.wk15. Blobjects

1) The 'blobject' phenomenon took off in the ID (industrial design) profession in the 1990s. Why?

Though the blobject was spurned by a changing culture mixing lives with the fluidity of technology, it propelled into such a big phenomenon because of CAD, modeling techniques and the development of new materials, production methods and rapid prototyping.

           

2) Which year in the 1990s was a watershed?

            1998

3) What three other products were introduced this year that were good examples of blobjects?

            New Volkswagon Beetle

            “5 flavor” Apple iMacs

            Nike Triax watch

4) On page 29 of "Shaping Things" Bruce Sterling describes when a 'gizmo' becomes a 'spime'. Copy the sentence here. ( actually found on page 23)

“When the entire industrial process is made explicit, when the metrics count for more than the object they measure, then gismo become spimes.”

5) On page 45 of "Shaping Things" Bruce Sterling describes a defining characteristic of a Synchronic Society. Quote him here.

“A synchronic society generates trillions of catalogable, searchable, trackable trajectories: patterns of design, manufacturing, distribution and recycling that re maintained in fine grain detail.”

.wk14. myMaps visualization.

Check out myMap of my neighborhood and favorite places!

.wk13.Animation.

1. Squash and Stretch : 
As the ball is stepped on by Luxor Junior, it squashes and stretches according to the amount of force applied to it by him. 

2. Timing and Motion : Movement of the ball in relation to the lamp characters. The ball rolls toward them and there is a moment when the lamp slowly looks up, recognizes it, questions it, and reacts. 

3. Anticipation : As the little lamp begins to jump on the ball, the ball squishes more and he begins to jump higher and harder each time building up to the ball popping. 

4. Staging : Pixar sets the feeling of Luxor Junior through lots of little interrelated actions that express a specific mood. This is the combination of the movement of the lights and the spotlight they give off and the motion of the lights when excited or unsure. 

5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action : The movements of the light characters are examples of both of these actions. Follow through takes place as the lights move, especially when the little light is jumping and excited. When done jumping he doesn’t just stop, but his springs and body bounce a little even once he’s landed. Overlapping action is similar, but one action starts before another ends like while he is jumping along. The front of the lamp begins the next motions toward jumping before part of it has even completely landed. 

6. Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose Action :I’m not sure how this can be seen in the actual video as it applies to the drawing process. Straight ahead action is drawing the scene frame by frame, while pose to pose is drawing key frames and filling in the intervals. The film probably uses a combination of the two but I don’t see how one can tell unless we were looking at the actual machinery behind the animation. 

7. Slow In and Out :Seen in the movement of the ball. As it rolls onto screen it slowly rolls in then quickly bounces against the larger lamp, and slowly stops. 

8. Arcs : Seen in Luxor Junior in the movement of the cord as the little light hops along, and in the light spot following the movement of each character. 

9. Exaggeration : The motions of the lamps are exaggerated to amply realistic human emotions to them in order to convey the story. 

10. Secondary Action : Any time a light pushes a ball, the ball rolls. 

11. Appeal : The lamps are characters that take on humanistic emotion and expression making them relatable as more than inanimate objects to the viewer.

.wk12.Special Effects.

