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How the world revolves around tech Technology in the medical field All about computer programming

SPRING 2017

Table of Contents

01

Contributor’s Page

03

Letter from the Editor and About LASA

05

A World of Connections

07

A Brief History of Space Travel

11

Biomedical: The Tech Saving Lives

13

The Evolution of Programming Languages

17

IT Jobs in the Marketplace

19

Camera Components and How to Use Them

23

Information Technology in the Oil Industry

25

Top 6 Tech Companies This Year

29

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Source: Wallpaper Pulse

The Squad

Arden Arden Floyd is a freshman at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, Texas, where she has lived her whole life. Her strongest subjects are biology and chemistry; she is also proficient at writing.

She is the principal violist in the school orchestra. She has played violin for 12 years, and viola for three. She works well in photoshop and indesign, and enjoys photography as a hobby.

After graduating she would like to pursue a career in the medical field. Arden is a quiet and agreeable person, and she prefers for things to be decided rather than left open. When she isn’t studying or practicing, she likes to read science fiction books. She grew up in a house with many pets, and currently owns four dogs and four cats.

Abby Like the other contributors, Abby Rindfuss attends LASA High School and has learned a lot this year in the ways of graphic design and magazine production. She hopes to continue to pursue graphic design, but is also loves math and is interested in other topics such as business and technology. She has participated in a yearbook production as a photographer before, but only recently has delved into the applications of graphic design. Her only main hope and dream is to one day be able to travel the world and explore many places. Outside of school, Abby dances a lot and enjoys spending time with friends. She is very adventurous, loves the outdoors, and enjoys trying new things.

Hank

Plato

Hank Lewis is a student at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin. In his free time, he climbs on the local climbing team, which he has been a member of for close to six years. He enjoys graphic design and digital illustrations, but he plans to pursue either biotechnology or some field relating to microbiology. He hopes to travel to different crags across the country with friends after high school. He loves the outdoors, and some of his favorite activities include hiking, kayaking, and writing. Hank also a fan metal and classic rock who loves going to concerts. Over the years, Hank has competed in numerous national championships, oftentimes placing in the top 10. In the future he hopes to place in the top 3 at

Plato Franco is a Liberal Arts and Science Academy student in the class of 2020. His hobbies include rowing, playing video games, and learning. When Plato isn’t on his computer he is out having a good time downtown with friends. He is an all around great guy who can take a joke and have a good time. He is currently 15 years of age. Plato recently was able to get his permit to drive and have been on the road ever since. Plato has been training for a very important regatta. There is a regional event in which Plato has been training for all year. The race he is most excited about is a four which has four people with one oar each and one cox to steer the boat.

Plato is super energetic and full of fun.

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Letter From the Editor

Dear Reader, In the current day and age, there is no stronger force joining the world together than technology.

Every day new discoveries are made that allow us to improve the world around us in ways previously thought to be impossible. Despite the ubiquitous nature of these developments, many people are still left in the dark to exactly how technology is constantly influencing the world around us. Our goal is to share the past, present, and future of technology with you in order to allow for a more informed and connected community, so that you will be able to make educated decisions and judgements on the nuances of the modern world. By sharing this information, we hope to improve the common understanding of the deep-rooted functions of the societies of the 21st century and allow for further ambition and forward motion as the human race.

Arden Floyd, Editor

Š Stellan Johannson 2016 Un-

LASA HIGH SCHOOL

About LASA

Located in Austin, Texas, the Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA) is home the jaguars. They share the high school and UIL activities (sports, band, etc.) with LBJ high school. Students apply to LASA from many different parts of Austin, which brings kids together from all across the city. Their vision involves rigor, community, inquiry, and excellence. Students and teachers strive to meet challenges in curriculum and go above and beyond in schoolwork. LASA works to help students fully prepare for college through outstanding education in courses including English, other languages, mathematics, science, social studies and technology. The students of LASA high school are responsible leaders, problem solvers, and thinkers.

