Grid Project

MOM

The Mother of All Demos

This video by Douglas Engelbart is really special. Douglas Engelbart was a genius. His work on computer programing was definitely break ground. As the name of the video suggests, this video his like a tutorial of his program called  WYSIWYG. The program is very similar to excel in the sense that it allowed the user to manage and organize data. Also, the futuristic program allowed the user to copy and paste text like windows and macs do. The program was really futuristic, and I was amazed by how much details were put into it. While watching the video I realized that there is always ground for innovation and most of the technology that we use today come from innovation, but to create or invent something is never an easy task. Furthermore, even if you do succeed you might not necessarily have positive responds. 

Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

Steve Jobs commencement address is probably the most inspirational speech I ever heard. He was such a genius, charismatic persona. His life was filled with courage and determination. During the speech, he touches three major points of his life. With honesty, he talked about having faith and believing in whatever you're doing. He wanted more and he knew what he wanted. He gave the attendance a great overview of his life at his lowest and highest points. For instance, him being abandoned by his biological parents, or him being dropped from Apple. This speech is not only amazing because it is by the genius Steve Jobs, it is amazing because it gives great advice about life in general. I like the fact that he humbled himself enough to give us such details about his lowest points and believing in himself. Most of the time we want things too fast and we are not willing to sacrifice. This speech gave me faith because through him I definitely know that no matter how harsh life can be sometimes we never know where it's going to get us. As he said we connect the dots backward. He was a free and undisputed genius. His vision impacted so many lives, not only by the outcomes and the products he came up with, but mostly because of his spirit and the spirit he spread through his persona.

Mark J. Stock

Mark J. Stock really blew my mind!!!Going through his work was just amazing to me. His art and vision are just extraordinary amazing. All his pieces were just out there. The way he integrated science work in his art are just brillant to me. The piece that really got my attention is the Inside The Bomb piece. This piece is not only brillant because of its looks, but also the idea behind it. Reading the description made this piece even more relevant and made me respect it even more. I thought it was just perfect because I agree with vision. Sometimes life is just fast and we don't realize what is underneath the result, but we are just quick to judge or we don't take in consideration the process of creation and this apply to pretty much everything around us.

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Raymond Kurzweil

Watching videos on him was inspirational to me. As I was watching bunch of videos, I couldn't helped myself think that man is a true genius. A lot of his videos are really realistic and based on technology and how it will affect future society. The one that got my attention is the one on immortality. In that video he explains how immortality will eventually be possible through the advancement of technology. How we will feel and see things. I thought it was a pretty realistic view of the evolution of actual society. Those videos made me more aware of the evolution of technology and realize how far we came from and what's to come in terms of future society.

Triumph Of The Nerds

Watching this video was a great experience. As I was watching I learned a lot about how computers work, or how and who is behind computer in general. This video gave great insights on the birth and the evolution of computers throughout years. While the first part touches on the genesis of the computer and how it originally started while showing how it actually worked. What I found interesting here is the fact that the first personal computer was not as successful as I thought. Moreover, the fact that most people didn't originally believed in its future. Another fact that caught my attention is the number of hours and how much passion was put into it. The apple two for instance was considered a masterpiece, and how it impacted the personal computer industry was even more amazing. Through gigantic sales, and the product itself, a legend was born Apple. Setting new standards for personal computer, apple two was the leader of the revolution. Moving forward, another legend was on the making: Microsoft and Bill Gates. The wily Bill Gates was not only a great programmer, but also a great businessman. With his friends and their cunning minds they settled a deal with IBM another legend in the personal computer industry, the rest is history. After then, nothing was the same. The personal computer industry was soon filled with dozens of other companies that were doing the exact same thing as IBM computer wise, sometimes even faster. Soon enough IBM was stock up with rivals which benefited Microsoft. Probably every computers back then was running on a Microsoft system. One key moment that caught my attention is when IBM developed their OS alongside with Microsoft building their new but soon successful operating system Windows. That particular is even more important because it is the defining moment that marked up the dominance of Microsoft and windows system in the computer industry. IBM now belonged to the past and Microsoft to the future. Deep into the third part I figured that most of the innovation in the personal computer were about tweaking and editing existing system. Xerox for instance, had the idea of the PC way ahead before both Apple and Microsoft. They just didn't believe in the idea. Apple came up with the revolutionary Macintosh. The biggest issue that I came across was the fact that Macintosh wasn't taylorized for cooperation, but much for personal and simple used. Also, as mentioned the scarcity of application and the price. Even though the end was mostly about the competition between Apple and Microsoft, I believe this was a great learning experience. Using computers now days is so common that we tend to forget the effort and passion that drove the first developers and it was great way of understanding. 

Persuasive Games

Games are part of our daily basis. No matter what or what platform of games we deal with, it is part of today's society. As I was scrolling down this persuasive games website I was surprisingly in chock to see the variety of games that are out there without us necessarily noticing them. What I even found more interesting is to see the variety of purposes those games serve. The first one that stood out for me was the game Stone City from the ice cream brand Cold Stone. I was amazed by the way they embedded this game in their training system. It was interesting to see a company acknowledge the efficiency of games in the learning process so much that they would pursue such initiative. Another game that caught my attention was the game Project Connect. I thought this game was a brilliant idea and a great opportunity to learn and understand how these communication ways work. It is a great way of having kids acknowledging their environment and learn how things work around them. Last but not least was the game Windfall. Similar as the ones previously mentioned, this game offers a good learning experience. Overall, I thought these games are proof of how games could be embedded in our lifestyle to learn. Also, as I noticed these games do a good job at engaging the audience which I believe is the key of any game.