• What was the name of the film made by Edwin S Porter that made use of a double-exposure to show a train window view of passing landscape? 
• The Great Train Robbery, circa 1903 
• Who invented the traveling matte shot in 1916? 
• Frank Williams 
• How many weeks did it take to animate the main character in 1933’s KING KONG? 
• 55 weeks 
• Which film made use of the ‘slit scan’ process in the 1960s? 
• 2001: A Space Odyssey 
• In his essay “Industrial Memory” theorist Mark Dery argues that the silver fluid T1000 cyborg character represents a ‘masculine recoil’ – but from what? 
• From the feminization of electronic technology. 
• Tim Recuber in his essay “Immersion Cinema” describes the key idea – that of immersion cinema itself – what is it? What makes it unique? 
• Immersion Cinema refers to how technology has effected how the viewer experiences cinema using projection, audiovisual advancements, hi-fi and 3-D. Never before has the viewer been able to be so completely immersed in theatre and be almost physically affected by it. The viewer is able to feel as if they are an active participant in the story. 
• In the special effects history links, in the Time magazine history of special effects, there is a description of ‘motion control’ cameras developed for “Star Wars” in the 1970s. What is motion control? 
• Motion control allows for complicated camera movements during filming. The original motion control system, the Dykstraflex, allowed for specific series of shots to be automated, saved, and re-filmed in the same series. The system was completely digitally controlled and allowed for 7 specific movements: roll, pan, tilt, swing, boom, traverse, track, lens focus, motor drive, shutter control, and then the duplication of the moves for many takes. 
• Out of the 14 minutes of Jurassic Park’s dinosaur footage, how many minutes were computer generated imagery or CGI? 
• 4 minutes were computer generated, the rest were created using animatronic models. 
• In the ‘denofgeek’ website, what is the name of the film that features an army of sword fighting skeletons, made in 1963? 
• Jason and the Argonauts 
• In the ‘denofgeek’ site, which 2005 film used a special effects shot to sell the idea of a remake of a famous science fiction story to Steven Spielberg? 
• War of the Worlds

.wk11. Theme Parks & Shopping Malls

•  In Margaret Crawford's Essay "The World in a Shopping Mall she outlines that 'the size and scale of a mall reflects "threshold demand"' - what is meant by this term? 
• Threshold demand, according to Crawford, is the minimum n umberof potential customers living within a geographical range of a retail space to enable it to be sold at a profit. The larger the mall or more stores involved in it, the larger the geographic space it appeals to.
• In the same article Margaret Crawford describes something called "spontaneous malling" - what does this mean?
• Urban spaces are transformed into malls without the addition of new buildings or developers to create the mall. This happens simply by closing off streets and designating them as pedestrian zones intead. 
• According to Michael Sorkin in his essay 'See you in Disneyland', how did Disneyland have its origins? 
• Specifically Disneyland was paid for by ABC in a deal made by Walt Disney. The ideas for Disneyland stem from a trip to a Railroading Fair and a visit to another amusement park in which he was disgusted by it’s horrible hygiene. 
• Michael Sorkin writes in his essay that Disney's EPCOT Center was motivated largely by frustrations Disney felt at his Anaheim CA park. What were those frustrations? 
• He was unhappy that the success of Disneyland prompted a mass building of hotels and “low commerce”. Disney was frustrated with the sullying of Disneyland and wanted to create a utopia of cleanliness for EPCOT. 
• In his essay "Travels in Hyperreality" Umberto Eco describes Disneyland as 'a place of total passivity' - what does he mean by this? 
• At Disneyland, everything is regulated and dictated by the park. The visitor is discouraged from going off the path and is sort of corralled into certain movements and directions based on the design. 

.wk10.Second Life Funfair Experience.

This funfair wasn’t at all fun, at least not for me, but I wasn’t able to go during the scheduled class time so I went later.  The experience really emphasized how for some people, second life is truly a second life, and for others maybe even a first.  I guess I don’t understand at all where the fun comes in from just walking around and talking to random people or having a character interact and do things that are not real.  During the game play, the only semi redeeming feature for me was the visuals.  It’s kind of neat to look at all the things people made and inspect parts of them.  But the graphics aren’t really nice enough to make it worth actually playing the game.  It just seems like a waste of time.  If you have to spend real life time and real money in order to do imaginary things, why do it?  Maybe if there were more challenges within the game that rewarded you with points to use to get other things, then it would be more of a game and less of an experience.  But who knows, maybe there is and I didn’t realize it in my short time played.

As a place to meet, I think second life could be interesting, but ultimately a basic video conference would be more effective for everyone involved.  For game design and component design, Second life is a good tool for practicing and getting used to gaming systems, but I don’t really see it as an effective gaming tool.

.wk9.Wikileaks.Mindmap.

.wk8. Geert.Lovink. on Web2.0

1) In his introduction, Lovink quotes G.H. Mead who describes "Sociality" as what?

      a) Sociality is the capacity of being several things at once.

2) Where did Silicon Valley find inspiration in the post 9/11 reconstruction period?

      a) Search start-ups like Google.

      b) Blog sites like blogger, blogspot, and livejournal, which allowed for self-publishing by consumers.