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S F N O O I D T L C R E O N W N O A C uss

ndf i R y bb

By A

Have you ever ordered something online? Do you use a smartphone to connect to other devices? Are you interested in automated intelligence? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then you are a piece in the Internet of Things (IoT) puzzle. You play a role in the internet of things web, which is made up of over 26 billion devices.

It’s all about the interconnectedness. The phrase “internet of things,” in it’s most basic form, involves data, devices, and the internet used to make life efficient and easier. But it’s way more than that. The IoT has connected and will continue to connect billions of devices within cities, businesses, and the lives of individuals.

CEO of Higher State Technology, Doug Miller, says, “the IoT ultimately makes life easier. All the minute details connect and influence the

Not only will the IoT continue to impact

Smart watches connect to many devices

Hue lighiting systems source: Flickr

source: Pexels

source: Eglin Air Force Base

Home control system

lives of everyone.”

It creates an easier access point as well as easier availability, easier usability, and as time goes on, a lower price point. In the general sense of all products and devices, this has proven to be true, whether it be home security, efficient shipping, or new and fancy gadgets.

One of the fields that is impacted most by the IoT is the business world. What this means is that the internet of things makes it easier for companies to be able to do things such as control environmental systems in the buildings. “Can it control the air conditioning?

Can it control the lighting? Can it control the door locks and the security cameras?”

Miller questions. These are the different aspects of basically making sure that they can keep costs down. Higher State Technology is a company based in Austin that helps businesses control their work climate with the use of the internet of things. It ultimately “lets you tie all these things into a simple use singular face,” says Miller.

business climates, but also has started to play a large role in life at home.

People are able to control their security, lights, air conditioning, and more with the connectedness through simple apps.

Additionally, the internet of things world has been given a new puzzle piece called automated intelligence (AI).

These personalized devices are popular in homes, and are now the go-to device for homes. Miller believes that “the biggest change we’re going to see is on the artificial intelligence side, where your smart home has the ability to learn what your habits are.”

Technology has shifted from traditional routers to talking personal devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home. “People don’t really want to but consumer routers anymore, they want to buy devices that are intelligent and enable the internet of things, so the market’s shifted,” says Art Traub, Director of Sales for Buffalo Technologies. He says that Buffalo is selling less and less routers due to the competition with automated intelligence.

With the increased use of complex AI systems, security

issues have developed. “For instance, the Amazon Echo is always listening. So when you say her name, she answers and listens for whatever you ask her for. Well, what is she doing in between those times? Is she recording our conversation right now?” wonders Doug Miller, who owns and uses Amazon’s “Alexa.” These are all issues that have been introduced to home security.

With any IoT system, there are home security problems, but they can add up and cause problems on a much larger scale. For example, recently there’s been a Denial of Service attack on the Domain Name Servers (DNS).

The attack was initiated by the use of smart cameras in China, which had the default administrative username and password in their firmware. Miller says, “What that means is that the user not only didn’t know what it was, but couldn’t change it. So the bad guys out there knew that these

cameras were vulnerable and so whenever people would install them, the hackers would take control of these cameras and then add them to this big botnet and were able to use those cameras to make these cyber-attacks online.” A lot of companies lost a lot of money because their customers couldn’t get to their online shops.

When buying home security systems, people need to make sure that they are buying from reputable vendors, and change the default passwords.

The very nature of the internet of things is that the devices are interconnected, which means that when you use different companies in your home, the interconnectedness could possibly allow companies to access information they might not be allowed to access. It’s creepy in the way that “everyone’s going to have information on what you’re doing, who you are, and so on. And that information could get misused,” said Traub.

In Miller’s house, he tests a lot of home technology. He buys his echo from Amazon, but his home security system is from a company called Vivend, and his lights are from a company called Hue. He says, “when I connect those things using the

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internet of things, am I giving Philips Hue the right to read all of the personal information that I stored on Amazon? I hope that the answer is no.”

As the internet of things grows, online companies as well as home security companies will have access to more and more data.

