Jeremy Majewski

ITK 140

Oct. 10, 2007

Computers, the Way to My Future

Computers have been a part of my life for a very long time. Ever since I was nine years old they have influenced my life. Around that time computers were starting to become an appliance in many American homes. Their importance in my life grew daily as more teachers would assign typed papers and I started to find games to play.

When I was 11, I moved from Duluth, Minnesota to Geneva, Illinois and started school there. I was a new kid which meant that I would have to make new friends in a school of kids who already knew each other. I developed a friendship with three of the other students quickly because I had found out that they played the same computer games I did. We all played Blizzard Entertainment’s Starcraft and would connect to each other over the internet to play against each other while we were home. A year later one of them and I started to play Sony Online Entertainment’s Everquest. While I did not really meet anyone in that game that I became friends with, it did open my interest in other games similar to it.

In my high school years I started to play World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment. Massive multiplayer online role playing games(MMORPGs) have a bad reputation for giving the people who play it stereotypes of being anti-social. What actually happens is completely the opposite. Many players of these MMORPGs actually play it for the interaction with other people. These games allow people to play and interact with other players around the globe much like a social networking website, like Facebook or Myspace, would do. One of the major differences is, however, that players in MMORPGs often develop friendships, and sometimes more involved relationships, in the game.

This is all very important to me because unlike people in Myspace who may have two thousand friends and not know a thing about any of them, I actually developed strong relationships with several people I met through World of Warcraft. I was invited to go meet them all in Yellowstone National Park during the summer of 2007 but could not go for financial reasons. I did however meet two of my other friends from in the game over the same summer that live in Southern Michigan. They were in Chicago to see a concert and decided to stop by my town to spend a day with me. Two of my friends met in the game and started dating in the real world. They are actually now going to be married in the spring of 2008 and have invited everyone that we play with on-line to attend along with all their families.

Had I not met my friends through the computer and this game I may have never been able to meet them in my life time. In order for me to meet them all I would have had to travel to Oregon, Washington, Louisiana, Wisconsin, North Caroline, Ohio, Michigan, and even Montana to meet all of them. Also to meet that particular person in each of those states would have been like stumbling over one particular needle in a pile of other needles. I would have never known that that person was the one I currently know. Many of their jobs do not pertain to how I live. One of them works in air condition and heating, another works for an oil company so the chance I would have met these people are very slim.

Computers have also had negative impacts on my life. There is a lot of maintenance that is involved in keeping a computer running. In high school I built my own computer and got it to run. It worked fine with a few bugs that I worked out after a bit. The big problems with it however, was that it was expensive to build and I somehow got a virus that ended up destroying it. The virus started affecting my computer by making it run slower during booting procedures. After awhile it slowed it down so much that it would not even make it to the log in screen before it locked up. All my information, programs, and files that were on it were now trapped and I could not retrieve them. To my dismay I was forced to reformat my sixty gigabyte hard drive that was full and lost all of my information on it. At the time I had been downloading music and to lose all those files was a huge dilemma for me. The money and time spent acquiring all of those was completely wasted.

My current computer has had its own problems as well. I have deleted more viruses off it than I can count, replaced several parts in it, and its printer has been an ever constant struggle. The printer never wants to print correctly and it switches which ink will actually work from time to time. Many times the paper will come out all streaky and faded.

Computers continue to impact my life and I do not see that change in the future at all. Computers continue to evolve every day to become faster, more powerful, and sometimes even smaller. With every passing day computers become more integrated into daily life.

Jeremy Majewski

Dec. 06, 2007

ITK 140

The Way of the Future

The world is in the Information Age now and is advancing at an alarming rate. The first computers were built less than one hundred years ago and would take up entire rooms to compute problems that today a simple calculator can do. New technology has been developed at exponential rates. To keep up with the rate at which technology is coming out people have been working to get more people involved with it. The nonprofit organization, One Laptop Per Child, has been working to help children in underdeveloped countries learn more by giving them access to information they would not normally have by giving them laptops.

