Internet

I thought I wasn't even going to be able to write this blog tonight because it takes so long to load a BLANK page. I don't know if you have ever seen the text editing page for blogger. If not, here is a screenshot.

The following is a Facebook status in which I tagged Arkansas State University-- although I do not know how much good it will do. They don't seem to do anything that makes since.

Video Length: 1 minute 12 seconds. Time to load and watch- Cell phone: 1:12; computer: 14.5 minutes.... CONCLUSION: Arkansas State University - Jonesboro should start charging less for athletic fees, and recreation fees and allocating money in areas we really need it like technology and academics.

 The story behind the status: I was talking to friends today and said I could probably load a Youtube video faster on my cell phone than I could on my computer. I got so tired of it that I finally tried it tonight. Sure enough, the results were not a big surprise. It loaded more than 13 minutes faster on my cell phone! It only took the length of the video, a minute and 12 seconds for me to load and watch it on my phone.

Another one of my friends posted a status around the same time as I posted mine saying she had just lost an entire homework assignment because of the internet.

I do not know for sure about hers but my experiment was performed using ETHERNET, not wireless!

Something has got to change. Classes depend on the internet now! It is the primary source of research. It is one of the main ways teachers and students communicate, especially outside of the classroom. It is how many students take classes. In some classes, videos are a part of the class. They have to be watched outside of class and are streamed through blackboard and/or Youtube.

I use half of the money they charge me for laundry each semester. This semester I pay 50 dollars to be able to park anywhere on campus for 3 hours per day, 5 days per week. I pay 180 dollars in Athletic Fee. I pay 180 in Information Technology, 50 in infrastructure. I pay 105 for Student Recreation and 150 for Student Union. Then another 20 for Student Activity.

If I go to every home football game and buy a ticket, it would cost me about 85 dollars. There are 95 dollars left for basketball (men and women), baseball and soccer. Most students don't go to every football game, much less all the other games. I would rather pay to enter a game than be overcharged.  And where does all the other fee money go? Obviously some of it goes to watering the sidewalks around campus. Some of it (a lot of it) goes into searching for a new president.

Why don't they decrease some of these other fees and put the money into EDUCATION? We need reliable internet. We need reliable computers in the library that do not have viruses or crash in the middle of typing a report. We need new academic space more than we need a new place to work out. Academics should be a top priority. I would rather be known as a university that turns out some of the most educated students in the State of Arkansas than a university who is all about partying, playing and sports.

Technology and the Future

It doesn't matter what I am studying, I will always find something to distract me. Today it was technology and the future. As I sat in the library thinking about some geocaching, I began to think of an idea for a "travel bug" that I could put in my first regular sized cache.

I decided it would be really cool to buy a 2 gig flash drive to use for the bug. On the first part I would put a text document with directions and the purpose of the bug. There would then be folders labeled by Country. Inside each country folder, sub-folders with state names would be created and then further sub-folders labeled by cities.

The directions would be something like this: Please create a new text file and title it with your username and home. In the text file write a little bit about yourself and about the area in which you live, whether it be your city, county, or state.

The purpose: In one aspect this is like a time capsule. It is also a chance for learning about other people and communities. Each time the bug is found a new entry would be saved inside the respective folder and the next people who find it can read it.

Then I began thinking about the use as a time capsule type thing. What if the earth is around for another 5,000 years and someone finds this flash drive. Would they know what to do with it? Computers as we know them might cease to exist. And what about energy?

Even if scientists had found old computers that would still function, would the forms of energy still be the same? Would they be able to run a computer to see the information on the computer or external memory devices?

What will scientists be able to know about so much of our culture and our civilization during this time. That information is stored on thousands of computers. Devices which require power. Devices that require other devices to function. Files corrupt. Water destroys the systems. Dirt isn't good for it. So in 5,000 years, after it has faced all these elements and new technologies have developed how much would be availible to study our history?

The example I will leave you with: 3.5 inch floppy disks. You remember those large square, plastic-covered disks. the ones that you slipped inside a slot on the front of a computer. The things that, if left in the computer, caused a delay in the boot-up sequence. The things that would hold 1 picture if you are lucky with today's cameras. The things that were replaced by CD's which are gradually being replaced with flash drives. When is the last time you used one?

So when all that time passes how will things change? How will they be different? Will they use electricity as we know it? Will they have power chords? Will computers have keyboards or be all voice control? Will they be big or small? How will information be stored? What information will be available about our society for future generations?