Mr. Doug Miller

source: Wikimedia Commons

Mr. Robert Clarke

Harsh conditions for truckers, which can be combatted by the use of the internet of things

With information becoming more readily available, the IoT will allow the personalization of people’s habits so devices know comings and goings, schedules, and more about the lifestyle of the user. This shift has already begun in online shopping. When you go on sites, they use cookies to remember your search history. According to Traub, Amazon always knows what you’re going to but before you do. From the online world to the city wide, level, the internet of things could possibly be used in advertising. An example Miller gives is, “you’re walking down the road and billboards know that you’re looking at the billboard, they’ll be able to create custom content based on who’s looking at the billboard at that time.” Or, A scenario where the internet of things can be used to book a hotel. Miller believes he’ll be able to ask his home automated assistant to book a hotel and make travel arrangements. People might be able to walk into a hotel, bypass the front desk entirely, go straight to their room, as the automated door detects and lets them enter, then automatically makes the payment and people will barely need to interact. The convenience of the IoT can make a big difference in the way people have day to day interactions.

source: Adobe Stock

Not only does the internet of things impact homes, security, and businesses, but it can be used to enhance the productivity of shipping. According to Robert Clarke, the founder of Overhaul, “The shipping industry, the trucking industry, brokers, and freight forwarders have been using technology which has been around for less that thirty years or more, and the adaptation of the latest technology, in particular those based around smartphones and the internet of things really enhances our ability to make the shipping industry more effective.”

With the use of smartphones in particular, truckers can communicate and make sure that the shipping process goes smoothly.

The IoT will make it much more efficient by reducing cost of transportation and the cost of transportation to the environment as well. Clarke says, “when you look at highways

Everybody owns devices, creating a large web

in this country, they’re clogged with trucks. And it’s not getting better, in fact, it continues to get worse”. Trucks usually get six miles to the gallon, maybe seven at best, which takes a huge toll on the environment. The routing of these trucks is becoming more efficient with the use of the internet of things for communication purposes to get trucks to the right place at the right time, and naturally it will help cut down fuel usage. Clarke says, “not only at the dollar cost, but with the environmental benefit, you’d be amazed.”

As technology improves more and more, the internet of things has risen and connected many devices. It has impacted homes, businesses, cities, and economies, and will continue to do so as the interconnectedness increases. More puzzle pieces will be added to the massive IoT puzzle, and the web will only grow.

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Discover the advancements in space travel that took us to where we are today...

Sputnik 1 First

1957

1961

Yuri Gagrin First man in space

Apollo 11 First moon landing

Viking 1 First mars lander

1971 1969

1977 1976

Salyut 1 First space

Voyager 1 Space probe launch

Challenger Disaster Explodes on ascent

1986

Hubble Space Telescope Deployed

1988

1990

Discovery First postchallenger shuttle launch

-

a

brief history of

SPACE First ISS component Launched

1997

1998

Sojourner First mars rover

TRAVEL Curiosity Lands on Mars

2003

2012

Columbia Disaster Crew killed

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A modern exam chair © Daniel Frank 2017 unsplash

Imagine one day you’ve found yourself in a horrible accident, with your body no longer able to function on its own. While a few short years ago, you may have been completely doomed at this point, today this isn’t always the case. Your life is narrowly saved by a new and impressive invention, and someday you may be able to live normally again. This is possible because of the people who work every day allowing medicine to develop and save lives.

Medicine is a highly integral part of our society, and the field

is changing and advancing in order to allow for lives to be saved and the quality of living for those with life-changing conditions to be improved.

Behind this is the field of biomedical engineering, which develops the advancements allowing these great feats to occur. By looking into the lives of the people who work to create and implement these developments into our constantly changing lives, we can learn more about a topic that will almost certainly have an effect on each and every one of us someday.

Biomedical

The Tech Saving Lives

By Arden Floyd

What biomedical engineering professionals are looking to do is examine the parts of the human body altered or inhibited by an accident or illness, and recreate or fix them in order to allow their owner to continue living.

However, this is no easy task.

Despite these being functions that all people are executing and feeling the effects of every day, the human body is a machine like no other that requires years of specific and careful observation and experimentation to even come close to replicating its processes.