In April of 1998, a Frenchman named Negroponte decided to influence a Cambodian village. He provided twenty children in the village with laptops to work with (http://www.laptop.org, 12/6/07). Negroponte had worked with another Frenchman named Papert. Together these two men believed that computers were a great way to get children to learn. They sough to educate the uneducated, underdeveloped countries using computers. Papert tested their theory the following September in Maine and managed to get the governor to start a large-scale distribution of laptops to the states seventh-graders (http://www.laptop.org 12/6/07). Now Maine is by no means an underdeveloped area but it still is a valid testing ground since it works with children. Papert would still be able to find out if the laptops would help students learn new material. Papert’s attempt was so successful that the program in Maine was expanded and continued (http://www.laptop.org 12/6/07).

In 2002 the program really took off. Negroponte designed his “100 dollar” laptop and managed to get the AMD company to help him build them (http://www.laptop.org 12/6/07). Word spread about this organization around the world. By July of 2002 fifty countries inquired about getting the laptops for their children (http://www.laptop.org 12/6/07). The program gained momentum as more and more countries continued to ask about being a part of this new program. The demand continued to grow each year. By November of 2007, mass production of Negroponte’s “100 dollar” laptop begins (http://www.laptop.org 12/6/07). These laptops replace all the original laptops and go out to each child whenever some one donates enough money to pay for the laptop. In light of the 2007 Christmas season, One Laptop Per Child offered a deal that for every laptop a person pays to donate for they will receive one of the laptops themselves until the end of December (http://www.laptop.org 12/6/07).

This deal that One Laptop Per Child offered showed a completely new step that technology and development can go. Not only is a 100 dollar laptop a deal for many of the actual developed countries but the fact that they can sell the computers for 50 dollars and still stay afloat is an amazing ability. One Laptop Per Child is a non-profit organization so that means that whatever money they do make gets put directly back into their production. Because they are a non-profit organization does not mean that they are willing to take loses because it would eventually lead them having to shut down and close their business. Prices of technologies drop every year as newer technology is released. I believe that soon things that we would normally pay somewhere around 1000 dollars for will be around 100 dollars.
Other than the financial paths that One Laptop Per Child is leading down there are also the remarkable paths of networking. People who normally did not even have means of communicating with outsiders via devices such as telephones would not be able to connect to others through wireless internet. People in Africa could communicate with people in Russia just because of these new laptops.

The organization of One Laptop Per Child is just one of the factors that will lead to the world to become one interconnected world. Each step further brings the world to the point where it would be one entire nation. Globalization is progressing without the help of major organizations just as the World Trade Organization even getting involved.

http://www.laptop.org/en/vision/index.shtml viewed on 12/06/07

This is our business proposal. For the church we have decided to get:

For the 19" monitors we decided to purchase a
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8268527&type=product&id=1170290376114
It is a Westinghouse 19" Widescreen Flat Panel LCD
The price is $189.99
After purchasing 5 the total comes out to be $950 22 inch wide screen monitor: NEC 22 inch ASLCD223WXM-BK WIDESCREEN 1680X1050 1000:1 5MS VGA DVI-D (BLACK) I had to change the monitor to get the warranty$361.56
five of them will be about $1,800

10 high end multimedia computers:
Gateway - E2140 Desktop
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8540251&type=product&id=1188559783719
Has intel Pentium Dual core processor, 1.6 gig processor speed, 2 gig of ram, 320 gig Harddrive, DVD±RW/CD-RW drive, Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950, high def audio card
$540 + $135 for 3 year service plan = $675
10 of these will add up to $6750

For the wireless router we are going to purchase a
LINKSYS WRT54G IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless-G Broadband Router - Retail
The wireless router comes with an external antenna, it runs up to 54MbpsModel # WRT54GThere is a 30 day return policy on the router.The cost of this router is $49.99 at http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=wireless+routers&x=0&y=0

For the Laser printer we are going to purchase aHP Laser printerIt also has a $200 instant savings. which brings it down to its current price of $699.We also need a flatbed scanner for the local church. The scanner that we decided to go with is theCanon CanoScan 8800F 2168B002 USB Interface Flatbed Scanner - RetailThis scanner has an 48color bit scheme, the dimensions of the scanner at 10.8" (W) x 4.0" (H) x 18.9" (L)The scanner has a standard 30 day return policy and can be purchased at www.newegg.com for $179.99 with an instant $10 rebate along with a 3 day shipping for an additional $17.99=$169.99

http://www.ilstu.edu/~kabrist/itk140/Labs/Group%20IV.ppt

http://picasaweb.google.com/jjmajew

The printer is:
HP
Model name: 4240n
The printer has a high output rate of 40 pages per minute. It has a 460 MHz internal processor to carry its work load. It also has Hi-Speed USB (compatible with USB 2.0 specifications), IEEE 1284-B compliant parallel port, 2 open EIO slots, HP Jetdirect Fast Ethernet Embedded Print Server to allow the printer to connect to computers.

