Online entertainment 10 years from now

The technology changes that will occur ten years from now will probably be beyond what many people can even imagine; however, its fun to speculate some of the possibilities of technology that may be developed in the near future.

Online entertainment has evolved a tremendous amount in the last ten years. Social networking sites, video hosting sites, gaming sites, and news sites are just some of the many categories of online entertainment that has evolved into ways that allow us to almost instantly view entertainment in a convenient fashion.

Looking ten years in the future,  advanced robotic computers will be able to determine exactly what types of entertainment each individual person will and will not like based on their personality.   Advanced hand held holographic computers and human like robots will be available for the public to purchase and own.  People will be able to verbally ask these computers to show holographic forms of particular information about entertainment, news, games, etc.,  and then have it retrieved from global internet databases as long as that person has the access privileges to view the information. Advanced computers will be able to recommend and provide the best, most valuable information available to people’s specific needs.  Certain entertainment based information may even be developed by computers themselves to better satisfy the people’s taste for entertainment.

The next decade of technology development certainly holds brilliant concepts in science that will continue to help better shape and advance humanity as a whole.

My groups presentation theme

The theme of my groups presentation was cloud computing.  Here are the topics that each group member presented on:

·         The Overview of Cloud Computing (Christopher)

·         Google Apps – Saas and PaaS (Sky)

·         Hosted Cloud Services – IaaS (Jordin)

·         Chromebook (Khanh-Hoa)

·         Disadvantages of Cloud Computing (Kya)

·         Conclusion

Cloud computing is way to access shared resources of software, documents, and information as a service rather than requiring the end-user to configure and install physical hardware and devices on their computers.  The ideas of cloud based services allow end-users to access resources through an internet connection, and the end-user is required to know the physical location of resources.  This concept can be very beneficial to customers and businesses that do not want to deal with technical implementation and maintenance of system software and devices in their company environment.  The headache of managing and troubleshooting hardware and software can be taken away from users and left to the IT professionals.

One major drawback of cloud computing is the level of security that your data in the cloud provides. Because data is accessed strictly through an internet connection to the cloud, the data will be much easier for unauthorized users to access what was stored.   Cloud computing is becoming more and more widespread throughout the world; however, there are hurdles that must be jumped over in the near future for it to be widely accepted as the best option for customers.

My presentation topic

GPS Insight was the topic that I chose to present on in my class “TINST 207: “Living and Working in a Virtual World.”  GPS Insight is a tracking system that can be used by companies who want to keep track of their vehicles to see their activities in real time.  This particular type of technology uses hardware and software devices that work together with space satellites to provide the most accurate information.  The hardware devices are installed inside vehicles that include a display screen for the driver. The software is integrated on the GPS Insight web site servers and company computers for mangers to access.

Advantages to using this GPS technology include reduced fuel costs, improved productivity, reduced labor costs, a safer fleet,  improved customer service and more. However, company managers and company owners have the ability to monitor and record employees with accurate precision on driving duty. This has raised some controversial questions on whether this technology is violating privacy rights of company employees who are having their daily driving activities tracked and recorded for review by company owners. In my opinion, I think companies have every right to track someone as long as long as employees working during their paid work hours and using company vehicles.

What makes up a "community"?

Today, communities exist in places where many people would never expect them to exist.  Some may think that a community can only exist when people physically meet and talk to each other face to face, or when something physical is traded or exchanged.  The fact is, is we live in a world where the technology of the internet and the world wide web has made it possible for communities to exist in the digital world, without ever having to physically see or meet any of its members, this has  drastically changed how people can belong to a community; examples of digital communities: online social communities, gaming communities, dating communities, etc.     

There are many important aspects that define a community. Firstly, a community must contain group members; as long as there is more than one person, there should not be any minimum requirements to how many members there must be before it’s a community. The next characteristic of a community would be something that can be shared or contributed to the group that is beneficial to at least one other member. Next, a community must have at least one common theme among each and every member.  Also a community must always be in a state of motion and constant communication with its members to in order to stay strong and to stay together.

Calculating your net worth using online resources

Net worth for an individual is defined as the total value of someone’s assets minus all their liabilities; hence when assets exceed liabilities it is considered to be that person’s net worth. Calculating your own net worth is something that is important if you want to track your improvement or your losses from year to year financially.

My recent experience in learning how to calculate my own current net worth was very easy to do, mainly due to the fact that I am a college student with hardly any assets and thankfully not too mainly liabilities either. I began the task of finding my own net worth by first searching Google for ways of calculating net worth. The search results from Google provided several websites that offered free online net calculation tools. I choose a website that guided me through the process of listing all possible assets (ex. stocks, bonds, cash etc.) that I would have, as well as all my liabilities (mortgages, credit cards, home-equity loan etc.) and then finally it produced a number that told me my net worth.

Even though I currently do not have really valuable assets of my own, I am not worried because I am still young and I am in progress to getting a college degree in Information Technology that I know will provide me with a strong base for a future career and many valued assets to enjoy and be proud of.

Buying Items Online Vs Buying Items in Person

Buying items online through websites and buying items in person at a store both have their advantages and disadvantages. 

Here is my top three categories of items that I prefer to buy online:

1. Electronic equipment; computers, speakers, headphones, etc.
2. Books
3. Video games

Assuming that I am willing to wait for my item to be shipped to me, these items listed above are ones that I would definitely prefer to buy online because I know I can get them for a better price than if I were to buy in person.  Also, buying online provides for a quicker and more convenient transaction for me than if I were to go travel and buy them in person.

Here is my top three categories of items that I prefer to buy in person:

1. Clothes
2. Food and drinks
3. Home improvement

I would much rather buy clothes for myself in person mainly because I am going to be actually wearing the clothes and I want to know exactly how the clothes look and feel on me before I buy them. Food and drinks are obviously something that should for the most part be bought in person because of how food needs to stay fresh and undamaged before it is consumed. The shipping journey may be an unsafe environment for many types of foods.  I prefer to mostly buy home improvement items in person because it is easier to see the quality of these items and how they will look in my home before I buy them.

In summary, I am glad to have the option of buying online and the option of buying in person because both have their advantages.

Creating an HTML Page

Although this was not my first time creating an HTML web page, it was great to be reminded again of how older web pages were once built using very simple HTML code. I think learning how to use HTML code BEFORE learning how to use web development programs is very critical for having success in web design.

Here is my simple HTML webpage code:


<html>
    <title>My Web Page</title>

   <body style="background-color:grey;">

   <p>Old websites sure did look funny compared to current websites today.</p>
   <p>Here is a picture of Apple's old website from 1997!!<br></p>

  <img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/6/11379739_2e9fb453b8_o.gif">
  <br>

   <p><marquee>This website is AWESOME!</marquee>
   <br>

   <p>Here is a picture of the current Apple website 14 years later!!</p><br>
   <img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/coupons-for/apple-com/320x240.jpg" alt="Shop at apple.com"> <br>
   <br>
   </body>

</html>

Here is my webpage output:


Old websites sure did look funny compared to current websites today.

Here is a picture of Apple's old website from 1997!!


This website is AWESOME!


Here is a picture of the current Apple website 14 years later!!