Tech Horizons

3 970 짜

Summer 2010

Tech Horizons

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By Kevin Sweetman Game Sentry - 6

Alerting News- 8

Tech Scope- 11

By James Kelley

The Lotta Phone -26

Urban Subway- 22 The Red Zone- 15

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By Connor McAtee Exposed- 16

The Smartest Phone- 20 Taught too much?- 12 Webcomics- 21

The Green Zone- - 14 Lloyding the industry-28

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A special thanks to....

Capital Metro Mark Clendennen Mr Scaccia Llyod McAtee And all others who made this magazine possible!

We hope you enjoy this magazine!

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Staff Pages

Kevin Sweetman enjoys swimming, playing video game, chasing deer with remote control airplanes, and hanging out with friends. He spends most of his time at school, and around two hours a day swimming.. Favorite video games are Modern Warfare 2, Halo, Gears of War, and Need for Speed. Favorite TV shows are 24, Psych, The office, and Family Guy. Favorite Books are The Dresden Files, Eragon, and others. AHe has only been to Disney World once but it was too crowded, though the pretzels were exceptional.

James Kelley enjoys sleeping a lot, but enjoys being awake more, because there are better things in life that dreams.

He spends most of his time using his netbook, either for work or for play.

James Kelley loves webcomics,. His Favorite comic in the universe is El Goonish Shive, but his list of favorite comics is endless, and when he tries to come up with one, he becomes reminded of others that make the cut, and so on and so forth. He currently has over three hundred comics bookmarked, and he reads all of them at regular intervals.

I’m Connor McAtee. I dislike the misconception that raptors are really big, and scary. Actually, they’re about the size of a chicken.

You could probably step on one.

They’re not the really dangerous ones, though they do have claws that will hamstring you, and once it has you on the ground will viciously disembowel you. Except it won’t, because it’s extinct :’( .

Velocoraptors are the really tiny ones, but they’re also the ones that are commonly mentioned. The kind of big ones are Utahraptors,

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Game Sentry

by Kevin S.

Eye Candy PlayStation Move is a new hanheld controller made by Sony that posseses a glowing orb on the top that works in combination with the PlayStation Eye camera to track video game motions like sword strokes, tennis racket swings, and punches. The PSMove also has classic controller buttons so players can pull a trigger if necessary.

Reaches Start

“Halo:Reach” is a prequel to the best-selling Xbox franchise of all time. The campaign follows the story of Noble Team, a squad of brave Spartan soldiers.

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The campaign follows Noble Team’s final stand on planet Reach, humanity’s last defense seperating the hostile Covenant and Earth.

Halo Reach is expected to release this fall.

Online Joy

Once players beat the campaign, they can conitnue fighting online.

The Halo Reach Beta, which ran from May 3 to May 19 revealed new weapons,

maps, game modes, and abilities. Abilities is something completely new to multiplayer Halo.

Active Camo, Jet Pack, Amor Lock, Evade, and sprint are all of the abilities. Boneyard, Overlook, Powerhouse, and Swordbase are 4 of the new maps availble on Halo online. I can’t wait to play Halo Reach!

Freeze

The Wii Zapper combines the Wii Remote and

nunchucks. Players can steer their characters movement and shoot their way

to victory. This accessory costs $20.

Improving Motion The WiiMotionPlus is a new accessory for the Wii which senses gmaeplay movement with noteworthy accuracy.

Human Controllers

“Project Natal” is the codename for the latest gamming and entertainment experience. “Project Natal” is completely controller free. “Project Natal” uses a sensor to monitor the user’s body actions and regonize user’s faces. “Project Natal” can even litsen to voices. “Project Nata”l has players use all parts of there body, so the player’s body is now the controller.

Microsoft’s new gamming wonder is comming this winter season.

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Test- Image provided by Andrea Wolf Yadin www.memoryframes.org

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Alerting News Emergency news alerts appear on radios and television sets nationwide. However they may start appearing on online video games in New York State.

by Kevin S.

