Reading Assignment #3--Postman's Technopoly pgs. 1-91

Good evening dear followers. In my Technology & Culture In America class this week we were asked to read the following book: "Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology" by Neil Postman. After reading the first half of this book I began to realize that even though I love technology I am not blind to its problems. To those who say technology has no faults, I ask you when was the last time your computer crashed or whatever happened to that grand notion of a "paperless office"?

First, the argument. Postman describes what he calls the three stages of how a culture deals with technology: 1) tool-using, 2) technocracy, 3) technopoly. In a tool-using culture, technical improvements are limited to the uses at hand. This differs from the technocracy, where the tools "play a central role in the thought world of the culture." In the technopoly, tools become the culture. Postman's argument is along similar lines as suggested in the subtitle of this book, "the surrender of culture to technology." Postman's main thesis is that America has become a technopoly, which means that culture has lost its moral authority to technology. Technology has become the solution to whatever questions are asked, ushering in the reign of experts. Whatever else, there's a lot to agree with here.

As I finished with Chapter 5 for the time being, I have come away with this; Postman argues that as the development of technology has progressed, our society has lost the ambiguities and subtleties; the so-called "shades of gray" that make us human. Although Postman doesn't advocate the abandonment of technology, he does encourage us to be aware that technology is indeed running our lives. The trouble is, most of us are not even aware of the extent that it is, and we need to use technology responsibly. I can't wait to explore the second half of Postman's book to see what he describes next to us.

Reading Assignment #2--Swedin/Ferro's Computers pgs. 84-149

Hello dear followers. After reading the second half of Computers: The Life Story Of A Technology by Swedin and Ferro I was quite surprised to learn as to how personal computers have changed over time. Computers and microprocessors such as Altair, Intel and Apple,have come a long way. The Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975 based on the Intel 8080 CPU and sold by mail order through advertisements in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines. The designers hoped to sell only a few hundred build-it-yourself kits to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the first month. The Altair also appealed to individuals and businesses who just wanted a computer and purchased the assembled version. Altair was shipping microcomputers out to cumstomers as fast as they could make them, and by the end of 1976, other companies began creating and selling microcomputers as well (p.89).

On April Fool's Day, 1976, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs released the Apple I computer and started Apple Computers. The Apple I was the first with a single circuit board used in a computer. Wozniak and Jobs started out as young students who had an interest in electronic devices and technology. The first home computer with a GUI or graphical user interface was the Apple Lisa. The very first graphical user interface was developed by the Xerox Corporation at their Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970s. Steve Jobs, visited PARC in 1979 (after buying Xerox stock) and was impressed and influenced by the Xerox Alto, the first computer ever with a graphical user interface. Jobs designed the new Apple Lisa based on the technology he saw at Xerox. With the 1984 Apple Macintosh Steve Jobs made sure developers created software for the new Macintosh Computer. Jobs figured that software was the way to win the consumer over. American computer executive, Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computer, one of the first manufacturers of personal home computers. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak made a natural team inventing the first ready-made personal computer.

In conclusion, computers have entered almost every arena of human society. They operate in our homes, our workplaces, and our schools. They come in so many shapes and sizes that it is sometimes difficult to recognize them: while laptop and desktop computers are commonplace, computers can also be found in home electronics, automobiles, airplanes, automatic teller machines (ATM's), security systems, and many other devices and situations. Many of the world's societies depend heavily on computers in the operation of their transportation systems, commerce, utilites, law enforcement, goverance, and more. The operation of computers in human society is so widespread that computers are often said to be ubiquitous. Moreover, the growth of of computer network access has happened at such a rate and to such an extent that the phrase "anytime, anywhere computing" has become a commonplace.

Texts From Last Night--September 17th, 2010--Rutgers Livingston Campus

Hello dear followers. On Friday evening I attended an awesome lecture on Livingston Campus put on by the creators of the website Texts From Last Night (www.textsfromlastnight.com). Texts From Last Night (TFLN) was founded in February 2009 by two friends (Ben Lator and Lauren Leto) for reasons that may or may not include: the tendency to press send more easily as the night turns to morning, friends' social habits, disgraced government officials, exes, law school, closing down bars and leaving tabs open, general debauchery and/or a common disgust for all the negativity surrounding the 'sexting' phenomenon. Their goal was to create a site that was revealing in nature yet still had the ability to conceal the identity of everyone involved; that is why it is so fun!

While listening to the lecture I was surprised to learn that it only cost Ben & Lauren $200 to start up this website. For little money these past-law students ended up creating a texting empire. They now have a book, which was raffled off during the lecture. I was not lucky enough to receive one of the book copies but was certainly close each time to the called number. Ben and Lauren also explained how this phenomenon that they have created will soon be a sitcom tv show, possibly on the FOX channel. TFLN also now has an app for one's cell such as the iPhone or Android. They also mentioned that they have not submitted about 4 million texts to their website that they received either due to the content being boring, down right crude or hate texts sent to them. In the end I had a great time attending this lecture. I thought it was inspiring to hear how two college kids in Law School came up with a simple plan and how they made it into a million dollar business overnight. I believe it's all in how you reach your audience.