“The human body is unlike any other type of engineering because, you can even see it today, technology can’t replicate everything,” said Alex Guerra, a clinical specialist

A standard hospital room © Presidencia de la República Mexicana 2016

at Medtronic, a company that develops biomedical technology and distributes it across the world.

that they were able to receive this treatment. And you’re there to hear those words and though it’s not necessarily the device you came up with on your own. But you know that

for more sophisticated medical technology, she said, “They’ll let us get a deeper understanding of the human body and diseases like cancer and such.”

When dealing with such a

“The human body is unlike any other type of engineering because, you can even see it today, technology can’t replicate everything,” With every new development in the world of medicine, the world gets a bit closer to being able to prevent tragic and unnecessary loss. The motivation for a lot of people in the medical field is the feeling that comes after knowing someone’s life has been saved by what they’ve dedicated their life to doing.

“There’s been several times in our different clinics where the patient is just so grateful

you’re helping someone and your work and part of your company’s work is to do that on a daily basis,” said Guerra about the part of her work she finds particularly appealing.

But biomedical engineering, as with all forms of technology, is also deeply driven by humankind’s innate curiosity.

Veterinarian, Jennifer Floyd, finds herself fascinated by how much we’re learning in the quest

complex topic as the human body, it’s easy to get carried away in the raw science of it all. But just as there is a human life behind every successful procedure, there exist the people who work hard every day making sure these devices are able to fulfill their purpose for the world.

“It’s the day to day getting to work with patients and doctors.

My previous job was working

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“there’s so many ways to get involved in the medical device field.

Just because I’m in a hospital just down the avenue doesn’t mean that’s the only way to do it”

TOP: Model of the human brain © Jesse Orrico 2016 unsplash LEFT: X-ray of a human skull © Nevit Dilmen 2011 Wikimedia commons

in a cubicle and in this building where you never saw the light of day.” Says Guerra about her job working with doctors and clients providing the technical knowledge needed to make sure everything goes off smoothly.

Many people see the medical field as a generic depiction of a boring doctor in a lab coat, but the truth is that it goes far deeper than just the people seen during a visit to the hospital.

“The hard part with the medical field is that you kind of from TV and from other things you see one side of it. But it’s really such a diverse world, there’s so many ways to get involved in the medical device field. Just because I’m in a hospital just down the avenue doesn’t mean that’s the only way to do it,” Said Guerra.

The nature of the medical field is so diverse that if a young person is interested, there are countless ways to get involved and find a career choice that will work out best for them in the end.

Examining lab samples © Drew Hays 2017

When it comes to getting involved with the medical field as a young hopeful with passion and drive, Guerra has some solid advice, “Medical devices range from catheters and tubings to our electrical devices, which are pacemakers, defibrillators. There’s even people that are working on the hospital beds and making sure that the whole hospital layout is appropriate for health. So, it’s kind of just going down that avenue and seeing what

interests you and trying to get as much exposure to all areas, because it’s so different.”

For someone considering biomedical technology as a possible life career, the over arching idea is to not let one’s self into a box just because of a preconceived notion of what that should look like, but exploring all the options and finding exactly what works well for the individual and keeps them motivated toward making

this world a better place.

Medical technology is something that affects all of us throughout our lives. So next time you’re getting an X-ray or having a blood sample examined, take a moment to think about the deep research and innovation that went into every medical device that you see.

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Programming Languages A brief history of advancements in communicating with our computers

Beginning C formed one of the cornerstones of modern programming.

It began development in 1972, alongside the creation of one of the most influencial Unix operating systems of its time, PDP-11.

1983 Python was conceived in the later 1980’s by Guido van Rossum. The most famous version of the language was released in 2000, under the name Python 2.0. Python is known as a multiparadigm programming language, meaning that it allows the programmer to chose the most appropriate way to express the code.

In the 1940’s, early computers were extremely limited in memory and speed, which forced programmers to write assembly code which was time consuming and error prone. One of the most well known families of programming languages from this time period was BASIC. These languages only had a handful of instructions, most of which focused on changing the values in a virtual “stack” of numbers and characters.

1972 In 1979, a developer named Bjarne Stroustup started work on an extension of C named C with Classes, which is regarded as the predecesor to C++. As the languages original name implies, C++ implements classes, which are used to represent virtual “objects.”

1991 Source: Wikimedia Commons

PHP was officially released in June 1995, but its development began in 1994. PHP was one of the first languages that could be imbedded in HTML code, meaning that it lent itself to web development. PHP was developed by Rasmus Lerdof, and originally stood for “Personal Home Page.”

1995

1994

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Java was originally released on May 23, 1995, and was the first of many influencial languages that were released that year. Java was developed was the goal that programmers could “Write Once, Run Anywhere,” also known as WORA. James Gosling, the language’s visionary, drew its syntax heavily from C and C++.

Source: Logos Download

Ruby was developed by Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto in Japan in 1995. Ruby is known for being general-purpose and extremely reflexive. Like Python, Ruby support multiple programming paradigms, meaning that it can perform as a functional or imperative programming language. In recent years, Ruby has been most well known for a web development package called Ruby on Rails.

2014 In recent years, dozens of languages have been on the rise, many of which have rapidly growing stock in the tech industry. This group of language includes

things like Scala, Julia, and Dart. Many languages are created by large corporations such as Hack for Facebook, Go for Google, and Rust for Mozilla, the creators of Firefox.

1995 Source: Ruby Lang

Swift was developed by Apple for its iOS, and macOS operating systems. It was written to work alongside Apple’s existing code frameworks, which are written in a derivative of C, called Objective-C. Swift was written to fill the same niche as Objective-C, but with a safer and more resilient design philosophy.

Present Source: Dart Lang

By Hank Lewis Plugged In

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Tech City

by Plato Franco

The world of tech jobs is ever encroaching on all other jobs. The tech industry will have its up and downs, its pros and cons. People will need to know this information from these real people who have worked in the field or are thinking about working in the field. People that have been working in their respective areas for years now.

Franco is a senior creative director at Zynga, a company that makes slots apps for ios and android devices.,He has worked in the field for 17 years. Steve Broumley is a programmer working for his own company Smashing Studios, a company that makes apps for ios, and has been a programmer for the 15 years now.

Franco says that he is thankful that he learned a little programming in school and has taken courses to help him connect to the people that he needs to manage, and if he needs to he can work on whatever they are working

on if they are short staffed. Broumley on the, on the other hand, says that he likes to be more a part of the action with the people he manages. Hank Lewis wants to try and mix medical science with technology he says that the field will be expanding and he is going to be ready when it explodes.

Lewis says that when he is older he want to work in the computer science industry, yet he is also interested in biology and microbiology. He doesn’t know what he wants to do specifically yet, but knows what he is interested in. He said that he may want to be a doctor when he grows up but has no idea what he wants to do.

Franco says that despite the growing market there are still dry spots and it is only a matter of time before you will get caught in one.

Franco said, “Well, in gaming there are always weak points and layoffs. It is a lot like the movie industry where companies form and

Peter Franco

“To succeed in art either in video gaming, movies, or effect houses. You need a traditional foundation like life drawing, painting, illustration not so much the software that goes with it like Photoshop, Zbrush, etc.” are profitable; then they hit a dry spot for a game or two that doesn’t make money, then they close down. Similar to effect houses in Hollywood or movie studios. There is constant dry spells highs and lows.”

Broumley says that he loves that he didn’t know what he wanted to do all his life. He had a good idea of what he wanted to do, yet there was a very little tech field at the time. Broumley said, “When I was a kid I knew that I wanted to do something with math, and as you know programming wasn’t something you could study in public school. Luckily when I went to Michigan State, there was a programming department, so I was able to mess around I took one course of it and never looked back.”

Franco says that the most difficult part of his job is trying to manage large groups of people and to make something from scratch. Franco said, “Well, a couple of things: the beginning of a project where no one knows what the game will look like, feel like, what the gameplay will

be, and it is just a blank slate. That and also managing people, that come with a whole bunch of different challenges. Lots of personality types everyone has their pros and cons, and you have to work with people if you want the best out of people.”

