Without the WWW

I use the internet on most days. The days I do not use it are usually ones when I am away from home for example camping. I use the web to 1) check my email 2) check Facebook 3) go to the USD website to see if there is anything new going on 4) I use it to do on-line shopping.
If access to the web was taken away it would have a major impact on my life. I don’t know how I would communicate with many people including people who are in my groups for classes. Email is the only resource we use to communicate. I wouldn’t be able to check the weather forecast to see how I should dress the kids for the day. I wouldn’t be able to do research on things I like to learn more about both in my home life and at for papers and projects at school.
Without the web I think I’d probably have more time on my hands because I wouldn’t get distracted by the endless avenues that I travel while on social networking sites or finding bargains on-line. However, other things would make my life much more difficult. I could not imagine going back to doing research for papers with the old method. It would take so much longer to find sources and the sources that I would find are probably not as good as the ones I can find on-line.
There was a news report on ABC's Nightline a week or so ago and it was showing how dependent society has become on technology and how that can be debilitating when something goes wrong with technology. It’s good to watch and to think about!

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/

Click on Stranded by Ash with No Plan B

It was on Thursday.

The evolving computers

Computers are everywhere. I do not think there is a day that goes by where one is not affected by the use of a computer. Even if the individual is not the one directly using the computer, they affect transactions at the gas pump, grocery store, bank, and even giving us a weather forecast. It is amazing how far computers have come in the short history of their existence. My mother who is in her 50’s remembers the first time she went to work on a computer. She had just started working for an Eye Clinic as a receptionist and technician. It was 1989. The computer was a big desktop. She does not recall the kind of computer it was although she is certain it was not an Apple. The company started with just one computer. She would insert patient information, mailings, work on spreadsheets, and do accounts receivable and payable on the computer. Appointments and patient files as well as other transactions were still all done by paper. Mom said she could definitely see the potential that these computers held.
Now, everything is done by computer. There are many different programs that each person must work on in order to make a business work. I worked for three years as an office manager for a newspaper company that included six different community newspapers. We did our main communication through our computers. I would be able to build ads and do copy editing on my computer and email it back to a town 40 miles away for them to use in their paper. There were a few times in the winter when I remember the power going out and we were literally at a stand still. No one knew what to do. There was nothing we could do. That would not have been the case in 1989. They could have gone about their day without their computer and got caught up on inputting information later once the power was restored. It’s amazing how far we’ve come and yet how dependent we are. Computers are great, when they work.

Space Race

Around the period of the launch of Sputnik America and Russia were interlocked in the cold war. The two nations were very competitive with each other. When Russia launched Sputnik, it had many implications for the two nations. It was a way for Russia to exert power of the United States. They were advancing faster than the U.S. It was much more than simply about space travel, it gave the impression that Russia was smarter, more powerful, and also superior to the U.S. This was not a place the U.S. wanted Russia to be in, especially given the cold war era. The U.S. then decided it was time to focus their goals and to develop a space program that could surpass the Russian program. The U.S. decided to allocate funds to the space programs and NASA was formed. This push was all it took to increase the funds and technology to get a person in to space just a few years later. In 1969, America became the first nation to put a man on the moon. This space race began with Russian’s launch of Sputnik.