Reaction to Chapter Two
I thought that chapter two was very thought-provoking. I did not realize how quickly the Internet phenomenon spread. I was interested in reading how microprocessors ad fiber-optic cables work. They were terms that I have heard of but never really understood. I never realized how search engines are biased. When I read that, it became a huge surprise for me. I had no idea that big businesses would pay to have their sites come up first in the search engine. The example that the book used really cleared things up. The example the book used was that if you searched "obesity" on Google or Yahoo!, the first sites that would appear all stated how obesity was a disease, and what you could do to get rid of it. Big businesses wanted people to buy their food, take their pill, or use their exercise plan to lose the weight. Rather, the sites that should appear should include the social factors that cause obesity.I often need to help my parents use the computer. Sometimes they need to make power points, or even to simply type up a letter. My dad just asked me last week, "How do you know how to do all this?" My answer was, "Because I'm young." I said it as a joke. However, it is somewhat true. Computers are not-even fifty years old. Even so, they only became available to the public between thirty and forty years ago. Similarly, the Internet is even younger. I am growing up in the age of the Internet.
"The Internet will soon be so pervasive tat not having access to the technology or not knowing how to use it will be the equivalent of not knowing how to read or write." - Michael Fleisher (chief executive of Garnet Group, a technology consulting firm, 2000)
Vocabulary :
1. Internet: the vast central network of high-speed telephone lines designed to link and carry computer information worldwide
2. ARPAnet: the original Internet, designed by the Y.S. Defense Department's Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA)
3. mass media: the cultural industries - the channels of communication - that produce and distribute songs, novels, news, movies, online computer services, and other cultural products to a large number of people
4. microprocessors: miniature circuits that process and store electronic signals, integrating thousands of electronic components into thin strands of silicon along which binary codes travel
5. fiber-optic cable: thin glass bundles of fiber capable of transmitting thousands of messages converted through shooting pulses of light along cable wires; these bundles of fiber can carry broadcast channels, telephone signals, and all sorts of digital codes
6. Internet service providers (ISP): a company that provides Internet access to homes and businesses for free
7. browsers: information-search services, such as Netscape's Navigator and Microsoft's Explorer, that offer detailed organizational maps to the World Wide Web
8. directories: review and cataloging services that group Web sites under particular categories (eg. Arts & Humanities, News & Media, Entertainment)
9. search engines: computer programs that allow users to enter key words or queries to find related sites on the World Wide Web
10. e-mail: electronic mail messages sent by the Internet; developed by the computer engineer Ray Tomlinson in 1971
11. instant messaging services: a Web feature that enables users to chat with buddies in real time via pop-up windows assigned to each conversation
12. HTML (HyperText Markup Language): the written code that creates Web pages and links; a language all computers can read
13. portals: an entry point to the Internet, such as a search engine
14. Internet2 (I2): the next generation of online technology, deployed on an experimental basis in 1999, that is expected to be one thousand times faster than today's Internet
15. open-source software: noncommercial software shared freely and developed collectively on the Internet
16. e-commerce: electronic commerce, or commercial activity on the Web
16: cookies: information profiles about a user that are usually automatically accepted by the Web browser and stored on the user's own computer hard drive
17: spyware: software with secretive codes that enable commercial firms to "spy" on users and gain access to their computers
18. opt-in/opt-out policies: controversial Web site policies over personalized data gathering: opt-in means Web sites must gain explicit permission from online their personal consumers before the site can collect their personal data; opt-out means that Web sites can automatically collect personal data unless the consumer goes to the trouble of filling out a specific form to restrict the practice
20. spam: a computer term referring to unsolicited e-mail
posted by maggie @ 10:02 PM
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