“How the Internet Works”
Video Notes
-Networks: internetworks
Internet protocol
The internet: A network of networks that share each other, is decentralized, no one point of sending, info can take a different path, is neutral, no one source controls it
Messages sent via the internet are bits of data sent from devices
Internet exchange points: multiple service providers connect here to exchange traffic online
Some providers “Pair” to decrease the cost of exchanging traffic
Lecture Notes
-”Information wants to be free”
Info is more effective when its shared
The internet and world wide web aren’t the same
Tim Burns Lee: created: www aka the world wide web, is global hypertext
-the hypertext is huge: links info and networks to one another HTTP, URL
Html, web browsers

-Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and made electronics portable

Video:
Tech has been transformed
When signals were sent it was met with noise
Claude Shannon created a solution to this problem
He viewed info as numbers
(Probabilities)
Break anything into small pieces that the answer is yes or no
1 or 0
This helped to decrease the noise while transmitting info
The art design building to use the Garageband software

Lecture Comments
I found the intro to Garageband to be very interesting and eye-opening as well.
I think it is mind blowing that software can combine instruments by their mathematical code and the sounds can be blended through computer generation, this can make a unique piece of music.
I did not like the gospel singers that are on the software. I know Apple has the right to include what they like as long as they purchase it BUT it doesn’t mean that it is the right thing to do! Overall, I think it a great example of what technology can do and it does demonstrate the point of “The Information Age”.

“The Annihilation of Space and Time”

-Tech changed the human experience the most between 1880-1920
(some good and bad/destabilizing)

-Biggest were railroads and telegraphs in 1840’s most popular

-the first pic of a human being was in 1838, pic of Paris, frozen
(pics made people last forever, no time limits or death changed their existence)

-Refrigerated rail cars in 1880, made it possible to ship food, which changed people’s diets

-In 1830, every city/town had their own source of time (the sun) time depended on where you were on earth

-In the U.S by 1880, cities formed into regions near railroads

-By 1883, U.S was broken into 4 different time zones
Now the time of day depended on telegraph signals

-A central clock located in Washington DC determined time and space

-by 1853 time at work changed according to sunlight, winter shorter days and summer had long work days *Electric Light changed this
-with electric lights people now had set work hours daily, yearly

-by 1880 the U.S was heavily wired with electricity, telephones, and telegraphs

-Wire created “The Annihilation of Space and Time”

-Edition Invented movies: though they would be used to train people for industry jobs they were later transformed into forms of entertainment
movies were invented, captured moments in time
(movement and motion can now be recorded and broken down into distinct moments of time) -movies and photographs motions were popular by 1900
-Edison also invented cylinders commercially in the 1910s

*Emile Berliner created records “flat disks that replaced cylinders (a form of music production)

“A Mind Play”
-Claude Shannon invented ‘the information age’.
-the idea that geniuses are not religious just smart (similar idea as other author’s works we have been reading in this course)
-Info as an idea, the medium and meaning didn’t matter
-only the essence matter
-Bush put Shannon in charge of operating the Differential analyzer, he was fascinated by the switches
This machine’s inner workings: Binary choices, works like a brain
-Systems of transmitted info through various mediums like radio
-Information Theory-a mathematical code, a sequence of bits made up info lead to the Internet
-he figured out how to digitize info to send it from one point to another
-Using codes to communicate in areas that the phone company didn’t service (occurred in Gaylord Michigan and other cities in the U.S)
-Thompson invented Harmonic Analyzer: used a differential equation to calculate the location for shooting shells at enemies during WW1(an equation solving machine)
– Hannibal Ford created the Integrator: the missing part of the Harmonic Analyzer to assist with this machine called (measured currents under shells)
-Bush created the first Analog Computer as well as the Profile Tracer
-all inventions discussed in this book working models of a physical world
-I only found a small portion of this book to be helpful, most of it seems to be a biography of Claude Shannon, the background and major accomplishments of another important scientist (that created major inventions), which is of no interest to me

Idealism vs Realism
Idealist-belive in the divine, who leads them
Realist-have no external authority to guide them
Both think sunsets are beautiful
Idealist sees God in the sunset
Realist is reminded of a previous sunset that sparked a memory

Cold War”

-Computer accuracy is based on the understanding of the man working the device
Must understand the mechanism of a computer
Shafts: carry values throughout rep numerical value
Racks and opinions are used to rep shafts movements
Gears have a 2 to 1 ratio
Can be used as a communication mechanism they have a working surface and a follower

“As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush

“Consider a future device … in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.”
-The telegram was a breakthrough in communication technology, which Vannevar Bush imagined could evolve in unprecedented ways.AP
-As Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Dr. Vannevar Bush has coordinated the activities of some six thousand leading American scientists in the application of science to warfare. In this significant article, he holds up an incentive for scientists when the fighting has ceased. He urges that men of science should then turn to the massive task of making more accessible our bewildering store of knowledge

– He urges that men of science should then turn to the massive task of making more accessible our bewildering store of knowledge

-Like Emerson’s famous address of 1837 in “The American Scholar,” this paper by Dr. Bush calls for a new relationship between thinking man and the sum of our knowledge.

