My Digital View

Paperless Books

Courtney Fuller — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:06:31 +0000

I know, it sounds like an oxymoron, but they are real. Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook are devices that allow you to read books that you’ve downloaded. They store thousands of books (endless shelf space), and display page by page. My friend has one, he loves it. They are deceiving though because at first glance it looks like the large page display screen is interactive . This is not the case. The screen that displays each page uses electronic ink, with no black light, and it’s in fact not a touch screen. This is cool because it uses no energy to display each page for ready and unlike reading off a computer screen doesn’t hurt your eyes overtime. It’s like reading straight from a book… but without all the paper. The only thing that is interactive is the bottom screen (it’s separate from the main page screen). It allows you select various books saved in your device as well as download new ones or access free books if you are in a Barnes & Noble store. Those little arrows on the sides allow you to turn the page.

I ask myself if these devices and advances are going to change the way we read books. I think that they will, eventually. The nook or kindle craze won’t pick up as quickly as the iPhone did, but overtime it will change literature. I wonder if some day our libraries will all be eLibraries, online data bases of books that you download to read. And the only editions of books are first editions (stored away in archives). Every piece of literature would be accessible and legible with new advances in technology such as the Nook. Could this solve the paper crisis and the continued deforestation problem? Probably not solve, but reduce the need I’m sure.

iPad

Courtney Fuller — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:44:56 +0000

The new apple iPad is finally here. Damn those things are cool. The apple iPad combines the standard computer interface (using a cursor to navigate through applications and functions) with a touch interface (like the iPhone, iTouch, etc). So it’s like a computer, but still not. But it’s more than an iPhone. I think it’s the first of many to revolutionize the way we use technology. It’s sleek, shiny, but still the first. The iPad is more like a prototype. We all remember when the iPhone came out and then a year later everyone who had gotten an iPhone was angry because a newer, better iPhone came out (at a fraction of the cost), just a year later. Next year, Apple will have sorted out any glitches found by users and realistically fixed other problems we didn’t even know existed; presenting the new iPad 4G.. or iPad Super S or something along those lines. Just an upgrade really. I look forward to what Apple is going to enhance our lives with next.

3D Revolution

Courtney Fuller — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:31:17 +0000

Some people think it started with Avatar, but this 3D technology has been around for some time (Avatar was just the spark that lit the flame). Now new 3D movies are exploding onto the entertainment scene and gaining momentum. I saw Nightmare on Elm Street just last week or so and about half the previews were for some new IMAX 3D experience. It seems sooner or later every movie is going to be 3D. But seeing a movie in 3D on the big screen isn’t the end, soon 3D entertainment will be available in the comfort of your living room. Oh yes, be ready to put on your 3D glasses and watch… anything in 3D!

I like 3D technology, I think it’s really cool and I enjoy watching it but I think sometimes I like knowing I’m watching something that’s 2D anyways. This 3D popularity isn’t going to stop and I’m sure it’s safe to say that it’s not a fad, I’m just curious to see how far we’re going to take 3D technology… until we’re all just a holograph watching other holographs I suppose.

3D televisions

Korean Internet Addiction

Courtney Fuller — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:12:53 +0000

In class, we watched a frontline news special about The Most Wired Place on Earth… or Korea. Which is cool and all except for the fact that the newest thing is internet addiction. Yes, seriously, people are being diagnosed and treated for internet addiction. I didn’t know how to respond to this, but I was scared. The video also showed clips of elementary students (these kids looked like they were in kindergarten), singing “the internet friends/fairy song” or something like that. The fact that kids at that age are exposed to the internet, more specifically chatting online, was a little disturbing.

I was always under the impression that a technology like the internet was something that was some how limited to teens/adults, but then I realized I only thought this because I grew up in the internet age, when internet and personal computers were the new thing. When I was in kindergarten, the internet we know today didn’t exist, so singing fun songs about chatting with your internet friends online wasn’t necessary to teach us the dangers of the world wide web. With this in mind, it seems that we are going to have to educate younger students about internet hazards because it’s clearly not going away. This makes me question what age are people using the internet. For me, once you were a preteen/teenager, you were definitely chatting on AIM. Now I have to wonder if 8 and 9 year olds are googling the new high school musical track list or whatever. Are we going to have to worry about our pre-k students’ internet exposure in the future? I don’t think kids should have access to the internet at 5 and 6 years old, but in the next decade who knows where technology will take us.

