A Prestigious Computer Award.

In the Field of computing and computer programming, the Tuning award is one of the most prestigious awards members of the field could hope to receive. For the first time in the awards 40 year existence it was presented to a woman. 74-year-old Frances Allen was presented with the Tuning Award for her work at IBM. She did extensive and very innovative work with performance compilers, which are programs which help to turn computer code into the readable ones and zeroes. Shes also worked on intelligence analysis software for the Nation Security Agency, and helped develop Blue Gene, IBM's supercomputer. I think that this is a pretty remarkable acievement by this woman. She's as old as my grandma, who doesn't know a thing about computers, and shes been able to achieve some pretty amazing things.

Real Lecture vs Virtual Lecture

The experiment we did last Monday's class where the class discussion was held in a chat room definitely had some ups and downs. There were a few reasons why the chat room generated a more beneficial discussion. I think one reason the chat was great was because it allowed people more time to think about what they wanted to say, which ultimately led to a well thought, articulate statement. A second advantage of the chat was it allowed people who normally may feel uncomfortable speaking in front of a group to give their opinion in a relatively tamer environment.

Despite these advantages, I think that there were some crippling disadvantages to the chat room. The first was due to some technological failures. The chat program was a bit glitchy and also, the text window could not be expanded. Comments were often rushed above the visible window before I could read them. While it is true that a more stable chat program could have been used, I think it needs to be kept in mind that whenever technology is involved there is always the chance that something could go wrong. I think another disadvantage to the chat room was I couldn't quite interpret the tone of comments. In the class room its a lot easier to read how people feel about certain issues by the tone of their voice. That sort of "heat" was lost in the chat session.

Reselling engagment rings

This is about yet another article I found on CNN. Its about a man who was engaged to be married and for some reason it just didn't work out. So he tried to sell his ring back to the jeweler and they would only give him 32% back. He then created the internet auction site called "I do....no i don't". If anything, I think its a pretty clever title. Surprisingly, there are may in the same predicament. I dont know about you guys, but I'd feel a little weird buying a failed, used engagement ring.

Mourning on Facebook and Myspace

I just read a very interesting article on CNN about how social sites such as facebook and myspace have become places to mourn friends or loved ones that have passed away. The article states that these sites have become places of comfort for friends trying to cope with a lost. Since it is a personal space created and customized by someone, friends often seek comfort through these sites by leaving goodbye messages; it's as if they can actually talk to their deceased friend. This ties in to some discussion we've been having in class about how it may be easier for people to express themselves in an online environment. I just found it pretty interesting that these online social sites are a way for people to live on for a long time after they pass away.

An increasing reliance on technology.

I was recently reading something on CNN about Apple's new iphone. I would just like to comment on the cell phone craze that seems to be sweeping the western world. It's really amazing to me that almost 10 years ago not many people, except for wallstreet business executives, owned a cell phone. In 2007, it's hard to find someone who doesn't have one. These phones are becoming increasingly more complicated and complex as well. They don't just make phone calls anymore. They can take pictures and videos, play music, connect to the internet, send email, and probably do a lot of other theings that I don't know about. Last summer my cell phone was stolen and I think I went a good few weeks to a month without one. It was kind of weird to see how much I had come to depnend on such a small communications device for a number of different things. It makes me a little bit uneasy to think about how dependent our society has become on these things.