The impact of the information age on your life and lifestyle.

The Blog today is about how the information age has or will impact our life and lifestyle.
So the first questions is; Can human bodies and minds adapt to the higher stimulation, faster pace, and constant change of the information age? ... Considering that the information age is growing in a fast pace, with new technologies being produced or introduced almost every month is very overwhelming. Because, some, people try to always be up to date with these new techs. I believe humans can adapt but as soon as they do they have to adapt to the other newer versions. It almost becomes a job for some. So humans can adapt but they'll have to really take the effort to do so.
So this bring us to our next question, Will our information-heavy environment cause us to lose touch with the more fundamental human needs? With this technology, I personally believe that it will make us lose touch with our fundamental human need because we spend too much time on them than we do with our human needs, having us lose the ability to have human interactions even making us lazy to take care of ourselves.
Now for the third question, Will we become so dependent on our "pretty toys" that we can't get by without them? I believe this is true, we get so caught up on our "toys" everyday that we depend on them for everyday. Making us need them for entertainment and communications or interactions with people around the globe. Not having them just isn't complete, especially in a fast growing pace of the information age.
For the forth question, Will we lose our sense of purpose and identity as our machines become more intelligent? Or will we learn to balance the demands of the technology with our biological and spiritual needs? No, personally I believe, even if the machines become more "intelligent" we won't lose our sense of purpose and identity because there is a lot to explore about the human inside and out, and the thing that, hopefully, sets us apart from the machine is will. We all humans have WILL, a choice to do something or not, a choice to believe or not believe. Either physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually we have those choices, and so far, what I know, Computers are given the knowledge (and is stored) of things,programs,etc..and they follow. Yes, of course the machines might be fast, either to calculate or complete tasks. But they are "robots" and we're not, this makes us Intelligent.

Copyright issues.

Blog- "Scanners, video digitizers, and audio digitizers make it easier than ever for people to violate copyright laws. What, if anything, should be done to protect the intellectual property rights of the people who create pictures, videos, and music? Under what circumstances do you think it's acceptable to copy sounds or images for use in your own work?"

Nowadays, People can copy and paste pictures or sounds(i.e. music, videos, etc.) and put it in their work and go against the copyright laws, but there are some ways to protect that property.
For instance, I wanted to copy and paste a picture so I could have a better look at it but it had restrictions and only the person who added/posted could do such things to it, so having your name on it or blocking other people from using it could somewhat protect it.
I believe, under any circumstances, you have to state(reference) where and who belongs to the music, picture, or video if wanting to put it in your own work.

E-Commerce?

So the Blog was,
"Have you ever purchased anything online? How do you feel about online shopping - is it something that you use and trust? Do you shop with a credit card? or Paypal? WHat kinds of things are you willing to purchase online? Why or why not?"

First of all, I don't shop online because I don't have a credit card but probably if i did I would. I was asked to use Paypal once I wasn't sure what it was at that time but now I know what it is but then again having no credit card I wasn't able to use it. If i did, i'd probably purchase clothing, Apple merchandise, music, etc. because its the things that aren't, sometimes, available near you.
I would probably have a hard time purchasing things online because I'd be paranoid or aware of online frauds and thieves.

Word Processing issues?

The blog for today is "Some people argue that word processing reduces the quality of writing because it makes it easy to write in a hurried and careless manner and it puts the emphasis on the way a document looks rather than on what it says. What do you think? Explain your answer from your own perspective."
Well, any paper on word processing like for instance Microsoft word, makes it easier to type, even when in a rush. And you're able to make it fancy and set it up as you please. But there are automatic changes in Microsoft Word, if you spell a word wrong even if the word your trying to type is right. Or! its a fragment on a sentence, which will not make sense when you change to the word processors "way".And you wouldn't be able to do it your way. Even though its easier to have a document nice and neat or fancy, and you can just type away. It takes a lot away from your point that you first had on your paper. Because you don't take as much time as you did on your paper with thought. So, I believe that it does reduce the quality of writing.

 

Computer Errors, our fault or the computers?

The statement: "Computers don't make mistakes, people do" is often used to support the reliability of computer output. Is this statement true? 
from experience, I believe this statement is true. While working on assignments, in CMPT 100, we would type stuff up (on our "web page"/ XHTML) and when we thought it was right the computer would tell us the error and point exactly to where the error was. So we'd go back and look at it and sure enough the mistake(s) is there. But even having a little mistake, like missing a letter or a semi-colon would cause an error. And it is our job to look over our work, to make sure if its correct, before we go blaming the computer.

Being "Green" and using computers

Do you think the computer industry has more of a positive or negative effect on preserving global ecosystems? I believe the effect is positive, because in ways it doesn't hurt or harm the ecosystem as much as other things do, like;gas, industrial sites, how people stash their waste products,etc. Ways we could be "green" using our computer and internet? well we could encourage others through internet by posts, websites, videos, blogs, etc. And we could recycle the broken down or no longer used hard-wares. These are only a few things that come in to mind. But it'll take more to be environmental friendly.

Computer using and being "Green"

Thoughts on Digital Divide

A discussion on the Digital Divide in USA. is there a digital divide in Canada? I don't think so, probably there are a few places in Canada that can't access the internet, maybe because of the connections they have, like financially-to pay the internet connection, bill of it, or the expenses to make an internet connection to a remote place. but there are other ways people can connect, even if its not from home. And I think there are remote places across Canada that get access. I've seen some people from certain places that can go on; Facebook or Youtube, etc ...so I don't think there's a digital divide in Canada.

Thoughts on World Wide Web

The World Wide Web has been around about 20 years. The first question, what impact does it have in my life? well the WWW hasn't been in my life for a long time, and I wasn't able or was interested to access it. But when I did, it really helped a lot in school research, connecting with friends and family, or just entertainment. And as well as getting "outside" information like News or weather. To think about it, it has made a real impact in my life. Now the second question, What difference would it make in your life if it didn't exist? after thinking about what the impact the WWW has in my life, it would show that I would put more energy or effort to try and know those things. Probably life would be hectic.But it would also be a good thing, for instance we'd have more family time, be more active, and gain more knowledge in the brain. it would be bad/good thing i guess.

Threat to personal privacy posed by large databases and computer networks

This issue is based on the trail of personal information we leave behind either from using a credit card for buying things online, placing a phone call or just exploring the Web. Who really owns or keeps this information, do we have full control over this information once its out, and do the business or organizations have the right to share this information with others?
This issue sounds alarming and right away you'll become paranoid and think is this safe? This is what made it interesting. I wouldn't just want any business or organization to give away my info. because there might be other people who'll steal my personal info. or if there was a mistake I'd want to correct it. But there is possibly some solutions to keeping it secure. For instance, make sure the business or organization is trustful and not  to put real deep information onto anything for anyone, to be aware.