Game Changer?

Image from http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2010/01/ipad_handson_4a.jpg

All of the hype and the talk in the tech world now is Apple's new product: the iPad.  Just announced yesterday, there has been praise and complaints about this new device.  The reception of Apple products always seems to be mixed.  At the launch of their products there is always a lot of praise and complaints, but then the way people use technology changes.  The Apple II computer introduced the world to the personal computer.  The iPod made mp3 players popular.  After the iPhone, more people were buying smartphones.  The iPad is an interesting device itself.  It is not a smarphone and it is not a laptop computer or a netbook.  It seems to be an eBook reader that can do much more than books; it plays music, movies, and has all sorts of apps.  This product will most likely have a similar effect as the iPod and the iPhone.  More companies will be trying to put out relatively small, easy to use devices that we can consume our entertainment with.

Women and Computer Science

As a student studying Computer Science, I have noticed that it is a field that doesn't seem to have much appeal to women.  Out of all of my Computer Science classes, I think that the most females in one class was three.  It makes you wonder why there are so few women going into computer science.  This article suggests that the current nature of the Computer Science field appeals more to young men because they like to tinker with things and don't mind spending hours to figure out how something works.  Also, the way girls are brought up - playing with dolls and ponies - may be a reason that girls may not be interested in things like the "hard" sciences, engineering, or computer science. Maybe what the young girls need today is a Computer Engineering Barbie.  Follow this link: http://www.barbie.com/vote/ to vote for Barbie's next carreer: Computer Engineering.

Timeless Tetris

One of my favorite games has reached an impressive milestone: Tetris has recently passed 100 million mobile phone downloads.  This game, created the year I was born, has a simple yet gripping formula that appeals to many people.  Even my grandpa played and enjoyed this game!  I find it amazing that the creator of the game, Alexey Pajitnov, is also surprised of its success. In a recent interveiw he said, "Obviously, I feel that this is a good game and I really expected it to have some kind of longer life because I didn't see why not. The platform changes but the human brain doesn't change that rapidly, but I didn't expect it to be such a long living (intellectual property). I am really amazed and pleased by this fact."  It's impressive that something so small and simple can affect so many people.

We live in a Digital Age

The increase in technology that the world has seen in my short lifetime amazes me. I find it fascinating that, just like my grandparents can tell me about life without electricity, I will be able to tell my children that I remember a time before personal computers and the internet. I remember using a card catalog in the library. I remember using a typewriter to write a paper. We lived a life without cell phones; a life without digital TV; a life without Google, Wikipedia, and Facebook. We now live in a time when groundhogs send text messages and toasters use Twitter. This is truly a digital age.

CS 404

I will be using this blog for my CS 404 class - "Ethics and Computers in Society." So, most of my posts in the near future will probably be related to that class. Maybe I'll have something interesting to say, and maybe it will get me into a habbit of updating this blog...

Dinosaurs! I got a tour of BYU's museum of palientology today. I got to go back to where they store some dino bones and got to touch some. It was really cool!