3) With tools to oversee national IP range, it is possible for countries to do two things with these technologies. What are they?

      a) To block users outside a country from viewing content from within the country

      b) To prevent citizens of a country from visiting foreign websites.

4) Lovink argues top-down considerations with Web 2.0 are less interesting than 'bottom-up' ones. What does he mean by this?

      a) Bottom-up refers to the use and creation of tools and information by the user or “activist” as he puts it. The content would be more pure which would then translate into more interesting content. The Top-down model for social media sites, blogs, and search engines depends upon the information that is sold as marketing data. Their function is to generate content for advertisers, which somewhat limits the content. User generated “bottom-up” considerations would be more broad in nature.

5) What is the function of profiles abstracted from 'user generated content' - how is it then used?

      a) Profiles for “user generated content” are created solely for marketing. They collect data that is sold to advertisers for marketing purposes.

6) What is 'massification'?

      a) Massification refers to the incredible number of users and the intensity in which those users use the internet.

7) Geert Lovink describes the Internet as an 'indifferent bystander' as a revolutionary tool in the global recession. What does he mean by this?

      a) The internet allows for mass marketing of ideas and control. It can be used in a variety of ways for an number of regimes that understand how to use it for power. Whether it’s used to block content, spy on citizens, or even incite revolution as seen recently in Egypt, the uses and events it allows are purely up to who controls it’s distribution.

8) Lovink says that power these days is not absolute but DYNAMIC?

9) "Managing complexity" is the aim of authoritarian uses of the internet such as the Great Chinese FIREWALL.

10) What are "organized networks"?

      a) Networks of individuals and user content that organize for the purpose of bringing about some sort of change.

.wk7.Video.Game.History.

1. Who invented the first computer game on the PDP1?
     Steve Russell

2. What was the name of the game?
     Spacewar!

3. What was the name of Morton Helig's amusement device that let you smell, hear and see in 3D filmed experiences?
    Sensarama 

4. What early 1970s movie does an arcade console machine of Spacewar appear?
    Spacewar! appeared in the 1973 movie Soylent Green.

5. What was the name of the man who developed the first TV tennis game?
    Ralph H. Baer

6. Who was the man whose company Atari commercialized the idea of the arcade computer tennis game?

    Nolan Bushnell

7. What was the name of this version of the game?
    Pong

8. What are vector graphics?
    Graphic shapes created by connecting lines to specific points through mathematical equations. They can be scaled indefinitely without loss of quality or clarity because the information saved is not specifically pixel based.

9. What types of games do vector graphics lend themselves to?
    3-D or first person shooter games like Battlezone and Asteroid where you move towards objects.  Vector graphics can change in size without altering the image or quality of the line. 

10. When home computers were first made available, how did owners load games into them?
      By programming the games themselves from prewritten instructions and code.

11. What is the name of the 1985 film in which a young Matthew Broderick starts World War III with his home computer and modem? 

      WarGames, and it was in 1983.

12. From what sources did the designer of the Space Invaders aliens draw inspiration?
      War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells for the octopus looking aliens, then expanded it to include other sea creatures as inspiration. 

13. What is the name given to the contemporary subculture of 8 bit music made with gameboys and other 80s game technology?

      Chiptunes - http://8bc.org/

14. "Escape from Woomera" was a videogame which was used to draw attention to the plight of inmates at a remote detention center in desert town in what country?

       Australia

.wk6.cyborg.human.

1) Steve Mann describes his wearable computer invention as a form of architecture for one person.

2) Steve Mann's concept of opposing camera surveillance with "Sousveillance" is described as a form of “reflectionism”. What is meant by this?

Reflectionism as described by Steve Mann is a philosophy for using technology to mirror and confront bureaucratic organizations. It is intended to uncover and put into view the privileged place within society these organizations that do surveillance have within society.  It’s a way of using the tools against the organization.

3) In the section of "Sousveillance" called "Performance Two" Steve Mann describes how wearing his concealed device becomes more complex when used in what type of spaces?

