Measure of America aka Cool Link, Bro

Cool link, bro



So the link takes you to the mapping of the American Human Development Index.  The AHDI basically measures the country's "wellbeing and opportunity."  This rating is a composite of three scores: health, knowledge, and standard of living.  Health is based on life expectancy, mortality rates, population numbers, etc.  Knowledge is based on school enrollment and degree attainment. Standard of earning is median salary of America.  All these data is from national statistics and surveys.

Home

Out of 10, the current AHDI is 5.17.  The abysmal score is definitely regrettable, but the cool part about this is finding out why.  That's where web design and awesome infographics come in.


Various listings that specify why something is scored also exist.  For example, an interesting fact is that 75.4% of high school graduates in Mississippi enroll in college.  This is the highest percentage in the country.  (For reference, California has 56.1%).  This high percentage is less impressive however when learning that only 60.5% of high schoolers in Mississippi actually graduate.  Furthermore, of those college freshmen that were enrolled, only 19.4% of them will actually get a bachelor's degree.  These numbers allow one to make a simple conjecture.  Less than 2/3 of high schoolers in Mississippi graduate.  Because of such a low number of high school graduates, colleges there will accept a very high percentage of these (most likely unqualified  applicants.  The majority of these freshmen will therefore be unprepared for college and most likely drop out.  Thus, in Mississippi, only 19.4% of the population actually have a bachelor's degree.


I was impressed by this website because of the way it was designed.  Boring statistics and facts would have never interested me the way I was by this website.  Its brilliance is in making it so easily accessible to anyone.


Overall this website is again, very cool.  Not only does it contain educational, income, and health statistics, it also has random information like homicide and burglary rankings.  By States, congressional districts, and ethnicity are some of the choices available to compare this data.  For example, it's interesting to see that Downtown San Jose will make a median income of about $37,000.  While the highest in California is about $73,000.  Where is this high income coming from?  About a 20 min drive away, is Cupertino, Saratoga, and Los Gatos.  As can be visually seen on the map, a 20 min drive separates two districts by about a 200% pay increase.


This website has good design behind it, something I've learned to appreciate in this class.

Random Part 2

Yay!  He responded to me!

I completely forgot about this!


So, in like our first week of class, Krys shows us The-North-Pole Website.  While the class discusses aesthetics fail, I sent Santa an email asking for a car and how I've been a good boy and whatnot.  Anyways, he responded to me like half an hour later a la automated message.


Some quick points:
-I may be too jaded by "Too Catch a Predator," but asking me if I'm naughty or nice, asking me to love Him, and saying He loves me, makes Santa seem a bit predator-y.
-Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is actually Rudolf, his German cousin.
-"Elves" are always capitalized, making me think Santa recognizes them as a race with rights.  He probably supports equal opportunity employees.


Say what you will about The-North-Pole, but you can't say it's not...uh...entertaining?

Why We're Necessary for the Future

I Luv U...

Bill Joy's article warns of a dystopian future where machines and robots have taken over the world, due to mankind's continuing technological innovations.


I believe this to be no more than science fiction.  It has been over a decade since this article was written and so far, my toaster hasn't stabbed me in my sleep yet.  Joy worries about the next upcoming big technology to be the cause of our deaths, but it seems it will just be perpetually coming "next year."  It's not that I don't believe we as a species are capable of building a machine that is so intelligent that it'll totally HAL 9000 us.  I'm sure 70 years ago they thought no one would be able to create a weapon strong enough to destroy a city (and eventually the world), but they were wrong about that.  No, it's not a question about mankind's capabilities in the killing or creativity department.  It's a question of social factors affecting the end result.


Unfortunately (as I believe it to be) society has a very heavy control on how technology is evolving.  Life saving technological research such as stem cells and cloning is a very, very old possibility and potential use to cure diseases such as cancer, AIDS, and Alzheimer's.  Procedures that hurt no one (at least to the non-religious) can help a vast number of people and potential future generations from pain and death, but it is society that prevents this.  There are those that argue against these research because they believe in the ethical implications of taking stem cells from a fetus or creating life from test tubes.  Because of these people, millions die.  Harsh, but simple.


Like this example, this is why I don't see mankind being allowed (not being able) to create anything that can enslave us.  Whenever robots are created to automate our lives or be our military force, I'm sure man will be there to say, "put a bomb in their brains and create a fail switch."  If all else fails, throw a freakin' EMP at 'em.  


As we evolve in our knowledge of technology, we also evolve in our knowledge of the potential dangers they possess.  While we may create AI smart enough to want to kill us, we'll also be there to create programs teaching them Asimov's Laws.  


One quick note about something that made no sense to me: Joy mentions the mad scientist who'll one day create a plague to kill all of mankind.  Sure it's possible, but then again, it's possible for a billion other people to do this.  Joy only creates this image to instill fear.  But you can't let fear restrict us from experiencing the rest of the other billions of possible futures.  


P.S.  I seemingly lost my sense of humor with this blog post, but I still like it.  :)

Arr, Matey

This picture was stolen

Pirates these days refer to the thieves of the Internet.  In a world where we are technology able to easily get desired things without paying, it becomes fact that there will always be pirates.  For example, a typical college student taking a web design class will require textbooks and software like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, and just generally the entire Adobe Creative Suite.  With prices ranging from $750 to $2000 and the fact that it will become obsolete once a newer version is released, piracy seems to be the optimal choice.  Add the fact that this process is very, very easy to do, it's surprising that not more people are pirating.