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f you are playing a game online, there are many things to expect: cursing, yelling, competitiveness, success, and despair. However, emergency news alerts appearing on the screen aren’t expected in the online gamming world. Emergency news alerts could become frequent phenomena in New York State if the Empire 2.0 program is completed. These news alerts would cover natural or man made disasters. The plan was announced at the 2009 Interop technology conference in New York City. The reason is so then the alerts will be more likely to reach the young generation.

New York State Dep-

uty CIO Rico Singleton said the plan makes sense, “considering the amount of time the youth spends on video games.”

I think that the emergency news alerts should not be placed on video games since the Emergency Alert System (EAS) already has many so many ways to get emergency news out to the public. Others disagree saying that the younger generation should be alerted with emergency news and the best way to is through online video games.

People already have so many ways to get emergency news alerts, so why are news alerts on online video

games even necessary? They aren’t.

Emergency news alerts have been on Televisions for over 40 years and on radio since 1951. More recently satellite radio, digital cable providers, and digital radio broadcasters have been required to participate in the Emergency Broadcast System (EAS). Surely one of these sources is reaching teens today. According to Science Daily 60% of teens spent around an average of 20 hours per week in front of television and computer screens in 2008.

Also 16% of teens 12-24 years old listen to satellite radio according to the Arbitron Radio

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Listening Report. The EAS has worked very efficiently for the past 35 years and there is no need to change this system by adding another emergency news outlet. The last major misshapen was in 1971, when the code word, “hatefulness” was accidentally sent throughout the system, which ordered all programs to cease regular programming and order a national state of emergency. The cancellation message was sent around 30 minutes later.

Several changes were then made and a major mistake hasn’t happened ever since.

Another reason why emergency news alerts shouldn’t appear on online video games is because this will cause the video game corporations to lose some of their customers, since some people will become distracted.

People are already startled when screeching emergency news alert suddenly appears on the TV screen. So gamers that are competing in an intense game online will obviously become distracted by a scrolling bar suddenly appearing at the top of the screen. The gamer will then not be able to compete anywhere near his full potential not only because the message itself is distracting, but also because the alert will cover some of the screen, making the gamer more vulnerable to other players. The

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Creative Commons

message will also create a small lag during the game, making the gamer more vulnerable and less likely to succeed. The alert could also confuse the gamer on the objective need to be accomplished.

At this time, the companies can’t afford to lose any of its customers. Finally, this gives the government more control over private businesses. Basically the Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo operate the online networks that allow online players to compete with each other. Under Empire 2.0, the government would tap into these networks to broadcast warnings about natural or man-

made disasters. So the government can tap into the online gaming networks at anytime.

Seems like a privilege only the video game companies should have.

Emergency news alerts shouldn’t appear on online games since the EAS already has so many news outlets.

Adding online video games to the list would be unnecessary. People can easily turn on the TV or look on another EAS news outlet or sometimes simply looking outside to see if a natural disaster is approaching.

Roomba’s New Maid

TV Alive

Samsung has come out with 3D TVs and 3D Blu-ray players.

Samung’s first 3D TVs to be available for sale are the LED 8 series and 7 series.

To view the extra dimension, users will have to wear active-shutter glasses. The TVs are able to convert 2D TV programs into 3D.

Big Blaster

Blazing Fast

Texas Instruments introduced a prototype of their phone codenamed Blaze.

Blaze has two 3.7 inch touch screens. Blaze is able to run numerous Andriod apps on both screens.

The Blaze has three different cameras, WiFi, bluetooth, and GPS. OMAP 4 chips inside the phone allow the phone to do all of these actions.

Unfortunately, Blaze is not expected to be marketed, but OMAP chips are expected to enter production later this year.

Tech Scope

Roomba’s new Mint is a robotic vaccum cleaner that offers both wet and dry floor cleaning. The robot uses unique navigation technology to track where it has cleaned and even combines information from three seperate positioning systems to plan how to return and clean up spots the vaccum missed. The Mint will be available towards the end of this year and will be around $250.

Nerf’s new Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25 Blaster has a fully automatic dart cannon.

