TecKnow

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 2 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 13 15 16 17 19

Bios Letter from the Editors Dethroning Google Facebook Friendzy The Expanding Apple Smart Phone Comparison Teaching With Technology Head in the Clouds Applegate’s Achievement Building Universe OD’ed on CoD Fallout Falls Apple Product Timeline Wishlist

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Scotty is a PC. Scotty uses Ubuntu. Scotty rather enjoys talking in third person. Scotty was once downloaded windows Vista, but deleted it with his godliness.

Soon following he brought into the world Windows 7 to make up for the damage that Vista caused. Scotty firmly believes that both Microsoft and Google are evil and should never be trusted, even though he loves using both Windows and Google.

Teguh is a program created by the Open Source community with one goal in mind, the destruction of Macs (and Windows). He had a tragic upbringing where Steve Jobs killed his whole family by having a woman smash them with a hammer in 1984. But not really. Since then, his personal vendetta against the Apple Corporation in order to purge the world of [mostly] those that are not Open Source in this nerdrage. It’s time to kick lions and chew bubble gum. And I’m all out of gum.

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Mason is a Mac. He was raised on the streets of New York, feeding from dumpsters and stealing from rich old women. At the ages of 5-15 he was fighting crime as a masked vigilante, until spontaneously he was living in Austin, going to LASA, actually not being raised on the streets of New York, not feeding from dumpsters, and yeah. It’s pretty cool.

Karl was born in North Carolina, but raised by the wolves in suburban Austin. He was discriminated against due to his upbringing and weight problems, beginning in 3rd grade. He chose to compensate by expanding into excellence academically, and therefore is a worthy *cough* member of this group producing this magazine. *cough* *couch* he contributed *cough* completely to this magazine and should be given full credit *cough* *cough*.

We hope you enjoy our magazine. It required a large amount of hardwork on behalf of the editors (excluding Karl). We don’t intend to publish any sequels of this magazine unless E-Zine is required in the future. We thank you for reading our magazine, and hope you enjoy the work we put into this difficult assignment. We researched quite heavily throughout the writing process, which means you can trust that our facts are valid, and our opinions are entirely justified. Additionally, the views and commentaries expressed in this magazine do not reflect the views of the Liberal Arts and Science Academy, its business partners, or its subsidiary companies. The TecKnow magazine was made possible in part by contributions from the Liberal Arts and Science Academy and from readers like you.

Thank You.

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Dethroning Google

By Scotty S.

Google’s Competition Needs to Take Down the King

You have a quick question that you need answered, but none of your friends know the answer. What do you do? Simple.

Google it! Google dominates the search engine world, with a resounding 70 percent of all Internet searches going through the huge company. Google needs to have competitors like Yahoo and Microsoft to develop products, from new ways to find information through search engines to services that would make them a larger player, challenge Google, and make a more diverse and balanced web.

Google is currently dominating the internet search engines. According to comScore, in December 2009 Google managed 70 percent of the total search traffic on the web. This is only followed by Yahoo, which comprises less than 20 percent of searches. This alone shows how Google has really jumped ahead of even it closest competitor. This should give Yahoo and other search engines like Microsoft’s Bing a wake-up call, so that they can develop further and become true competitors of Google.

“As of today, more than three million businesses have gone Google, and over 30 million As of today, more than three million users within businesses, schools and organizations now depend on our messaging and businesses have gone Google, and over collaboration tools,” Google said in a blog post. Now that groups like schools and businesses have converted to almost solely using Google, the company can pull 30 million users within businesses, further past its competitors because of this group usage of all Google products. schools and organizations now depend In addition to this, Google is expanding past its search monopoly to take on our messaging and collaboration tools over other parts of the web at such an alarming speed that Google Inc. is all some people use for the internet, according to Precursor, which is an industry research firm. While many people are fine with one company leading a major industry, Google has too much power for one company. The European Union has even investigated Google to make sure it does not have a monopoly, because having one company effectively controlling the search engine market is wrong in many ways.

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“” The European Union has even investigated Google to make sure it does not have a monopoly

Companies like Yahoo need to look at different kinds of searching and advertising to make them better rivals of Google. Yahoo is the second most popular search engine according to Consumersearch, but currently only serves as a recommended supplement to Google, according to the library at the University of California at Berkeley. In order for different companies like Yahoo to pull past Google, they need to expand and further develop their services.

Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine has demonstrated a way to give more helpful search results and has had an 11 percent increase in searches from December of 2009 to January 2010, according to comScore. More search engines need to go beyond standard searches like Bing has done by generating the answers you will more likely want, to better rival Google.

Internet companies need to also expand beyond just searching to rival Google’s many services and tools. Google has already jumped far beyond just searches, and has developed incredibly advanced and successful apps. According to Cnet, Google’s email service Gmail is a “star,” and has many services within it to push it to be one of the “Web’s top email tools.” This is because of the integration of other Google apps like Google calender and Google translate into Gmail so that they can all work together. Beyond Gmail and Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Talk, Google Docs, and Google Desktop are some of the best ten of Google’s web tools available to everyone according to Cnet. All of these services rival those of other companies, which is where the same different companies can expand, to make their own services better, making the web more diverse. According to Wired Magazine, “Google’s ever-expanding agenda has put it on a collision course with nearly every company in the information technology industry.” This is shown as it dominates internet videos, and even rival companies like Amazon, as they put books online in Google Books. Google does threaten the well being of many other companies, which is why they need to step up and challenge Google.

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Google’s rivals need to come forward and develop new products, new searching, and new advertising. If companies like Yahoo and Microsoft step up their game, they can once again be a major player in the world wide web. This will make a more balanced and diverse web, and will slow the current domination by Google.

