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Daily Trivia:

In 1765, Eberhard added what to pencils?

Wii U? More like PU!!!

I know I left the other one hanging, but I’m just saying this quickly from my phone. I think that Nintendo is one generation behind with there consoles, and had they released the Wii U instead of the Wii, they would have been much better. If they had planned a feign attack with the Wii U and released a new, more current console to compete with the current generation of consoles (perhaps being a little late to the game—get it? Game? Because it’s a game of making games? No? Fine—like Sony was last gen), they’d have better chances. Other than that unlikely scenario, Nintendo is likely to lose this generation’s console wars right out of the door. Then again, Microsoft and Sony still have a chance to bomb.

Things That Really Bug Me on Public Computers

Let’s face it. Using a public computer is never quite as good as using your own. Whether it be that something has been broken by users, intensive privacy settings, or even just that they’re almost as slow as that old Windows 95 PC running Windows 98 that sat in your garage for years. Still, even when you are expecting these major pitfalls, things can still get on your nerves. In fact, there are so many things that I’ll build onto this in the future. Here are a few of my worst fears in a public computer:

Non-Native Resolution: Right now, as you may have guessed, I’m not writing this from my own computer. See, my second monitor is 4:3, so I’m not too bothered by that. Actually, this would be pretty good for a public computer monitor if it was actually displaying 1280x1024, but it’s not. Some genius who set this thing up decided that they liked it better when it was displaying 1280x960 stretched to fill the monitor. Yep. Now everytng feels really stretched and it bugs me beyond reason.

Blocking Everything Since 1999: Alright, that did sound like some sort of slogan for a popup blocker established in 1999, but I meant it differently. Pretty much every public computer is going to have all sorts of restrictions set in place by the administrator to stop people from breaking it. For example, the computers at my local library have settings to delete all changes to the non-administrative account after it restarts, which it automatically does a few times throughout the day (infinitely annoying, but I’ll get to that later). This isn’t bad. In fact, it’s perfect for the setting since kids go on it everyday and download stuff, change the wallpaper to porn, etc. However, it seems that every public computer goes too far. For example, task manager is blocked. When you’re on the only available computer, and something freezes, you need the task manager. Of course all blocked features are annoying, even when necessary or fitting.

Automatic Restarting: Since many public computers have heavy security settings and the admins fear hacking, they set them to restart every certain interval of time. This can be pretty annoying because usually, if you use one of these computers for something, it’s because you’re in a rush or just passing through quickly and decided to get some work done. Now your limited time is worse as you wait through the world’s longest reboot time. Not to mention that if you’re working on a paper or something and you haven’t sent it to yourself, it’s gone. That thing will not be saved (unless you’re using Google Drive).

Update? Ain’t Nobody Got Time Fo’ Dat!: Without ranting about the title since that video got extremely popular because a black lady said a stereotypic black phrase, I’ll explain why I jumped to this without finishing the last section (although I’ll go back to it so you won’t notice). A pop-up came up about a Java update. I need to enter an administrator’s password to update it. So in the mean time, there is a major security threat on this computer of having an out-of-date Java version. Sure, I’m not using Java right now, and not many people may be right now at 7:15 in the morning, but there are 15 computers in this room and like 70 more in this building. Now think about how every computer has an out-of-date version of Java, and you know that many things use java. Security Threat (Also, there are other things like Flash that I can guarantee multiple people are using right now that are in the same boat).

People: It seems quite obvious that anyone would rather be on their own computer in the privacy of their own home where no prying eyes can see what they’re doing, but when you need to use a public computer, that’s probably something you just accept from the start, even if you’ve never used one and don’t expect the other problems. Even when nobody’s looking, though, you still have a legitimate reason to have that “Big Brother” feeling:

Monitoring: Why is it that they put so much effort into monitoring computers in some places but so little into buying decent monitors for the computers? (Get it? Because monitor and… monitoring? No? Sigh…) Seriously, though. Right now, I know that if I type certain keywords into the search engine right now (I’m on a computer at school), I could instantly get in huge trouble no matter how well I can explain my self. Here’s the thing: I don’t even know if they have the same sort of restrictions somehow checking what I type online, but because I feel that I can explain typing some of these words better than someone can explain searching them (and I’m pretty sure they aren’t checking those words in here). If I searched, “Use of guns in Africa,” for a project, I could get in trouble, yet someone who knows a lot about guns could actually search for (and purchase) guns by their name. Of course most people who know this aren’t the people who would do something dumb with them, but someone doing something like that would never be dumb enough to buy guns at school (if they were, they’d get caught immediately). But before I accidentally write A Guide to School Shootings, I’ll move on.

