Internet Learning

This is an area of technology that is hotly debated: Internet Learning. Not just internet learning, but learning with technology as well. As school systems experiment with what to implement and what not to implement, the educational authorizes, parents, and other groups are fighting a war. The question, is it good or harmful to allow technology into the classroom? Here I'll give some of my extremely biased opinion. I'll lay straight up right now that I use the internet to tech myself 4 different courses in and out of school, and I love it. Here's why I do:

1. It gives you freedom

When I am doing learning over the internet, I get to go at whatever pace I want, typically faster than I would go in a classroom. I love this aspect because the majority of my school day is fluff that I don't really gain anything from. No more reviewing what I already know, I can just skip it is I don't need it. I can also study a wider array of topics. For example, I take online courses on investing, 3 web-design languages, and 1 programming language. None of these courses are offered at my school. Now I see where the argument can be introduced in this topic. Many people think that if they give unmotivated students this much freedom that they will abuse it. My response to this is that these types of students will not apply themselves whether they are looking at a computer screen of listening to a teacher. If they aren't motivated, it doesn't matter what they are learning from.

2. It is native to students

This is a part of the issue that has been at the forefront of the argument for a long time. In my opinion students can learn better using things that attentive to them: technology. If you compare the amount of time it takes to look a word up in the dictionary compared to the time it takes you to look it up on a phone, the phone will win every single time. If you look at how fast a person can write a paper by hand compared to on a computer, the computer will write it faster every time. The fact is, although many think that we spend too much time on useless stuff on technology, that is because we've accomplished everything we need to do faster than with traditional methods. At least in most occasions, I get distracted sometimes just because. But only sometimes of course!

3. Its already happening

The bitter truth is that technology will become integrated into the classroom regardless of anyone who tries to stop it. In an increasingly internet-based age people will need the internet to engage in efficient and beneficial teaching. There will be fights, but one way or another there will be a lot more technology in classrooms over the next 5 years.

Google

One of my favorite companies to watch, as my numerous posts about their products probably suggests, is Google. I am a huge fan of the company and some of the work they're doing, not just in the technology world, but in all parts of the world. In addition to making some of the most advanced software and hardware available on the market today. Google has gone into projects to help third world countries and just to improve the quality of living.

First I'll start out with a brief overview of Google's products, since I have either written about them before or will write about them soon. They're software is mainly enveloped in their Android and Chrome operating systems that are avaiable on computers and mobile devices. Then there's obviously the web-based services such as their world-renowned search engine, cloud service (Drive), navigation (Maps), etc. not to mention YouTube that they now own. Then there's the hardware. Google owns Motorola, so the Razr, Moto X, Droid, etc. are all theirs. They've also got a few little pieces of hardware out right now such as Chromecast, which turns your TV into a Smart TV.

Now for the more varied and odd parts of Google. First off is an interesting project they have right now called Project Loon. Project Loon is attempting to provide third world countries with wireless internet by setting up balloons that give access. This is pretty wild and pretty useful since internet can often solve questions, make money, and otherwise help people out. For a more odd project, Google has engaged in Project Calico which was initiated by one of its founders, Larry Page. Project Calico's short term goal is attempting to cure the world's major diseases and the ultimate goal is to eliminate death by natural causes from the world. Of course, that raises a bunch of issues about morals, but who cares, if we live forever, we've got time to argue that!

Google is an amazing company that has defied the capitalist rationale to engage in products that don't promise them any capital. Don't mistake me though, they're racking up money from many of their different ventures. I always look with anticipation towards anything Google comes out with, and I hope you'll pursue a more varied education of the company and share my passion

Android 4.4

Android has had a long run of softwares for their mobile technologies. All of these are also named after a good food, Gingerbread, Jelly Bean, and Froyo to name a few. Now Google has a new operating system on the horizon, 4.4 Kit Kat. I'm excited because I am getting a new Android within the next two weeks and I'll be able to fully experience it. This new software promises a set of great features that will help Android users and create a more easy to use and advanced user experience. Here I will outline a few of the key features of Kit Kat and what that could mean for Android users who upgrade.

To start off, just a fun fact: Neither company is actually getting any money from the other. The partnership between Google and Kit Kat was made in the hope that the collective publicity campaigns of both companies would bring in revenue for each partner equally. Anyway, the features in Kit Kat promise to be pretty cool. For one, they are attempting to create a more unified Android. Phones now often have slightly different operating systems based on the company, provider, and how much you pay for the phone. Like Apple's iOS, Android is attempting to make every Android model have the same basic software. This change will also encompass older mobile devices, a problem that Android users have experienced. Often times, a mobile device would be obsolete pretty quickly because of the rigid requirements for a software upgrade.