The warranty is a one year provided by HP.

The printer cost $699 after a $200 instant savings through HP.

Link to printer for group project.
Picture of Laser printer for group project.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DDCWGA2&s=dhs

Dell computers

Dell Inspiron 531s

$549

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+

1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs

250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

19 inch SE198WFP Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic

Printers: Ink jet, Laser, All-in-one, photo printer

Ink jet: The most commonly used type of printer. Used for basic functions and various functions. Kind of the Jack-of-all trades printer.

Laser: Work horse of the printers. generally higher costing but meant for mass output and speed. More commonly used in business settings.

All-in-one: Generally has printer, copier, scanner, and occasionally a fax. Seen often in small businesses and home settings. sometimes they're larger units than the basic ink jet but that is because they have the scanner attached to it. works like an ink jet just with more options of usage.

Photo printer: Like the name implies it's a printer used for printing photos. The printers output is slower than that of a ink jet and definitely a laser print but the quality of photos that are printed out of them is tremendous compared to the other printers. The efficiency is sacrificed in these printers to make sure the photos are of the best quality.

My class midterm paper

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgmcfk8_1gvcj7q

Thusday's Discussion 10/11/07

Article: TechCrunch from 11/16/07 http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/11/16/phonezoo-make-and-share-free-ringtones/#comments

Summary: Many of the phone companies charge users to buy ringtones for about $2.50 a piece. With this new website phonezoo.com people can log on and upload music to the site. This allows them to create ring tones that are at maximum 20 seconds long with good sound quality. The site then sends the file to your phone via a PIX message. This process is completely free unless you have to pay for receiving picture messages.

Reaction: I personally love this whole idea of having free ring tones. Some people get tired of their ring tones and like to change it frequently. Having to pay for the ring tones can rack up a large bill, which of course the corporations don't mind, but some people get tired of paying for new ones all the time. I love how the site allows you to pick the segments you want of the song and not just some excerpt of the song that may not be your favorite part of it.

Thursday Discussion 10/4/07

Source: CityNews http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_15359.aspx 10/4/07

Summary: The Canadian author states that hackers have been changing their ways and have been trying to send out viruses through other sources other than e-mail. Apparently there has been several attempts of putting viruses out through false links on YouTube. Hackers are realizing that not only has anti-virus software is getting better but the average computer user is becoming more wary about what they open up. So they have been working on spreading their ilk in other ways.

Reaction: I feel uneasy about all this. I thought I was ok about viruses and now after reading this I'm growing concerned. Now just a simple act of clicking on a YouTube video just to watch a video that looks interesting could be a horrible down fall. I don't like looking over my shoulder constantly and now it seems like there's no end to it. It makes me wish hackers had lives actually and would be at least constructive with their work.

Class Discussion 9/27/07

Reference: USATODAY http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2005-05-27-tech-privacy_x.htm viewed on 9/27/07

Summary: The article interviews a person who in charge of the privacy of George Washington University Law School. He discusses how at work employees' rights are more limited than if they were at home. It discusses how perusing the internet to view porn violates sexual harassment codes in companies and how on-line shopping, although varies from each company, should be done from home. He says that the bosses of companies can view what ever they want on employee's computers who work for them.

Reaction: Although I don't completely agree with the amount of restriction companies put on their employees I can understand why they do it. Time spent on the computer at work should be used doing work for the company. Something I noticed was he never touched on that ideology, dealing with work time should be spent working. An argument I see against it is that some people get done with their work earlier and don't have anything lined up for them for the rest of the day and people who are on a salary it doesn't really matter all that much if they leave early or not since they don't have to punch out. But I see it as there will always be a problem with employees wanting more liberties and employers want to limit their liberties.

