Technology

Yesterday I was watching my dad check his email and my uncle sent him a message that seemed pretty funny to him. Then he told me to come check it out, the email was a pretty long one. It basically was saying that the younger generation has everything so easy, but to say this you had to be at least 40 years of age. There were about 25 examples; mostly all of them were regarding the technology we use every single day.

“I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!” That’s just one of the examples this email describes, and another one is “There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!” This email is basically dissing our entire generation and all of the technology that makes life “easy” for us. Technology now a days has its problems though; as many of you can contest finding a credible source is difficult and for someone who gets caught stealing music off the internet faces thousands of dollars in copyright fines.

Our generation does have many advantages over the generation over 40, from having cell phones that have many features such as call waiting, texting, and caller id to internet and all of its features. This generation on the other hand is probably easier than the one mocking us, but they survived with what they had and we will do the same. The middle aged man is saying our lives are easier and just like the title of the email “This is so true!” I believe what he’s saying, but I try to deny the truth because that’s what his generation did and that’s what I’m going to do.

Today when I got home from school I decided to play some Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 since I didn’t have to go to work. For those of you who don’t know about CoD (Call of Duty for short). It’s a modern day first person shooter for all electronic platforms. There’s so much packed into this game, from the continuous unlocks on multiplayer to the intense campaign mode, to the brand new special ops. Call of Duty is mainly known and played for its online multiplayer, and that’s exactly what I played. The online is good because millions of people play, it’s designed beautifully and there is so much replay ability. I love to talk smack to the other team is the pre-game lobby and boast about how I’m better than them, then actually prove it to them by killing them numerous times. This is by far my favorite game, but it might have to contest with a highly anticipated game coming out in about 3 weeks.

That game is called God of War 3, it’s a button masher that follows a very intense man named Kratos on his journey to become a god, and it’s based on Greek mythology. I’m so excited for the release of this awesome game, God of War 1 and 2 were my favorite games back when the playstation 2 was the best gaming system; hopefully it will be even better than those amazing games. March 16th is that day, I just can’t wait I want to see what the creators have up their sleeves and how they’re going to develop the beginning of the end as they call it.

All of these programs are available on all operating systems, but I suggest that all PC users get a copy of Windows 7 just to enhance their computer experience. There are millions of computer programs for all ranges of people, these are just a few excellent programs that are a necessity for anyone using a computer:

1. ITunes
In my opinion ITunes is the most user friend music program, an user is able to play any type of music and all types of other downloader’s, such as Napster, are very compatible with it. Plus it has easy access to the app store and millions of songs and videos, when I look for new music I visit the top 100 in the store. All parts of ITunes are very well programmed and is definitely the best program to listen to music.

2. Mozilla Firefox
There are a few different web browsers and each of them have their pros, as of now I have both Firefox and Internet Explorer 8. Mozilla is much more customizable and more friendly with computer programmers. The browser also has thousands of different add-ons or programs within the program that make Firefox that much better.

3. Internet security (Norton)
This is an absolutely must have for anyone who is on the internet, so basically everyone, it also doesn’t matter what company, Norton, McAfee, or any other. Norton 360 is a great program for that it allows the user to run scans of everything, set backup for crashes, enhance the computers performance, and other important things. With virus protection the computer will last longer and will be less prone to crashing and easier to bring back to live.

4. Microsoft Office
All students must have this program; I won’t say much about it because everyone knows how to use it and knows how useful it actually is.

5. Blender
A wonderful program for the curious and also the graphic designers, plus its FREE! Any program with these features that’s free is a great program to have. It’s also very fun to mess around with and try to figure out since it’s a very complex program.

Today was a pretty good day, but I’m having troubles finding something to research for my AP physics project due at the end of the semester. Maybe some of my guests could possibly share some of their ideas with me (By the way our ideas are due next Friday). Then, my boring school day got better when I was handed an idea that deals with up and coming technology. This idea is wireless energy transfer, its brand spanking new, many of you have heard or seen the powermat at best buy, this device charges electronic devices by sitting on a pad (the photo is from gizmodo.com). This concept is similar to the wireless energy transfer, but it’s not the same. I plan to continue to pursue this topic, unless my classmates could think of something better…

I’m just starting some research on this new idea and hoping to recreate my own type of wireless transfer unit by the time the due date rolls around. Since I’m not an expert on this topic, yet, I can’t share much information about it because I’m also new to the idea. I just wanted to make people aware of what new technologies are out there and how fascinating they really are.

Throughout my blog entries I will discuss topics surrounding all technologies, mostly electronic technologies ranging from computers to video games, even to new medical advances. Keep posted and I hope you enjoy!!!