Networks

When I go on my laptop my process goes something like: open laptop, type in password, hit enter, open my browser (in this case Opera), and hit a shortcut that goes to Google, Facebook, Youtube, or something of the sort. I never really paid attention to what my computer was undergoing to bring up the websites since it happens so fast. It really is all being taken for granted. Everything is becoming so accessible; LTE technology and wireless internet connection keeps us on the network all the time. Little did I know that these were just access points provided by much larger physical machines connected by miles and miles of wires. It's fascinating to imagine that a network can be a physical web that covers the earth.

I once saw this idea ad Google made for wireless access points provided by hot air balloons that would follow wind patterns thus spreading the internet to more isolated areas. Imagine how "small" that'd make our world. But still, the internet is such a deep concept and there's still so much to explore. I was checking the speed of UofT's ethernet in my dorm and it surprised me how fast it was. My friend informed me that it's because the university installed fibre glass something or other which I heard that Google is also trying to implement across America. That'd be pretty cool to have cheaper, faster internet, but is being connected so often such a great thing? How does it affect our attention span to be in "two" (or more) places at once (not literally).

This also got me thinking about the Chinese internet, which as most people know has extreme censorship going on by the government, and how if I were connected to that I would not be able to even write this blog. I'm not sure how Google is doing in China, but when I was there it was very frustrating to try to connect to it. To get on Facebook, I had to use a VPN. I have a vague understanding of how it bypasses the censorship but not nearly enough to understand what kind of networking it goes through. I feel it's way too much power to give control of the internet to a group of people. Of course, it is possible to bypass but there have been so many issues especially with America trying to pass bills like SOPA (?) to censor the internet.

Anyway, I have much to learn before I should develop any opinions about the "internet" as it only exists as a fuzzy concept in my head at the moment.

—V

My thoughts thus far

So far in the computational thinking class we've done a lot of history of the computer as well as some programming on DrRacket. I didn't know that the technology leading to computers could be traced back as far as stone tablets. I read an excerpt of Turkle's book about how as computer technology develops we, as humans, should take this chance to fully reflect on what it means to be conscious. Just from the brief history we've gone over it's clear that computer development has picked up its pace since the last century. Who knows what we'll be seeing ten years from now? In my cognitive science lecture the professor talked about how humans became fascinated with robots, but when developers in Japan made a very human-like robot people felt uncomfortable. It appears we as a species become frightened of things that are almost human. This makes me wonder what will happen if robots become self-conscious (or have they already? http://www.cleverbot.com). Will the world react as predicted in horror films of world destruction? Computers are supposed to act as an aid to humanity, but isn't there a relative danger in relying so much on them? Fears have been stated about all of our social and bank information being uploaded online. It gives whoever controls the system a lot of control, enough to create a situation similar to the Handmaid's Tale for a total revolution. Or, maybe I'm just paranoid. It is true, though, that the majority of the population can't leave their house without their smartphone. What does this say about humanity?

On the programming side, I'm very pleased that DrRacket is very logical and predictable. It still amuses me that we have not figured out how to predict the weather with absolute accuracy. Nature is evasive still. Like everything else, I suppose programming takes practice. I don't really see a reason to attempt to memorize every possible action. It's better to experiment and see for myself what certain commands do.
I find that watching the short videos while doing it on my laptop simultaneously helps me better understand what's going on for the quizzes, but I should try to remember to read all the instructions because one time I didn't fully read them and could not figure out what "sandwich" meant so I guessed (almost right! it was horizontal rather than vertical) but then again I've never had to take quizzes this late before so I should really find a way to stay awake... The test I didn't find too difficult and didn't even once consult my notesheet. It was pretty straightforward and fair so whatever grade I get I suppose I'll have to accept. For the most part the concepts are not difficult to understand such as "algorithms" which may appear unfamiliar at first but after reading about them I can relate them a lot to my own life.

For the wikipedia project I feel as if I could have been cleaner about labelling and such but with so much code it sometimes gets confusing as to what is what. I did spend my fair amount of time reading and correcting any incorrect grammar I found and got to learn quite a bit about a movie and two videogames. What surprised me was how quickly other wikipedia users found my sandbox and immediately began to edit it to acceptable standards. That's not exactly what I wanted but I suppose it is good that some of the issues I was looking at got brought up to light.

I'm starting the sneeze and sneezability project now. Hopefully this isn't reflecting my own health as the weather gets colder. I did get confused at first at the instructions about the "sneeze.scm" and "epidemic.scm" so I brought it up to professor Danny and thankfully it was just a copying error and he fixed the instructions so hopefully no one else will get confused again. I'll see how this programming thing goes.

—V

Excerpts from slog.pdf

0. 
   Questions to consider:
   – what's something new you learned this week in class?
   – what's something you enjoyed this week in class?
   – what's something that challenged or frustrated you this week?
   – how con􏰁dent do you feel about material covered this week?
   – how does course material relate to other classes or interests?
   – what was one of your achievements this week
   – how did your tutorial/test/assignment go this week?
   – ask, and then answer, some question you had about course content.
   – compare your own idea of an organized SLOG to what appears in the rubric for this SLOG 
   
   To Do:
   - Submit the url of this blog in .pdf form to markus
   - Work on Wikipedia project
   - Read what the sneeze assignment is on