Turing Test

One skill tha the computer would need to past the test is knowing the different type of slang words that people around the world use.  If the computer did not recognize the slang words  then it would fail the test.  They would also need to know when to use those wrods at the right times.

Another skill they would need is to behave like a human when it comes to solving problems.  If you give a difficult problem and the computer will solve it quickly while the human will take a while to solve.  If this was to happen then the computer will fail the test.  Computers can be too perfect and do not make mistakes that humans make.

All humans have different levels of intelligence so not all humans would have the same answers.  The computer would have to show some kind of personality.  It would have to show that it knows all kinds of different things and not just textbook intelligence.  

Electronic Voting

After watching Hacking Democracy, I was surprised to find out that electronic voting could be rigged.  Personally I always wondered about how they count the votes.  Now that I know some of the machines could be rigged, I understand why their our concerns about those machines espcially the ones made by Diebold.

The people of America are concerned about the seurity of the Diebold machines.  The Diebold company said that there machines were very secure and that nobody could rig the machines or tamper with the ballots.  After the machines were proved not secure, people became concerned with their ballots.  It was discovered that the number of votes could be changed by altering the memory card.  All these break downs in the security of the machine made all the people to not trust diebold machines.

If I was in charge of counting the votes I would just do it the old way and have actual people count the votes.  The process would take longer but technology nowadays cannot be trusted.  However, to make sure the people counting the votes do not alter the votes I would have two different groups count the votes.  One group would be mostly republicans and the other would be democrats.  Then you can compare the results and if they match up then you know the results are true.  If the results are different then you can get a recount.  

Mashup

http://www.skatespots.net/
This site is a mash up of skatespots and google maps. This site is interesting because I like to skate and it helps me find skate spots around SF. This way I can just search it and go straight to the spot instead of just skating around looking for spots.

http://www.mashedtickets.com/
This site is a mash up of eBay, google maps, and google Ajax search. This site is very useful because it helps you locate tickets for different events such as concerts and sporting events. If you need tickets to the next golden state warriors basketball game you can just go on the site and find the cheapest tickets and the location of the game.

http://www.mibazaar.com/top100celebrities/
This site is a mash up of google maps, yahoo geocoding, and youtube. This site shows the top 100 celebrities on the forbes list. It also shows where they live, howmuch money they make, and videos about them. This is useful if you want to see who these celebrities are and howmuch they make. Plus if you find out they live close by you can go check out the area and look for them.

Digital Divide

The digital divide is a line dividing the world between people who can access technology and people who cannot access technology.  This dividing line relates to problems with education, government, health, entertainment, and work.

Education is affected by this digital divide because schools are relying more on computers and new technologies in their teaching methods.  With new technologies used to teach, kids without knowledge of computers are set at a disadvantage.  The kids that know how to use the technology, will be at an advantage because then they will have to take time to teach the other kids how to use it.  

The government has also been affected by this digital divide.  The government is now upgrading from the old ways to using technology.  They are now using the internet to fill out government papers and forms.  People that do not know how to use computers are set at a disadvantage and fill outpapers the easy way.  Voting is now starting to change to electronic voting which will prevent the people with no knowledge of computers from voting.  Also, contacting the government can be done online and now only some people may vocie their opinion.  This is a problem because the government won't be able to hear all of America.

Nowadays jobs are requiring employees to be able to have some experience in computers.  Unfortunate people, will be denied jobs and have to work at the lower paying jobs.  This will also be aproblem because the unemployment rate will probably go up.  With more people jobless poverty will also go up.  

Online entertainment is also becoming very popular.  Games and music is now becoming available online, which prevents people with no access to computers from getting some entertainment.  This is a problem because it could lead to those people doing criminal activities because they do not have the things to do to keep them busy.

The digital divide needs to be taken care of.  We need to lessen the gap between people with technology and people without technology.  In the future, we will be using computers for more things than we are now, so we need to start educating everybody about how to use these new technologies.

File Sharing

File sharing has become a topic of interest.  Personally I believe file sharing can be viewed as a good thing and a bad thing.  It all depends on he situation on whether file sharing should be legal.

Artist should be the ones to decide on how they want their music distributed.  If the artist doesn't mind having his music shared for free then their music should be able to be shared.  On the other hand if artist are against file sharing then there should be some copyright on the music and a fine for people who share the music.  However if the artist is under a record label then the label are the ones to make those decisions.  

However the problem is determining illegal sharing.  If a person buys a cd or program, then he or she should be able to share it with his friends.  But if they are going to share it then they have to put it on a cd.  This way people won't share like crazy because it will cost them money to buy blank cds.  This means that programs like limewire wouldn't be legal.  

Programs like itunes are good programs that help get rid of illegal sharing.  itunes could change some things like letting users download songs for free but only for several days so that they can check out the songs and see if they want to buy it.  Another good thing about itunes is that you can buy single songs and not have to buy the whole album.  Nowadays not much artist make albums that are filled with good songs, so it seems like your paying 15-18 dollars for couple songs.

In conclusion, file sharing online should not be legal unless it is like itunes.  People who buy cds can share their music only if they burn it on their own blank cds.  

Analog vs Digital

Analog usage in my life has been slowly decreasing.  All the movies that I have on video tapes are just collecting dust.  I no longer watch them and some of them don't even work.  However, I do still use a VCR to record shows on TV because we don't have TiVo.  Nowadays the digital world is starting to take over my life.  Whether I like it or not I had to adapt to digital.  Everything is being done on computers nowadays.  For example, registration was done over the internet and if you didn't have a computer then you wouldn't be registered for classes.  Even movies are starting to be done digitally.  Movies like 300, lord of the rings, and star wars all made digitally.  You can even watch movies and tv shows over the internet.

The good thing about analog is that it gives you a more real image.  The bad thing about analog is that it is hard to replace, which is the reason why my video tapes are no longer being used.  They also have a limited amount of space that you store data in.  Digital pros are the exact opposites of the cons for analog.  Digital has more space to store data and can easily be copied.  Digital devices are also smaller in size.  The cons of using digital is that the image might appears fake.  However, technology is growing and that problem should be fixed in future years.  After looking at the pros and cons of digital and analog, I have concluded that we will be seeing a lot more digital devices in the future.

E-Waste

Electronic waste is becoming a big environmental issue.  Computers, cell phones, and other used electronics are being dumped illegally in countries like China and Nigeria.  Countries like the United States have no system for recycling these electronic devices.  Most places end up sending their e-waste overseas to China and Nigeria because it is inexpensive.  The electronics that are being dumped in those countries can cause environmental issues.  The electronics are burned to get precious metals.  Those parts that are burned such as the plastic give off cancerous pollutants.  The problem is that the labor it takes to recycle these electronics are expensive, so countries just send their stuff to countries where the labor is cheap such as China and Nigeria.

Some ways that you can recycle your old electronics is to make sure the recycler you use is environmently friendly.  Most computer manufacters have good recylcing programs.  Another solution is that you could try and use your electronics as long as you can.  Instead of getting new cell phones and computers every year, try to use the same one for as long as you can.