This Nerf gun can fire up to three darts a second. The gun uses 6 D batteries and has a removable tripod for easy transport.

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Taught too much?

Schools in america teach too much, and its the wrong things. What they dont need and what they do.

In america, the standard person will go through 13-17 years of schooling, starting at age five and ending between 18 and 22.

One would think that all of the information taught during those years would be absolutely necessary for the graduating student to operate in the outside world, or else we would not have forced them to spend more than 75% of their life in a controlled environ-

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ment with little to no resemblance to where they would be going.

on the job market.

The skills that are learned during high school that are necessary no matter what But not all of job the student the information takes are Math Not all of that is taught in up to trigonoma school is ever the information etery, science used in most jobs, up through 8th that is taught and there are grade, essay many skills and in a school is writing(especially things that peoin the ability to ever used in ple should know logically and for a job that are clearly express most jobs not taught in the your thoughts in schools. Among the written word), the things taught basic history of but unnecessary, the world(esp the most prime examerica), basic amples come from the high geography(where the major schools science class. while countries of the world are lothe stuff taught in that class cated and general location can be interesting, it is mostly of the others). trivial and uselsess, like learning how to sex flies. the only Skills possible application for that that are particular skill is if the student needed goes into a job in genetics, a for funcvery small porton of trhe jobs tion as a

.

basic adult but that are not taught in schools(but should be) are things like money management, budgeting, how to tell a good house from a bad house, how to be smart with your food buying and health, and how to manage a good sleepschedule that keeps you healthy and doesnt leave you tired during the day.

Bu yeah, the schools should re-evaluate thier teaching system, and stop making so many classes that arent actually necessary to our furtherment become necessary to our school carrer and stop making fret over learning somethin when they didnt actually ever need to know it.

by James K.

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The Green Zone

by James K.

The Green Zone is a tech review on the overall enviromental kindness of some of the new Tech that is coming out, and also of some of the good and green ideas that people have had.

The Magic Charger

Offering completely silent driving and, for once, an actually intelligent built in GPS, as well as an easy to access chargin network makes the Renault cars Very cool.

Relatively free and easy energy is always a plus, especially when its attached to a classic puzzle.

Cost

The Magic Charger was designed byZheng Weixi and is essentially a Rubix cube with a battery inside it that charges as you try and solve it. Then, once it is charged, one of the sides pulls out revealing a plug to drain the power out.

Unknown, but likely large

Site

The Fluenze Z.E. made

by Renault is an all electric car. Along with it’s production, thre will be charging stations set up in cities that will function similar to a gas station.

Fairly worldwide

Green-Ness

What it’s like

Product

Renault Fluenze Z.E.

The renault car has zeroemissions, but in addition to that, 95% of the car is recoverable after it dies and at least 5% of the car is made of recycled plastics.

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Unknown, but not very large

Japan

Makes energy, but uses human energy to do so, so it costs you food. still, food is better than the other stuff used to make electricity.

The Muckbuaster The Muck Buster is an Anaerobic Digester, and what it does is it takes your waste materials(poop) and turns it into Biogas, which can be used for heating or electricity.

While it isnt natural gas or fossil fuels, biogas still releases Co2 into the atmosphere. but it is also a renewable resource and gives you good fertilizer as well.

Cheapest is 20,000 for a 200 liter tank Europe

Renewable energy, but produces CO2, Still moderately green

The Red Zone

by James K.

The Red Zone is a Tech review of the most stupid and eco-unfriendly tech out there and why it sucks so much.

Your standard plasma screen television, widescreened, big, and flat, with a goood picture.

Old Boeng jet plane that has had fin-things attached so that instead of flying is shoots across water.

Recycles an old boeng, and is a fast mode of transportation

A vacuum cleaner from dyson with no bag and a lot of suction.

It is a very powerfull vaccuum and might occasionaly be usefull if you have a really, really dirty carpet or something.