Guidelines for the writing the midterm paper

1. Midterm paper is due on Oct 11th 2007 during the class meeting time.
2. You need to use Google Docs to write the paper. The paper must be published to your blog and link for the paper must be made available from your personal site.
3. You need to turn in a printed copy of your paper during the submission.
4. Paper must be at least 3 pages long or 1000 words. Text should be double spaced and font size 12 pt. The title of the paper should be centered, bold, 14 pt font size.
5. Paper should clearly mention your name and you must provide references to all the materials you use to write your paper.
6. The topic for the midterm paper will be the impact of computers on your personal life and will be worth 40 points. You can write about some news things you learnt in this class so far, some new application, some new idea etc.
7. You should get your topic/idea/content/subject matter approved before you start writing the paper.

 
Grading criteria 

Total points	40 points
Google Docs usage	2 points
Blog entry	2 points
Link on your site	2 points
Formatting	2 points
References	2 points
Appropriate topic	10 points
Paper content/writing style	20 points

Class Discussion Thursday 9/20

Reference: Time Time article by Jyoti Thottam


Summary: The article starts out by saying that if it were not for outsourcing Solidcore would not still be in the black. It goes onto discuss the moral problems with outsourcing but that part did not pertain to our topic so I won't go further into it.


Reaction: I can see the potential of outsourcing as it makes more companies increase their productivity. It does cause problems in out own country in that it reduces the amount of jobs available. The advantages of the increased productivity is remarkable. Work can be done while people are sleeping that is not related to maintenance. Projects can be accomplished in twice the speed. While it doesn't help our own country it does however help the world as a whole by supplying jobs in other nations. It leads the world to being one whole nation rather than hundreds of separate nations quarreling with others. In the long run it is a step forward.

Class Discussion Thursday 9/5

Reference: CNN CNN article By Linnie Rawlinson

Summary: The article discusses the growing of the virtual world called Second Life. In this program users make avatars, or virtual representations of themselves, to traverse the virtual world. It mimics real life in the way that you get money and spend it on items in the program. She goes on to say how there is some concern that people who start using the program frequently will start to not care about their real life and only care about the program. She brings up the point that, why would people want to worry about their mortgages and payments when they could just log on to a world that is virtually care free.

Reaction: I personally like the idea of all this. Because it, like Facebook, would be a way to interact with people that you would never meet in your entire life. Corporations could also take advantage of this by using it to hold meetings across countries or even advertise to people in areas they couldn't normally reach. Things would be able to be tested in the virtual world using the same rules that we experience in the real world, or see how people react to it before it actually goes into production. In essence a virtual world like this is an advertiser's heaven. You could meet virtual face to virtual face people that only could only correspond via e-mail before. The net would become more intimate rather than it having so much anonymity. You wouldn't feel like you're communicating with just a computer screen, it'd be an actual person. I personally think that is a good thing.

Class Discussion Thursday 8/30

Reference: Time Magazine http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1655722,00.html


Summary: Lev Grossman discusses how Facebook.com is what the internet was originally hoped to be when it first became widely used. How you could be yourself on-line and not have to come up with some fake personality to impress other people.

Reactions: In the article Grossman says that Facebook is a network with the net, where people can know everything about others who are also on it. I personally am uneasy about the amount of information that is so readily available in Facebook. The News Feed is the biggest problem I believe. Not only does it basically track every one of your friends moves but it also tells you exactly what they did. If a friend posted on someone's wall it tells you what the post was, word for word. Yeah it's ok for your friends to see things like that but if there's someone you don't know seeing all that information then it could be bad for you. For instance when in class my teacher said that employers where now logging on and checking applicant's Facebook pages, that can be a big problem especially if one of your friends posts a picture of you doing something that wouldn't reflect well on yourself and you did not know about it. The reason why this is a problem is because there's a link in Facebook that shows all pictures with your "tagged" in them. I personally don't use Facebook all that often. I just use it to check any messeges my friends who use it frequently may have sent me.

My ITK 140 Class website link

http://sharepoint.iwss.ilstu.edu:6350/sites/itk140/default.aspx

Class Discussion Thursday 1 a

Reference:

Summary:

Reactions: