teksavvy magazine finalforreal

Video Games on Steroids:

Motion SensorsA Closer Look:

Andrew Bowen

savvy about technology fall 2010

Today’s Gaming Society:

Virtual Violence

Artificial Herp Derp

teksavvy

If it’s not intelligent, then it’s herp derp. Page 6

photo creditsCover - “da Vinci Transhuman” by Unknown Artist: http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/07/the-art-of-transhumanism/

Table of Contents Page 1 - iPhone: http://intergalacticrobot.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html TimeCrisis4Gamers:http://www.flickr.com/photos/68513587@N00/2860085451/ “da Vinci Transhuman” by Unknown Artist: http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/07/the-art-of-transhumanism/ BellLabs:http://www.flickr.com/photos/lelandbeaumont/490523884/Page2-NvidiaLogo:http://www.flickr.com/photos/blaker/314426189/ Xbox,Wii,Ps3:http://www.flickr.com/photos/popculturegeek/4776108897/ Person dragging child with computer: socialmedia.globalthoughtz.com

Vitrual Violence and Reality: Page4-HaloReachPhoto:http://www.flickr.com/photos/commorancy/5038113113/Page5-TimeCrisis4Gamers:http://www.flickr.com/photos/19716902@N00/1295791951/

ArtificialHerpDerp:Page6-ComputerChipGraphic:http://farm1.static.flickr.com/131/362105716_1130793be8_o.jpgPage7-TheTuringTestDiagram:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Test_de_Turing.jpg

AModernNetwork:Page 8 - Spiderweb: http://www.blm.gov/photos/netpub/server.np?preview=15626&site=BLM&catalog=catalogPage9-iPhoneGaphic:www.jamcl.com

TheNewFaceofInnovation:Page 11 - Macbook Air: www.reghardware.com Hand Holding iPhone Graphic: iphoneindia.gyanin.com Green Zipper Graphic: graphicssoft.about.com Page12-Nexus1:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nexus_One.jpg PinkOtterBox:http://www.flickr.com/photos/gisuser/5202260206/ Nokia5800:http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-3534116271 Samsuni400:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Samsung_i400_closed.jpg

Getting Addicted to Technology? Page 14 - Child Addicted to Technology: cybersociology.org Page 15 - Person dragging child with computer: socialmedia.globalthoughtz.com

Andrew Bowen Page16-GPU:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/GPU_NVidia_NV40_6800GT_AGP.jpg

Who is Mr. Steven? Page19-20-AllPhotoCredits:ArsalanK.1- Computer Science Graphic: books4u.in

PullaMuscleOverVideoGamesAll Photos: Jacob B.

RedPingofDEATHPage25-XboxRedRingofDeath:http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1206/1055594707_e4ad9d1701.jpg

NewGadgetGuide‘10Page 22 - All Photos: www.geekiegadgets.com

GreenerGadgetsCompetitionof2009Page25-Recompute:http://www.flickr.com/photos/22059842@N02/3254302637/Page26-PowerHogEnergyMeter:http://www.inhabitots.com/power-hog-piggy-power-monitor-teaches-conservation/ RITIEco-FriendlyPrinter:http://gizmodo.com/5144542/riti-printer-uses-old-coffee-grounds-as-inkPage 27 - Go Mechanical Charger: http://www.sumgreenideas.com/our_blog/tag/go-mechanical-charger/ EmpowerChairs:http://www.trendhunter.com/photos/67737/1,http://www.theresidentarchitect.com/2010/08/energy-generat-ing-chair.html#axzz16muwAqXY

HowWellDoYouKnowTechnology?Page30-SaturnVRocket:www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/4812876740/

letter to the editorphoto credits

DearReaders,

WhatyouhaveinyourhandsisthefirsteditionoftheTeksavvy magazine. We, the staff of Teksavvy, are proud to bring you another side of the modern tech-nologythattheworldisevolvinginto.Itisourgoaltomake you aware of the changes that will affect so-ciety’s technological future through discussing the threatsandthebenefitsofnewdevelopingtechnolo-gies.Teksavvywilldiscussawidevarietyofsubjectsrelated to technology and science that have to do with the developing world. The goal of Teksavvy is to con-veythismessage:Eventhoughtechnologyhasim-proved a variety of things for us human beings it can also cause damage to the world. We would like to thankyouforspendingyourtimereadingthisfirstis-sue of Teksavvy.

Teksavvy Staff

teksavvyezine.blogspot.com

8-10 Mike CruzcosaWhat does it take to drive devel-opment in a growing cell phone industry?By Cameron D.

contents

6-7 Artifical Herp DerpIs Artifical Intelligence a threat to mankind?By Cameron D.

11-13 The New Face of InnovationSmartphones have become more and more effiecient since the first smart-phone. Just how far will they go?By Nathan C.

4-5 Violent Video GamesThe gaming society today is domi-nated with violent video games.By Nathan C.

21-22 Pull A Muscle Over Video GamesThe new Xbox Kinect and Wii motion sen-sor systemsBy Jacob B.

teksavvy fall 2010

18-20 Jacob StephensThe new LASA computer science teacher.By Arsalan K.

13-15 Addicted to Technology?With new technology coming out everyday, will humanity come to depend on it for everything?By Arsalan K.

16-17 Andrew BowenA look at a not-so-average Nvidia Engineer. By Jacob B.

staff

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Nathan C.NathanisfromColumbus,Ohio.Now14yearsold, he enjoys reading, drawing, playing videogames,playingflute,andsurfingtheInternet.Hetends to procrastinate a lot, but when it’s time to work,he gives 110% of his effort. Although he’s newtothemagnetprogram,Nathanisenjoyinghis time at LASA.

Arsalan KArsalanisfromNasirabad,Pakistan.Now15yearsold,heenjoysreading,playingvideogames,surfingthein-ternet, and as well as hanging out with his family and friends. He intends to learn a lot from LASA High School and from his friends by interacting with them.

Jacob BJacob is from Austin, Texas. Lived there all his life in the samehouse,heenjoys reading,playingvideogames,playing golf and lacross, and hanging out with friends and family. He wants to learn alot and have a good time at LASA High School.

Cameron D“The moral of the story is, communism is bad.” An avid QuizBowlmember,Cameronenjoysbeingan“interlocu-tor” and likes usingBIGwords. He spends his free time looking up random facts.

nathan c.VIRTUAL VIOLENCE AND REALITY

Do violent video games affect the player’s behavior?