150$ to 1500$,

Unknown

3-400$

Worldwide

America/europe

America/europe

Why its Bad

Cost

Good picture, big, can be cheap. relatively lightweight

Dyscon vacuum clean-

Site

Merits

Product

Plasma Screen TV’s

It is a huge power sink and can overheat. far less energy efficient that almost all TV’s on the market.

Salt and sea spray gets in the engines and ruins them, making the entire metal monstrosity useless.

Huge Power hog. far too much suction that needed in a vaccum.

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Yesterday 16

Exposed

Tomorrow

by Connor McAtee

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The modern uncensoring of totalitarian regimes is happening today. With the Internet, the censorship game is changing.

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n january a shock came to China as Google decided that they were no longer going to censor search results for the Chinese government. For the first time searches for “Tianamen” brings up images of tanks and protesters. Students and Internet activists have shown much support for Google, as Google stands up to China and its censorship. Suddenly the way that China handles itself has to change, as Google takes action against censorship. Google plans on either continuing to keep uncensored content in China or just leave China altogether, something that China doesn’t want to happen.

China and other countries that censor information and content on the Internet (E.g. Australia or

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Thailand) have to face the harsh reality that censorship is just no longer an option with the way that information can be spread today.

On top of this, companies that operate in countries that censor and comply with censorship need to stop censoring content, or at least pull out of those countries.

The censorship present in today’s world absolutely must stop. First, it’s a gigantic waste of resources, since people are just finding ways around it. Plus, with more and more people using the Internet, and more sites being available, more workaround out there, it’s hard for totalitarian regimes to keep information under wraps. Take a look at Iran, for example. Despite all their best efforts at banning journalists, and trying

to keep information about the elections and about the country away from the outside world, as reported by CNN on Tue June 16, 2009 “Iran’s government Tuesday banned international media from covering rallies in Tehran“ information still got out. In today’s world, anyone can spread information to everywhere in the world in an instant. This means that countries like Iran have to either arrest everyone, or just accept the fact that information will flow, and to let it do so.

However some countries are actually going in the opposite direction of where they should be going. Consider that recently Australia has actually begun not allowing women to appear in pornography if they “appear to be underage”, out of fear that it causes pedophilia .

Photo by Tarale

But who decides who appears underage? This is a ridiculous move, one that doesn’t even actually address the problem.

This is a huge problem in censorship, with large amounts of information being censored without even considering the content, just putting down a blanket black box. Not only is the claim that it promotes pedophilia absolutely ridiculous, since women with small breasts are not children, but what the law does promote is the already prevalent selfimage problem in society.

Lastly, when you have companies whose job it is to distribute information operating in countries that attempt to censor, those companies are just as evil as the countries that do so. However, when you have a company like Google stand up and refuse to censor themselves, it forces those who try to censor

information to the freedom give up centhat they soring.

So, deserve.

When a government more compa W h e n censors information nies should recensorship they are depriving fuse to censor occurs, it people of the freedom content just to is a violaallow ridicution of basic that they deserve. lous totalitarmoral prinian regimes ciples, and to keep the something people living in their country that must be stopped. So you uninformed. have these companies who

Some people claim that allow their content to be censorship is best for people, censored by governments because people can panic who really don’t have the when they see things, or peo- best interests of their citizens ple can become dissidents at heart, and are only trying trying to overthrow the gov- to be overly powerful. But you ernment. And in the case of also have these companies Australia, pedophiles have to and lest we forget the brave be stopped, right? The prob- people too, who stand up to lem is that not only does this regimes that censor informanot solve the problem, it is a tion that should be available horrible violation of the right to everyone. to free speech. When a government censors information they are depriving people of

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A look at some interesting

webcomics Comic

Url

Description

Xkcd

Xkcd.com

A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

Questionable Content (QC)

Questionablecontent.net

romance, indie rock, little robots, and the problems people have.

Gunnerkrigg Court

Gunnerkrigg.com

Dinosaur Comics

Qwantz. com

Least I could do

Licd.com

Zap!

Zap! is a sciZapcomic. ence fiction comic creatcom ed by Pascalle Lepas

El Goonish Shive (egs)

A group of teenagers and the bizarre, often supernatural, situations that they face.

