Desktop Publishing (It’s present and future impact on the World) Wednesday, Feb 13 2008

1. Describe how word processing and desktop publishing software have revolutionized writing and publishing.

In early word processing programs, there was a set sequence to the entirety of word processing which made it both tedious and trivial to the user. Editing and spell checking were non-existent and basically the same functions of the typewriter were employed, just now the user had the ability to view their text on a screen. As they began to develop, things like formatting, margins and spell check began to allow the user to concentrate more on the substance of the document versus spending the majority of their time making sure to spell and use grammar correctly. Modern word processing takes care not only of the content of a paper, but the appearance. Formatting allows you to choose the margins and other useful tools, and also offers the user a wide range of fonts and styles for their work. By taking away the stress (and polluting aspect) of printing out every draft and then having to retype the same paper again for you next draft, contemporary word processors allow more time for the PROCESS of writing; not the process of presenting your writing.

 2. Discuss the potential impact of desktop publishing and Web publishing on the concept of freedom of the press.

Everything to do with the internet can be potentionally harmful in the wrong hands, and with the concept of desktop and Web publishing, this is especially relavant. When a user publishes something either online or in one of the many forms of desktop publishing, they are putting their thoughts out on a worldwide forum. As our textbook suggests, these forums ”offers unprecendented mass publishing possibilities to millions of Internet users,” but governments still have the ability to override these forums. When something is published in a newspaper or magazine, it takes a substantial amount of time for governments to catch on and put a stop to and/censor that article; online it is insanely simple. Take two examples from Turkey, WordPress, which we are using, is blocked on all ISP’s that are government controlled because there was a blog that was offensive. Similarly, YouTube was blocked for two days because certain videos were deemed unsuitable. China is also famous for its censorship laws, especially against journalist. Blogs allow journalists to be feel empowered, that their ideas are being consumed with the click of a button; on the contrary, it allows them more easily to be tracked and censored.  

3. Speculate about future developement in word processing and digital processing.

With the invention of SmartBoards and even the new technology like iPhones, there are unprecedented lengths to which word processing and digital processing could go to. The most logical in the evolution is for the ability to dictate a paper to your word processor and have it appear before your very eyes. Speech recognition software interpret sound and wavelengths to create a pattern within the computer to implement the words in the word processor. However, this has proved more challenging as the computer will have difficulty differentiating voices and therefore could get overloaded. The first step would be to create a program that has the ability to recognize an individuals voice, but even then the individual would have to speak slowly in a incredibly still and quiet enviornment. Transferring handwritten text onto a word processor seems like an impending accomplishment in the very near future, as SmartBoards have accomplished half of the requirements; all that is left is the transfer of the text on the screen into a word processing document. Either way, the world of word processing, web publishing and desktop publishing will undoubtedly surpass anything we can imagine.

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End of Term Recap Friday, Jan 25 2008

This term we have been finding our footing in the whole IB aspect of the course, and have managed to make it through four chapters of the book and have written one research paper.  The majority of our work with the book was done either with the text itself or with online exercises. The books website has online quizzes and exercises that test you and make sure that you have a clear understanding of what is depicted. Other activities that we have participated in this term are:

-This blog, which serves as both our journals and as a forum for our essays and papers that we decide to write.

-Taken apart a printer, and watched it being put back together

-Made a powerpoint for the school faculty on how to connect the overhead to a laptop

-Saved our English teacher when she forgot how to connect the overhead to a laptop

-Seen our schools main server and learned how they work

-Tried to solve internet connection issues

 -Created YouTube tutorials for Word 2007, and people who have trouble using Word

-Explored the world of Skype and its counterparts.

-Discovered just how unsavvy we are when it comes to technology

-Drank boatloads of Nescafe to keep ourselves awake while writing our research papers.

 Cheers to a new term of more technological learning!!