It was only 30 years ago thatPac-Man was released by Namco and became one of thetop arcade games in America. Today, most video games contain some sort of violence and many people have been affected by it. Some say violence has trans-formed today’s video game soci-ety into a sadist community. But others disagree. Video game players who are affected by violent video games already had aggressive behav-iors before playing them. Ac-cording to issue 4 vol. 27 of the Harvard Mental Letter published for Oct. 2010, many aggressive

players were already prone to be-ing upset easily and highly emo-tional. These aggressive players are also very socially awkward -- they don’t attempt to interact with others. And when others try to interact with them, the players become very emotional and shut them out. The players have low levels of conscientiousness- they act without thinking, break rules, and fail to deliver promises. Vio-lent video games serve as a way to vent their stress and emotional issues. The players choose to play violent video games be-cause they share a connection with them. The video games are

violent, include use of aggressive behavior and don’t have opinions about the players. The players then take the games seriously and become more aggressive. Video games contain a line between fantasy and reality in life and in the games. An article publishedbyTorontoStarinNov.2007 explains the difference. [They] have no more of an “effect on the players than comic books.” The “world also has to give the players some credit”, the game is not the only factor. The player also has an opinion, he/

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she is not some mindless person having no say in video games af-fecting his/her behavior. Video games are meant to offer an es-cape to a different world where the player is in control.Therefore, the player can make all the decisions, meaning he/she can choose to act violently or not to act violently. Violent video games were made for “hard-core” gamers who knew what they were playing and were prepared for it. The players real-ize that huge, alien, flesh eatingmonsters or cyborg soldiers do not exist and will not invade the world. There is a very big line be-tween fantasy and reality. Most players play the game to relish the feeling of achieving a goal and success. An article in an issue of the Times magazine ex-plains that “advancing in the game is more important than violence.” Also, many players see killing and “eliminating enemies” as a step-

ping stone to beating the game. Motivation is what players feel whentheyplayvideogames.It’snot the feeling of pleasure when the player kills an enemy, it’s the feeling of being able to pass over an obstacle.30yearsagotherewasPac-man.Itconsistedofasimplegeometricshape moving around onscreen eatingcircles.Halo,CallofDuty,StreetFighter,alloftheseareto-day’s gaming society. Violent vid-eo games are an accepted fact in today’sgamingsociety.Doesthatmean that video game players are all mental, crazy, sadistic people? No,videogamesareaseparateworld. They are different realms accessible only through comput-ers, Wii’s, Playstations, Xboxes, etc. Life is something we experi-ence everyday; it has its ups and downs. Video games are not real-ity, they are entertainment. Those aggressive players out

there are not aggressive because they play violent video games. They are not aggressive because they play games where body parts are chopped off in gruesome ways. Those players are aggres-sive because of other problems. They are aggressive because of situations they can’t cope with or resolve in reality. Playing violent video games are not a way to cope with those problems. Being an aggressive person and playing violent video games will only make the player more aggressive.

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Artificial Herp Derp

By cameron D

Everyone has seen movies and read books where computers develop a

mind of their own and turn against human-ity. As artificial intelligence gets betterand better, and movies like i, Robot con-tinue to be made and popularized, fear is only growing. But the truth is, there’s no need to worry.Artificial intelligencehas not progressed and will not prog-ress for the near future to a point where computers pose a threat to humans.Currently, there is no reliable way for a computer or computer program to be molded into an entity capable of hu-manlikeintelligence.In1950,AlanTur-ing simplified the question of whethera computer is intelligent. According to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia,he created “a procedure to test wheth-er a computer is capable of humanlike

thought.” The Turing Test consists of one person, the “interrogator,” sitting with a “teletype machine” and asking questions to a computer and a person. Iftheinterrogatorcan’ttellthetwoapart,the computer is intelligent. However, in “Minds, Brains and Programs,” pub-lished in The Behavioral and Brain Sci-encesjournalin1980,philosopherJohnSearle developed a thought experiment calledthe“ChineseRoom.”IntheChi-nese Room, a person who is only ca-pableofspeakingEnglishisgivenques-tions in Chinese, as well as rules, written in English, for forming answers to thequestions.Iftherulesaregoodenough,Searle argues, the person’s answers will be good enough to be indistinguishable from a native Chinese speaker’s. Be-cause of good answers, the Turing Test

would determine the English speakercapable of humanlike thought. The Chi-nese Room shows that the Turing Test is a load of crap because it could be easytotrick.IftheTuringTestdoesnotreliably, accurately distinguish between human and inhuman, then there is no waytocreatean intelligentprogram. Itmay seem like the Turing Test’s downfall doesnotmeanthedownfallofartificialintelligence creation. However, without some test for the intelligent nature of a program, there is no working defini-tion of “intelligent” that a program can be molded to fit. Without that defini-tion, any development of an intelligent computer or computer program is aim-lessandguaranteed to fail.Ofcourse,the Turing Test is not the only test for intelligence. Because of that, the failure


of the Turing Test may not seem all that significant. However, the reason thatAlan Turing devised the Turing Test in thefirstplacewastosimplifytheques-tion “what is intelligence.” The Turing Test is the most accepted test to date, and until another accepted test can be developed, the failure of the Turing Test means an inability to test intelligence.Artificial Intelligence thus far, mainlyfound in video games, has been de-signed with the goal of mimicking specif-ic actions, and is incapable of exhibiting free thought or even intelligent thought because of that task-based design. Insection 17 of his Monadology, Leibniz uses the “Leibniz’ Mill” argument to ar-gue against the intelligence of a machine with multiple parts performing specificfunctions. Leibniz describes a situation in which there is some machine which seems to have experiences and percep-tion. Leibniz describes the machine as a “Mill,” which one can walk inside and look around in. Upon entry, one discov-ers that the perception of the “Mill” is actually created by a series of tools and machines, each one triggering the next, so that the machine is not perceptive, but a very large calculator. All computer programs designed to accomplish spe-cifictasks,whichallvideogameArtificialIntelligencesystemsare,mustbecom-posedofsuchmachinesandtools.Forexample, a program designed to trans-late from one language into another may have one part responsible for identifying the cases of nouns, another part for cre-

ating a valid syntactic structure, and still anotherpartforconjugatingverbs.Allofthese parts would work with one doing itsjob,thensendingitsoutputtoanotherpart,justasLeibnizdescribed.AsLeib-niz showed, this type of a system does not constitute intelligence, perception, orfreethought,meaningthatnoartificialintelligence that is task-oriented will be able to perceive or have free thought.Evenneurologicallyorientedmodelsofintelligence are not, at the present time, detailed or powerful enough to create an intelligent or freely thinking computer program.As “Modeling the DevelopingDrosophilaBrain:Rationale,Technique,and Application,” an article published by the American Institute of Biosciences,admits, computer models of the brain today are “useful, even if oversimpli-fied, conceptualizations of the nervoussystem as comprising interconnected, structurallydefinedcompartments.”Theproblem with neural models, or neuro-logically oriented models, is that, even though they approach the non-task-spe-cificnatureofaprogramthatcouldpo-tentially exhibit true intelligence and in-dependent thought, neural models at the present level of sophistication are just“useful...conceptualizations.” No neuralmodel has progressed to the level of de-tail, or scope, that would be necessary to produce an independently thinking, in-telligent computer program. Models that have a large enough scale to model the whole brain have only enough detail to model the function of individual regions

of the brain, and as such merely predict, with varying degrees of accuracy, the level of activity in different parts of the brain, rather than carrying out the func-tions of the brain. The exact opposite is true of neural, or nodal (comprised of nodes, which are groups of 2 or more neurons that function as one) models, which, because they simulate the action of individual neurons or nodes, are ca-pable of performing the functions of the brain, but which lack the scale to carry out very many of the functions of the brain. Adding to the problem is the fact that so little is known about the mecha-nisms which produce the properties of intelligence that are seen externally. Be-cause of scaling, detail, and understand-ing problems, neurologically oriented models are not capable, at the present time, of creating a freely thinking entity.BecauseoftheflawednatureoftheTur-ing Test, there are no true criteria for intelligence, and no tangible goal for an intelligent program. And as Leibniz’s Mill shows, any program designed to carry outspecifictasksthatmimicintelligence,which has up until now been what much ofartificialintelligencehassoughttodo,doesnotconstituteintelligence.Further-more, the futility of neurologically oriented models, which have the greatest chance of avoiding task-oriented trap, indicates that there is more progress yet to be made than has been made already. Ulti-mately,artificialintelligenceusnowherenear intelligent enough to pose a threat.

The Turing Test

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A Modern NetworkGeneration 4

Cameron D.WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO DRIVE DEVELOPMENT IN A GROWING INDUSTRY?

Each day there’s some new technology that comes across

your desk,” Mike Cruzcosa says as he describes the speed at which the wireless industry is changing. And in a world where there are so many new technologies and ideas every day, how do America’s wire-less companies handle growth? How do they manage this floodof options, of choices, of avenues yet to be traveled? The truth is, carriersdon’tdealwiththis.Othercompanies, like Alcatel Lucent, do.AlcatelLucentfindssolutions,manages this growth, and em-ploys people like Mike Cruzcosa. Mike is funny and interesting, full of life, and happy. He leans over the table, his forearms rest-ing on the edge just before hiselbows. His dark eyes shift around quickly, his face almost more ex-pressive than his words as he answers ques-tions, but seems to make lively conversation in-stead. He manages a nationwide teamofengineerswhosejobitisto develop and explore those new technologies, he has three pat-ents,andhecompetesinIronmantriathlons—all while raising a son. NothingaboutwhatMikedoesiseasy, but he does not come across asatense,stressedindividual.Ev-erything he does seems to be fun.Mikeandhisteam’sjobis,ashe puts it, to “come up with differ-ent blueprints that the various cus-tomer teams can in turn sell to their customers.” This may seem like it is easy. There are, after all, new technologies coming out every day, and new pitches to be made to potential customers. But the chal-lenge is not to develop technol-ogy,it’stofigureouthowtouseit. Mike describes the challenge:

“great ideas, but the challenge is how do you actually productize that?” There may be some new extremely small computer chip, or a new processor that can be used in a cell phone-sized ob-ject.Buthowdoyouknowpeo-ple will actually buy that? How do you know who will buy that? It’sMike’s job to figure that out. But the challenge is also to balance development in new indi-vidual technologies and products and development of the network as a whole. Just having and sell-ing new handsets is not enough; the network has to be adapt-able. Mike explains that no one will “throw away their old network and buy a whole new network”

justtoaccommodateanewprod-uct. How do you make sure that customers will buy new products, howdoyoumakethatproductfitinto the network that exists, and how do you make sure that the network evolves to accommodate newer and newer technologies? Mike’s job is multifaceted,and not limited to simple ques-tions with discrete right-or-wrong answers. As Mike says, change in the industry is “accelerating quiteabit.”Forexample,thead-ventof4G ismajorenough that,according to Mike, “you’re build-ing a whole new network.” Nowexisting products must be used to fill in gaps that previously didnot exist, the infrastructure of the networkitself must be expanded andmodified,andnewtechnolo-

gies and products, as they inevi-tably spring up, must be molded to fit with 4G, even though theymay have been built for 3G. The goal used to be to gain as many subscribers as possible by increasing footprint as much as possible, building as many tow-ers as possible. We’ve all seen the blinking lights seemingly sus-pended over distant hills in the thick black night sky. We’ve seen the ugly red and white trussed structures extending hundreds of feet into the air, the ugly brown rectangular building sitting lifeless at the base of the tower, and felt the hum in the air. But these gi-ant cell phone towers, worthy of DonQuixote’srage,arenolonger

su f f i c i en t to guaran-tee gaining customers. This drives innovation and forces companies to rush d e v e l o p -ment of both hand-

set and network technologies. The result, Mike says, is that “the network comes up with a smart thing to do and the hand-sets have to react, but as they react they’re gonna one-up.” So competition isn’t only between companies, but within companies themselvesaswell.Nothingisassimple as it once was, and Mike’s job is clearly very complicated. But what type of individual does it take exactly to do what Mike does? Mike Cruzcosa has three patents: a system for storing a voice message into the network in real time, internet call waiting, and an activity management sys-tem for technicians in the field.

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“Eachdaythere’ssomenew technology that comes across your desk”

Storing voice messages into the network, his third patent, is set up so that you can have a recording of your conversation stored into the network at your command which you can re-trieve laterand listen to. Imag-ine that you are driving to a friend’shouseonenight.Intheblack night air, the headlights of oncoming traffic blind and dis-orient you. The street signs are difficulttoread,andtreeshavegrown out over the road, obscur-ing the moon’s light. A thin fog has rolled in, making your own headlights fuzzy cones of yellow extending out before you. And to topitalloff,you’relost.Ifyou’dhad Mike’s system, you could have saved the instructions your friend gave you earlier, and wouldn’t have to call him back. But now you’re stuck driving in the dark talking on a cellphone tryingtofindyourway.Thisdif-ficult and potentially danger-ous situation could have been avoided with Mike’s third patent. His second patent, inter-net call waiting was developed when internet was still provided through phone lines and tak-ing a call meant being kicked off the internet. When the call came in, a pop-up box would show who was calling, and give the options of taking the call and routing it to a differ-ent number, sending the call to voice mail, or ignoring the call.Hisfirstpatentwasdesignedto maximize the efficiency oftechnicians in the field on anygiven day. The idea was that on a given day there will be a number of repairs and instal-lations and other such activi-ties that need to be carried out in various places throughout a city or region. Running trucks

costs money for fuel, but only certain truckers with operators with certain types of training will be able to do certain jobs. SoMike’s system took parameters relating the types and capabili-tiesofunitsinthefieldandthenumber, location, and nature of activities that must be carried out, and determined the most cost-effective way of getting all of those activities done. Just building the system was hard enough, but that type of algo-rithm is easily one of the hardest to develop and write, and many problems in computer science, including the infamous sorting algorithm, involve such maximi-zation techniques to be solved mostefficiently.Astillunsolvedproblem, called the “Traveling Salesman Problem,” as well as the related shortest path algo-rithms,areallNobel-prizelevelproblems in mathematics and computer science, so Mike’s invention is quite incredible. Mike’s invention is not all that is incredible about him. His triathlons are a testament to his work ethic, which, coupled with the innovation necessary for him to hold three patents, makesMike perfect for his jobat Alcatel Lucent. At Alcatel Lu-cent he is continually forced to make decisions and solve prob-lems that have no real answer. Hopefully this article has shown just how incredible Mike’s jobis, and how hectic and cha-otic the wireless industry, and probably any other technologi-cal industries have become.