While most people say pirating is wrong, the truth is, good can come out of it.  Pirates frequently buy CDs from bands more often than non pirates.  A frequent belief that a pirate has is to support the creators of the content they steal.  Additionally comes the often heard story of "The Man From Earth."  The movie was unheard of when it first came out.  As soon people file shared it however, its popularity took off.  It spread through word of mouth and soon, a low budget, non-marketed film became one of the most popular and high rated movies at that time.  File sharing creates awareness, which is one of the things all sold media require.  The Story

I am not  a pirate.  I claim.  

My Obligatory Facebook Post

...(or Lack of)


A typical conversation with someone I just met:

"Hey, add me on Facebook!" 
"Nope, don't have one."
"Really?!"
"Yup.  I have a MySpace, though."
"REALLY?!?!"
"Nah."
"..."


If you're saying to yourself, "That's not how our first conversation went...," then though you may have met me, you definitely haven't met met me.


This post is utter nonsense.


Anyways, I always see the future as rather unfortunate just because of Facebook (and other methods of social networking).  It seems technology's evolution is now centered towards social networking and the like.  And while not necessarily the worst thing in the world, I feel it can limit potential in creativity or revolutionary ideas.  For example, new technology today: phones, TVs, video game consoles, computers, etc. all seem to cater to FB and others.  Phones will come out with new apps centered around making accessing Facebook better, TVs have a Facebook widget, and computers and consoles all are social networking oriented.  A hideous example:

Ugggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

That Facebook button is actually one of its main "selling points."  Ugliness aside, to make a software design is one thing, but to physically alter the hardware to specifically serve one function (an external company's, at that) is mind-blowing.  


My biggest complaint with the way times are moving is the fact that nothing new seems to be being discovered aside from making networks even social-er.  Windows 8 has a brand new, completely different GUI that's more geared towards the Windows 7 phone users who like to twatter or book faces.  Xbox 360s, PS3s, and Wiis all update firmwares and patch for social networking.  Where's the 720s, PS4s and HD-freakin'-Wiis?  Since when did people use a TV (aside from as an additional monitor) to browse the Internet and share their thoughts?


My gripe with Facebook is also that all these new features affect me in zero ways.  People say "Awesome! New updates."  I say, "Why bother?  Nothing new to not only benefit me, but to do nothing to me."


I sound like a crotchety old man.

You know it's true...Everything I do...

Google Maps

Google Maps is the best!

My apparent love for Google products continues.  So aside from the obvious uses of searching directions or viewing maps, I use Google Maps for public transportation.  I type in the starting and ending locations, and add departure or arrival times.  Google Maps gets intuitive and decides for you the best options with which transportation method to take i.e. bus, train, walking, etc.  I also prefer Google Maps because  it decides for me right away which transport agency will work best with others with regards to time and transfers.  In this regard, Google Maps acts like a trip planner. I prefer this to manually going to BART's website and then to AC Transit's and comparing the two if departure/arrival times match up or not.  Google Maps also calculates fare, making it even easier to plan trips.


Walking around an unfamiliar place can be a bit tricky, so I usually just use Street View to help with landmarks and whatnot.  It helps visually and I prefer it to memorizing street names I'm going to forget anyways.  Sometimes however, I might get lost walking around somewhere I've never been.  Those with internet and a browser on their phone will get away with looking it up.  I myself, am of the "too cheap" type and do not have a data plan with my phone.  Luckily, Google allows me to text them my location and where I need to go, and they'll give me directions through texts.  Just text "directions xxx to xxx" to 466453 (GOOGLE) and you'll receive texts with step by step directions.


All of these features plus the random, cool ones (Earth, Moon, business reviews, etc.) make Google Maps the ideal map site.


But then again, I might just be really biased.

Google Music

Google Music is a simple, online music player that uses your music library to play from.  This differs from Pandora, Last.fm, or other music services, which acts more as a radio than an online hard drive of your computer.  While Pandora will help you with discovering new music you may or may not like, Google Music only plays songs you actually want to listen to.  I prefer the latter as I hate having to repeatedly, manually skip songs I don't like in Pandora.  

GUI

Setting up Google Music can be rather annoying, however.  First, it's necessary to upload your music library, which in my case was over 2,800 songs and 16 GBs.  This process relies on your specific bandwidth and can be troublesome for some.  Second, Google's Music Manager can search your music files through either iTunes or the Music folder.  I chose iTunes because that's where I manually edit all my songs - whether it's album art, genre, or composers, etc.  I expect my edits to carry over to Google's database.  The problem with this is, for some reason, some files keep their original ID3 tags from whenever I acquired them from the Internet.  My ADD for proper music organization hates this aspect and tedious, manual editing would be necessary.  I have a suspicion however, that ID3 tags are supposed to be managed by iTunes itself and that it should be the one to edit those specific .mp3 files.  


Anyways, apart from those troubles, the rest of my expectations are delivered.  Standard music player controls are included, such as play, pause, shuffle, repeat, etc. as well as nonstandard such as thumbs up/down rating system and auto/manual playlists.  I myself, don't have an Android device, but it seems accounts can be linked to them and thus, allowing you to have a portable music player that doesn't have to take up phone/tablet memory.

Yeah, I listen to myself.  Doesn't everyone?

One last, probably MOST important thing:  Google Music is currently in beta and requires an invitation to be used.  As discussed in class, exclusivity does have its allure.