The experiment becomes more complex when wearing the device in semi-public, highly surveilled places like shopping malls.  More objections become raised and the playfulness is lost.

4) The final paragraph sums up what Mann considers the benefits of "sousveillance" and "coveillance". What are they?

Mann Believes that Sousveillance and Coveillance are self-powering for people within our society.  He sees it as  a way to take back the social control that surveillance has put on the people.  It’s almost a way of creating a community through computer networks and give people a new voice.

5) In William J Mitchell's 1995 book "City of Bits" in the chapter "Cyborg Citizens", he puts forth the idea that electronic organs as they shrink and become more part of the body will eventually resemble what types of familiar items?

Mitchell things that “electronic organs” or devices we are constantly using, will become more like clothing, soft, wearable items that contour to our bodies.

6) From the same book/chapter, list two of the things that a vehicle that 'knows where it is' might afford the driver & passengers.

Other than just giving you maps and directions to specific places like gas stations and hotels, it could give you highlights on local history and agriculture.  It could offer information specifically pertaining to you.

7) Mitchell tells the story of Samuel Morse's first Washington-to-Baltimore telegraph message. What was it?

What hath god wrought?

8) Donna Harroway in "A Cyborg Manifesto" argues that women should take the "battle to the border". What does she say are the stakes in this border war?

Harroway says the stakes in the border war are the territories of production, reproduction, and imagination.

9) Harroway posits the notion that:

"We require regeneration, not rebirth, and the possibilities for our reconstitution include the utopian dream". What is this dream?

The dream is of hope for a world without gender, or gender inequalities.

10) Many have argued that 'we are already cyborgs' as we use devices such as glasses to improve our vision, bikes to extend the mobility function of our legs/bodies etc, computers and networks to extend the nervous system etc. What do you think? Are we cyborgs?

The definition of cyborg changes from source to source.  The dictionary definition is “ a fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations.”  If this is the case, then no living person could ever be a cyborg.  Because the fictional and hypothetical are never concrete.  But Wikipedia, which I think of as the commonly use definition of the mass populous, sets a cyborg as any “being with both biological and artificial parts.”  This would make anyone with pace makers, artificial knees/hips, any metal plates/bolts or even external artificial parts a cyborg.  In the world today, I know no person without extensions to their body, without glasses/contacts, without constantly carrying a cell phone that they feel is a part of them.  When I think of modern day cyborgs I think of my father, who has a prosthetic leg, metal plates in his cheeks and on his skull holding his bones together.  This is in essence what we have become.  And as time progresses, technology will advance.  Instead of waiting on a donor list for a lung, kidney, or heart, one will be engineered and built just for you, completing the cyborg human.

.wk5.Vintage.Game.Play.

Destiny Askin

Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Asteroids

Released: 1979

Atari, Inc.

Designers: Lyle Rains & Ed Logg

1 - What is the game genre (e.g. shoot-em-up, racing, sports, puzzle, MMORPG, ‘sandbox’, music sequence following game (e.g. DDR, guitar hero)


Multi-Directional Shooter, Vector Game

2 -What is the type of game ‘world’ or environment (e.g. flat environment, puzzle/maze space, 3D world?)

Flat Environment in space


3 - What is the perspective taken by player (e.g first person, third person perspective, top down, isometric) in relation to main player controlled character.

Top-down perspective


4 - What is the actual gameplay – what does the player have to do?

The player maneuvers a space ship to shoot asteroids and UFO's.  The objective is to stay alive and in space as long as possible.


5 - Is the gameplay intuitive? (i.e. is it easy to understand what to do without instructions?) 

Yes.  The game is very basic and easily learned.  On a keyboard, the only keys you need are the arrows to maneuver and the space bar to shoot.


6 - Is the gameplay patterned (game does the same thing over & over) or is it random (happens differently every time?)

The game play is random.  By this I mean the size and order in which the asteroids appear and fly toward you is different in each game.

7 - What does the type of graphic approach used as well as the audio tell you about the limits of the technology at the time the game was published?


It really shows the limits to graphics and movement.  As well as the limit to what could be programmed within a game.  The game play is so simple that very little happens, but it still incorporates a randomness.