the new face of innovationThe first smartphone was called

SimondesignedbyIBMin1992.It contained a calendar, addressbook, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, send and receive fax, and games in a black, bulky rectan-gularbox.Customersusedafingertouch-screen interface and a stylus to navigate the phone on a turquoise colored screen. However, today’s smartphones use more modern oper-ating systems. They use multi-touch interfaces and have everything the Simon had, except for third-party ap-plications and web browsing. Those

new improvements came because of the burst in technological innova-tion. The vehicle of the technological revolution- thecomputer.Nowwithsmartphones seeming to come out every other day, the world is begin-ning to be bombarded with new de-velopments and ideas to make them better.Itseemsthatthesmartphoneis coming dangerously close to the efficiency and effectiveness of thecomputer. However, it has its own problems that makes it less effec-tive than the computer. Both of these

have their own pros and cons in cer-tain areas which make some users dubious and others optimistic about smartphones replacing computers. LASA student and iPhone user Ben Bailey isn’t so hopeful. “They couldn’t replace computers for everything. A device like the iPad is feasible, how-ever, if Apple continues working on creating new, faster processors.” However, some functions on the new iPhone 4 sometimes do replace the computer. The new long - await-edFacetimeVideocallingallows

Nathan C

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the new face of innovation

“They couldn’t replace computers for ev-erything. A device like the iPad is feasible, however, if Apple continues working on creating new, faster processors.”

users to video call each other while connected to Wifi. This feature in-cludes cameras on both sides of the iPhone 4, so users can view the caller while still sending a feed to the caller.TheinterfaceofFacetimecall-ingissimplerandmorerefinedthanother programs on the computer like Skype. Another new feature, the multi-tasking feature, allows users to run many apps at once, with other running apps in a toolbar at the bot-tom of the screen, like computer tool-bars. “Inmyopinion,thesizeoftheiP-

hone is perfect, and the retina display helps with resolution.” Bailey said. The size of the iPhone and several other smartphones were designed to be portable but still be able to have a large enough screen to display clear images.Thenew960by640resolu-tion on iPhone eliminates pixelated displays on screens and makes ev-erything sharper. Zoomed in photos ofaflowercoveredindew-dropsonan older generation iPhone shows up as a blurry, pixelated image. The same picture displayed on an iPhone 4 shows up as a crisp and clear im-

age, allowing the user to see every dewdropontheflower.Thisalsoen-ables HD video recording, movies,and videos. That’s one of the many edges of smartphones. Their quality, functions, and size make them very convenient to be portable but still serve many functions. But are these pros enough to make them super, portable com-puters? Bailey said, “Probably not, because the screen is way too small-for tasks like large-scale gaming cre-ation.” This is the another one of the manymajorconcernsofsmartphone


users. The screen sizes of smart-phones are too small to display many features or visuals at once. Users are unable to operate complex programs on smartphones because of how little itcandisplayatonce.Itwouldbedif-ficulttomakethescreensizeslarger;that would increase the size of smart-phones and defeat the purpose of small, portable, devices. If improvements could bemadeto make smartphones compete with computers, effective features would be one thing to note. Other smart-phone users throughout forums on the net also have smartphone features that they would like to see to be im-proved and added. MacRumors, a Mac community discussion website, areoneofthosemanyforums.Intheforum, users proposed suggestions and discussed Mac products. User LoganT started a thread called “Apple iPhone Suggestions”. There, users can post ideas to improve the iPhone. Userbse99bsuggestedaddingacardreader to iPhones so that it can trans-fer photos with cameras. Another user JohnnyLaw suggested orientation

lock, where iPhone users can lock the orientation of the screen, that way it doesn’t switch to portrait or landscape mode when the iPhone rotates. “I’dliketoseeabetternotificationsystem, longer battery life, and some more effective apps than the current selection.” commented Bailey. These are simple cons of these devices - they can be easily corrected and de-

veloped, and if manufacturers and de-velopers continue to meet consumer demands, maybe smartphones can meet the computer. But computer developers need not to act like it’s the end of the computer. Smartphones still have a long way to go.ThefactthatJavaandFlashdon’twork inhibits many possibilities on the smartphonesuchasflashgamesand

video streaming. Moreover, how will its users be able to play games meant for computers or stream videos? The waysmartphone Internetbrowsing isset up - double tap to zoom in, flickyour finger to scroll, pinch and dragto zoom in and out; these functions aren’tcompatiblewithregularInternetgames. The technological world is still trying to cope with the huge impact it has made; there are still a lot of things thatneedtoberefined.“Ithinkifyoudosomething and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Justfigureoutwhat’snext.”saidAppleco-founderandchiefexecutiveofficerSteveJobsduringaNBCinterview. Although computers have brought humans very far in innovation, the smartphone is beginning to becom-ing a new driver of the technological revolution. The computer has survived the trial-and-error system; the smart-phone is still undergoing it. But soon, with all the new technology the world has developed, it will eventually take the role of driving the technological revolution.

the increasing popularity of smartphones....Mobile Behavior in US, Japan, EU5 Percent of Total Mobile Audience (Age 13+, June 2010) Japan US EuropeUsed connected media (browser, app or download) 75.2% 43.7% 38.5%Used browser 59.3% 34.0% 25.8%Used application 42.3% 31.1% 24.9%Sent text message 40.1% 66.8% 81.7%Instant messaging 3.3% 17.2% 12.6%Email 54.0% 27.9% 18.8%Social networking or blog 17.0% 21.3% 14.7%Listened to music 12.5% 13.9% 24.2%Took photos 63.0% 50.6% 56.8%Recorded video 15.4% 19.2% 25.8%Watched TV and/or video 22.0% 4.8% 5.4%Played games 16.3% 22.5% 24.1%Bank accounts 8.0% 9.4% 7.1%Financial news or stock quotes 16.1% 10.0% 7.2%Retail site 7.2% 5.5% 4.1%Classifieds 4.2% 6.6% 4.2%Travel service 3.3% 4.7% 4.1%Maps 15.7% 16.0% 10.8%Trafficreports 12.6% 8.2% 5.9%Weather news 34.1% 22.3% 13.7%Source: comScore MobiLens (July 2010) via: mobiThinking

“Mobile is an annualized run rate of over $1billion... Clearly this is the future of search on the Internet. More people in more countries are coming online from smartphones. Our mobile search queries have grownfivetimesoverthelastcoupleof years,” Jonathan R., SVP, Google

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the increasing popularity of smartphones....

Getting Addicted To Technology?

By: Arsalan K.

We’re told that technology is here to make our lives

easier.The Internethelpsusgetinformation so much faster and without having to put much effort intoit.IrememberthetimewhenI was searching for a video onnewtechnologyand Igotover1million results in under .16 sec-onds. How great is that? Technol-ogy has made it so easy for us to be connected with friends, family and business associates. I canlog-in to Skype and video call my cousin in Pakistan, it’s so awe-some seeing him face to face like as if he were right here with me. Technology is the best thing that has happened to us some would say, but there are multiple signs that indicate that the high use of technology could potentially have serious affects on society in vari-ous ways that could be harmful.