FACEBOOK FRIENDZY

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bout four decades ago, technology was nowhere near where it is today. The majority of the population didn’t have computers or cell phones, and there was no such thing as FaceBook, MySpace, or Twitter. The introduction of these new social media sites have changed the way we live, and not for the better.

Social networks such as FaceBook and Twitter help us connect with friends, coordinate events, and even have some games. You can keep up to date with the things your friends and other people are doing, but there are also many downsides to these social networks such as addiction.

FaceBook has exploded in popularity, not only in the amount of users, but also in the total time that people spend on it. According to the official FaceBook statistics page, there are over 500 million users on FaceBook, and the average amount of friends for each of these users is 130. 130 friends is quite a bit.

Dunbar’s number (the hardwired maximum amount of friends a human can possibly comprehend) sits at 150, and studies have shown that the average American has about 10 to 20 friends. 50% of their active users log on to FaceBook on any given day, and there are over 700 billion minutes per month are spent on FaceBook.

America isn’t the biggest cause for all of this either. FaceBook is immensely popu-

Photo Courtesy of Paul Walsh (Flickr: escapedtowisconsin)

lar across the world. Studies have shown that Americans spent 413 million minutes on the internet during August 2010. Of these 413 million minutes, 41.1 million minutes were spent on FaceBook. Compare this to Google, the world’s biggest search engine that has revolutionized the web, with 39.7 million minutes.

By Teguh H.

more distractions on facebook, and defended their online activities. FaceBook recently has also become somewhat infamous for it’s lack of security. There have been sales of private user information to third parties, after each update FaceBook used to reset security settings to a lower default, some ads have been shown to contain malware, and that’s FaceBook users had GPA’s closer not all. Usto the range of 3.0 to 3.5, while non ers also unfacebook users had more GPA’s in knowingly share large the 3.5-4.0 range. amounts People in America use FaceBook more than of personal information. Less than 1% of usGoogle. By Google, this is counting not only ers changed the default security settings, and the search engine, but also GMail, YouTube, many users have posted their phone numbers Google News, and many more sites. Just a year and place of residence. This is also partly a fault ago, FaceBook was the third most popular site on FaceBook’s behalf, for not warning users of in America with only 16.8 million minutes, the unintended consequences of sharing personal first two being Yahoo! and Google respectively. information, as well as the lack of security by If what FaceBook claims is true, this leaves just default. under 700 billion minutes to be taken up by the With all that in mind, consider what rest of the world. America also has the most you do online. What information you share, FaceBook users, totalling at over 120 million. how much time you spend online, and what

Addiction is not the only problem you do online. Some of that information may social networks have. In a study done by Aryn come as a surprise, and shows the things we Karpinski, an Ohio State University educator, do mindlessly on the internet. All I have to say it was found that “facebook users had GPA’s about this, is that as a society, we need to look closer to the range of 3.0 to 3.5, while non over the way we act because of technology, and facebook users had more GPA’s in the 3.5-4.0 what we can do to prevent the unwanted side range.” People easily distracted could find even effects from occurring.

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The Rotten Apple What will Apple look like in the near future?

Picture a balloon filling up with air. As more and more air is added, the balloon inflates, increasing its size. A balloon can hold a very large amount of air, and once fully inflated, remains that way for a long time without the addition of new air. However, if you continue to add new air, the balloon become over-sized and bursts. This balloon represents Apple’s current situation. As Apple expands, it needs to learn how to handle this new unprecedented size. However, Apple is unprepared for this large size, and it is beginning to show. Its products have an increasing number of bugs, albeit they are released in a timely fashion. If Apple continue to expand, there is a high likelihood of them “popping” in the near future.

users are finding it very difficult to maintain data on their devices, as if the computer is ever shut down improperly, there is a high likelihood of data corruption. Apple’s consumers are beginning to notice these problems and are making a point about it in forums. An irritated Joe Hesley, an Apple user in the MobileMe forum posted, “Unfortunately, [Apple is] dropping the ball, not communicating, and adding to the problem by increasing the frustration of their users via their unwillingness to shoot straight with us.” Rather than improving their software, Apple downplays the problem, saying that the claims are exaggerated and it only affects a marginal 1% of people. Also, rather than learning how to effectively using the press

“ ” [Apple is] dropping the ball, not communicating, and adding to the problem by increasing the frustration of their users via their unwillingness to shoot straight with us.

Apple Inc., the booming computer company of our time. It releases its products, it pleases consumers, it makes profit. By a standard of short term businesses, Apple is very successful. Although Apple will continue to expand, you may find that it has flaws on the inside and is gaining a much larger amount of media scrutiny. Recently, as the external scrutiny increases, the internal problems are likely to increase, as Apple will tend to lose moral and profits, both of which will negatively affect its productivity. Also, Apple has been releasing more and more products at a high rate, but it doesn’t seem to take the time to fine-tune the devices. As it rushes development to remain in the market, the quality of its products will continue to decrease, as Apple is not taking enough time to hammer out all the kinks of its designs.

These problems are becoming more and more tangible over the past years, namely the poor battery life of the Mac Book Air and the large amount of errors present with Snow Leopard. Presently, one of the errors that is causing the most irritation to Apple users is the difficulty in connecting the Snow Leopard to HP printers. Additionally,

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to its advantage, Apple chooses to become more elusive. Its CEO, Steve Jobs, chooses only to speak to a handful of journalists on a rare occasion, and often does not answer all of their questions. Apple must learn to harness the power of the press, so that it can use it to create, rather then allowing it to destroy.