College Roomies From Hell

Egscomics.com

Crfh.net

The adventures of Antimony at an unusual boarding school Dinosaur Comics is a comic about talking dinosaurs!

Least I could Do is a webcomic about a man named rayne

A group of college roomates and their fun, fun adventures with Satan.

Comic

Pictures For sad children A Softer World

Url

Picturesforsadchildren.com

Description

About a bad feeling you get when you’re feeling good.

A comic that

can be sad Asofterworld.com or harsh, like

novels written

by George Simenon

Allan

Allancomic.com

An autobiolgraphical comic by Allan Wood

White Noise

Wncomic. com

a scifi, post apocalyptic, super hero thing

Candi

Candicomics. com

Webcomic about a college aged girl named Candi

Charby The Vampirate

drunkduck. com/ Charby_ the_Vampirate/

Webcomic about a house in the forest full of many supernatural beings.

Super Temps

megaskunjii. comicgenesis. com/

A comic about super heroes and villains working at a temp agency

Cwen’s Quest

drunkduck. com/ Cwens_ Quest/

About Cwen and her quest for revenge

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Urban Subway

by Kevin S.

A large group of

people was waiting at the downtown station located near the Austin Convention Center. Around 10 people were in a line at the TVMs (Ticket Vending Machine) and 7 minutes later customers were in front of the machine buying tickets.

From the Downtown station, to the Howard station, the total was $6 and it took around 40 minutes.

Customers entered one slightly wrinkled dollar into the machine. A red light appeared next to the slot and the dollar came back out. A commotion began at the boarding platform; the train was getting closer. A green light appeared next to the slot for some customers. A red light appeared near a slot on the TVM when some customers inserted a wrinkled dol-

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Image provided by Capital Metro

lar. After customers got their tickets they crowded around the waiting platform and waited for the train to arrive. Once the train arrived the crowd of passengers swiftly boarded and the train took off minutes later.

The Metro Rail has a huge impact on transportation around Austin.

People in Austin can completely avoid the traffic on I-35, something that passengers on Capital Metro’s buses usually can’t avoid.

People can also avoid traffic on Mopac, 183, and in downtown.

“I think that it [the rail] is a huge impact to this community,” says Mark

Clendennen, Technology Project Manager of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “It is the beginning of passenger rail to Central Texas” Mark says.

Many people seemed to be riding the train out of curiosity and for fun. Kids on the train had small cardboard models of the train. There was a laid-back atmosphere on the train. When passengers were allowed to board the train, a lady with a dark flower shirt dropped her ticket in between the train and tracks. She got down on all fours right in front of the train’s doors, causing difficulty to board the

On the top is the interior of the train.

The train has huge windows, comfortable seats, and is very clean. There is a small “tunnel” to the other train cart.

The seats fill up fast so get there early or you will end up standing.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons

The bottom picture is a TVP (ticket vending machine) at the Howard station. The machine is a touch screen and is pretty simple to operate

Capital Metro Rail

The onboard location for bicycles is in the mobility-impaired/ senior seating area. If a mobilityimpaired or senior customer boards the train, cyclists must remove their bicycle from the rack and move to a safe standing location.

“We see more individuals with bikes boarding than were expected” says Mark

Since the mobility-impaired/ senior seating area was full, bikers had to standing up. Numerous other passengers were standing up since all of the seats had been taken. According to Mark there are 108 seats.

“We allow 232 passengers total” Mark says.

Capital Metro’s website states “the trains are much quieter than freight trains and even quieter than a bus. Per federal regulations, the horns are between 96 – 110 decibels, similar to a chainsaw, model airplane or lawn mower”.

Also “Capital Metro is also upgrad-

One way tickets cost $2 for one zone and $3 for all zones. Day passes, 5-day passes, and montliy passes are also availble to purchse.

These passes can be purchased at H-E-B , online, or at the Capital Metro.

train. The lady kept on trying to reach the ticket. A Capital Metro employee on the train rushed over and told her it was no big deal and for her to board the train. It really didn’t matter since none of passengers were ever asked to show their tickets during the train

ride. People of all ages rode the trains. Most of these passengers were families. There were about 4 people with bikes in the same train cart.