The "prettiness" of the software will also be improved. For example, the motions of changing screens, opening apps, opening your apps list, etc. will be done more seamlessly. Kit Kat is also making a more efficient software that will help battery life increase. This combined with better processors are supposed to lead to battery life that will last for multiple days. That would be pretty cool, because you could essentially charge your phone overnight one night and use it for the next few days. Not to mention the time saved that you would have spent charging it at an airport, or being antisocial because you're standing by a wall charging your phone during a social event.

Of course you also have the continual improvements of less bugs and greater security features and more customization options and all that good stuff. Android 4.4 Kit Kat is a pretty big step for Android, both in the actual software and with the partnership it has with Kit Kat, which is sure to spread Google's influence even more throughout the technology market. Especially when you compare it to the early softwares (1.5 Cupcake for example) 4.4 is a huge marker of the success Google has encountered while they've had their operating system out. I think this is just one more step of a company that continues to surprise and amaze me, and I look forward to seeing the future of Google.

People in Tech: Elon Musk

Recently I've been hearing a lot in tech headlines about a man named Elon Musk. I first heard his name in an article about him driving a Tesla Motors Model S across the United States. After his name appeared in headlines a couple other times my interest was peaked about him, and I decided to do some research. Overall, I found Elon Musk to be a very interesting and important man, especially because his name doesn't produce a spelling error as I am writing this, and he is called the real life Iron Man. Today I will explain a little bit about this man and what he is involved in that makes him, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and successful men in the world.

To start off, Musk was born in South Africa and is now 42. Basically, the man is a complete winner in business. He was a cofounder of Zip2, PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors. If you haven't heard about any of these companies, let me tell you right now they are extremely valuable companies, the smallest on, Zip2, he sold for a total of $341 million. From that "small" project he moved onto what was to become PayPal. This company started out as X.com that was a financial services and e-mail payment company, and in an extremely smart business move they acquired PayPal and changed the name of the company to PayPal. This guy was acquired by eBay for a grand total of $1.5 billion.

Now to the big dogs. SpaceX was his next project, a company that focused on space exploration technology that was given a $1.6 billion contract by NASA, that's right, not even a buyout. SpaceX has gone on to create rockets on a partially private basis which makes it an extremely unique company and one which hopes to reach Mars faster than NASA probably will. And finally the most recent company, Tesla Motors. Tesla Motors makes luxury sports cars with a special feature, they're fully electric. That means no pollution and amazing gas mileage. Tesla Motors' Model S sports sedan goes for the nifty price of $100,000 per car and the company is proving to be extremely profitable despite the price tag for a car. So I hope that by now you've realized that Musk is either a genius in business, or the luckiest man in the world.

Now for an interesting part to wrap it up. Even though he is valued at $8.8 billion, Elon Musk is actually a very interesting man beyond the strict business world. For example, he recently spent over $80,000 tricking out a watch and a pair of boots to do awesome things such as shoot fire. He also bought the original James Bond underwater car and plans to make it fully functional. His personality is interesting as well, as he just commented on a Tesla Motors subject, saying fuel cells are "so bulls**t". As I hope I laid out for you, this little known but very rich man is a person to look up to and to look at to see just what he'll to next to impress the world.





Musk with a Tesla Model S

Musk by a SpaceX Project
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AMD

In my last post on processors, I mentioned the  company called AMD. AMD first of all stands for Advanced Micro Devices and their primary product is processors. AMD is also a leader in graphics cards, so the beauty of this sales system is that they have two components that every computer needs. Due to their dual market I can almost garuntee you've used a computer with something AMD in it within the last month if not shorter than that.

I won't bore you again with explaining the processors that AMD puts out, and you can just read my other blog here to find out about that if you're curious. What I will outline is their graphics cards. The most popular and also the cheapest are the basic Radeon cards. These cards provide good graphics for computer users who just need a little bit of graphics support and are found in a good amount of relatively low-cost computers. Where AMD really gets involved is with their higher-end graphics cards. For instance, many people are familiar with consoles for gaming, the PS4, Xbox One, etc. Well, every single one of them runs AMD graphics. The highest-priced pre-built computer in the world, the Mac Pro, comes with AMD graphics inside them as well. You can also install AMD graphics cards in your own computer, and let me tell you, it gets pretty intense there. They produce the best graphics card in the world, and it comes with a price tag of $550, the AMD Radeon R9 290x (not to be confused of course with the other Radeon models which can cost as low as $20). AMD is producing the most graphically superior hardware that has ever existed right now, and even though you have to pay an arm and a leg for it, its pretty dang sweet.