The expansion of Apple has been going on for around thirty years, and its profits have recently exploded with the release of the iPhone three years ago. However, as Apple expands and expands, it finds its resources overstretched, both in terms of funding and man power. Apple released its Snow Leopard OS in 2009, and despite high expectations, it found itself entirely impossible to please a lot of people with the result, which included a numerous amount of bugs. These bugs were numerous in value and serious in nature. A significant amount of things that had worked quite well on Leopard, were defective in Snow Leopard, such as screen and file sharing, in addition to its generous amount of new bugs associated with its release. Rather than trying to improve on

By Karl J.

its software, Apple instead chooses to just dump in additional features in order for the new products to gain people’s attention and be worth buying, due to the new features only. However, as it dumps in these new features, Apple refuses to change the old ones, either to make them more compatible, or to remove them entirely if they are superfluous. A very significant example is how Apple reacts to HP printers, particularly the older ones. The new version of Snow Leopard had very numerous compatibility issues, and neither HP nor Apple did anything about it, except to “buy a new printer.” from HP. Nowhere is this more apparent then with iTunes. iTunes is becoming more and more bloated as Apple continues to pile in new features without making the machine run smoother. iTunes runs slower and slower with each new version, and some users are becoming quite disgusted. Some of this bloat and lag would be acceptable, except for the fact that some of the additions are unneeded. For example, in iTunes 9.0, they released a Facebook App which was of new value to consumers, but slowed it down, essentially a lose-lose. iTunes user traderx13 says, “So I am now completely at my wit’s end. Stable connection, perfectly clean library, nothing seems to help. I have no idea what else to do at this point.” This is a common sentiment among Apple threads.

As Apple expands, they find themselves fighting for dominance in more and more product fields, and often have to change their own design schedule in order to create a competing product, should a competitor’s product become available in a different field.

This was very true when an update for the Snow Leopard OS was being prepared. It was being designed in order to combat the errors in Snow Leopard, but then the public eye’s shifted to mobile phones, and Apple changes its product line towards the iPhone

rather than the new software update. Unless if Apple manages to condense its product line, it will find itself losing all of its finesse that have kept it competitive over the past years.

Apple’s expansion, in addition to the loss of finesse, seems to be coming too quickly for the company to adapt. Yes, having a larger

Art by Karl Johnson

balloon is nice, theres more for it to do, and it will last longer should it lose its air supply.

However, a larger balloon is that much closer to popping, and you find it hard to focus on any one point of the balloon due to its size.

Apple has made the mistake of treating a number of its products in the same fashion, despite their different inherited traits of each product. Early on, iTunes was a large success story, before it became overly bloated. Due to this success, Apple chose to treat the App Store in the same way as they did iTunes, despite the products being quite different, in both their design and function. Apple ran iTunes as the medium of release, you wanted to buy music, you got it from Apple, you wanted to communicate, you did it through Apple and on their terms. This was a success, so it chose to employ it for the App Store. The

primary differentiation between iTunes and the App Store is that one deals in something as concrete as music, whereas the other dabbles in a flexible medium, software. In my own opinion, I don’t believe the problem is that Apple doesn’t realize the problem, but rather is not aware of the severity of the problem, nor how to fix it if they were. Apple treats software the same as hardware, as something that must be correct and proper before it can be released.The main advantage of software is that it can be constantly changed, and it improves because of those errors, but hardware must be perfect upon release. The App Store’s admission problem is broken, as it takes far too long to update Apps, as it must be checked, rechecked, edited, tested, etc.Apple is fussy and controlling about the App Store, because in their eyes the

software must be perfect first. Software designers are getting fed up with this treatment, but Apple is deaf to their claims, neither changing the submission methods, or creating better software design programs. One of these software developers said that “ I believe that they think their approval process helps users by ensuring quality. In reality, bugs like ours get through all the time and then it can take 4-8 weeks to get that bug fix approved, leaving users to think that iPhone apps sometimes just don’t work. Worse for Apple, these apps work just fine on other platforms that have immediate approval processes.”

Unless Apple becomes more conscious of its consumers wants, Apple is going to have a tough time in the near future.

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SMART PHONE COMPARISON In today’s technologydominated society... which smart phone should you buy?

By Mason L.

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Art courtesy of Marissa H.

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billion human inhabitants live on Earth. By the end of 2010, it is predicted that there will be 5 BILLION cell phone subsciptions active, and around 60 million of them will be smartphones.

On the smartphone market there are really only two large operating systems: iOS and Android. The iPhone runs iOS, and almost everything else runs Android. iOS is superior right now, and will continue to reign over other smartphones until Android ups its ante.

The iPhone is superior to the Android due to its simplicity and its exceptional hardware. Last June, the website Lifehacker featured a “smartphone OS shootout,” and both the systems had their strengths and weaknesses revealed. The iPhone won the “easiness of use” and tended to have superior hardware (hardware being battery life, buttons, etc.). The Android loss may be attributed to the many different phones running the Android system and the haphazard nature of a fully customizable mobile device.

But the iPhone also has a button, a single button, besides the on-off, volume, or vibrate mode buttons. Compared to many other smartphones’ tens of buttons, this is a definite plus. iOS runs more smoothly as well, but this may be related to the amount of RAM being used in an Android system. The Android phone won the categories that involved openness and customization. It can have total integration to Google’s cloud-based apps (because it is google’s phone OS) and it is open-source software, thus it has much more customization. The iPhone has less customization, for Apple regulates the software. If you aren’t tech-savvy, or especially interested enthralled by the capabilities of your device, all of iOS’s features will be fine. I know from experience that the quick updates to iOS with new features and the fantastic App store, I can be sated.