GPS/GIS influence

Courtney Fuller — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:52:46 +0000

The other day I was helping a friend with directions. She lives in Champaign, but doesn’t really know how to get around, ever. More recently she’s been using her boyfriend’s Garmin, GPS system, which has done wonders for her driving. I just found out that she used to have some kind of GPS in the cars she drove in her home town in Minnesota, could the fact that she’s been using GPS in the past explain why she is so bad with directions? Are these technologies really that helpful?

What I’m trying to get at is the fact that I’ve never used a GPS system to navigate (sure I’ve used them, but never relied on one). My father taught me how to drive around the streets of Chicago, even to know which direction I was traveling. I became MapQuest to my friends when it came to driving in Chicago, and now Champaign as well. Do navigation aids harm us in the long run? I think using GPS systems to find your way around your hometown is a little ridiculous, and maybe even dangerous. Relying on a little arrow to get from place to place forces you to block out other sensory observations (street names, direction headed, land marks, etc.), which could be helpful the next time you need to get around town. In my experience, I’ve found that once you’ve familiarize your self with a certain place/city, you can pretty much find any location. It’s better to know where you live than to know you have a GPS system that will direct you.

Now, if you are traveling to other states and places that you are not even the least bit familiar with then I’d say having a Garmin would be useful. But come on people, learn your surroundings, don’t depend on a machine.

Discussing how Technology makes Space

Courtney Fuller — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:23:11 +0000

I talked to my group members about the iPhone and how it creates space. One of my classmates asked me why such a small object can have such an impact on society. Is it really that important? I honestly don’t know. It’s crazy how technology can spread like a disease. Everyone has an iPhone or at least knows a handful of people who do have one. Furthermore, does the fact that everyone has it just make it more influential on space? Is the iPhone craze creating a network of technology that could some day work together to redefine the concept of space. If you can talk to someone and see someone on your hand-held phone, video, camera, game system device…. is there eventually going to come a day when that’s the only interaction our society knows anymore? Only time and the continued exponential growth and development of technology will tell.

Technology and Space

Courtney Fuller — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:18:37 +0000

It’s known as the iPhone, and it’s taking over our nation. It’s a camera, iPod, Internet, touch-screen cell phone from Apple. It is normally held one-handed, but it’s not necessarily a small phone. The iPhone is thin and clean-looking with a black or white color option. Its flat touch screen is protected by glass that is scratch resistant, (even from being forcefully scratched with keys). More important that what the phone looks like it what it can do. There really isn’t a whole lot that the iPhone can’t do. The iPhone can provide voice and turn-by-turn navigation; has 3G technology which allows for fast access to the internet/email; can play music using iTunes; and can hold way too many applications and games to keep track of. The applications, or Apps as they are being coined, are boosting iPhone’s popularity. There’s an application for everything things theses days; for example, there is even an App that allows a doctor to hear his patients heartbeat (Trends in Brief). All these features have helped make the iPhone the most popular phone, since nothing has even come close to the record sales of the iPhone. If we consider other popular smart phones, like the Palm Pre, which sold between 50,000 and 100,000 devices in its debut week, we see the staggering difference is demand. The iPhone sold 146,000 units in the first two days after its release in 2007. The newest generation of iPhone sold more than 1 million units over the first two days of its availability (Why the iPhone can’t be killed). Now that the ridiculous popularity of the iPhone is within perspective, we can access how it creates or influences space. Like most cell phones, there is the obvious creation of space made by being able to contact people all around the world wirelessly, but the iPhone takes it a step further. The iPhone isolates individuals with its ability to captivate the user with music or cool games all on a handheld personal device, so in a sense decreases space; while at the same time increasing space by allowing users to text frequently, keep in contact with friends/ coworkers, and browse the web (possibly to answer a question that just came up in conversation, very common in my everyday life). Plus the iPhone has navigation Apps that create space by helping direct a user’s travel. Depending on how one views virtual contact they could say that the iPhone decreases space because it limits physical interactions, but my view is more that it broadens the possibility for communication thus increases space. There are obviously many benefits the iPhone has to offer (after all it’s designed to be extremely user-friendly), but are there any risks? I would say it’s reasonable to assume that with the abuse of anything there are always risk. So the question becomes, are we abusing the iPhone? It’s quite possible we are. Is having access to so many games, Apps, and the Internet really necessary all the time, (which the iPhone enables)? As of right now, there are no known health risks, but we didn’t know the dangers of cigarettes until they had been ingrained in our society for half a century. I don’t think we have to worry about the iPhone causing cancer and being another number one killer in our nation, but it does make one wonder.