More computer use has caused a decline in physical activity. At Deakin University in Australia,researchers found after study-ing 697 adults that physical ac-tivity declined when computer use increased. Dr. Melissa C.Nelson of the University of Min-nesota in Minneapolis and her colleagues found that the aver-age high school boy spent about 15.2 hours a week using a com-puter in 2004, up from 10.4 hours weekly in 1999, while computeruse among girls climbed from 8.8 to about 11.1 hours a week After looking at the data from a five-year study involving 2,516 young andolderpeople,Nelsonandherteam concluded that computer activity showed the sharpest in-crease among boys; from 11.4 hours to 15.2 hours weekly for the younger teens, and from 10.4

to 14.2 hours a week among the olderboys.Forgirls, theonly in-crease in computer use was seen among the older group, from 8.8 to 12.5 hours a week. Back in the old days, kids and teens used to spend an average of 2 hours hanging out with their parents and an hour and a half participating in physical activity. Now, the timethat kids spend exposed to media has raised more than an hour in the last 5 years-from 7 hours and 29minutesdailytoabout8hoursand 30 minutes daily. If peoplebecome lazy and don’t partici-pate in physical activity, this may cause several chronic diseases, not to mention that this will also contribute to the chances of be-ing overweight or obese among people. Besides, who wants to look out of shape these days? Another problem is that tech-


You know when someone is addicted to technology if this happens to them.

Photo On Right: Art Credit socialmedia.global-thoughtz.com

nology addiction is starting to take over our lives. Researchers from the University of Glasgow at Scotland, UK, discovered thatmore than half of their study par-ticipants were reported checking their email once an hour, while otherschecked30to40timesperhour.AOLstudiesshowedthat59percent of PDA users checkedtheir email every time the mail arrived and 83 percent checkedtheir email every day while they were on vacation. “My Blackberry runsmylife,”JennHoffman[CEOofThe JBrandGroup] said, “I’mso addicted to this device that Istopped mid-bite to rush to send this message. My dining part-ners are staring at me with con-temptas Iwrite this.”Technologyhas become like a drug to these people. These over-wired people are so focused on their gadgets that they are spending more time with them and starting to neglect their relationship with others. They don’t seem to realize that this is as harmful for them as obesity

or cigarette smoking. Continuous use of technology can harm people skills. An article on The Daily Campus publishedby Alex Sanders [a college stu-dent who has grown up relying on his experience with technology], states that our parents’ generation would walk to the library, look for books on the shelves for a school projectorresearchandthenwalkback home. Now, he says thatstudents spend most of their time glued to a computer screen and get distracted by sites like Face-book and MySpace. He explains that this lethargy prevents people from getting exercise for their bod-ies or brains. He also mentions that reading books requires think-ing and having to look up infor-mation as opposed to carelessly clicking through white screens. Many people rely on their credit cards. However, they can end up in a severe debt because of that dependency. If technology getstoo advanced, there will come a time when people won’t need to

get up to eat or to read a book. Everything will be done for themwithout any effort put into it, which will negatively impact their skills. Hence, in the good old days teens would spend an average of 2 hours hanging out with their parents and an hour participating inphysicalactivity.Now, the timethat kids spend exposed to media such as TV and computer has in-creased more than an hour in the last 5 years. Certainly modern technology is composed of great inventions that have caused rapid progress in society, but sometimes it’s up to the people to know how much is too much. Additionally, if people keep spending more time on media and on their gadgets, this will likely increase the chanc-es of being overweight and obese

Page 15

Andrew Bowen: A View Into the Life of a Graphics Designer

By Jacob B

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/GPU_NVidia_NV40_6800GT_AGP.jpg

The story of man who works on the inside of all electronic devices, his life

will make you rethink yours


Video games are intricate pieces of technology. It takesyearsofdevel-opment and testing to create a con-sole. Also, computers are the same way, because the inner workings of both are extremely complex and dif-ficulttoperfect.Thepeoplewhocre-ate them have reputations of being highly skilled people in snow white trench coats who sit in a lab all day, toiling away, all day, with no outside life, until their hair becomes as white as their coats. Andrew Bowen, an employee ofNvidia, is nothing likethis.

Andrew works on graphic pro-cessingunits(GPU)forNvidia.Hecurrently holds all or part of 15 -20 patents. When he was working in theearly‘90s,heandafriendcameup with the idea for a programmable graphics raster engine but the legal team of his company did not think it was the patentable part was dis-coverable enough. Andrew noted that “We couldn’t argue forcefully that the patent idea was the future. Hindsight is 20/20. There are several patents that did go through that at this time aren’t really worth anything but at the time seemed more valuable.”

Today, the graphics raster engine is something that is still used still used today in all GPUs. He currently tests them to make sure they work properly. A GPU is a specialized microproces-sorthatoffloadsandaccelerates3Drendering from the microprocessor much faster than a CPU can. It isalso the computer processor of all Tesla Supercomputers. Also the X-boxusedanNvidiaGPUasitspro-cessor.“I thinkthegamingindustry

is really amazing, and the complex-ity of the environments is stunning” Andrew said. Still, Andrew Bowen’s lifeismorethanjustgamesandsu-percomputers.

Inhissenioryearofhighschool,the guidance counselor began talking to him about his future and asked him what he wanted to do in life. He knew he wanted to do something in the field of sciencesbecause he excelled at physics and computer programming. Englishwas not his department. He knew then that he wanted to do something that amazed him. He did not think simple computer programming was cool. What he did think was cool was how binary works. “When you typein‘A’onyourkeyboard,itturnsinto 1’s and 0’s and magically ap-pearsonyourscreenasan‘A’wassimply remarkable” he said. Binary issomethingthatinfluencedhiscol-lege education and to this day that continues to intrigue him.

He went to the University of Pitts-burghanddoublemajored inElec-trical Engineering and Philosophy.Philosophy helped him with his criti-cal thinking skills and his ability to solve open ended questions. That and his hobby in photography helps him keep his mind open, gives him perspective and keeps him from fo-cusingonjustonething.Onemeta-phor Andrew used was practicing

baseball.

“Ifallyoudidotherthanschoolwasbaseball; baseball, baseball, base-ball, eventually you will start hating it.” He uses both his degrees when he is working so he does not burn outlikeabaseballplayerwould.In-stead of always just focusing andspending countless hours working on one thing, he is able to look at this with from different angles and an open mind.

HestartedworkingatIBMinup-state NY, and then transferred toIBM in Austin. When being inter-viewedbyIBMhewasaskedtorankwhichfieldhewouldliketoworkinthe most and he said that his prefer-encewas3Dgraphics.Hegotluckybecause IBMwas hiring in the 3DGraphicsdepartmentand3DGraph-ics department liked his credentials sohegothiredtothejobthatheal-wayswanted.WhenheleftIBM,An-drew went to work for Silicon Graph-ics,beforehegotajobat3DFXand

then finally ending up at toNvidiaafter3DFXwentunder.“When I joined IBM in1989,one could have assumed that I would retire from IBM 30yearslater.Then,in1994(orthereabout), IBM had ama-jor downsizing. Many othercompanies were doing the

same – companies people viewed as‘foreverjobs’.Jobhoppingispartof the equation now” Andrew said. Atalltheseplacesheworkedin3Dgraphics.

