Posts Tagged technology
Obama to Make Technology a Hub, not Just a Spoke
written 10 Nov 2008 while the sun tried, at least, rising
According to NPR, Obama plans to seriously overhaul some technological aspects of the government and everyday American’s lives as well. He specifically mentioned hiring a Chief Technical Officer to coordinate government IT departments and making certain they’re using the best technology, to put government affairs online so that citizens can review what’s being spent on what and other decisions, and ensuring that everyone in the nation has access to broadband Internet.
The piece also pointed out that while the United States invented the Internet, we now rank 14th in broadband access and speeds. I dream of a President with the wisdom to see that making America a technological leader again, whether it be via the Internet, cell communication or automotive concerns, is an obvious step in continuing our ability to thrive as a people with such a high standard of living.
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The Thing About Microsoft is…
Microsoft just recently admitted making mistakes when Vista was released, stating that “We broke a lot of things.” and “There’s a conversation going on in the marketplace today and it’s just plain awful.”
We broke a lot of things.
The conversation referred to is presumably the one where word of mouth is spreading Vista’s incompatibility with many devices and the general feeling of the new OS being a step back from XP. It might also include the conversation where many users, as much as 40% of current college students, are deciding that rather than upgrading to Vista ($130 – $220 depending on the version) they’re going to shell out for a new Mac (who’s computers are now only about $500 more expensive and who’s OS upgrades are only around $80.) Apple’s market share (for Macs) is up to almost 8% (from less than 1% in the late 90′s). Corporations (especially in China) are switching to Linux more and more often. Firefox has as much as 41% of the browser market, which just a few years ago was all but completely dominated by Internet Explorer.
So what happened, and what’s going to happen?
QR Codes, Making the Real World Digital
First we got rid of newspapers, soon CDs will go the way of the bowler hat, and now the digital world is poised to replace our real life one as well. And by that, I’m talking about QR codes, which are basically bar codes that can be scanned by cell phones (with the right software) which are then redirected to a URL with more information about the bar code.
Literacy, Technology and the Learned Mind throughout History
I was listening to an interview Bob Edwards (formerly of NPR’s Morning Edition, now on Satellite Radio) put on and his interviewee was talking about how Socrates was concerned that the rise in the written word would defeat wisdom and learning. Apparently, as the written word was slowly growing around Greece at the time, the philosopher’s concern was that if people didn’t need to remember things they wouldn’t have the opportunity to think them through and analyze the meaning behind an idea, nuance out the finer details and expound on a thought, rather than just read it and know that it will be there if you need to read it again. If something is recorded on paper, Socrates thought, then it doesn’t have to be recorded in the mind.
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