The iOS app store is about 3x the size of the Android one. This provides much choice, and apps for anyone. As of June 2010, according to Wired magazine there were around 200,000 apps for the iOS app store, compared to the 50,000 apps on the Android store. These two numbers are gargantuan, and one may ask the question “Why should I really worry about the size of one large app store or another?” In my experience, the larger the size of the store, the more choice and quality the user will have.

Sure, one user may have be fine with Android’s store, but with 200,000 apps I find any kind of app I need. Also, with superior hardware comes superior apps. Gameloft, the mobile game developing company, creates top-notch 3D games. All of them work great on an iDevice, but with Android... not so much. In May, the website androidandme. com reported that Gameloft ported many of their games to Android. However, only half of them could actually run on Android phones. This is because the iPhone and iPod have superior graphics processors, and most Android phones don’t. Due to these factors, iOS has currently has the edge.

As of June 2010, according to Wired magazine there were around 200,000 apps for the iOS app store, compared to the 50,000 apps on the Android

store.

There is a lot of buzz about “unlocking” and “jailbreaking”, which is going around Apple and giving the user full control over the system. With this you can access the same sort of customization as Android through an iPhone, but Android has all the customization without the hassle.

And the hassle is quite a hassle. Two technology websites, Apple iPhone Review and PC World, had reports listing reasons to and not to jailbreak. A few reasons to jailbreak are the fantastic apps and features. Some these include, but are not limited to: Cydia (an app store for unlockers), Winterboard/ BossPaper (total customization), and Unlocking (the use of other phone services). The downsides they posted included: voiding of your warranty, a very small chance of “bricking” your device (making it useless until restoration), and the issue of every iPhone update disables the jailbreak. Jailbreaking is worth the hassle, but the downsides may haunt you. If customization is your thing and jailbreaking is too much trouble, than Android is definitely for you. However, if you don’t mind a bit tighter system settings, a superior phone, and a larger app store, than iOS is the operating system I recommend.

In the world of mobile devices, the top of the smartphone food chain is currently the iPhone with its iOS operating system. The loss of openness is a swap for a superiority in hardware, user-friendliness, and massively diverse app store.

Android has the edge on customizability, but who knows what Apple will do next? And maybe Android will pass iOS, but for right now iPhone is the way to go.

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Tec hno logy

Photos by Scotty S.

with hing Tea c

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Tom Spurgeon still uses an where Spurgeon grew up. Calculators were also overhead from 1974 and chalk- a new technology when Spurgeon was a child. In boards that line his room to those days, calculators were the size of typewritteach Algebra II at the Liberal ers and cost six hundred dollars, which was three Arts and Science Academy weeks of pay for Spurgeon. “In 1973, another High School. He has grown teacher came running into my room yelling with very little electronics, that the school board had agreed to let us buy a and has taught his classes with the same techcalculator that would add, subtract, multiply and nology for years. Across town, Sharon Roy uses divide, and do square roots for 12 digits,” Spurvery advanced technology and a room filled with geon recalled. computers to teach her classes at Kealing Middle

This year Spurgeon is teaching Algebra School.

II and Algebra II Topics. Those classes primarily

Roy uses a wide array of electronics to use calculators, and technology he uses everyday. help teach her classes of 8th grade English and These mainly include overhead projectors, and video game production, while Spurgeon uses the occasionally even a document camera and digital old reliable technologies of years past. They both projector. He has all of his class notes on overhead use technology in their respective classrooms slides, and has an archive of these slides for the as they feel fit. Roy uses technology in many ways to help her video game In 1973, another teacher came running production classes be like the real into my room yelling that the school board world, and her English classes be more had agreed to let us buy a calculator that productive and engaging. Spurgeon would add, subtract, multiply and divide, however, feels his students are the most and do square roots for 12 digits valuable resource in his classroom, and says he doesn’t feel the need to use advanced whole year in several large binders. This means technologies when he can do things like conduct that he primarily uses the overhead projector to class discussions. teach his classes. He would gladly switch to newer

“They know much more than I do, technologies, but it would take too long to switch and collectively the group knows more than any all of his notes. “It would be a full time job for a particular person.” Spurgeon stated, “Just about year to transfer all the stuff,” he said. “So I don’t anything you want to do at this school, there’s transfer it, and I don’t see that I create any probsomeone in your class that knows how to do it.” lems learning things.”

Spurgeon grew up in the 50’s, and dur When Roy was growing up her family ing a much different time than exists today. When bought a computer in the 9th grade. Later in high he was growing up, only about three percent of school, she took computer programming classes. the population had color TV’s. People that did She was one of two girls in the class, and kept own TV’s had to get them repaired a few times taking it because she liked the problem solving every year. There were involved with making programs. “I had a great three different TV repair teacher who was really strong in programming,” men that worked in she said, “and I remember enjoying the satisfacthe town of 600 people tion of getting your program to work.”

By Scotty S.

At Kealing Middle School, Roy is teaching classes called “Video Game Production” and English this year. Video game production uses lots of specific technologies, like the advanced Poser software which creates 3D animations, and Photoshop. Video Game Production uses game engines to form a total of about ten different programs. “I like using that software because I like to treat my students as professionals, so I like them to have those professional tools and to be able run the whole class as a company when they’re designing stuff,” she said.

For English, she maintains the same professional attitude. She recognizes that now people are writing on the computer more than by hand, so has come up with things like online discussions. Roy has seen many benefits of these discussions, from going deeper to sharing more view points, even out of class.