With all the experience from these jobshebecameabetterandmoresophisticated engineer. There are 150 Nvidia employees in Austin,worldwide there are about 7,000.

Page 17

“When you type in ‘A’ on your keyboard, it turns into 1’s and 0’s and magically appears on

your screen as an ‘A’”

Most of these people are in Santa Clara,CA. Nvidia, likemostcom-panies, would rather have its em-ployees in Santa Clara under one roof, but the company has dedi-cated itself to having the best em-ployees so Nvidia accommodatesits employees who do not want to move to CA. Andrew and many of his coworkers that live in Austin talk about how they got to a Giant soft-ware company because they did not comefrommajorscienceandtech-nologycollegeslikeTexas,MIT,orCal-Tech. Many came from smaller colleges and got hired to local com-panies before proving themselves. Andrew reflectedonhis collegebystating that “I doubt Nvidia wouldever send a recruiter to Pitt because the number of really crème-de-la-crème graduates far lower than the amount at other schools.”

Andrew has been working in this field for 21 years. Hehasworkedwith some of the best and the bright-est people in his industry. His main job is making sure there are noflaws in the products and if thereare, catching them before a product is released. IfAndrewdoeshis jobwell, then everything should work properlybut thereare infinitewaysinwhich things can gowrong. “Inthe beginning, there are many small failures as in most things, more than youcouldevercheckorverify.Majorproblems rarely occur and if they do, it is nearly always right at the start” Andrew said.

Astheprojectgoeson,theamountof problems decrease exponentially. However, every once in a while, a small flaw in a product is releasedandNvidiamustfix itbecause it isimpossible to test every possible

scenario. Still, Andrew said that no mater how many things can go wrong “If yourEthernetcablegoesout the door with a bug in it then you really screwed up.” This is because there are usually strict standards that you must follow that don’t allow a bug to be released.

There are two sides to Mr. Bo-wen’s job. The upside is that hemakes cool products. Companies like Harley Davidson and Boeinguse the technology that he works on to build motorcycles and planes for example. The downside is that nowadaysthefieldthatheworksinis driven almost entirely by gaming. This type of work requires patience. Another way it can be frustrating is that on some days, you realize that at the end of a long work day you still have managed to be behind where you were the day before.

DuringapartofAndrew’scareer,heandafriendworkedonaprojectfor up to70-80hoursaweek. Inthosedayshisjobwasallconsum-ing and left very little time for friends, family and a life outside of work. One day, when they finished, bothAndrew and his friend agreed that they worked too hard and they spent too much time away from their lives and their families. Andrew knew he had tomakeadjustmentshe lovedhisjob,buthealsoneededtofindahappy medium. He took a step back and found a balance between work that he loved and spending time away from it. When thinking about the balance of his life, Andrew said “I had to take some reality checksabout 10 years ago and decide to keep my work/life balance in check. When you are trying to produce an amazing product that you are excit-

ed about, it is easy to allow work to consume all of your time.”

To this day, Andrew still does work that amazes him. His work in the tech industry is always chang-ing and is never boring. While he still spends many hours in front of a computer everyday he has learned not the neglect his life and his other interests. He spends time with his familyanddoingactivitiesheenjoyssuch as photography, teaching and helping his community. His experi-enceshavetaughthimtoenjoytheprecious time you get with your fam-ily.


Who Is Mr. Stephens?BY ARSALAN K

Page19

“Can I get everybody to turn off theirmonitors please?” Stephens asks, leaningagainst his desk when all of the students were seated. Stephens is wearing a blue

ironed shirt and a black suit as dark as the night itself. The clicking of the keyboards stops and the students slowly press the power buttons of their monitors and give their full attention to him. He starts off the class by asking his students about how all of them aredoingandwhattheydidovertheweekend.Ifnoonehasanythingtosay,hereflectson his weekend and talks about how he sometimes gets the chance to watch a football game. Then the students chime in and talk about the games or movies they had the op-portunity to see. After having this little chat, the students turn on their computer screens and get back to work on their assignments.StephensisnewtoLASAHighSchoolandthisishisfirstyearteachingprogrammingto his students, but it seems as though he has been here for many years and knows how the school works. He wants to share the knowledge of technology and education with hisstudentsandshowthemthedoorsofopportunitiesitcanopenforthem.Oneofthereasons he came to teach at this high school is because of the students who attend this school. “The students at LASA are here because they want to be here and they’re also here because it offers them opportunities they wouldn’t get elsewhere and so as a teacher that makesmyjobveryeasy.”WhenclassendsatLASAHighSchool,thestudentsslowlyleave his classroom and Stephens says goodbye to them all with a blissful smile. “I’mdefinitelyan introvertedperson…”Stephenscomments,“I’mnecessarilynotoutgoing,butatthesametimeI’marisktakerandIlikethethrillofadventure.”AcoupleoftimesinhislifeStephenshasquithisjobandmovedoverseas.Afewyearsago,Ste-phenswasn’thappywithhisjob,sohemovedtoThailandwherehispathincomputerscience took off.Theshapeofthecountrylookslikeagoldenaxe.Inthenorthandsouththerearemountainsashugeasskyscrapers.Therearemanythickforestsintheuppernorth.InBangkok, thestreetsarevery,verybusy.Therearealwaystraffic jamsandeveryonehears noises of cars. He says that the experiences he had in Thailand has made him a better person and exposed him to things that not many people would do. Before becom-ing a full time teacher, he was an engineer for wireless companies. He would help in the processofdecidingwheretoputthecellsitestomakesuretheyhadcoverage.Iftherewasnocoverage,itwashisjobtoeithermanipulatethesettingsinthenetworkor,some-times, to change it psychically to get better coverage. Ifhewasn’t teaching,hesaysthathewouldbeascuba instructorashissecondchoice for a career. He has gone to several scuba trips in his past. How good must it feel to swim through the cold murky water running over your entire body? Stephens became a computer science teacher because of the opportunity he got in Thailand.BeforegoingtoThailand,hewastryingtofigureoutwhathecoulddo.Hehadan interest in computers and there is usually a need for teachers overseas, so he talked


to one of the schools and they hired him. At first, he thought that hewouldn’t like teaching in Thailand, but he ended up liking it because heenjoyedtoteachingpeopleand,he says, high school students are usually fun to be around with. “I’mnotthestrongestpersoninprogramming,butwhatIlikeaboutitisthatIalwayshavebeeninterest-ed incomputers. I like technology,sothatIguessallowedmetostartpursing that as an option for some-thingIwantedtodo.”Hestatesthathe’s not a “computer science geek” compared to others, but whenever his students get stuck in program-mingorcan’tfigureoutwheretheyhave gone wrong, he can help them and know how to solve the issue. He won’t directly tell the student to change from this to that but will lead themtofiguringitoutontheirown. When Stephens accepted thejobatLASA,heclaimsthathewasalittlefrightened.“Iwasactu-ally intimidated...everyone talks about how smart all of the students are...Ididn’tknowwhattheculturewashere.WhatIlikedaboutitwasknowingthatIwouldprobablyhavesome of the top students in Austin, but again that was scary”. He adds that he really likes teaching here, because he says LASA is quite similar to the school he taught in Thailand. According to Stephens, students in Thailand are also mo-tivated and there is a lot of paren-tal involvement and it feels like the same thing over here.