Broumley said, “Well that depends on what you want to do. If you are joining a large company, you should look only up to 3 years in the future because the market is ever changing. If you are in a startup, you need to only plan in the future about a year because that is the typical time that these will last.” He also said there are some exceptions to this general rule of thumb, but he suggested to stick by this rule or close to it.

Franco agrees with Broumley that you should only look a couple of years in the future when looking for a job in the tech field. Franco said, “I think in my industry you should not plan for more than 2–4 years, 2–4 years is an eternity in tech industries. Most people leave or change

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Tech City

jobs within that job period.”

Broumley says that during the great recession that he was thinking about choosing another job, despite these thoughts he decided to stay.

Broumley said that during the recession of the late 2000s that he was scared that he might have to change his profession.

Despite these thoughts he was able to stay in the industry.

Franco says that the easiest part of his job is when a product is made, and all that is left is to release patches to the game in a very predictable manner. Franco said, “After a product is conceived it moves from pre-production to live operation. During lives that are when it is maintenance, and it becomes very predictable and that you need to generate content so that people can purchase through in-app purchases. You don’t have to have to answer these broad

unknown questions, and you can just get a production pipeline in place to just execute in a very predictable cadence. That is when it gets a little more tangible and easier.”

Broumley thinks that the hardest part about his job is to work with a great group of people and to try to stay on one idea for the duration of a project. Broumley said, “I think that working with a team of other people is the hardest part of programming. It is hard to have multiple people try to have the same vision about an idea. Working with people has its drawbacks, but when you get down to it, I think it is for the better because when I work with people you can get the best out of people. Like having someone look over your work and give you constructive criticism.”

Franco says that he didn’t know what he wanted to do since he was a kid, yet it all added up. Franco said, “No, but in hindsight it all makes sense. When I was a child, I first wanted to be an archeologist because I liked dinosaurs. Then I was excellent at math and drawing, and I loved drawing so everyone told me I should become an engineer because that combined those two things. Then I switched to pre-med for a while then ultimately to art. Even the I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with art until I discovered video gaming which allows me to do some programming and some art, so that is nice.”

Broumley says that if he could say anything to someone coming fresh into his field that. Broumley said, “I would tell them not to get intimidated by what you do

Steve Broumley

“I think that working with a team of other people is the hardest part of programming. It is hard to have multiple people try to have the same vision about an idea.”

in school and just to do what you love. Don’t do something that doesn’t interest you just because it pays better that what you want to do. I had made that mistake when I was starting out, and I was sitting in a room for hours bored out of my mind doing mindless repetitive tasks.”

Franco says that if he could tell anyone who was just getting into his field that. Franco said, “To succeed in art either in video gaming, movies, or effect houses. You need a traditional foundation like life drawing, painting, illustration not so much the software that goes with it like Photoshop, Zbrush, etc. Also even if you wanted to focus on the art or the creative side to have some amount of programming under your belt

because gaming is ultimately a hybrid of those two things that would be my recommendation of that thing I would do.”

Broumley says that he would never want to do anything besides programming. Broumley said, “No I could never see myself doing something else than what I love to do, and that is to program. The intensely creative work that programming is inspires me to do things I never dreamed I could do as a kid.

Things that would blow my mind if I knew were possible.”

Franco says that if he could be anything else he would want to be a doctor. Franco said, “I sometimes wonder if I would have been content with medicine I am not sure. My father was

a physician I wasn’t super passionate about it at the time, but in hindsight, I see the value in how rewarding it would be to help people. That is probably the one other job I would consider.”

Tech jobs are all around us, and we need to know what each one entails if we want to survive in the ever evolving world. The world is making one of the largest demographic shift since the transition from huntergathers to a modern society.

To survive we will need to move with the time. With technology advancing and getting more powerful, faster than ever.

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By Abby Rindfuss

POWER

and how to use them

The first step to mastering the DSLR is to turn it on. Most cameras have the power switch on the top of the camera next to the shutter button. Batteries for DSLRs can be inserted on the bottom, and are often rechargeable. TIP: it’s always better to take more batteries when you think you’ll need when taking pictures away from a charge source.