Disabling CSS: Sometimes I go to a site, say Wikipedia or something, and all or select CSS seems to have been disabled. My time writing web-based code has gotten me to hating this even more, but I always have. Why on Earth does this happen, and why would they leave a problem like that on such popular sites if they’re doing it on purpose? For some background in case you’ve never experienced this, the first time it happened, I assumed it was a glitch due to high server loads. I reloaded a few times and assumed that it was just a persistently slow server. Then I came back later and realized that it was in fact a permanent problem. Here’s the cache (bad pun): It’s not on all sites, only certain ones. This leads me to believe it’s there on purpose to do something. Either way, that’s all (at least for now).

Bye!

Apple

Before I even start, let me say that my idea of where Apple came from is from Steve Wozniak’s recently discovered speech available here.

Apple is one of those companies that started off really cool, and then became the opposite of what it was. “The [Apple 2] was not designed to be a product, and it was not designed to be sold as much as it was designed to impress…” Now think of Apple today and what comes to mind? I don’t know about you, but I think of a big (evil?) corporation that only has 1 goal: Big Money. I don’t think this needs much explanation, but just know that when I say that I hate Apple, I stand by Wozniak’s company of way back when wholly. I will not buy another Apple product unless I have no better choice. Now, I’m gonna go learn something because I’m board and this post went nowhere fast.

(Back to) The Future

I know that someone is eventually bound to ask me where I want technology to be in the future. Now that can be taken as specifically (i.e. what kind of technologies I want to see developed and to what extent) or generally (i.e. how I hope technology can improve our lives or change society). Specifically, time travel/near light-speed travel would be cool, but not as likely as many things (then again, who’d have guessed we’d be where we are today with smart phones and tablets back when a small computer took up more than a whole room?).

More generally, though. I really hope that at some point in my life time, I get to see society come to terms with technology, when seeing a robot act like a human doesn’t scare people; it only makes them appreciate the fine skills of those who made the robot—when people say, “Human cloning? No, that’s not weird!” I want to see a world where people use computers for every little task and learn to use them for cooperation and betterment instead of to scheme and scam for money.

What I don’t want to see, however, is people becoming more dependent on technology, or more specifically, people becoming more dependent on having technology made for them. As more and more technology is made, it’s easy to become lazy. Think about how years and years ago, if you needed to get a snack while working, you put down your rugged tools, and killed something to eat. Now, you look up from your tablet/smart phone, reach towards the fridge, and then ask everyone else to get you something before getting up yourself. Imagine what that could become if that progresses.

I want to be able to be working deeply on some code which I’m typing with my mind while viewing the current product of my mental typing on a 3D, holographic screen. What I don’t want is a bunch of people nearby watching YouTube videos in their head while trying to convince someone to telepathically connect to the food dispenser and send them a snack so they don’t have to think about it.

With a simple change of heart, Utopia can quickly become Dystopia, and it is likely that our future lies somewhere in between (At least I hope it’s not dystopian). Our job in the mean time is to use the tools we develop (and our predecessors developed) to push our future towards Utopia… unless you like The Walking Dead so much that you’d rather casually push it towards dystopia while stocking up on nonperishable food.

I also want to walk dogs on a treadmill.

Google Glass and other HMDs

Very few people with access to and interest in technology news are not at least a little interested in Google Glass. If you happen to live under a rock and are talking about this at a meeting of Hermits United, Google Glass is an upcoming Head-Mounted Display (HMD) device that basically displays information directly in front of your eye which reminds Trekkies of Geordi La Forge’s VISOR, and the younger generation (myself included) of Cookie’s (from Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide) glasses. Google around if you want more information. The fact is that wearable technology in the past has flopped. It has come out gimmicky, attracted a few Sci-Fi lovers and rich people, then flopped. Google Glass, however, is in 2013 (currently, but I don’t know when it’s coming out).

Now that technology has advanced to a point where people use smart phones constantly and major companies like Google are willing to accept an idea as foreign as Google Glass, maybe it won’t be such a flop. Still, try and picture walking around New York City and seeing most people passing by fitted in Geordi LA Forge’s VISOR (while Cookie’s glasses are closer to Google Glass, the former is more well known). It just doesn’t seem foreseeable any time soon.

For example, most people I asked who bought the DS about why they didn’t by the 3DS said that it was because they thought the 3D was just a gimmicky trick that doesn’t work or that you had to go cross-eyed to see it. It wasn’t like that, but people were expecting it to suck before launch, so they just assumed it did. That could very well happen to Google Glass and its competitors.

Still, should Google Glass be widely adopted? People are already distracted enough by phones when they should be paying attention to other things, so do they need another distraction? That’s just a point to consider.

There is already one huge mistake that people are making about it. A surprising number of people are already seeing Google Glass as a hidden camera on glasses. Only two problems with that:
1. It’s more of a smart device than a straight-up camera.
2. Hidden? This is a giant device on your face. I think people will notice.

There’s my analysis of Google Glass for now. Hopefully it will succeed and not destroy the world in doing so. I don’t know what to talk about next, but I’m sure something will come up tomorrow to give me an idea.