“...IamsomewhatweirdinthatI don’t think I hadanymajor influ-ence in my life...” Stephens ex-claims. The only influence he gotin his life was until he was in Thai-land and it wasn’t one person but a group of people who had inspired him. While he was there he worked with three different orphanages and most of the children he worked with were infected with HIV.At first hethought that the kids really needed his help and he was going to assist them, but in the end he says that they changed him more than what he could have changed them. “To go through life knowing that you have this virus that who knows what it holds... these kids were full of life which was really amazing to me.” As for where he sees himself inthenextfiveyears,hesaysthatwithinthenextfiveyears,heplanstofinishhismastersdegreeatTexasState in educational technology and hopes to be back over seas. As of right now he is not sure that he will teach there, but would like to help the people in the third world coun-triesandimprovetheireducation.“IwouldjokeandsaythatIwanttobeabeach-bum,butIcan’tfindopen-ings.So,Ithinkmaybelikeascubainstructor.” Stephens’s care for his stu-dents and his job is not the onlything that makes him an extraordi-nary person. His way of conveying knowledge to his students and al-ways wanting to help the ones who are less fortunate makes him differ

from the rest. At LASA High School, he tries his very best to make his students understand programming and educate them on what it can do for them. He is always findingbetter ways to improve his ways of teaching his class to make it easier for them to comprehend the infor-mation. Instead of deciding on hisown, he asks his students for sug-gestion as to how he can improve. Stephens likes technology, but his passion to share knowledge is even greater and that is one of the many qualities that make him an incred-ible human being.

Page 21

By: Arsalan K.

Shopping Got Way EasierOnlineshoppinghasgotteneasierandfasterforshoppersthankstothenewSmartSwipecreditcardreader.Nomorehaving to type or inputting your credit card information, an-swering all of those security questions and that uneasy fore-boding feeling you get when you fall in one of those credit card scams. The SmartSwipe has improved the way users shop online. This credit card device can read, encrypt and send you personal information right away to the online payment page.

Samsung ZealThisflip-phoneisnotsodifferentfromthemodern phone. The cool messaging phone features a unique dual-hinge and dual screen design in a flip-phone that sets itapart from the other mobile phones out there. Unlike a dual swing door that swings open fromlefttoright,thisphoneflipsfromtwoorientations:verticalorhorizontal.It’salsocomes with business and lifestyle features suchasMicrosoftOfficeExchange,SocialBeat Widget, Media Center, and Skype mobile for increasing messaging options.

New PS3 Bluetooth HeadsetThis gadget is just for you if you’re one of thosepeople who crave exciting online multiplayer ac-tion as seen in popular games like Call of Duty:Black Ops, Killzone and MAG.All of the Playsta-tion 3 fans can benefit from this Bluetooth Head-set with the twin microphone design, automatic pairing via USB cable, in-game headset status in-dicator, and a charge dock, which can be used as a desktop microphone. Aside from its predeces-sor, this Bluetooth has a slim design that’s glossier andabout30%smaller thanthepreviousheadset.

Lamborghini Notebook

This speedster in-spired notebook, the ASUS-Lamborghini Eee PC VX6, has a12.1 inch screen and comes with the lat-est generation DualCoreIntelAtomD525processor that fea-tures tow Hyper-Threading technol-ogy enabled cores clocked at 1.8 GHz.

USB Digital Voice RecorderYou can capture audio on the go, upon voice activation or even on a set scheduled date and line. The old-er voice recorders only held minutes of data, but this new digital voice re-cordercansaveupto560HOURSofaudio and up to 200 individual audio files in its built-in 2GB flashmemory.

New Gadget Guide ‘10


Pull a muscle over Video Games By: Jacob B.

Running around, throwing a ball, swinging a

bat, all examples of things that help you get in shape. Exercise is something that is done outside under the sun, typical while peo-ple are having fun. The problem is that nowadays video games can be considered “exercise”. Still, shouldn’t these “active” games help keep players in shape, they are working out after all? The an-swer is no; the end result will either be you in pain, not shopping for smaller clothes, or you will cheat, not actually be-ing active. The constant mo-tion and the ever increasing lack of safety precautions are causing more and more people to get injured. Move-ment in video games will cause many people to hurt them-selves because of basic flaws in the ideas behind the games and the awareness of the people who play them. Even when preforming the sim-plest movements, people can get you hurt. February 2, 2010, A let-ter from the New England Journal of Medicine stated that a normal, healthy, 4-year-old girl in the Unit-ed Kingdom, suffered a fracture

in her right foot when she fell off a Wii Fit balance board. When swaying, shifting your weight, or even posing in different posi-tions, the player can lose their balance, causing any number of injuries. This is not the only way players can get hurt, while play-ing the Wii, most people flick their wrists in some form. An elemen-tary school student’s study, that was released in October 2009, and published on Web MD, suggested

that 10% of young video game players have wrist pain. Constant flicking of wrists is an easy way to strain or sprain your wrist. Also, if you injure your dominant hand’s wrist, your writing and typing will be affected as well. These simple motions are underestimated and overlooked methods to get hurt. Even to athletes who stress their bodies every day, the threat of video game injuries are ever po-

tent. According to the Detroit Free Press, Joel Zumaya was hurt play-ing a PlayStation 2 video game called “Guitar Hero”, in which the player simulates playing an electric guitar for popular rock bands. Zu-maya, a 22-year-old rookie pitcher who played for the Detroit Tigers, suffered inflammation in his right (throwing) wrist and fore-arm from playing the game. A nor-mal day for a pitcher might consist of constantly twisting and flicking

their wrist while practicing throwing for hours on end. While playing Guitar Hero, Zumaya was flicking his wrist. This should be fine for a professional pitcher, but he ended up on the DL (disabled list) because he wasn’t careful when play-

ing. In fact, this injury caused him to miss three games of the ALCS. Remember, even those who do much more rigorous exercise than the average gamer, need to take care because, even they are still susceptible to the simplest of injuries.

With the new technology, comes more realistic games, and real mo-tions while playing these games.

video games can cause more than simple finger pains

“A normal, healthy, 4-year-old girl in the United Kingdom,

suffered a fracture in her right foot when she fell off a Wii Fit

balance board.”

