Com Tech Timeline

 

There are multiple different people considered to be the first person to make a video game. One example is in 1952 with a British professor named A.S Douglas basically making a digital version of tic-tac-to. Then there is Steve Russell, who in MIT made Spacewar! a game for the computers at the time that where mostly only in universities. Then finally, there is the man who is considered the main creator of what we think of as video games Ralph Baer. He made the first multi game console called the Brown box or The Odyssey. There is no real way to nail down why video games were made. Some of these people made games to simply help with boredom or test the limits of the technology of the time or to try to market them and make money. This continues in today’s video games with many large companies making huge Triple A games. These are marketed out and sold in the thousands to small indie games made by small groups of people just trying to make a fun game and send it out for people to enjoy. These large companies and the craze around video games are thanks to many other games of the time like arcade and bord games catching the eyes of the people. They then get turned into video games that they could easily take home and play with ether friends or family without having to go out and spend money in public spaces.

 

When it comes to video games its hard to say that they really solved a lot of problems due them mainly being a new form of entertainment. The best I could say that they helped with, was create a new market for people to join in. This also helped with many college kids starting up their own small companies that made games. They could either then join or became huge name brand titles. It also helped create multiple side projects that grew important thanks to games like Twitch and Discord. These gained large followings when they started focusing on video games and the communities around them.

 

Communication has always been a part of video games with everything from going out with friends to arcades to hanging out with friends and play games at home or online. The biggest revolution revolving around video games and communication was with the Xbox 360 by Microsoft and the advent of online gaming. Online games and the Xbox live feature gave people the ability to talk and play with people all around the world and opened a new world of communications around video games.

 

Some of the biggest drawbacks of video games came about in the last 10 to 12 years thanks to mostly the online environment and the risks that always follow it. These risks mainly come from the anonymity that comes from online gaming, such as allowing more cyber bullying, racism, online predators/grooming, and or threats to your life from hackers. Then there is a more recent negative effect that I have found from games with a simple mechanic loot boxes. The thing about loot boxes is that they are basically gambling and more and more games that are being marketed to kids involve this mechanic.

Privacy Online & Off

 When it comes to these problems that exist online the one that I think relates to my family is what we talked about in class with the data mining and other invasions of privacy that Facebook does to its users. This is because many of my family members like my parents and grandparents use face book and post tons of information about themselves; especially my grandparents who do not understand the impact of doing this. With everything from not reading the contract that you sign with Facebook when signing up to posting their location or other pieces of information about themselves on Facebook my family is easily letting Facebook sell their data and don’t even think about it. There have been a multitude of times that my grandmother has gotten her account hacked cause she looks at everything that someone sends her.

When it comes to government involvement in this issue, I have a problem with them trying to regulate people online so I don’t think there is much that they can do before these problems happen. The best I could say they could do is try and spread more information about these problems and help people understand them better and set up new department that could focus on helping people that are victims of these problems like data mining.

There are a few ways to protect yourself online. One of the best is using a VPN and other protection software like antivirus. Another is simply not putting your information into anything online that you are not willing to share. Finally, there is the hail Mary solution not using anything online so makes it so you can’t give companies or hackers anything.

values of free expression

 

The value that I find the most important in my life is Market place of ideas. This basically discusses about how you shouldn’t need a license to print or publish something. This argument was made by Jhon Milton, and he says, “truth and falsehood are allowed to freely grapple, truth will win out. And the grappling makes the truth even stronger.”. He was talking about how in a free market the truth of something will eventually win and that having it so that truth needs to fight to be heard makes the truth better. I think this is an important in today’s world as many news outlets now are more focused on making people more fearful or push a political agenda instead of looking for and publishing the truth. Due to this, you need the Freedom of Market place of ideas as it allows anyone to go out and find the truth and make their own articles and post them online with sources. This allows people to inform people of the truth of what is happening in the world without the government trying to cover them up and stopping them form talking with things like permits or licenses. 