“We have limited the number of bikes to eight but it is dependent on the number of passengers”, says Mark.

ing sections of track, which will reduce vibration and noise”.

The trains need to be as quiet as possible since they start running at 5:25 a.m. on weekdays. The trains run from 5:25 a.m. to 9:25 a.m. and in the afternoon from 3:10 p.m. to 7:42 p.m.

“The long-term plan is to run full weekday and weekend schedules,” explains Mark.

There are nine stations located in

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Austin. The nine stations are the Downtown, Plaza Saltillo, MLK Jr., Highland, Crestview, Kramer, Howard, Lakeline, and Leander stations. These nine stations make up the Red Line.

“There are no plans to add stations to this line, the Red Line,” says Mark.

“There are plans to add additional lines, one being out to Elgin”.

“Capital Metro currently owns 6 trains,” says Mark. “We use four for the passenger service.”

According to Capital Metro’s website “The Capital MetroRail trains were manufactured in Switzerland by Stadler Bussnang AG.”

“On our line the top speed is 60 MPH, the average speed is 40 – 45 MPH” says Mark. “It could go over 75.” Mark also explains “The engines are two Cummins diesel engines that generate electricity to propel the vehicle and are located in the middle of the train”. This allows Capital Metro’s numerous trains to travel both for-

wards and backwards on the railway. The “two diesel-electric engines

“There are plans to add additional lines, one being out to Elgin”

and will be able to start and stop faster than traditional commuter rail vehicles”, according to Capital Metro’s website.

Mark also says that one of the six trains “is considered a hot standby and the last is held back for maintenance”.

During the train ride, two Metro trains were seen sitting on the side of the railway. These trains appeared while traveling from the Plaza Saltillo station to the MLK, Jr. station. One other train was seen running during the train ride.

After about 40 minutes the train arrived at the Howard stop. There was a noticed a medium sized parking lot at the Howard station. None of the other train stations that I had encountered had parking lots. One of the employees at the station said that only three stations had parking lots, the Howard station, the Lakeline station, and the Leander station.

In addition to the railway, Capital Metro is also introducing a new service called Rapid.

“It is a BRT service or Bus Rapid Transit service, which uses a 60’ articulated bus in conjunction with a device called TSP – Transit Signal Priority” Mark explains. “Transit signal priority systems use sensors to detect approaching transit vehicles

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Creative Commons

and alter signal timings to improve transit performance. For example, the system would extend the duration of green signals for the BRT vehicles when necessary. In addition, the BRT service will have fewer stops”.

Some tips for riding the Metro Rail are to arrive around 15 minutes before the train is expected to leave, since it gets very crowded on the waiting platform. The TVM (Ticket Vending Machines) also might have a line, which is another reason why passengers should try to arrive at the train stations early. Try to bring smooth dollar bills, a credit card, or exact change, since it is difficult to feed wrinkled dollars into one of the TVMs. When boarding the train, try to get a seat near the doors so exiting the train will be a breeze, because the doors don’t stay open for very long.

Bringing a bike would not be suggested since the train fills up quick and more than likely bikers will have to stand up and exiting the train will be a pain. Don’t bring food since its not allowed on the train and drinks are only allowed in spill-proof containers. Pets are not allowed on the train except for service animals. Headphones are also required with visual and music devices.

A

bove , is a picture of the Metro Rail train.

The train runs on 32 miles of existing freight tracks between Austin and Leader.

The Metro Rail is much faster and quieter than the freight trains that presently travel on the rail line. All Capital MetroRail trains offer free Wi-Fi service for passengers.

T

o the left, is a picture of the downtown station.

The trains have the destination on the screens located at the front and back of each train. When boarding the train, passengers are supposed to let other passengers exit before they can board the train.

