with their discoveries because they did not believe it was in accordance with the scheme of God and religion. As time went on, some began to push the boundaries of this ideology and from it many advancement in technology and science were made. This is the time when society began to move from a tool-using culture to what Postman describes as a technocrocy.

     A technocracy is “a society only loosely controlled by a social custom and religious tradition and driven by the impulse to invent,” (pg 41). This term validates the achievements of the technologically savvy individual and encourages them to create for the betterment of mankind. Francis Bacon embodied this design and Postman names him the first man of technocracy for his revolutionary approach to the scientific enterprise. What came next after the technocracy was a technopoly, which was only achieved when the society “eliminates any alternatives of itself,” (pg 48); when the technological world overpowers the traditional methods of the past and they become irrelevant. The United States is the only country that can be considered a technopoly, thus far, but Japan and some of the other European countries are not far behind.

     At times Postman seemed to react very negatively to the rise of technology in society. He often focuses on the harsher, more theological side of the history rather than expressing the tremendous success that technology had brought to the world. He explains how earlier centuries, at times, viewed technology as “evil” since it went against the teachings of God and religion. Not everyone was very accepting of its introduction and many advancements were put off due to the individual’s wish not to go against their beliefs. The Luddites deeply denounced the use of technology due to the fact that it challenged their previous existence and complicated their old-fashioned way of life. Computers, on the other hand, focused on the accomplishments in the fields of science and technology. It did not include much opposition to the advancements, but rather outlined the succession of events in the history of the computer.

Analysis Page 84-149

      In the late 1900s, the development of the personal computer became a main priority in technological advances. Many began working on constructing new designs for a desktop computer kit and the one in particular that lead the pack was the Altair 8800 created by Edward Roberts.

     Roberts intended to sell his computer to hobbyist since at the time the “desktop” computer was not practical for the use of all users. Altair later combined with the efforts of MITS and gained much success until their release of a new microcomputer based around the Motorola 6800. Due to compatibility issues and MITS lack of resources to support both machines their success began to decline. “Despite the demise of MITS and the Altair, the microcomputer revolution started by that machine had just begun” (pg. 90). Other companies began to develop their own microcomputers and soon they were even being introduced to nonhobbyists.  Radio Shack began to sell the TRS-80 nationally in 1977 to all users.

     Also in 1977 the Apple II, designed by Steve Wozniack was introduced. The Apple II was the first computer to be widely available to the public with its institution in classrooms across the country. Steve Jobs recruited “Woz” full time to be co-founders of Apple, instead of being employed at Hewlett-Packard. Their company became quite a success and now was even competing with IBM and Microsoft in the development of the microcomputer. As time went on other companies were being driven out and “it looked like there would soon be only two companies left selling microcomputers on a large scale to battle for supremacy: IBM and Apple” (pg. 96).

     The development and use of desktop computers in the second half of the 20^th century had greatly expanded. “In 1970, total sales of software by U.S software firms was less than half a billion dollars. By 1980 U.S software sales reached $2 billion” (pg. 102-103). Up until the late 1970s, microcomputers were only created for hobbyists and commercial use. Today it is quite common to have at least one desktop computer per household, if not one for every member of the family. The computer has become widely mainstream throughout the world and it allows us to stay connected from one computer to the next. Without the progression of such companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Apple, and many others we would not be as technologically advanced as we are today.

Texts From Last Night

     Last Friday I went to see the Texts From Last Night creators’ Ben Bator and Lauren Leto. I often visit the website and get a good laugh out of it most of the time, so I was actually quite excited to hear what the two of them had to say. I expected some elaborate, entertaining story to go along with the formation of the site, but I was less than satisfied with their narrative and delivery. It seemed as if they didn’t even know why they were up on stage speaking to all of us. It was almost disappointing to hear that their success was complete luck and that they put almost no effort into making the site so popular. Their intentions were to just keep it between them and their group of friends and now it has turned into a highly visited website, book, and television series.

     Ben did most of the talking and Lauren jumped in whenever she could. Neither of them were particularly funny, and even when Lauren was reading some of the texts out loud, she did it with a very lack-luster attitude, which took away from the hilarity of it all.  When it came to the question and answer portion, they were very rarely able to give up any information and when people asked personal questions, such as reading their own embarrassing texts, they didn’t have much to offer. We were all given a raffle ticket for which a few of the TFLN books would be auctioned off. That was pretty exciting, until I realized that they gave my boyfriend and I the exact same ticket and we had no chance of winning. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to continue using the website instead. Thanks for visiting Ben and Lauren! 

Analysis Pages 1-83

Our culture is largely based on the ever-changing advancements in technology. Throughout the book Computers, we follow the history and development of this technology and examine the effects it has on our lives. It began with the early inventions of previous centuries such as astrolabes and abacuses. Although these innovations were quite primitive they greatly improved the lives of these people by making everyday tasks simpler and more efficient.  Throughout the last century there has been overwhelming amounts of new and innovative development that assist us in every aspect of society. One innovation in particular,  is the use of computers to tabulate the US census. It would often take years to account for all the US citizens, even coming close to overlapping the following census, but with these specifically designed computers, they were able to significantly reduce that time. The book helps explain these ideas and many more, as well as  how computers have forever changed American society on a federal, business, and personal scale.


World War II increased the development of technology significantly. In Ferro's words "Never had a war been so dependent on research in science and technology" (pg 47). It was during this time that IBM became a huge part of the technology sector. It introduced hundreds of computers, created primarily for niche markets. It was also during this time that the first programming languages were created. The microprocessor changed these computers heavily making them lighter, more efficient, cooler, and less prone to failure. Jack Kilby received the Nobel Peace Prize for his invention of the microprocessor.


American culture was forever changed with the development of this new technology. Businesses became larger, faster, and more efficient and entirely new fields such as online markets were created. Today we are constantly connect. We have come a long way from computers the size of entire rooms to our small hand held devices such as cell phones and iPods. New technology forever changes and continues to change our lives and with it we are forever connected to one another and all the knowledge that society has to offer. 

Tech logs

I've never blogged before, but this seems like a new and exciting teaching style that actually allows us to use the technology that we will be learning about in class. I logged the websites I visited in the last few days.

The sites include:

Facebook.com; Reddit.com, Google.com, Yahoo.com, Sakai.rutgers.edu; My.rutgers.edu; 2dopeboyz.com

These sites pretty much just stay open at all times and I freak out when people use my laptop and close out of any of them. Facebook is my top site. I am logged on pretty much the entire day and have to pretend I'm offline most of the time so I don't seem like an addict. I am also addicted to Reddit now thanks to my boyfriend. Who knew it could be so entertaining. It's no wonder my boyfriend rather be on that site than hang out with me. Google is pretty much a way of life. I can not even count the number of times I use it to look up whatever comes to mind. I don't know how I figured thing out before Google. I use Yahoo for my e-mail. I usually check it daily, but the only thing I ever really get emailed about is who wrote on my wall or tagged me in a picture on Facebook, which I probably already checked. I use Sakai and My.rutgers to check email and look up assignments at least once a day and I go on 2dopeboyz sporadically to hopefully download new music. In conclusion, I spend an insane amount of time on my laptop.