One of the main technologies that both benefits and abuses the Freedom of the Market place of ideas is social media and the internet. The main way that the internet benefits form this freedom is that many news outlets have websites or other platforms that they use that they can post information on that everyone can access. However, how the internet abuses this freedom is that as anyone can post a lot of the time people are flooded with so much false information from people that they have a hard time finding the truth in this information. Therefore, they just accept the lies making it so much harder for the truth to win. Then there is social media which in theory helps many people connect with others read or keep up with information from people and parties that they are interested in. However, as social media is managed by a private party. It is so easy for them to manipulate information, as we talked about in class, and make it hard for people to see or learn the true information they are looking for and instead be guided more towards what ever idea or belief the company wants them to look towards.

supreme court questions

 

What did you learn about the Supreme Court that you didn't already know?

There were a few facts I did not know about the Supreme Court, such as when the videos talk about how long the justices stay on the court. I did not know that they usually outlast the president that appointed them. I also did not know that the Supreme Court was first housed in the unfinished capital and basically written off until John Marshall made it more important.

What is the most important take-away point about the Supreme Court?

In my opinion, the most important part of the video is that the Supreme Court is a court that was made to uphold the constitution. That its main use is to serve the people of the United States and make sure that the government is being fair and true to the constitution and its people.

What was the most surprising thing you learned?

The main part that I found surprising was how many cases go to the supreme court and how many they take in. The video says that they go through about 100 cases a week and around 7 thousand a year and only accept about 100 a year to look over.

How did the video change the way you thought of the Supreme Court?

The main way that I changed my view on the supreme court was that I always thought it was some big court and power that made sure the lower courts are keeping true to the constitution. The video showed me that it was not always something big. They worked their way up to the power they have. The court is mainly used to make sure everyone is being treated fair and equal in the court system.

Sources of news

  1. YouTube is one of my personal favorite new sources. This is due to me being a very visual and hands on person, so having a video that shows how to do exactly what I'm looking for is very helpful. It is also helpful that there are channels with commentators. These people help make following along with the video simple.. Many YouTubers provide multiple sources in the comments or descriptions of their videos so that you can look through and verify. This makes it easier to trust them with the information you are learning on this platform. I also enjoy this source of information because it allows me to listen to news and information while I am doing other activates like gaming or school work

2. Game informer is a great community to get information for the newest games and releases on video and bored games. They are great because of the multiple kinds of media that they use to inform mass amounts of people. They use magazines that contain the newest releases that comes as a monthly subscription or individual purchase, to live streams on the newest games that are coming out. Game informer is also great because it doesn't just do a one and done review of games they will follow along with the development and release of new content that is released for games. Overall, my favorite part of game informer is the videos that they release. They are short updates on games from people from the industry or game development.  These videos help people that do not have a lot of time to keep up with the community the ability to get quick reliable information

3. IGN is similar to game informer as they are both related to video games. However, while game informer is more focused on talking about the releases of games and what is new in the industry: IGN focuses on going more in-depth into games. They are good because they tend to try and focus on specific areas in games. The blog has people that work on the games or are professionals on the topic, come in and talk or write about them. IGN is really good for most gamers that want to learn more about how their favorite games are made, especially with what actually goes into making them. Finally, many of their blogs are great for learning more about hidden features or items in the games they talk about.

4. Indie DB is a source of information for indie games and gamers that people have made. This website is similar to other game sites in that it is used by people to learn about games and find new and interesting games to play. The main difference is that this source focuses on the Indie category of games which are basically games made by smaller teams or less known companies instead of large Triple A gaming companies. This source is good because it helps smaller named companies and teams to get recognition for their work. It also helps network and help them find helpers or testers for the games they are making. In the end this source is very good at helping the community grow and introduce new ideas and companies to the industry. 

5. Steam is a gaming platform that allows people to buy and play games for PC. This is a good source of updates on games and what new mechanics or playable content is being added to the games that you have. The community on this site is also a huge source of information. This is good as it allows people to interact and talk with other people that have played these games. It also allows people to  learn about what the games are about or what they need to know about the games they are getting into. You can also ask the members of the site any questions you have and get real help.