richa884

Recent Actions

• Posted Information is Electric to WRIT 3577 - Spring 2013
  As someone who get 99% of their news and information in digital format, I completely understand the point that Warnik is making the first three chapters of the book. The rise of user generated content and aggregation sites a la...
• Commented on It's the people, stupid
  Well yes, And those are the points at which he is the strongest both in his writing and message. It's when he strays into the more tech side that the book starts to fall apart. Moreover, not only are there...
• Posted It's the people, stupid to WRIT 3577 - Spring 2013
  Blum's wonder filled writing style does interesting things for different parts of his book. When he is handling something that his intended audience would probably also find interesting, like the people handling the "tubes", it works out quite well. On...
• Commented on "Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer" - Wendell Berry; "No Country for Old Typewriters...." - Patricia Cohen
  nope. That really is my only response to any and all statements made in these readings. That might seems like a broad and generalizing statement, but of all things i know to be true, the fact that humans will always...
• Commented on "Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer" - Wendell Berry; "No Country for Old Typewriters...." - Patricia Cohen
  nope. That really is my only response to any and all statements made in these readings. That might seems like a broad and generalizing statement, but of all things i know to be true, the fact that humans will always...
• Commented on "Liking is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts" - Jonathan Franzen; "The Serfdom of Crowds" - Jaron Lanier
  I guess the way I view social networking is a lot similar to the way i view religion. You can believe whatever you want, a do whatever you want, as long as it stays within the scope of your private...
• Commented on "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship" - d. boyd; "Anti-social Networking?"
  A part of me wants to get together with Tyger Latham and use our curmodgeon bludgeons to attack all these newfangled technologies. However i need to dissagree with him when he tries to point out supposed problems with SNS....
• Commented on "The Net Effect"; "Post Secret"; "Breaking Up in a Digital Fishbowl"; "Growing Up Digital..."
  Yesterday this question was proposed to me: "What is the scariest thing you know of on the internet." After reading "The Net Effect" I would now answer everything. For it to change us so severely and in fundamental ways supersedes...
• Commented on "We are the Web" - Kevin Kelly; "The Web Means the End of Forgetting" - Jeffrey Rosen
  The Internet, interwebs, 'net, tubes,.coms,web, Intrawebz, world wide web, Cyberspace. Whatever you want to call it, it's everywhere. As "We are the Web" shows, there is no internet without people. So as long as our technology exists, so will the...
• Commented on "What Computers Mean for Man and Society" - Herbert Simon
  The reason I found the reason so fascinating is because I could help but see computers as man’s attempt at being god. In fact the similarities between advanced computers and our own bodies are very obvious: they have memory, a...
• Commented on "Telegraphy--the Victorian Internet" - T. Standage; America Calling - Claude Fischer (read 33-53); "Mobile Telephony..." - Imar de Vries
  While reading about the telegraph I couldn't help but think about the 'Roger's Bell Curve' for the diffusion of innovation. It's a concept that, says in theory, any new innovation will be adopted differently by different people. Which, of course...
• Commented on "Consumption and Dispersion" - David Nye; "Why Not Electricity?" - S. Scott & K. Pellman
  While reading the selections about electricity I began to shape them under the idea that it was all about control. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Electricity exists to help us gain control over our...
• Commented on "Choices" - David Nye; "Fossil Fuel Fundamentals" - A Khan and B. Eichler; "Grappling with the Age of 'Tough Oil'"
  What I found myself thinking as I went through these readings was why? Why is any of this happening. This line of questioning brought me to the ‘what if’s’? What if we didn’t have fossil fuel. What if we found...
• Commented on Mill City Museum
  As I was walking around the Mill City Museum I was fascinated by the transformative powers the mills had. Every display talked about how the mills transformed their surroundings. Sometimes it was through very concrete and terrestrial means. By digging...
• Commented on America as Second Creation - David Nye: chapters 5 & 6
  I think that with this entry I really want to play a sort of devil’s advocate position that strays from what I would usually say in this case. I think that lumber mills and the large workforce that they both...
• Commented on "Industrial Tourism and the National Parks" - Edward Abbey; "The Car and the Road" - Alexander Wilson
  From his prose, the average reader would probably come to the conclusion that Edwards Abby is arguably insane. The way he works through topics and how he delivers his ideas are without a doubt outside of what someone would consider...
• Commented on "Automobiles and Automobility" - Ruth S. Cowan; "Roads Belong in the Landscape" - J.B. Jackson
  I Believe that compared to the average person I have spent quite a bit of time in cars. Beyond the normal commute of 60 mins, I have taken many trips across almost all of America mostly by car. So I...
• Commented on America as Second Creation - David Nye: chapter 8; "Central Corridor Light Rail Transit"; John Henry
  I am definitely biased when it comes to talking about John Henry. Very simply, it is one of my favorite stories and I never get tired of hearing it. Just final image I take away from this is John Henry...
• Commented on America as Second Creation - David Nye: chapter 7 (152-173); train songs
  “In the east railroads are built for the towns; on the border they build the towns.” This quote from 166 encapsulates what I would call the drive against entropy I am starting to associate with this part of history. Arguably,...
• Commented on America as Second Creation - David Nye: chapter 7 (147-152); Life on the Mississippi - Mark Twain: chapters 6, 8, 12
  This week’s readings were all about transformation for me. In Mark Twain’s writing I was amazed by not only his amazing story telling but how he accurately depicted how technology can change us on multiple levels. As his sleep pattern,...
• Commented on America as Second Creation - David Nye: Introduction and chapter 1
  I made a mistake and read this reading and started working on my two page paper assignment before I started this blog post. Now it is impossible for me to really separate the two assignments, so while I will be...
• Commented on "Technology and Happiness" - James Surowiecki; "Everything's Amazing & Nobody's Happy" (Louis CK); "Luxury or Necessity?"
  I think that it’s naive to think that technology, or anything really can make you happy. Though I am reminded of a Demitri Martin bit where he says it’s really hard to frown on a jet ski, that works because...
• Commented on Frankenstein - Mary Shelley: chapters 1-5; "Does Improved Technology Mean Progress?" - Leo Marx; "The Technological Imperative" - Lewis Mumford
  One thing that struck me about Mary Shelly’s work was that she as in the first couple chapters of the book able to summarize the major questions that the scientific revolution and the industrial revolution brought to the popular conciseness....
• Commented on Frankenstein - Mary Shelley: chapters 1-5; "Does Improved Technology Mean Progress?" - Leo Marx; "The Technological Imperative" - Lewis Mumford
  What amazed me was how Mary Shelly was able to sum up the intellectual conflict that arose out of the introduction of scientific thought to a society that had not encountered thinking like that before. As she presents the characters...