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“The Lotta Phone that does a Lotta nothing”

by James K

T

here is a new phone being developed in Japan that is very different from most other phones on the market. This phone is the Lotta phone, and rather than trying to bring out some new and fancy software or program in a shiny smart phone, the Lotta phone is a minimalistic clamshell phone that barely does anything but make phone calls.

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But does a phone like the Lotta phone have a chance in today’s market of iphones and androids and phones that are like miniature computers? If it does, its target audience would be the technophobic and the old-folk who don’t know how to use computers. This is an interview with one of the people who would be part of the targeted demographic to see what their reaction to a phone like the Lotta phone is.

“I am not technologically inclined so, anything that simplifies the process of me, interacting with technology, is a good thing.” said Michael Scaccia, a teacher at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA).

The Lotta phone doesn’t have any applications to it, the only things it can do are take pictures and video with its two megapixel camera, make texts, tell the time, and make phone calls.

“I don’t really use all of the applications that

they[smartphones] use….I use the telephone to call out and receive calls, and I use like a task manager, that’s like a to do list, and I also use text messaging. And that’s it, those are the only things that I use.”

Scaccia said.

The Lotta phone is not currently for sale, and probably wont be for sale for a while anywhere but Japan, where it is being developed, and where the company that is making it resides.

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Lloyding the Industry

by Connor McAtee

I

n the computer industry there is are a lot of different steps, parts, and people to getting a computer designed, made, and marketed.

However, getting the people behind it to communicate is a problem not easily solved. That’s where Lloyd McAtee comes in.

Lloyd McAtee is a senior program manager at Dell Incorporated, where he coordinates the many different teams of people required to make, to ship, and to sell computers. His job is essential to getting a computer from the idea stage, into the hands of the consumer.

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Art Credit Example

“I have a team consisting of engineering, operations, marketing, service, quality, finance, and I’m probably missing somebody, but it’s a team of basically representing every function within the organization.”

Said Lloyd.

Each of these people has a job that they do, and, according to Lloyd, most of them do their job fairly well, if not quite nicely. However, getting individuals to communicate is an issue that is not easily resolved.

The amount of time it takes to get individuals to communicate is mind-boggling, not to mention making sure miscommunications occur as little as possible, and don’t get out of hand when they do.

I

’m guessing 70 percent of my time is spent correcting communications problems” Communication is a very big deal, especially at a corporation as large as Dell.

When Lloyd came to Dell back in 1998, it was a fast-growing company. Since then it has gained and later lost first place, which is based on number of units shipped for PCs running Windows and using Intel CPUs, in the industry. Throughout this, Lloyd has enjoyed his time at Dell, and continues to enjoy working there. According to Lloyd, Dell is a company that is good to work at, and he will continue to work there.

“It’s a good company, they take good care of us, they treat us good in terms of salary, you know, we’ve had our challenges, but we continue to work through them, and do our best.”

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However, sometimes a company has to lay some people off. If this were to happen to him, Lloyd says that he would start talking to people, trying to get his resume out there, and find and opening in the job market.

“If that happened my first reaction would be disappointment, but then I would just buckle down and just start looking for gainful employment elsewhere.”

He will also try and keep in contact with people who he met over the years, and do favors for people. He knows that some day, he may need those people to do the same thing for him.

Now I can say Pfft, I’m a business leader.

Period.

“I always try to take advantage of, if people say “Hey, do you know about an opportunity” or “Do you know about...” I always try to make my best effort to help them, because you never know when you may need that help yourself.”

Over the years, these good connections, in combination with hard work, have allowed him the freedom to move into a completely different type of job. His degree, which he earned at the Oklahoma State University, is in finance, and for a good four years he was an accountant. However, that changed when, in 2002, he switched into program management.

“The good news is I also know that I

Art Credit Example

am flexible enough, and you have to be open to the possibilities. Because, if you asked me ten years ago, I would have told you “Oh, I’m a CPA”, and that would have kind of pigeon holed me into roles related to finance, and now I can say “Pfft, I’m a business leader. Period.”

Lloyd has spent over twelve years at Dell, and through it all he’s worked hard and always stayed tough. He’s

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