“When we have an online discussion, people who are a little more reticent have a chance to think things through, and can make a contribution,” she said. “I think it gives everyone the opportunity to make a deeper contribution.”

Roy doesn’t see many problems with using advanced technology to enhance learning. She sees problems like technology being distracting in the same way as before she had the current technology. “I think it’s the same thing, just that it’s more high tech. Instead of passing notes like we used to do in class, people are sending instant messages and emails,” she said.

Spurgeon may stick to his old ways, but Roy thinks that every year there is something new to try in the technology world, so she will continue to develop the use of technology in her classroom.

“Like anything else,” she said, “it’s important to stay current, and to keep evolving and trying new things.”

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n 1984 the first Macintosh was released, making a crater in technology history. In 1995, Windows revamped the way we use computers. In 1998, Google revolutionized search. In 2007 the iPhone took the mobile device world by storm. Now we are seeing advancements in the field of cloud computing. This could change everything. Again.

You probably use cloud computing every day, whether you know it or not. Like Google search. Imagine having to go through every single website in existence to find what you need. That would take forever, but instead Google does it on their servers, so what would take a decade of searching in every little nook of the internet takes about 0.22 seconds.

Peter Hofstee currently works at IBM, where he is working on a project that fits hand in hand with cloud computing.

Cloud computing is very simple.

Think about it like putting your computer somewhere else, then accessing the computer and do all the same things you could before.

Instead of using your computer to do things,

By Teguh H.

cloud. There would be no difference between using a gaming computer or a tablet, other than the interface. You could even use a smartphone.

However, in order for cloud computing to become feasible, there are a few things that matter. One of them is network connection. There are two parts of network connection. Latency and bandwidth.

Bandwidth is basically how fast your connection is, and latency is the delay between the time you hit a button and the time something happens.

“To give someone a high definition video stream for example, you need much more bandwidth than if you’re just doing text

es are also using a lot of private clouds. This allows more people to work from home and some of this may start happening at schools.

“Some people at schools can’t afford computers, and rely on libraries to access the internet,” Hofstee suggests, “These people miss out on a lot of information and hopefully cloud computing will fix that problem.”

Cloud computing allows us to see our grades online, we can use Google to research information for projects, and we can use email to communicate with friends. Libraries also have become less prominent. Instead of looking for books, most of the time we can find information we need online. Libraries will change.

Instead of looking for books, which may or may not be taken already by another person, we could access a database and read the book on something like a tablet or a laptop.

“I think that for some pieces of material, a teacher standing in front of a class and explaining it to the entire class is not a very effective way to teach” asks Hofstee.

Different people learn different ways. With an effective cloud based system, the computer could effectively learn how the student learns, and present the information to the student in a way that is most effective for them.

Cloud computing could have a larger impact on the way we do things than the invention of the computer. From things like replacing libraries to completely changing the way school works.

“So this has transformed the workplace, and I think it really will transform teaching too,” Hofstee says, “but it may take a long time before it happens. Maybe 20 years.”

“ ” Instead of a gaming computer, we could use a tablet and get the same results.

you connect to a more powerful group of computers, called a server, to do things more efficiently.

When you buy a PC and you put it on your desk, there are all kinds of unpleasant consequences. It gives off a lot of heat, you have to get antivirus, update software, and generally you have to get a new computer around every 5 or 6 years. With data centers, hopefully most of those worries will go away.

With all the computations being done off-site, it becomes much easier to organize things like backups, software updates, and other things that one doesn’t immediately think of like cooling and power.

“We also wouldn’t need the same kinds of computers we have today,” Hofstee explains, ”Instead of a gaming computer, we could use a tablet and get the same results.”

Since cloud computing has all the computations done elsewhere and not on your “computer” anymore, then it really doesn’t matter what you use to connect to the Photo Courtesy of rdg-consulting

editing or something,” Hofstee says, ”But the thing you’re very sensitive to when typing is latency.”

Games are also very sensitive to latency. The human reaction time is two tenths of a second, and the typical latency for a game is one tenth of a second, so putting games on the cloud is fairly difficult. By the way, the game that is most difficult to do on the cloud is not really a first person shooter, it’s something like Rock Band or Guitar Hero. Making music is something where you’re very sensitive to latency. The minimum bandwidth we would need is probably 5 Megabits per second. Places like Korea and Japan already have this, Europe is catching up, and America is a bit behind.

The earliest form of cloud computing was search engines like Google, but now you see cloud computing used more for delivery of entertainment. We’ve seen a lot of company startups like OnLive for games in the US, GaiKai in Asia, and Netflix. Business-

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Applegate’s Achievement One Man’s work to adapt a school to an innovative new idea; technology

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harles Applegate’s room is surrounded by bins and bins brimming over with LEGOs, 25 computers, and somewhere between 10 and 30 kids depending on the time of day.

They’re learning how to program, build, and explore the realm of technology all at once.

Leading them down this path of intuitive knowledge is Mr. Applegate.

Mr. Applegate is the SMIA (Science Math Inquiry and Analysis, a class focusing on analyzing the relationship between math and science, and providing a slightly rudimentary background on physics.)and robotics teacher at Kealing Middle School, where he works for 9 months a year. In addition to his teaching job, he is the school’s primary source for education on some ground breaking technology.

Not only does he introduce this to students, but he extends his expertise to teachers as well, opening the future to all involved.

His job is to get all teachers and kids at Kealing Middle School to accept and learn to use technology. Many people would say hes trying to help them, but he would disagree.