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Semester Update Monday, Jan 7 2008

So far we have been working on a myriad of projects, all that reach different spectrums of the technology world. Firstly we created videos with CamStudio, a free software program that creates AVI files; then we uploaded them to YouTube. This proved to be quite a long task because the school server was having issues for about two weeks in December. In between all of this we have started our essays for IB, the proposal is in the previous post. This has proved equally as challenging as our YouTube endeavours, because school has been riddled with vacation for Christmas and New Years (though we did not have our term break yet).

 For the essay, I have been heavily researching P2P file sharing systems, especially those that cater to music and file downloading. I don’t really understand the tech part of it entirely but the economics portion of the essay is going really smoothly. Basically we are going to be researching and learning about our respective topics until we reach our term break. There is a lot of research and technology in both of our topics; Kyra’s being virtual learning and mine being the online music industries.

After the term break, WordPress will become a bigger part of the class..

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ITGS Friday, Nov 23 2007

Portfolio Proposal

Candidate Name: Caitlin Bishop

Title Of Piece: The Ethics of Downloading-How will the music industry shift to accomdate a changing market?  

Area of Impact: Business

News Item: Plummer, Robert. “Online music fees pose digital dilema.” BBC News 24 Sept. 2007. 21 Nov. 2007 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6989973.stm>.  

Does the topic relate to ITGS? Yes.

 Is the area of impact one that has not been addressed in a previous portfolio piece? Yes.

Was the news item published no more than six months before you started the course? Yes

 Does the article raise one or more social or ethical issues related to an ITGS system? Yes

 Is the problem clear? Yes.

Can you think of two vaiable solutions? Yes.

Do you have access to a range of sources on this topic? Yes.  

Approved: _____________________     Date: _____________

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The History of Computers. Friday, Nov 2 2007

The internet has not been around for very long, but ever since the technology boom in the late 90′s, a DSL or wireless line has become a household fixture. It took five years for the internet to reach 50 million users, compared to the radio’s 35 years and TV’s 13 years, which proves this is more than a passing phenomenon. J.C.R. Licklider concocted the idea of a computer when he invisioned a global file sharing system while he was working at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, an advanced research center that created the Internet while preoccupied with other projects), so todays internet fits his dream almost to a T. The rise of the Internet was perpetrated by the technology boom in the late 90s, and as the demand has grown, the internet is readily changing to meet those needs. With more and more blogs (both personal and corporate) popping up all over the web, blogs have to become not only accessible but overal easy to use.

 One of the main attractions of the Internet was of course, email. The first documented email was in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson and it simply read, ‘Testing 1,2,3′ and was addressed to himself. He then issued addresses to everyone at ARPANET (a branch of DARPA) and the email was born, but it had many falliabilities. Originally email was just a listing of messages that you could open, but only in the order that you recieved them, and there was no deleting. From then on the ability to: delete, recieve/send, forward, save, file your emails made email what it is today. This was all done in the time span from 1972-1972 and from that year we have (essentially) the same email programming we have today.

 After email was conquered, we moved on to search engines, blogs and websites where you could share information with others. The search engines we know and love today are basically online libraries, where with a click of your mouse you are scanning through millions of books. Instead of leafing through books in the library, you simply type in key words, text or a subject of study into a search engine like Google or Yahoo and you have at least a million responses.

 The rise of the internet was unprecendented, and while we tend to think that everyone in the world has access to the internet; there is still a vast majority of the globe that is not ‘connected.’ Factors like: location, age, class even gender all effect the internet, and as it continues to grow in future years maybe the entire world can be part of the internet boom. But as it develops, the cliche ‘the harder you rise, the faster you fall,’ is no doubt running through some individuals minds. With sites like Wikipedia, where anyone has access to change information that others may count on for reports, thesis papers, even evidence; we have to question how reliable the internet truly is.

But when in only several years the internet has made such an immense impact, it’s only going to get bigger.