8 - Describe your views about the game from the point of view of


1. Ease of play: Asteroids is pretty easy once you get down the arrow controls.  It's a little counter intuitive because when you press the left arrow, your spaceship turns right.  Other than that the game play is all about coordination.


2. Enjoyability: I think it was probably very fun for it's time.  But the game play gets fairly monotonous after a short time.  The only things you can do are move and shoot.


c) Level of engagement/immersion: For me it was pretty low.  The graphics are very very simple and the game play was too basic to really get into the game for a long period of time. It didn't feel like a challenge.


9 - Had you played this game prior to this time? If so, when?


I didn't think i'd played it, but once i played for a while I faintly remember playing in an arcade as a child.


10 - what does playing the game remind you of in terms of other games/media?


It was a vector based game so it reminded me of the simple line drawings I created when first learning Adobe Illustrator.  The top down perspective reminded me of a zelda game I used to play on the original nintendo system.  But as far as modern games, I could see it as a pre-curser to first person type shooter games.  Where the objective is to shoot other people/creatures/objects to gain points and stay alive.

Sketch-Up Scene

The google Sketch-Up exercise was good practice in creating scene that was both realistic and obscure.  I would have like to have spent more time and added much more detail and random objects. The resulting scene ended up being fairly whimsical because of that randomness.  Given more time, I would have liked to add some greenery to make it feel more natural, that way the contrast between the familiar scenery and the surreal would be greater.

The surrealness of the setting could really only make sense in a video game format.  We have come to almost expect the unexpected within the games we play.  This could be the setting for an end of level combat.  You must defeat the giant snail who once defeated turns into millions of balloons which float up into the clouds.  Once defeated, you may ascend to the spaceship and be escorted to another world to continue to the next level.

.wk4.Remediation.Cyberspace.

1) According to the text "Remediation" the author uses the phrase (in relation to Hollywood's use of computer graphics) "remediation operates in both directions" - what is meant by this?


Both the original form and new media created from film borrow from and re-create each other. Traditional film is rewriting digital graphics to work within their medium, and digital graphics people are rewriting film to create new works within their medium.


2) What does Michael Benedikt, author of "Cyberspace the First Steps" introduction argue had happened to modern city by the late 60s, having become more than 'a collection of buildings and streets'?



By the late 60’s the city became an “immense node of communications, a messy nexus of messages, storage and transportation facilities, a massive education machine”. It essentially became an overwhelming hub of media.


3) In his short story "Skinner's Room" William Gibson describes how Skinner watches a tiny portable 'pop-up' TV set. What can skinner no longer remember? (remediation in relation to television as an idea is neatly summed up in this sentence!)


In the story, Skinner can no longer remember when he stopped being able to distinguish commercials from programming.


4) Author of the famous pamphlet "Culture Jamming" Mark Dery paraphrases Umberto Eco and his phrase "semiological guerrilla warfare". What does this mean?


“Semiological guerrilla warfare” is Umberto Eco’s idea that an audience can read and interpret messages in a variety of ways and has the ability to control their interpretation of said message.


5) From Mark Dery's pamphlet, briefly describe "Subvertising".


Subvertising is a form of “Culture Jamming” described by Dery almost as anti-advertising. He expands to define it as the “production and dissemination of anti-ads”, in his case along Madison Avenue in the form of sneak attack posters late at night.

.wk3.RiseOfTheComputerSociety.

1) In Paulina Boorsooks Book "Cyberselfish" she contrasts the development of technologies that were group efforts and thus stand in stark contrast to the myth of the lone 'hero' entrepreneur. Name two such more group-based technologies. (Under the heading "Closer to the Machine")

a) Wikileaks: Press tries to label it as a one man enterprise, but that man is really just a moderator. All the information comes in from many different collaborators.
c) World Wide Web Consortium: community that develops the standards for web development tools and protocols.


2) In the section labelled "Human, Too Human" Boorsook describes one type of technolibertarian - the "Extropians". What do extropians want or yearn for?

The Extropians are a group of “radical optimists” that want to maximize human potential by becoming more like cyborgs or partially machine in some way.