He believes that “The word help isn’t the right word, the reason why is because new technology always requires a threshold of learning, in new technology, in explaining and learning it, so it’s the same problem over and over again, its recursive.” So in order to advance their capacity to use the technology, he has to teach them how to use it.

He brings this new threshold of learning to his students by having the most experience in the field of technology. He started as an emplyee for Hour Down, but soon chose to go back to college. Then Charles proceeded to work for IV-5 until completing a UTeach program (a program design to aid upcoming science teachers for Middle School) and opening up the field for sixth grade science at Kealing Middle School (KMS). He is still teaching science, but is now trying to convert the whole school towards technology.

Technology is the changing education medium which is,, in his opinion a good thing.

There is less paper use, as they transitioned to Google Docs, which is a editing suite based off of a cloud system. This change helped in some ways, but, as Mr. Applegate says about

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the transition, “Google Docs [isn’t] perfect”.

However, he is trying his best to make Google Docs to work well for everyone in the school, despite complications with the system.

Of course, he tries to solve these problems, but encounters new ones on his way. There is some inertia against this changing wave sweeping the school. It has nothing to do with distrust of the system, but much more with people just not understanding what to do with the technology, which severely affects its usefulness.

By Karl J.

However, Mr. Applegate has some complaints about how everything in his school runs. He lacks some key points of technology he would rather have, such as wireless, better laptop protection, and keyboard covers to prevent kids from damaging them.

He specifically hopes for wireless, because “That would be great because that’s about 6-weeks every school year to get every machine up and running because they take them down to do the floors.” Wireless would mean that he wouldn’t have to unplug every

“ ” So technology just tries to adapt more, more to look prettier.

“I think [technology is] one of those things, technology can only be adapted if the masses agree to do it, to use it.” So in addition to getting all of this technology to function properly, he must also act as a salesperson, getting the technology to the people in the school who need it.

machine as he takes them down, nor would he have to rewire all of the Internet connections to every school computer, which eats up his time considerably. If this were to come to pass, he would achieve an even higher level of productivity, helping the school progress even further.

The students also require a good amount of training, although not as much as the teachers. Students are frequently seen asking for help, so the people they ask have to know how to treat the technology, giving the kids the same abilities.

In the end, all of this technology comes out aiding everyone. In some ways it helps students and teachers become more efficient, such as a quicker grading process and more effective ways to work on assignments. Of course its not an instant improvement for all people involved

This education is not always needed, at least not in all areas. Often when he helps a student, he is heard to say, “All I end up doing is you saying help [me], and then you do it.” It shows that students actually understand what they are doing, but need supervision to be completely certain that thier correct, or they won’t try to complete.

Unfortunately, even after having something explained, people don’t always get it the first time. It is almost impossible to teach people about a new topic without some confusion about it, but Mr. Applegate tries as hard as he possibly can.

One student was heard to say, “Well, you go into the computer, then you tell us to go into Google Docs, and then you start to talk to us about confusing stuff.” However, he attempts to penetrate this fog of confusion and bring the intelligence buried beneath to the surface.

Technology is the new great invention for productivity, but it has some ill effects.

When asked about how this technology affects the student’s productivity, Mr. Applegate says, “I guess I don’t know if it actually isn’t more of a hindrance. I actually think it’s the productivity until they get ramped up into the technology, [then it] is less productive, but until they understand the technology its much more productive.” So essentially, technology does aid productivity until they get smart enough with it to exploit the system, at which time they start goofing off because they know how to bypass site blocking etc.

Every now and then even experts can be confused by new technology, which is released fairly frequently.Upon its release, people believe that it is being released for more

Applegate’s Achievement

Teaching the New

Art by Eirikref (flickr)

money and better consumer satisfaction. Mr. Applegate offers a contrasting opinion.

There is a firm belief that technology is just being implemented to make money, not to ease technological use, according to him “Every time you get a new OS, it doesn’t make Office easier, does it? It doesn’t make Internet Explorer open faster, it just keeps it current.So technology just tries to adapt more, more to look prettier, that’s about it.” A prettier system is a system that is likely to make more money and therefore make a more successful and prosperous buisnesss, As the students begin to file out of Mr. Applegate’s room, you can see the delight upon their young faces. They learned something new in a field which has a large number of possible of future uses. It might be confusing, but you can tell that they enjoy learning about this, and know that it has value. Mr. Applegate returns to his work, keeping the school current and productive.

Improving the Old Art by Alexsh (wikimedia)

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Gavriel RH’s huge programming undertaking.

By Mason L.

Explore a tropical paradise, and throw as many blocks as you wish.

G

avriel Rachael-Homann’s dimly lit room is littered with books.

The room feels like a cave, with objects filling every inch of open space. The shelves lining the walls are packed and overflowing with bound paper. Known to have “read everything,” he is an avid reader and reads faster than anyone I know. Now Gavriel spends most of his time on the computer. His desktop Intel Mac runs Windows XP and OS X. His HP laptop lays on the couch, and he explains that his excessive tampering with the computer broke it again. At the age of 14, he is an aspiring game developer, and an already resourceful programmer.

Ever since Gavriel and a few of his friends from elementary school came up with a game that they dreamed of creating, he has absorbed every ounce of information on game and com-

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puter programming provided to him. Wherever he has a computer, his vast knowledge of everything computer-related brings reactions of awe to those around him. His games, programs, and servers he creates are loved by his friends. Whether he is creating with the programs Unity, Flash, Cinema 4D, or just writing script with notepad, this budding game designer is realizing his goals.

These goals all began in the late years of elementary school.