Page23

The average American doesn’t know most off the mechanics of playing a certain sport, players and defiantly has not perfected them. Because of this, more people are hurting themselves while playing video games.“I landed on my feet and my knees buckled,” said Marlin, a 41 year old man from Nashville who tore ligaments and cartilage in his knee while playing Nintendo Wii tennis at a church social. “I al-most passed out.” When games become more realistic, people start trying to simulate playing that sport, and in turn hurt them-selves. When this man thought he was actually playing tennis, he tried to jump and return a serve, and landed awkwardly. People must learn that video games are not really sports and you can-not attempt to play them without learning the basic fundamentals. I, personally, have gotten hurt while playing Wii. I was playing MLB Power Pros, and pitched ev-ery pitch in a game. Professional pitchers rarely accomplish that feat in real life, but in the video game, I accomplished it multiple times in a day. The next morn-ing when I woke up, my arm was sore, and I definitely had difficul-ty moving it. I have come to the conclusion that this happened

because I used poor form and I over exerted my shoulder. As an avid video game player, it took me some time to consid-er the possibility that this new breed of video games could be harmful. Now, I have come to one conclusion; People MUST be aware of their limits and know when to take a break. When peo-ple are knowledgeable about themselves and their limitations, they can make better decisions for themselves. Only then will motion in video games be a help-ful and safe form of exercise for the world. Wiimote

X-Box 360


ANSWERS:1)TuringMachine2)Linux3)Python4)Xbox360

LOOK AWAY !!!!!! ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON PAGE 29 POSTED BELOW

Since it has come out, the Xbox 360 has been plauged by the infamous Red Ring of Death

RRoDcanbecausedbyaplethoraof thingssuchasGPUfailure. Somethingcangowronginthe360’sGPUbecausetheyusecheeponesinsteadofNvidia’smoreadvancedGPU which were used in the original Xbox. A lot of the Xbox’s problems come from over-heating as this causes the motherboard to bend which in turn causes some of the solder ballstolosecontactwiththegpuandmotherboard.Ifyou360isstillcoveredunderwar-ranty than you might as well ship it back to Microsoft, but if it is not then you have nothing tolose,crackitopenandgettowork.Googlerrodtofindsiteslikefixtheredringofdeath.comorxbox360repairing.comtogetanoverviewofthecausesandtofindthebesttutori-als.OnerecommendationisthatyoushouldavoidGeeksquad!Alltheydoisusesometemporarytapethatwillfixitforaweek,forcingyoutospendmoneyontheirservicesinadditiontospendingmoneyforothermethodsoffixingit.

Page 25

red ring of death

Greener Gadgets

of 2009 by nathan c.

competition

Recompute: the sustainable desktop computer

Cardboard is the new black. Submitted by Brenden Maculoso, the Recompute computer is made ofrecyclableandreusablecorrugatedcardboard. Insteadofgoingthroughhundredsofcomplexprocessesascomputersdo,Recomputeneedsfoursimplesteps:Diecutting,gluing(withnon-toxicwhiteglue), printingandelectronicassembly.Recomputeonlyuses threemajor components:Amotherboard with processor and memory, a hard drive, and a power supply.


Power Hog: Energy Consumption MeterDesignedbyDesignedbyMathieuZastawny,MansourOurasanah,TomDooley,PeterByar,ElysaSoffer,andMathieuTurpault, the Power Hog piggy bank is used to measure energy consumption. The Power Hog works with computers, videogameconsoles,cellphonechargers,iPodchargers,TV’s,etc.First,pluginthePowerHog’s“tail”intoapowersocket.ThenpluginthedeivcestothePowerHog’s“snout”.ThenputacoinintothePowerHog.Onecoinworksfro30minutes.Thisdeviceismadeoutofrecyclablematerialsandalsoteachesuserstheenergycosttoelectricaldevices.

RITI Eco-Friendly PrinterThiseco-friendlyprinterdoesn’tuseink.DesignedbyMathieuZastawny,MansourOurasanah,TomDooley,PeterByar,ElysaSoffer,andMathieuTurpault,itusesused coffee or tea grounds. Simply pour the ground into the cartridge and insert paper into the printer slot. Then drag the cartrige across the printer and voila, the paper is printed.

by nathan c.

Page 27

Go Mechanical Charger

This device allows uers to charge their phone mechanically. Designed byAshishDeshpande, this light-weight,portable, recyclable device charges phone batteries through generating energy by mechanical movement. This device doesn’t require electric-ity.Foreveryoneminuteofmehcani-cal movement, the user gains three minutesoftalktimeand30minutesofstandby time. This device was inspired by the problems in India. India has250 million suscribers. Celluar service is availibe in areas where landlines aren’t available yet. Cell phones are a primary source of communication in India.SoAshishDeshpandedecidedto create the Go Mechanical Charger, allowing users to charge their phone anywhere and on the go.

Empower Rocking Chair

Thenewandsophisticatedrockingchair:TheEmpowerRockingChair.DesignedbyRyanKingler,thisrockingchairallows users to charge their devices while rocking. The chair has four USB slots and four regular plug sockets located at the bottom front two legs of the chair. Users simply plug in the cable from their device to the chair,androckbackandforth.Thiskineticenergyisgeneratedintoelectirictytopowertheirdevices.Nowpassengersdon’thavetofightforthelastremainingpowersocketatairports.

How Well Do YOU Know Technology?Answer the questions as quickly as you can. The answers are at the top of page 24. The earlier in

the question you answer the better, but you may not be able to answer.

Itwascreated in1937asathoughtexperiment,asolutiontoDavidHilbert’sEntscheidugsproblem.The “universal” type is one capable of simulating an-other.Itwasoriginallydescribedasa“head”anda“tape.”Thattape,whichwasofinfinitelength,wasdividedintosquares,eachsquarecontainingasymbol.The head can read one square at a time, and square’s symbol may or may notbechangedbythehead,andmayormaynotinfluencethehead’sfutureactions. The head can move the tape so that it sees more than one symbol to-tal. What is this precursor to the modern computer, its namesake’s “machine?”

In1999,IBMjoinedHewlett-Packard,Dell,andSiliconGraphicsinsellingprod-uctsusingthisproduct.ItwasdevelopedinFinlandbyLinusTorvald,andisbasedonasimilarsystemdevelpedbyAT&TemployeesatBellLabsin1969.Amobilespinoff of this system was bought by Google in 2005, had open-source develop-ment,asdidthisproduct.UbuntuwasreleasedasthisandDevian,andFedoraanother operating system based on this. The aforementioned mobile operating system is Android, one of many mobile operating systems based on this product. Knownforbeingtheoperatingsystemofnetbooks,thisiswhatfreeversionofUnix

This programming language has two inequality operators because Guido van Rossum, its creator, couldn’t decide between the two. Rossum claims he was inspiredbytheABClanguageandModula-3,anddevelopeditoverchristmaswhen his lab was closed. The hierarchy of blocks of code is determined by levels of indentation, one controversial aspect of this language, and it has a notable lackofsemicolonsbecauseof that. IthasrecentlygainedpopularitywithrespecttoPerlandTcl,bothcompetitors.Whatisisobjectorientedpro-gramming language named after a british comedy show with a reptilian name?

This was known as “Xenon” during its production, and when it was released be-camethesecondreleasedsystemofitsgeneration,theseventhgeneration.ItwasfirstunveiledonMTVin2005,althoughitwasconceivedonlytwoyearsearlierin2003.ItsprocessorisbasedonamodificationofthePlaystation3’sprocessor,anditwasthefirstgamesystemtofeaturea250GBharddrive,thatbeingitsStype.WithaccesstoNetflixandESPN,itoriginallycameintwoversions,althoughitnowhasmanymore.TheCore,Premium,Arcade,Elite,andSuperEliteversionshavebeendiscontinuedofwhatrivaltoPlaystation3,thesuccessortotheXbox?

notes

Page31

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