8 - How Internet Influenced Me

I didn’t have the internet in my childhood years like I do now. Smartphones didn’t come out until I was in middle school, and I didn’t have a personal laptop until high school. What I did have, however, were video game consoles. The Original Xbox was the first system I had used that utilized internet to connect gamers and allow them to play together in the same game in real time. I played online games like Halo 2, Rainbow Six 3, and MechAssault 2. Not only would we be able to play together on a network, but we could talk to each other in real time as well. Headsets would be connected to the controller to transmit and receive voice messages. As time went on and games got more complex, more and more people were able to play and talk together simultaneously.

Internet has made a significant imprint on my life, as well as the lives of every person on this planet. I could not tell you exactly how many people currently use social media, but it’s a large number. Every day, people have their phones in their hands doing something; they’re texting, tweeting, snapchatting, or doing something else that I probably haven’t heard of yet. I’ll admit that I use my phone to text and tweet as well. I also watch a lot of Youtube and Netflix in my down time and Google things that I don’t know about to expand my knowledge. The internet gave me access to limitless information and opportunities to grow and do what was nearly impossible decades ago. Talented people (writers, musicians, programmers, craftsmen, etc.) can now demonstrate their skill to the world! If I have an idea, I can write it in this blog and link it to other websites and have many people read it! I don’t have to hope for a newspaper or magazine to publish an article. I don’t have to wait for the spotlight to hit me. I can make my own!

If I didn’t have the internet, I would be ok. People think that not having the internet would be catastrophic and no one would be able to handle it. I disagree because for centuries, we as human beings didn’t have the internet. We hand-wrote letters, read books, and actually had intriguing conversations with people. Now we sit two feet from our loved one and Facebook or tweet or play Angry Flappy Birds. However, it would need to be a gradual decrease in internet use. I think just shutting everything down and quitting cold turkey isn’t healthy or going to produce any good outcomes. Besides, the internet isn’t only for entertainment. Companies and government agencies use the internet for business.

Bottom line: The internet has remarkably influenced my life. It did the same to everyone else who owns a phone, computer, or gaming console. I can live without internet. In fact, I prefer talking to people in person. Hopefully, we will be able to bring back the physical communication and not fall too deep into virtual communication.

7 - Internet of Things

"The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data." Some of these physical objects are refrigerators, nest smoke alarms, smart thermostats, and more. Basically, these objects are all interconnected and able to send and receive information from one another without user input.

The presentation of IoT, given by Daniel Moreno-Rodriguez, Harris Schrick, Sabriena Lawrence, and Tyler Herrada, was well explained and researched. Each presenter had ample time to speak and give information about their topic. The group defined IoT and gave examples of some IoT devices and people who developed them. They also talked about the risks of IoT such as being manipulated by hacking. The lecture was concluded with the future of IoT and where this trend is leading.

I learned a few things from this presentation. The main thing I learned was what these devices were called, or how they were classified: IoT. I learned that these devices are almost self-sufficient in the sense that once they are installed and integrated into a system, they work on their own. They take data and respond appropriately, depending on the data they receive.

An issue I had with the presentation is a common one: the presenters kept their eyes glued to the screen, reading the slides verbatim. It wasn't a huge deal because they would turn back and tell the audience more detail or interesting facts. Sabriena actually did more face time with the audience than the other members of the team. This is one thing to definitely work on. Read off of index cards with definitions and other longer information. Use the slides just to have brief names and info, along with appealing visuals.

Overall, it was a great presentation with interesting information and good delivery. They had good vocal variety with no monotone. It was compelling to listening to, even though I personally felt sleepy; their demonstration kept me awake and attentive. A few questions I have for this group: Even though the risk of intrusion into this network and hacking its functions and protocols is viable, why is it thought to be more prevalent and possible in the future? What are the safeguards against intrusion? It was mentioned that hacking an IoT system was easier than hacking a computer or mobile device directly because it doesn't have anti-virus/anti-intrusion systems. Can these IoT devices be outfitted with this software to prevent attacks?

"Internet of Things." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Oct. 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things>.

5 - "The Pattern on the Stone" Opinion & Review

The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas that Make Computers Work, written by William Daniel Hillis, is a book with the intent to explain both the essential and elaborate concepts of computer science in plain english. "The book moves from Boolean algebra through topics such as information theory, parallel computing, cryptography, algorithms, heuristics, universal computing, Turing machines, and promising technologies such as quantum computing and emergent systems."

This book was a pleasure to read. To be honest, I skimmed around the narrative parts and got to the nitty gritty. In my own personal opinion, I found the chapter regarding algorithms and heuristics the most interesting in the publication. Two main reasons:

1. I had a research project over algorithms, and I--along with my sterling teammates--spent the better part of September going over algorithms and heuristics with a fine-toothed comb.
2. I really find the idea of being able to solve a problem with 100% accuracy fascinating, and I would like to investigate the run time of algorithms with very substantial tasks and find a way to shorten down the amount of time needed for an algorithm (or set of algorithms) to find the perfect solution.

I am also fascinated by heuristics and the science of that method of problem-solving in computers. Heuristic problem-solving/computing stated in the book, compared to algorithms, "almost always gets the right answer." Algorithms may get the answer 100% of the time, but it may take a considerable amount of time. Heuristics cuts that time down immensely, sacrificing optimality or precision. For example, search engines use heuristic methods of finding solutions to what the user is looking for. That's how the suggestions used by Google and Youtube work.

I mostly felt engaged reading this book, especially when I got to algorithms because I knew it would help with my project. But I digress, it was an interesting book with a great way of explaining how computers generally work. Its range of topics was vast and seemed like it wouldn't be easy to understand, but it did its best to make things like artificial intelligence (AI) and image compression easy to understand without omitting information about the topic. One area that felt dry in the book was the topic of Turing Machines. It might just be me, but it didn't match up to the rest of the book in terms of interest.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to look into how computers work and not have to take several courses on it to understand. It's not very long, ending just after 150 pages. It clearly and concisely explains computer science and other subcategories that go into how these modern marvels work.

"The Pattern on the Stone." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Apr. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pattern_on_the_Stone>.

Hillis, W. Daniel. The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work. New York: Basic, 1998. Print.