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Types of Computers. Thursday, Oct 18 2007

There are many types of computers, all of which are currently on the market today. The two main competitors are Mac and PC (as it has been for many years), and within each company, there are many different types of computers. The most commonly commercialized computers are desktops and laptops; but there are a myriad of other forms of computers. Desktops are obviously not meant to be mobile, and their system units and either positionned vertically or horizantally next to the computer. Desktop systems are fairly easy to summarize, the necessary components are: the motherboard, graphics card, a memory unit, CD and DVD rom drives, and various harddrives. Laptops are very similar to desktops, but they are lighter than just the tower of a desktop. The screen and keyboard are part of the unit, which is designed to allow each part to fit without air resistance.  With these changes laptops take up less space, are mobile, produce less heat and save power in comparison to a desktop.

 The next most accessible towards the public are PDA’s (Personal Digital Assistant; handhelds) and Palm Pilots which are one of the smallest forms of microcomputers. The most obvious difference between these two, is that Palm Pilots tend to resemble a mini-laptop than a cellphone. They both have the same functions but perform them in extremely distinctive ways. PDA’s allow interaction between the unit you use and desktops, other PDA’s; Palm Pilots have programs avaidible for download like Windows CE (Windows Consumer) and other programs. Workstations are computers that everyone who is not technologically savvy will never come into contact with. The next rank up are mini-computers,  and the main difference between these and mainframes is the cost. Mini-Computers can set you back a mere 100,000 dollars while a Mainframe is a whopping 1,000,000. Supercomputers are the highest form of computers, and are used for major military and scientific maneuvers.

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Test SlideShare Powerpoint Link Wednesday, Oct 10 2007

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Digg It Thursday, Oct 4 2007

Much like Technorati, Digg.com allows you to find useful websites and information, which would usually take awhile to find and then save. The main difference between Technorati and Digg.com is the fact that on Digg you can have a profile and connect with friends to have access to their websites. With Technorati you can simply have access to information from around the web , but without the social aspect that Digg.com has. Digg allows you to get the social aspect of the ‘World Live Web’ and all the information you would be getting at Technorati. Users also have the option to rate what appears on Digg, which is very different from Technorati where you are simply able to view the information and see other websites. Digg also hasnt experienced the recent backlash that Technorati has with tech problems on the site. Digg seems to appeal to the younger generation by allowing you to make friends and share your interests with them.

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Technorati.com Wednesday, Oct 3 2007

Technorati is basically a blog tracker that tracks blogs through their links and tags, and is just a complation of almost 110 million blogs, for all different subjects. It promotes itself as a social sytem also, because it allows its members to upload videos, photos, and quizzes as well. Constant uploads allow most of the information on the site to be accurate every moment of everyday, so you are getting a well-rounded update whenever you log on. The bloggers on Technorati make links to other sites and sources constantly, allowing you to have access to all this information in one source. Technorati uses these links to organize and convey the information, comments and photos from to your personal account. You aren’t constantly clicking on links and typing in new web addresses, because you can have them organized on Technorati. Part of the ‘World Live Web’ Technorati has on average 175, 000 blog updates alone everyday, and 18 posts per second. So it’s basically a huge chat room that allows you to see and access information that you might not normally find.

 It’s not as popular as it was at it’s launch because of issues with it’s former CEO and Technorati founder, Dave Sifry, and apparent technical problems within the site.  Issues with spam,  experimental features, and its lack of subscribers, which breaks down the whole system.  Despire this, it still has many loyal users who check it daily and use it as their main source of information.

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Google Email For ACI Wednesday, Oct 3 2007

As part of Student Council’s plan for the year, we have school assigned emails through Google.  It’s pretty much a gmail account except you have to go through a different address to get to it. Plus it has the school logo on the side, and a calendar for school related events. This will help whenever there are big school events that you must attend, for SATS, clubs, sports, or whatever else is going on at school. The start page for this email has the calendar as one of the features and you can’t remove it, you are permantly in tune with school. You can also add special personalized features like games, weather, CNN updates, People.com updates; whatever interests you. This is better than a School Webpage because it allows you to instantly have contact with everyone in the school. The only weird incident I’ve had with this is that the website takes a very long time to log on and sends you to a Documents page.

The website you have to go through to log into your account is: http://partnerpage.google.com/students.aci.k12.tr
and your email is your name with a period seperating your given name and your surname.

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