3) In her film BIT PLANE, Natalie Jeremijenko describes Doug Englebart as being a pioneer - of what? (view film via VIMEO link in separate post)

Natalie Jeremijenko describes Doug Englebart of being a pioneer of personal computing. Very early he saw the potential the pc had to “extend and improve the human condition”.

4) In "Silicon Valley Mystery House" writer Langdon Winner compares the Silicon Valley to the Winchester Mystery House. In what way does he consider them similar?

He compares the entire area from San Jose to Palo Also to the Winchester Mystery House because of the blending of cities. You can’t tell where one ends and another begins. The businesses wealth and a power allow them to “transform and absorb” the area’s around them, very similar to what Sarah Winchester did.

5) In Langdon Winner's essay "Silicon Valley Mystery House" he describes East Palo Alto as a very different kind of place from areas such as upscale Stanford and downtown Palo Alto. What type of area is East Palo alto, "just across highway 101"?

East Palo Alto is a poor area with high unemployment and poverty rates. To Langdon Winner, it seems an area forgotten by its technologically wealthy neighbor. Test scores in East Palo Alto schools are in the lowest 10th of the country, compared to Central Palo Alto’s scores usually in the top 1%.

6) In her Processed World article "The Disappeared of Silicon Valley" Paulina Boorsook's "Deep Throat" (inside information source) describes some unpleasant realities of most Silicon Valley startups and how they end up. List two.

a) End up in deep debt
b) Most are unsuccessful, or get bought out by a larger company with most of the proceeds going to the people that didn’t necessarily to all the work.


7) What is the Long Now foundation and why was it formed?

The Long Now Foundation is an organization formed to foster and grow long-term thinking. Its members attempt to give an alternative to the “faster/cheaper” mindset that has been growing with the growth of technology.

8) In the documentary DOCUMENTARY - SILICON VALLEY - A HUNDRED YEAR RENAISSANCE (1997) Steve Jobs describes the joy of successfully making "blue boxes" which let he and his friends make free phone calls. What aspect of this experience does he say was so important to the creation of Apple computer?

The creation of blue boxes taught them the power of ideas and the understanding and confidence that they could influence the world.

9) List three aspects of the work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - (see the "Our Work" section of their website)

1. Free Speech
2. Intellectual Property
3. Privacy


10) According to Richard Stallman's website, what is his status in relation to the social media site Facebook?

You won’t ever find him on facebook. Facebook threatens your privacy and they permanently record everything you do.

.wk2.Response.

1) Why was the period at the turn of the 20th century so important?

The period emphasized modernity and the creation and consumption of new things. People were excited about technological process and possibilities in the future. The new way of thinking allowed for an accelerated rate of change and the ideations and development of an incredibly large number of new machinery and mechanisms that have greatly affected the world today.

2) What aspects of the Dada art movemement are important from the point of view of the rise of the computers and digital visual media? (for example Marcel Duchamp's "readymades"?

Dada Artists came forward with a notion of outside thinking. They were a group of somewhat exiles who's ideas were anti-war and often anti-authoritarian. They were interested in the future and modernity which led to a DIY mentality. Their ideas go to the core of digital media because they were sampling culture and the concept of what art was and what makes art, art. Things were left to chance and ideas were tested, often leading to random outcomes which is the basis to digital visual media.

3) Name one aspect that links "The Man with a Movie Camera" with digital media according to Lev Manovich. (Readings B)

Computers link experiences and allow the extension of cultural data to the user. Digital Media, like cinema, allows the user to understand the language without needing to speak it.

4) What was 'constructivism'?

Constructivism was an artistic movement that rejected the idea of art for the sake of art. They preferred art created for social movements and purposes.

5) Read pages VI (6) to XXII (22) of "The Language of New Media" in ReadingsB: What does Lev Manovich suggest are the 'three levels' of "The Man with a Movie Camera"?

1: The story of the cameraman filming material for the film.
2: The shorts of an audience watching the finished film.
3: The film in its entirety.

6) Who first developed the idea of "Cybernetics"?

Norbert Wiener

7) In "Computer Lib" Ted Nelson describes Hypertext as "Non-Sequential” writing (fill in the blank)

8) Why were transistors, even though 100 times smaller than vacuum tubes considered impractical for building computers in the 1960s?