“Back in elementary school, me and a couple of friends had come up with an idea for a game, but we didn’t know how to actually make it,” explains Gavriel. “And so after elementary school we all went different ways to different middle schools and I continued trying to figure out how to make this game.”

What was just a childhood dream is slowly becoming a reality for Gavriel. With a desire to learn about computers, he has spent many hours learning everything he can. Over the course of a year or two, this freshman at LASA High School has become adept in many computer languages.

“I do c++, action-script 2 and 3, a little c#, javascript, PHP,” Gavriel says calmly. “And I’m currently learning java.”

C++ is the industry standard, PHP is used in web-based programming, and Action script is used for flash. These programming languages are extremely complicated. This feat is definitely impressive, especially in someone so young. However, when making his 3D games in a program called Unity, computer languages c# and Javascript are the most useful.

“Unity is a brilliant workspace for making

Screenshots provided courtesy Mason L. and Gavriel RH.

plex. The production of Universe would definitely interfere with schoolwork, especially since he is at a school known for rigorous academics.

“I try to keep it away from school work, but as I’m taking programming in school, I’m currently trying to link what I do at home and what I do at school together,” Gavriel says.

His parents don’t seem to mind his programming interest, and are proud of his effort and initiative. They do get annoyed with the amount of time he spends on the computer. they don’t mind the amount of money it requires, for he finds ways to pay for computer upgrades and program purchases.

a game. Half the screen, well half of the program, is showing the actual game as your work on it,” he speaks with excitement, his hands moving in slow motions. “The other half is for dealing with interactions between objects, what data you currently have, and adding new programming scripts.”

never are without difficulty. Programmers always face time consuming issues when creating programs.

Unity is a free program and quickly gaining influence in the gaming world. A very intuitive program, Unity is easy to use even if you have no programming expertise. However, if you do, than the game you create is just astounding. However, Gavriel uses more programs. He uses Cinema 4D, Flash, and Photoshop as well.

In the production of a game, debugging can last close to forever, especially, in the game he hopes to create. The larger and the more complex the game, the more glitches, bugs, and exploits there will be. His dream game is about as complex as it gets.

“

“The hardest part about programming is finding the time and having the patience to debug code,” he says.

“The game title is Universe and it’s a game

“For Christmas and birthdays and any holiday celebration possible I’ll ask for either money, or I’ll ask for contributions toward these programs,” he explains. I do a lot of small jobs...walking dogs, mowing lawns, babysitting, and I then, as a more unique way of making money, create websites. And I’ve sold a couple of them and gotten a couple hundred dollars too, so that’s great.”

Website programming was the beginning, Gavriel’s excitement is quite noticeable as he explains the rest of his programming achievements and creations. After he is done, he speaks of two ways to get into the programming world.

Each planet or world that is in this universe has deities and each one has a different situation. A new player would start off in one of these worlds and battle their way to the top before being able to go to other worlds.”

Cinema 4D is a 3D modeling program and is extremely useful for creating any 3D object in the game, whether it be player or object that the player interacts with. Photoshop is for creating textures for these 3D objects and flash is another game workspace that is generally used for 2D games although 3D is being implemented at the moment. He uses all of these programs in junction, and they mesh very well. However, like most software, they

that encompasses many worlds,” he says. “It’s a MMORPG so there is many players and it is role-playing. Each planet or world that is in this universe has deities and each one has a different situation. A new player would start off in one of these worlds and battle their way to the top before being able to go to other worlds.”

A game of that caliber takes a great amount of time to develop, for it is extremely com-

”

“Either go from an easy base such as web pro-

gramming and work your way up, or jump headfirst into messing with code even if you don’t understand it,” he says.

The bell rings, and he is off to AP computer sciences, where he puts his skills to use. When he gets home, he will boot his minecraft server, and work on his games late into the night.

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Student Suffers Break Down OD’ed on CoD

By Mason L. Local student, Austin C, recalls how the new Call of Duty game was just “too much of a commitment.”

“It took more out of me then my Grandparents ever did, even if they tried,” Austin explains. “The mental strain, and amount of time in and out of game it required was about as much as it took to learn how to place a good claymore.” When Austin would return home from school he would head straight to the Xbox.

However, in order to maximize his pwnage, he had to perform a Black Ops ritual. “I had to cleanse my controllers in holy controller cleaner, then I had to lather the console in sweet oils,” Austin recounts. “Then I would parade around the TV dressed

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like a soldier until a lobby was found.

At this point I would hastily dress in a toga and sing myself into delirium while the map loaded.” Obviously this wasn’t the cause of the mental strain, for this kind of behavior is common in most gamers as well as newlyweds, and house-moms in their 40’s. It may have just been the repetition of this routine that drove him to insanity. “I never seemed to process the consequences of my routine,” Austin says.

“I was proud of it and so were my parents. They would always congratu-

late me, and were extremely proud for bringing justice to such a brutal landscape.” Austin now is in terrible shape, suffering spasms in which he dives to prone at random instances, while also screaming tactical suggestions out of the blue. “I would warn anyone who loves CoD that it is like a dangerous beautiful woman... it is dangerous and beautiful and occasionally a woman.” Austin explains while twitching. “Try to remember that no matter how many deaths by camper you may suffer, there is occasionally a world outside of your TV room.”

Fallout Falls A little originality would have gone a long way

R

eleased on Oct. 19, 2010 by Bethesda Soft works, and developed by Obsidian Entertainment as a follow up of Fallout 3. The problem is, they made the follow-up of the previous game, almost the same as the previous game. The game starts off fairly diverse from its predecessor, Fallout 3. You’re delivering a package, but then you get shot in the head and that package taken. From there, the rest of the game progresses into something almost identical to Fallout 3. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely a different game, but it just has the same feel as Fallout 3. After the initial parts of the story, where you choose your appearance and skills and everything, you get into the main part of the game-play.