Reading Assignment #1--Swedin/Ferro's Computers pgs. 1-83

Good evening dear followers. For my Tech & Culture In America class we were asked this time to read the beginning of a book entitled, "Computers: The Story Of Technology" by Swedin & Ferro pgs.1-83. I was surprised to learn about how the creation of the first digital computer relied heavily on the first calculating machine. While continuing on reading I noticed that during the time of World War II the term "computer" did not at all refer to a machine but did refer to a person. "Human computers" as Charles Babbage puts it use devices like slide rules, abacus, and pens and paper (pg.19). Moving on past the portion of how we dealt with things before computers we come to the section entitled, "The First Computer". In this chapter I got a better understanding of some of the types of new computers: ABC computers, Zuse Computers, Harvard Mark I, Eniac, Manchester Mark I and finally the UNIVAC. The one I found most interesting is the UNIVAC is which engineers and technicians had to work near it in "shorts" as it gave off so much heat and was a large piece of machinery.

After reading about the "first computers" I learned about the second generation of computers in which engineers moved from computers with vacuum tubes to ones which had transistors. Scientists and engineers moved to develop more advanced computers and computer networks. I was surprised to learn that after having to deal with the excessively large vacuum tubes engineers moved to transistors in which the first one was designed and invented right here in New Jersey by John Bardeen from Bell Labs. Many companies tried to jump on the computer bandwagon bringing their own models to light such as: Honeywell, RCA, GE and Philco. IBM ended coming out on top since they were the company that maintained the most highly motivated sales force. IBM began producing software in the 1950's for banks, insurance firms and manufacturing companies.

Finally, I read about the "third generation" of computers. The third generation of computers consisted of minicomputers, supercomputers and microprocessors. The IBM 360 Mainframe computer as well as the birth of software made its way into the industry. I was surprised by the following numbers: in 1960 only 7,000 digital computers had been built worldwide. In 1970 that number increased to 130,000 machines (pg.83). With that being said computers during this time still remained expensive and were only found in the workplace not even a thought that someday they would be put in people's homes.

So to sum this all up, why do we care? What does all this mean? Computers were the stuff of science fiction and wide-eyed articles about "electric brains." Few people had actually seen one. Computer technology is so much a part of our lives, that we cannot imagine a life without it. Computers serve as efficient data storage systems and excellent information processors. They can store, organize and manage huge amounts of data. Moreover, they operate on incomparable speeds, thus saving human time and effort to a large extent. True, they are an integral part of our lives. It is said that inventions change the way we live. Computer technology is a classic example of this adage. It has indeed changed our way of living.

Internet/Technology Usage

So to begin with my dear followers, I was asked by my Professor in my Tech & Culture In America class to jot down my internet/technology usage for one week. The week I will be discussing started on September 2nd and ended on September 8th. To begin with I should let you know that I am a Media Buyer for the Monmouth County Library system in Manalapan, NJ. I work 35 hours per week, 5 days a week. As part of my daily routine I surf the internet approximately 7 hours per day at my desk. Each day I went on the internet looking up DVD reviews as well as using DVD ordering websites. I regularly used amazon.com, imdb.com, and rottentomatoes.com. I also regularly checked my email using Outlook Express. Each day I also used our internal Circulation/Automation system known as Sirsi-Dynix. The Sirsi-Dynix system is dedicated to helping every library maximize it's potential.

Once I got home from work, believe it or not I once again went online each and every week night to check my personal email (Optimum Online), posted on Facebook (played Cafe World of course), and on Friday, September 3rd I burnt music onto my IPOD as well as my husband's MP3 player. While at home I also text-messaged my friends to see what they were going to do for the upcoming weekend.

On the weekend I spent less time online since I had errands to run and it was the Labor Day holiday weekend. On Saturday night the 4th, I did have an old high school friend over in which we went on to Facebook and checked out new pictures and posts made by our friends. On Sunday the 5th, I went online to check my Optimum email as well as I used Google.com to check out some information about "blogs" and how to create one. I also went on Sakai, and Ecollege to check on any new information in regards to my courses this semester. Monday, the 6th of September was Labor Day so I hit the beach and did some text-messaging to my friends and family to see what they were up to. I went back to work on Tuesday the 7th and followed the same routine I mentioned above for both Tuesday and Wednesday. So with all this said, I have come to the conclusion that I am somewhat tech-savvy. I have an intellectual curiosity about technology and I also pay attention to new developments and trends.