StudioLab #4 – Fictional Facebook Profile

Doing research on this project, I used the facebook features such as contact information, personal information and the educational and work information to showcase my person’s information. I used information from wikipedia and the internet to find out the information on Bill and simply filled out the required fields pertaining to the information. The 6 friends that I used were selected merely because of business connections with Bill, excluding George Bush. Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple, and we all know that Bill Gates owns a portion of Apple. Alex Seropian was the former CEO of Bungie, he quit after the release of Halo which was released on the Microsoft Xbox. Halo was one of the top games on that console. Kenzou is the CEO of Capcom, Capcom has released numerous games on for Microsoft. Lastly Melinda Gates is his wife.

The Technological Development of Programming Through History

Throughout history technology has been ever changing, even though we are considered digital natives and are the ‘experienced’ users of technology today, technology existed in both pre industrial and industrial eras. Their forms of technology were obviously not computerized like ours or had complicated interfaces, but instead were more mechanical and user operated. In comparison to technology today, technology had that time required skill to use, like a silk weaving machine. Even though computer programming has just come out recently it still has roots in the past. The concept of procedural mechanics and operations came around during the 1700s and the idea of Boolean logic, which is a key building block to computing science, was developed around the late 1800s.

Some programs are written merely for a procedural purpose, these instructions must be unambiguous and direct to the point. An example in pseudo code would be, ‘When count equals 100, print complete’. A more basic form of this would be “specifying a sequence of choices amongst a set of possible machine actions in such a way that the machine can carry out the sequence completely automatically” (Randell). During the 1700s three French inventor’s named Bouchon, falcon, and Vaucanson developed an automatic sequencing silk weaving machine. Jacquard in the 19th century finally commercialized this idea and created an “automatic draw-loom which used strung-together punched cards Each card [in the machine] controlled the selection of warp threads that were to be raised ready for a single passage across the loom of the shuttle carrying the weft thread (Randell)”. This would mirror procedural purpose instructions in computer programming. The ability to make silk clothing faster and more efficiently shows a trend in society, that people are able to afford more expensive clothing. The impact this had on society was that it allowed more people to buy silk clothing at a cheaper price because it was easier to make. The effect on the individual was that it allowed the person a status symbol, silk at that time was expensive and sometimes had to be imported from other countries such as china. If a person could afford silk clothing it showed wealth and therefore put them in a higher class than others. The effect on society was that further showed a class structure between the people.

When we dive deeper into the understand of Computing Science or programming itself, we realize that in code we have such statements as ‘if a equals 1, return true, else return false’, this is an example of Boolean logic. Many programs when looked at have these statements or a variation of a Boolean statement. The idea of Boolean logic arose during the industrial revolution around 1854 by a man named George Boole, which was detailed in his paper title “An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities” (Redshaw, 1996). Boolean logic is based on statements consisting of logical ‘AND’, ‘OR’ and ‘NOT’, for example you could have the statement “Combinatorics is a required course for sophomores, and Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind” (Grimaldi, 1999) this statement would only be true if both statements were true. We see Boolean logic itself as a practical part of technology being implemented in such devices such as electrical circuits that require ‘on’ and ‘off’ switches. An example of this from the industrial revolution was the telephone switch board, “The first commercial switchboard opened in 1878 to serve the 21 telephone customers in New Haven, Connecticut” (Telephone switching, 2009). If a plug was in the hole than it would mean that two people were on the phone talking to each other. The idea of Boolean logic itself would not affect society, but the inventions derived upon it would, like the telephone switchboard; which allowed people to communicate over a distance with each other, without the reliance on courier mail or courier pigeon. The trends of this period would not affect the need for Boolean logic, but again its inventions that are based on it would be a product of the trend, using the telephone again, the need to communicate more efficiently is always a part of a trend in society.

Presently banks have offered a service, called online banking. When it comes to online banking, most of us just type in our account number and go on our way with our business. Banks implement programming codes so that you are able to do your banking from a computer through an algorithm. Basically you would become the object of algorithm, which would mean your name, account number and money in your account. After banks may define a variable which could be an interest rate and apply that to your balance. Other options would include withdrawal, deposit and of course banking fees, this can all be written up in the program (Loftus, 2009) refer to figure “Listing 4.4” also to see the full algorithm. A trend this shows is convenience in today’s society. People in general prefer a faster alternative than having to drive to the bank to pay bills or to withdraw money. The impact this has on an individual is that it allows them the convenience of having a bank in front of their fingertips. The affect on society is that it provides an alternative to driving to the bank to do your business.

As time progresses technology advances and becomes more efficient to its purpose, and becomes less reliant on a user, from silk weaving to online banking we see that it becomes less user dependant to use but more user friendly. This concept could eliminate valuable skills we learn by using older types of technology, for example using a silk weaving machine required skill to use in the 18th century, because you would have to control the strings and panels, but now machines do all that after a user programs a set of instructions. At this rate technology will become automated because of programming that it will come to a point where it will be able to self start, without us having to push the buttons.

Bibliography

Grimaldi, R. P. (1999). Foundamentals of Logic. In R. P. Grimaldi, Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics (p. 48). New York: Pearson Education.

Loftus, L. (2009). Bank Account Example. In L. Loftus, Java Software Solutions (pp. 176-180). Boston: Pearson Education Inc.

Randell, B. (n.d.). THE ORIGINS OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING.

Redshaw, K. (1996). Pioneers Boole. Retrieved March 15, 2009, from Kerryr: http://www.kerryr.net/pioneers/boole.htm

Telephone switching. (2009, February 5). Retrieved March 15, 2009, from IEEE Global History network: http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Telephone_switching

StudioLab #3: Collective Research Project

* Judging from your experience in this collective project, what are the benefits and limitations of this form?
The benefits of this collective project were that we could edit each others ideas to make them better. Another benefit was that we could see what everyone was writing and get ideas from that.
The limitations of this blog were communication, since it was with the whole class we would have leave a message on the blog and hope that the person that the message was intended for would log onto the blog and read it. Than they would have to respond back and you would have to log on at the right time to see the message.
* Did this experiment work? (explain why or why not.)
Yes it worked because the wiki article was completed.
* How does this research project differ in form, style, breadth, depth and content from one you would have produced by yourself? Give specific examples.
Form – The form of writing varies from each topic because the authors are different.
style – All articles have APA citation but the way the paragraphs are written are different because of the different authors
depth and conten – How much each topic is talked about will obviously vary from each author
* How did it change the experience of using a wiki to be in the same room as the other people using the system?
The Experience was different because working alone it would have been completely up to you to do all the research and write about it, but since this was a wiki research project the individual was only responsible for one section or topic. Even though we were only responsible for one section other people could still contribute to it and edit it at their leisure.