Transistors required the use of solder and wire. So to install or change out they had to solder them into the machine with an incredible amount of wiring. They required too many components to be wired together by hand.

9) What was the name of the first commercial available computer (kit)?

Altair 8800 made by MITS.

10) Write a paragraph: In your own words: What are things going to look like in 20 years from now in the average living room in terms of digital visual media? What types of digital media will your kids be using around 2030?

Future digital visual media will become much more interaction. I could see the next generation in the living room with a touch screen tv watching interactive cartoons where they get to get involved in the sequence of events, allowing what happens next to depend upon their choices and decisions. Almost like the books of the past where we were able to choose between 2 paths and jump to that section within the book, allowing for different outcomes.

Everything will be connected through networking. Computers and televisions will most likely merge into single systems integrating television, phone, computer, all gaming systems (which will mostly likely be much more interactive with easy access to entire virtual lives.

.wk1.Giant.Brains.

1) How was unique about Charles Babbage Analytical Engine, compared to his original Difference Engine?

The Difference Engine was a mechanized computer with wheels and shafts used to calculate numbers mechanically. It could only calculate by a measure of difference. The Analytical Engine was capable of doing many different things. It operated on a central processing unit with conjoining storage units. The machine would be programmable using punch cards.

2) What role did Ada Lovelace play in the development of the Analytical Engine?

Ada Lovelace was a great supporter of Babbage. She published notes on the Analytical Engine with detailed programs of what the Engine could do. Because of this she is considered the first programmer.

3) How was the ENIAC computer reprogrammed?

It was programmed by people and it had to be completely rewired to be reprogrammed. Setting up switches and reconnecting cables, basically re-building the machine for each new problem you'd like to solve.

4) Name an innovation that helped make programming faster post ENIAC

Programming became faster once they realized how to create stored program computers. Transistors allowed the design of more complex systems. Specific programming languages like FORTRAN and COBOL allowed for wider creation and use of new programs.

5) What is it about binary counting that makes it so well suited to computers?

It uses only 2 digits which can be represented very simply by a switch. On = 1, Off = 0. It's the simplest form of calculations. Binary numbers can be added and subtracted by a combination of hundreds of switches.

6) In what ways did UNIVAC influence the portrayal of computers in popular culture in the 1950s? Give an example.

Univac changed the public view of computers through. Before, people saw them as huge systems only useable by scientific laboratories, governments. and large business. Univac, after being sold to Remington-Rand, appeared in movies and on TV allowing the public to see their use in all types of electronic and personal home devices.

7) Codebreaking required the automatic manipulation of symbols to unscramble messages during WWII. What was the name of the rudimentary computer at Bletchley Park in England that unscrambled Nazi codes.

Enigma and then Colossus.

8) Alan Turing who understood the implications of such machines later went on to describe them as universal machines.

9) Describe when you first used computers and what types of tasks you performed on them.

I didn't come across my first computer until pretty late in computer development. As a freshman in High School in 1995 I took a typing class as an elective. The course used very basic word processing machines. Shortly after the school's library bought a small number of computers that I began using during lunch and study halls. They were connected to the internet and I used them for research purposes mostly.

Around 1998/9 I discovered geocities and built myself a little generic website to share with friends. Around this time I mostly used computers at school for email, chat, and personal research purposes. I saved a lot of random files on floppy discs. My parents bought their first computer for home around 2000 and I bought my first after I'd been in college for a few years in 2002. It was an Apple g4 powerbook that still works great to this day, just a little slow for more modern programs.

10) How restricted do you think computers are in terms of what they can do compared to how they are most often used?

I dont think computers in this day and age are restricted at all. The limitations to what you can and can not do with computers is set by the individual, by programmers and software developers, and by governmental regulations. Most people just have no desire to learn about all millions of uses. They have a limited view of their computer need and are satisfied to learn those specific things.

Computers are developed for an infinite number of tasks that the mass populous just doesn't consider in general. Obviously there is a limit because they are not biological organisms, but in terms of mechanized equipment, they are only limited by the developers creativity.