AMD takes an interesting approach to their market, producing two vital parts of a computer really well so that they've become a very powerful and fascinating company. Only time will tell what products they can come out with in the future to blow computers beyond anything anyone could ever have imagined. That's one thing that blows my mind about technology, is that it is often a conglomeration of different companies coming together to create products that continue to advance the rational knowledge of the computer world.

                                                                       


The AMD Radeon R9 290x for $550

                                                                             



AMD's FX Black Edition 8 core processor for about $350






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Processors

The purpose of this post is to help people out if you are making a decision about a computer to buy. One of the biggest parts of computers is the processor. The processor is basically the component of the computer that determines the speed of the machine, so for example if you were playing a graphically intensive game of doing high quality video editing you'd want a fast processor. Seems simple enough, right? Well where that gets a little jumbled up is with the plethora of processors available in computers out there. I hope that by the end of this post I will have given you at least some guidance on what to get.

First of all there are two companies you'll notice that are selling processors in computers. These two companies are the well-known Intel, and the lesser known AMD. Although you can compare the two companies and you can find processors with the same stats, the Intel one will invariably cost more. Many wonder why that is, are AMD processors pieces of crap? The answer is not exactly. First of all you've got to think of the two companies in terms of cars. Intel is like a European sports car company, it makes a product that functions the same as any other car, but has a few more functional features so you pay more than it. AMD is like a domestic car company, it does the same exact thing as the foreign car, with a little less shine so you pay less. Basically Intel is a little more reliable and functions a little better, so like a foreign sports car, you pay more. All in all though I would recommend going with an AMD as the difference is not huge, but the prices definitely are.

Next I'll go into the speed a little. Basically there are three tiers of speed that you will fall in to. The below 2 GHz, 2-3.5 GHz, and above 3.5GHZ. To put it simply, the less GHZ you see the slower the computer. Below 2 GHz would be fine if you are looking just at the basic functions of a computer such as low-level internet surfing, word processing, etc. The 2-3.5 GHz is more likely to be where you would fall into. Tis category is for those who use basic functions and watch YouTube videos, edit low-quality video perhaps, do presentations, etc. Finally the above 3.5 GHz is for those who edit high-quality video, program, game, anything like that. This category comes into trouble when you ask, how far over 3.5? The simple question for this post is that if you need that, you probably know exactly what you need as you are computer-literate enough and know enough about this already.

Processors are an extremely important part of the computer, and many people often mis-buy for what they are using their computer for. I hope that through reading this post, you are able to make a smarter decision on which processor to buy, and not to say I'll give you the exact recommendation, but comment if you need help deciding the exact speed. Hope you enjoyed the post!







A couple pictures only nerds will probably understand, so feel good if you don't get them

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BitTorrents

Have you ever downloaded something off the internet that was really big, like a program or TV show? Usually downloads like these take huge amounts of time at regular internet speeds, which if you haven't noticed, are incredibly slow. This is where you might want to know about a little piece of the internet community called BitTorrent.

BitTorrent is an interesting idea that allows you to download things really quickly off of the internet. In  a basic sense, it works like this: say there is a file you want to download and a million people have it on their computers and are also using BitTorrent. Then you find the Torrent, basically the file that establishes what you want to download, and open it in what is called a BitTorrent Client. Then you download a small piece from multiple sources, which tales very little time, and piece them together into one file. The thing about BitTorrent is that its designed to be really against people just leeching off the system, so when you download a file you also put up your own little piece that others can use to download. All in all BitTorrent is very handy.

The downside of BitTorrent is some of its uses. Unfortunately, as the internet is often prone to bad uses, BitTorent downloads a lot of illegal movies and pornography, leading to the shutdown of many Torrent provider sites that harbor illegal Torrents. Obviously, you can also get into trouble for opening these Torrents although it is harder to catch a person as compared to traditional piracy.

Thus, even though in many cases BitTorrent is an extremely useful tool for downloading, it is often abused. Unfortunately many of the good ideas of the internet have been tainted by the bad people of the internet. But there is still hope, used correctly, many internet tools including BitTorrent greatly increase the productivity of the world, and that's something we can console in.

                                                                       

Example of a BitTorrent client called uTorrent





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