How Technology's Accelerating Power Will Transform Us:Ray Kurzweil

I chose this particular talk because after thinking of the many different aspects of this course I came to the conclusion that this course has shown me the thousands of ways that technology has brought us to be where we are today. Not only has the modern technologies advanced with computers and cell phones, it has also advanced with the ways of the world, the speed of the world, and the togetherness of the world. Throughout this class we learned the ways of making web pages, from the old fashioned way of HTML, all the way to working with collaboration tools from different geographical locations. As Ray Kurzweil talks of the many advances within technology, he tries to analyze the ways of the world in a couple years to come. Such as in 2020, what will the world be like? To me, it is hard to believe that it is almost 2008, and with that, there is everything from handheld 'miniature' laptops to cameras on phones. Technology has come a long way, and through this course I have seen the many different ways of the world dealing with the Internet and the technologies to come are only beginning!

Online Tools and Programs for Collaboration: Research Project

I know this is a little late, but I completely forgot about it!!

My research project was about online tools and programs for collaboration. It was a completely foreign subject to me when I picked it, so throughout the entire process it was a learning experience. The gist of it is, is the ability for two or more people to work on the same project while being in different geographical locations. There are many types of tools and programs for collaboration available, and you must purchase them before being able to use them. Although I was not able to find out much about the entire process in my short period of time, I learned much about the topic considering I knew nothing. Seems it can be used for many different things, school, work, fun, entertainment, or whatever! Very interesting and glad I picked a topic so foreign to me.

Anand Agarawala: BumpTop desktop is a beautiful mess

In this modern day, people rely on computers for doing their work almost more than cars for transportation. When you think of all the technologies that have come out, the computer truly is one of the most prevalent. I decided to listen to Anand Agarawala's talk about the "BumpTop" desktop. To me, this seems like a very helpful tool for organizing your desktop, although some of the concepts that are available seem to be more for playing around than for actual work. Some of the features that would be helpful would be like being able to flip through all of the files in a folder at one time. Being able to flip through your files like a book rather than always having them pull up in front of you would make things much easier to look through. I believe that the design of this desktop meets the expectations of the modern "cool" look of technology, rather than sticking with the "normal" start, menu, and go buttons that everyone is used to seeing with computers. I think this invention could go far for the work environment, as well as for people that just want to play around on their desktop, like being able to crumple up your final paper!

Creative Spark

This weeks topic 'the creative spark' made me interested in a couple of the talks so I am not blogging generally about one talk as much as I am blogging about the differences of the many talks that available for blogging about. Some of the talks we were assigned to watch throughout the semester (such as Theo Jansen creates a new creature and Jonathan Harris tells the stories of the web) and which both of those were very interesting to me. Other talks I watched, such as Jeff Skolls makes movies that make changes and Kenichi Ebina's magic moves. The many different TED talks that were available for the topic of 'creative spark' got me interested in the many different ways that people are creative. Some people think of creativity as a completely different aspect than another person. For some people, creativity is creating new things, such as creatures that walk and talk, some think it is being creative personally by dancing, singing, or such, and others think creativity is making crafts and doing handy things. So the question that this TED talk got me pondering was, what is creativity to me? I think creativity is all in what a person makes it. To Kenichi Ebina, it is his creative dance moves. To Theo Jansen, its his walking creature. To Eddi Reader, its singing. To me, my creativity is my house. It is the one thing that I take take to create, to change, to make look its best. During holidays, I create scenes to make it look interesting. My creativity is all about making people say 'that looks nice'. Everyone has a creative spark, but no one's creativity is quite like the rest. Creativity is what makes a person who they are...be creative with everything and always keep people wondering what sparks you!

Building Webpages

My experience within this class is the only time I have really had to put together a webpage. I guess you could consider MySpace a little like a webpage, but thats pretty simple, just putting stuff on a page if you want it, otherwise leaving it plain jane. So I really don't guess I know much about building a webpage from scratch or anything of the sort. I really enjoyed blogging this semester and thought that the TED talks brought a lot of talks out of the people that otherwise would have just written the usual, 'it has been a good week, got my homework done...and the such'. By blogging about given topics, it has made our blog logs much more interesting and I think that the talks are about more than just normal things and it keeps the students on the edge. I am not a webpage designer by far, but I think it will be interesting to be able to create and design things and what not. I'm looking forward to looking at everyone else's webpages also!

AI

After watching both those movies, it really makes you think of how far that technology has brought people. Not only with work and school, but also for the fun and pleasures in life. People have gone from scrolls to laptops, atari systems to XBox360, the world of technology is never ending. In the newest video for technology there were many more features that are still not offered as of yet, and if they are than it is still so far away from the shelves for consumers to buy no one even thinks about it. Some of the technologies were the touch screen and the voice activation. Being able to walk across the room and do another task while still doing your research and what not on the computer would make a lot of people happy, they would be killing two birds with one stone.

My website that I found had a lot of interesting information in it about AI and where it is coming from and is going to. As stated, "the approach of artificial intelligence researchers is largely experimental." Still going through many different stages but before long there will be more AI on the world than people could imagine. There are movies, video games, books, and much more just about AI and how it has come to be.


http://www.answers.com/topic/artificial-intelligence?cat=biz-fin

TED Talk: Thomas Barnett-The Pentagon's new map of war and peace

Barnett made some very clear statements throughout his speech about war and the changes that have taken place and that need to be taking place. I completely understand where he is coming from when trying to seperate the soliders and make the US a stonger country, but he makes it seem as easy as buying candy in a gumball machine. Making peace and stopping war is much harder than Barnett is saying. Everyone has their opinions and very rarely will you find someone that agrees exactly with what you feel. Since the war with Iraq began, everyone has had something to say, but there is only a very few that will make the changes. People can potition everything they want but at the same time no one is there to listen. The president and his crew decide what should be done. I'm not sure where Barnett was taking things, he seemed to be making jokes of the whole war situation when he refered to the Twin Tower attacks and the US going over to Iraq as "a home game and an away game." This talk completely shocked me that someone would joke the entire time while trying to get people to be convinced with his thoughts and values.