FLASH

The flash is built in on all DSLR cameras, except for some professional types. It provides extra lighting, especially in low lit or nighttime places. The outcomes of flash compared to no flash can sometimes be very different, so experiment with both!

SHUTTER

The shutter button allows light to come through the lens by opening the shutter.

The amount of time the shutter stays open is called the shutter speed. This can be adjusted depending on whether you’re photographing fast moving or still objects, and also controls how light or dark the picture will be. A faster shutter speed lets less light in and will make moving objects appear more clear, whereas a slow shutter speed is more appropriate for still scenes or dark settings.

LENS

The Lens lets light into the camera. Lenses can be either fixed permanently to the body, or can be switched out to change the aperture, focal length, and more. The type of lens being used will greatly affect the sharpness, quality, and overall appearance of the picture. Telephoto, Wide Angle, Standard, and zoom lenses are the most common types.

DSLR

digital single-lens reflex

LENS RELEASE The lens release is used to switch out lenses. TIP: Make sure to properly store unused lenses after switching them out because they can be easily damaged.

ISO

FOCUS AND ZOOM

There are usually 2 rings on a DSLR camera: one is for focus and one is for zoom.

You can set the camera to manual focus or autofocus. Manual focus gives you more control on what you decide is in focus or out of focus, but autofocus allows for easier and quicker shots.

MODE DIAL VIEW FINDER The viewfinder is the main visual source for image taking. When using an eyelevel optical viewfinder, you must hold the camera up to your eye to see what you’re taking the picture of. By doing this, the camera becomes more stable with less camera shake.

MEMORY CARD

AF WB

Playback- switches camera into picture view mode Jump- skip through multiple photos or videos while in playback mode Menu- used to access camera’s menus Display- turn the LCD display on and off

LCD DISPLAY On some cameras, the LCD screen can be used as a viewfinder, but it is mainly used to view images and adjust settings on the camera.

The LCD screen is a good way to access the modes and settings created by all the camera buttons.

The memory card stores all pictures and image information.

Cameras vary on what kinds of memory cards they require, but the most common ones are SD and CF cards.

CROSS KEYS

Use the cross keys to move around and view settings on the LCD screen. The middle circle is the selection button (set button). The upper cross key can be used to change the ISO setting, the right cross key can adjust the auto focus (as well as scrolling through photos), the lower cross key is used to change the white balalce and color settings, and the left cross key changes drive mode (the difference between single-frame shooting, continuous capture, or selftimer/remote-control shooting)

sources: dummies.com, easybasicphotography.com, techwalla.com

An offshore oil rig costs millions of dollars, making the amount of oil they can extract from the earth crucial in order to justify their construction.

Source: Pinterest

Information Technology And its importance in the oil industry

By Hank Lewis

“The changing IT environment always opens up new challenges. It is not a static, things can change in an instant, so there is always opportunity for new challenges. We just do our best to support the people in the mission to achieve their individual goals.�

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Technology shapes our lives in almost every way. It is nearly impossible to escape its allencompassing touch. Years ago, the only things that affected our life we’re phones, and occasionally computers at a library or office. However, in today’s society, technology and the digital world is constantly at the forefront of all productivity.

A simple drive to work now involves an advanced onboard computer with maps, media applications like Pandora, and even social networking applications such as Facebook or Twitter. At a stop light, the latest data from the stock market is only few clicks away. A decade ago, it would have been absurd to imagine a personal computer in almost every vehicle, as well as a plethora of other advancements.

These numerous changes and the advancement of technology into our daily lives is part of the unstoppable march of the technical

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revolution. But, what makes these advancements possible is virtually unknown among their users across the globe. There is much more to the technological world than the computer or tablet in front of you; or the factory workers that assembled the hardware that you hold in your hands.

Anything from the lights in your house to washing machines to dishwashers may be taken from granted, but without the hard work of thousands, lights would flicker, and appliances would grind to a halt, never to be heard of again.

But how does technology aid in our search for the very energy that continues to power it?