Sources:

1. http://mjbaig.wordpress.com/2007/07/03/how-toughdurable-is-the-iphone/

2 “Why the iPhone can’t be ‘killed’.” Network World (2009). Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Apr. 2010. Document URL: http://find.galegroup.com.proxy2.library.uiuc.edu/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=AONE&docId=A214688402&source=gale&userGroupName=uiuc_uc&version=1.0

3. Fisher, Richard “Welcome to Appland”. New Scientist; 8/22/2009, Vol. 203 Issue 2722, p32-36, 5p

4. “Trends in Brief”. Futurist; Jan/Feb2010, Vol. 44 Issue 1, p8-16, 5p, 3 Color Photographs

Virtual Reality!

Courtney Fuller — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:50:58 +0000

Last week, I was fortunate enough to visit the Illinois Simulator Lab at the University of Illinois is Urbana-Champaign. It was so cool. They had many simulators, from a flying simulator to this thing called a Cube. The Cube was a cubic room where each wall is basically just a computer. All six walls are projection screens linked to six different computers that work together to display an image (that we see using 3D glasses). The first thing we experience in the Cube was an underwater fish feeding frenzy of Sharks. It was so awesome that the computers were able to make it look like the sharks were swimming at, above, and all around you. To me it seemed totally futuristic. Other simulations we experienced in the Cube were a castle tour, a roller coaster ride, and a visual expression of math like graphing a line.

This kind of technology can be used to research lots of things. Specifically, it could be used to study calculated estimations of bombs perhaps. From which can be tested virtually rather than accidentally destroy a country. This would be important because it could potentially save many lives and advance bomb technology. But that’s just one idea. Other things this technology would be able to help with would be architecture, being able to virtually built a house design that can be walked through almost literally. This would be useful because then you would be able to actually experience certain dimensions which is better than guessing that a room is going to be big enough I suppose.

The experience I had in the simulators (the Cube and I also used the flight simulator), was much different from what I had expected. I didn’t know there was something so cool at our university. Those simulators are similar to what I’d expect to do at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, which is a totally cool place by the way. In whole, I really enjoyed the field trip to the Illinois Simulator Laboratory.

Geocoding

Courtney Fuller — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:28:22 +0000

Map from Google Earth:

This map shows locations of Chase Bank ATM’s. Originally the map was intended to be of all the Chase ATM’s near Champaign, but there are only about 10 near Champaign. The rest of the points are in neighboring counties and other college campus’ (but still at least an hour away, which isn’t exactly near Champaign). That was probably the only problem I ran into because I was forced to expand my focus area. Google Earth displayed the 20 addresses I put into the geocoding system with just longitude and latitude.

My Google Maps representation looks like so:

This map shows where these ATM’s are located relative to cities, as well as shows main highways and interstates. I feel that this map is actually more helpful to consumers and seems more realistic.

One use of geocoding would be to determine where different businesses or services are located relative to cities and consumer access. From my data, I would say, unless you lived in Champaign or Bloomington, Chase ATM’s are difficult to access since the nearest ATM could be about 30 minutes away. That almost takes the convenience out of using an ATM.

Green Map Data Collection

Courtney Fuller — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:43:25 +0000

On Unofficial, or March 5th, two of my classmates and I (Chris and Henry), strolled around the quad trying to collect green map data. Green map data consists of things like areas of Free Speech, Bike Paths, Bus Stops, Public Libraries, Independent Local Business, Recreation facilities and many more. Things that potentially promote a “Green” community. Since the quad has been known for getting your word out, we said the center of the quad should be considered a place of free speech. We also marked the location with our GPS device. Other locations we marked were the Library, the YMCA (as a recreation center), the bus stop at Wright and Armory, the various bike paths that run around the quad, and the Union as a place with local business (like Serendipity or the Quad Shop). We were limited to the quad and Wright Street because other groups were collecting data in different areas. I enjoyed the excercise because it was a beautiful day out and I had never taken the time to think about how many things the quad has to offer.