The ultimate objective is, once again, to pursue a person and find him. This time, instead of it being your father its the dude who stole the package from you. Soon, you reach your first town, where there are a ton of people eager to send you on missions across the state. You talk to people, you do what they want, you kill things, you get things,

you repeat. The missions vary between each other, but its the same basic idea, go here do this. There’s no multiplayer at all to speak of, neither across console or split-screen. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is a large amount of choice involved, but they always show up as, do this or do that, and always affect the game in the same way no matter how often you play through. You still have to participate in a giant battle at the end, and even if you choose an option to control all of New Vegas, you really don’t have any power overall. Also, Obsidian left any kind of challenge from the game. You’re in a place filled with a popular enemy, super mutants. They start firing on you, taking you by surprise, and damaging you to about 25%. You then bring the menu on your arm up, which pauses the game. You then go through in serenity, browsing all your tabs for something to heal. You find a Stimpac, which heals you instantly. Then, you pull out your gun, and go into V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) where the game ALSO pauses, and you cycle between targets.

Each target has a part of their body with a %

Huge guns, the only thing Fallout has going for it

By Karl J.

indicated. That % is the chance that you will hit the target. You have an infinite amount of time to choose the opposing target you want, select where you want to shoot, and how many bullets (thankfully up to a limit of 3) you want to fire. Generally, you’re at close range because the AI can’t shoot at any other range, so you have a 95% chance of hitting a head (in actuality it’s essentially 100%), and so you can easily take down targets, without ever having to aim down your sight at all.

Thankfully, there is one new feature that makes the player actually think, and this is hardcore mode. Here, bullets have weight (so you cant carry 5000 rounds for one gun with you into battle, plus 5000 for all your other guns), you can’t get instantly healed

by Stimpacs or food, and you have to worry about eating, drinking, and eating. Overall, this game had potential, but was ruined by Obsidian/Bethesda staying only with the well known, such as V.A.T.S., the plot, a lack of multiplayer, limited choices, and just a similar feel overall to past games.

Art by Jamiecat (Flickr)

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Timeline of Apple I: 1976

Apple III: 1980

Macintosh II: 1987

Macintosh LC: 1992

1976 1981

Macintosh 128K: 1984

Apple II: 1977

Apple Lisa: 1983

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1986

1991

Apple Products

By Scotty S.

Power Macintosh: 1994

Macbook Pro: iPad: 2010 2006

iPod Classic: 2001

iPod Shuffle: 2005 iPhone: 2007

2010 1996

2001

2006

iPod Nano: 2005 Original iMac: 1998

Macbook Air: 2008 iMac G4: 2002

iPod Touch: 2007

Photos courtesy of WikiCommons

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Tech Wishlist

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1: Xbox 360 Xbox has the best online service to date (but not as much free content as PlayStation Plus) and the console itself is also pretty good. There are a ton of great games, and Kinect brings a new level of gaming to the system..

By Teguh H Photos courtesy of their respective owners.

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2: EVGA SuperClocked Nvidia 580 Tons of people like playing games on their PCs. There are tons of games, and some of them are really high quality too, but to enjoy them in their full photorealistic glory you need a better processor. So why not get the best?

3: Kinect We don’t necessarily want Kinect to use it for the Xbox (although we could,) but the things that interest us the most about the Kinect is the open source stuff that has just started to happen with Kinect on the computer. Homebrew games incoming in 3...

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4: Sony Internet TV (Google TV) People like TV. People also like certain shows on TV, and some people hate watching reruns. So why not just search for the show you want with Google TV? That’s what we want to do anyways.

5: HP Envy 17 3D Core i7, 6GB of RAM, and a 1GB Graphics card makes this one powerful laptop. You can use it to play games, watch movies, or even general things like sending an email. Combine all that with 3D, and well, we want one.

6: Logitech C910HD Webcam The world of Video Chat has been used more and more since Google Chat and Skype, and with OSX Lion they are adding [what seems to be the only new feature] of FaceTime. This webcam has one of the best video qualities out there. This webcam isn’t compatible with Mac’s yet, however Logitech will probably follow the trend they have had in the past and make a Mac version.

7: Black Ops Functioning Properly (on PC) Let’s face it. Black Ops isn’t all it was glorified to be on the PC. Sure, the console versions are great, but the PC version is littered with problems. Disconnecting players, high latency, and freezing cause the game to be nearly unplayable. Cmon Treyarch, we actually hoped for something great from you.

8: New Apple OS’. All of them.

Apple OS’s have been... well, lets face it. Outdated and subpar. iOS 4.0 completely killed the iPhone 3 and 3GS with terrible speed problems, and nothing completely new has been added to OSX in years.

9: ASUS Eee PC 1215N We have one laptop already up there, but who wants to lug around a 17 inch laptop everywhere? You probably couldn’t even fit that in your backpack. This netbook on the other hand sits at a nice 12.1 inches and is not terribly heavy either. It runs a dual core Atom processor and an Nvidia ION graphics card, so this netbook can hold its own in high performance things

10: Evo 4G Smartphones are becoming ever more prominent in today’s society, and 4G is about to change the way many smartphones can handle data. The Evo also has a a vibrant display and a mobile hotspot that works, helping to make it one of the best smartphones out there.

ITS A MAP!!!

Photo courtesy of lamont_cranston (flickr)

Photo courtesy of San Deigo Shooter (flickr)