Hugh Winkler is a software developer and former CEO of his company, Wellstorm, which was recently bought by the company where he now works, Drilling Information. Without his work and the work of other like him in the industry, oil prices would skyrocket due to the technical limitations of the drills.

Winkler’s newest endeavor

Hugh’s software allows a drill’s borehead to stay on course, assuring that the drill will take the most efficient path to the oil.

involves a crucial concept called geosteering.

According to Winkler, Geosteering is “the science of keeping a [drill’s] borehole in the right geologic zone.”

Hugh describes the bore’s continuous and never ending journey, miles underground.

“So you’re pushing this four mile long string down a hole and trying to keep it in this little fifty foot zone. You’re nearly blind. You can get ground level (GR) measurements back, and inclination and azimuth angles, and that’s all you know.

The algorithm Hugh designed “takes that information in and tells you the two main things you need to know: where the borehole really is, and how the shape of the geologic zone has changed as you drilled laterally.

Once you understand these two things, you know how you need to adjust the direction as you go along, to keep the borehole in your zone,” said Winkler.

“Hopefully technology will help us to solve some of our biggest problem like environmental proble diseases, and food produ for a growing populatio

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After a new well is established an oil pump is installed to continually extract oil from the reserve located beneath it.

Winkler’s algorithm keeps the drill in the most efficient and desired position underground. And oftentimes, the Earth just doesn’t want to cooperate. “To make it even harder, remember this is geology we’re talking about. That zone doesn’t lie perfectly flat for two miles. It dips up. It dips down.

There is a fault here and there, meaning you could have the borehole laterally right in the middle of the zone, and when you cross the fault, the borehole suddenly is near the edge of the zone — or out of it.”

Hugh’s work is vital, as it allows complicated devices to work at their peak efficiency, and get the job done right. But on the other end of the spectrum is a field called information technology (IT). IT essentially provides support for when ordinary devices such as cell phones or computers, break down. Without IT, Hugh and millions of other throughout the

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world would not be able to do their job.

IT provides an important service to the end users.

James Lewis, an manager at the University of Texas, gives more insight on the matter. “We have IT setups in all of the classrooms that have projectors, that are tied into computers as well as what used to be overhead projectors. On the research side, the faculty has a lot of requirements to fulfill, most of their research is dependent on computers nowadays. As a university, a state institution, we have requirements to keep all the machines compliant with the regulations that we have to meet, while still at the same time allowing them to continue their research, and that is often a hard balance.”

IT is also important in other places beside Universities or Colleges, large companies usually have trained specialists to keep the servers, or computers running. Kyle Powell works at a pharmaceutical business called

Premier Research, where he plays a similar role that James plays at his university. “I work on different IT systems that support the business and keep it running, including email, databases, servers, storages, virtualization, etc., so my job is vital for the company.”

Both software designers and IT support workers are the unsung heroes of our generation, who without a doubt, are essential in the information era.

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By Plato Franco

By Plato Franco

Top 6 Tech Companies by Market Value

Top 6 Tech Companies by Market Value

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The Hewlett-Packard Company or shortened to Hewlett-Packard is a multinational technology company in American in Palo Alto, California. Hp develops computer hardware, electronics, and sells technology.

Value: 112.57B

Intel is a multinational Technology Company based in America in Santa Clara, California. founded in 1968 by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. Intel develops, manufactures, and sells technology.

Value: 155B

Apple is a multinational Technology Company that is based in America in Cuertino, California. Apple designes, develops, sells electronics, software, etc.

Apple has even created their own coding language(Swift) for their electornics.

Value: 162B

Value: 189B

Cisco Systems, Inc is a multinational technology company that is based in America in San JosĂŠ, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking technologys.

Google is a multinational technology company that is based in America in mountian view, California. Google specializes in Internet-related services such as online advertizing, cloud computing, software, etc.

Value: 210B

Value: 264B

Microsoft is a multinational technology company that is based in American in Redmonf, Washington. Microsoft develops computer software, computer hardware, computer services, etc. Despite its large size there are many fields of computer science that have not been touched by this tech giant.

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