-Of what lasting benefit has been man’s use of science and of the new instruments which his research brought into existence?
First, they have increased the control of his material environment. They have improved his food, his clothing, his shelter; they have increased his security and released him partly from the bondage of bare existence. They have given him increased knowledge of his own biological processes so that he has had a progressive freedom from disease and an increased span of life. They are illuminating the interactions of his physiological and psychological functions, giving the promise of an improved mental health.

-Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.

-the progression of photography over time from one phase to another

-Marshall Maclin book Understanding Media in 1960s

The internet is another medium being used to receive information

Important Phrase: “The medium is the message” celebrating the transformation of new technology to exchanger information

The content is more important than where it comes from, doesn’t matter which medium the information was pulled from

Popular mediums mold people’s brains and alter their opinions on matters

Tech is supposed d to be used as a tool but people are often controlled by their tech, though they think they are in control of their tech and can put it down at any time.

-we have changed the way we take in info

-Good quote “the internet has made me a less patient reader”

-instead of reading through the entire text we now skim read, look for hyperlinks, check for key terms (in bold or different font style), check subtitles etc.

-word processors make it harder for people to write using pen and paper, almost like the simple skills we were taught for writing has been forgotten and we now depend on the features of computers to read and write

-Its difficult to actually sit down and read through a book, is very time consuming for most people

I can relate to all of these points and I am guilty of rushing through text and picking out points I find to be important unless the content is something I am genuinely interested in. When I do really like the subject matter and approach of text it is most likely a lengthy article or a textbook that uses phrases I can understand and presents information in a way I can digest. After I finish reading the text I notice that a long period of time has passed and I feel like I could have gotten many other things done during that time but a part of me doesn’t care because most likely I will be able to put the knowledge I gained from the content in a situation in the future.

-The author Carr notes that the internet changed the way his brain worked and he often felt the need to be connected to the web

-the human brain is malleable (plastic like) can be changed by experiences, which is different from what has thought in the past that the human brain reaches maturity by mid-twenties and won’t change any further afterward but this theory has been challenged, Carr has cited multiple experts to defend both sides of the argument

-the repeated physical activity becomes embedded in a person’s brain

-A brain can also change when physiological occurrences continue it affects the anatomy of the brain as well (our thoughts can cause or change our brains physically)

-evolution of timekeeping, clock tech

Started with monks having to pray at set times

-clocks regulated society’s behavior through timing, when the clock was a ding on every hour it altered everyone and people adjusted their lives to live based on set schedules

-personal clocks became the timekeeper for people as a constant reminder of how much time was wasted (measurement tool for a time)

-our intellectual tech is the most important tool we have, promote new ways of thinking and intellectual ethic

-intellectual ethic: The medium or tool that translates intellect into mind or culture

-poetry made a splash shifted culture, but had its skeptics

-the change from oral communication to literacy through reading and writing works as people progressed (oral language blossomed into the written language)

-destructiveness is what we do to shift our attention to visual aspects that ketch our attention

-to read a book you have to train your brain for deep concentration to focus on the text and pay attention

-the miniaturization of books made books more accessible for people to read the text and made studying more convents

-the availability of books grew people’s interest in reading and letterpresses were everywhere to keep up with the demand

Gutenberg’s literature revolution of type printing (the explosion of books, more common and affordable)

“Loudness War”

This was an interesting article about the trend of people increasing the volume of music. The article discusses technical terms for audio but overall focuses on how the louder the music is the less quality it has. They do provide a history of the transformation of music consumption from vinyl to CDs to the digital format that is being used today.

“Loudness War and Peace”

The video breaks down the existence and reasoning for “loudness” and its start during the 1980s till recent years in the early 2000s. He calls the causes of “loudness” ‘accelerants’ and he describes what they are and why they made music sound so loud. He also discusses his experience with creating musical tracks for clients and disliking the “loudness” they the clients wanted. Though his commentary seems a bit like he is against whatever is ‘new’ in music he actually does go through the different genres of music and review how it used to sound before the “loudness war” started. I can appreciate his point of view since he does not discriminate against certain genres of music and he has been involved in the music industry for years.

“Has pop music lost its fun?”

This piece makes five majors claims regarding the “loudness war” which are sadder and slower, simpler and louder, antisocial and angry, just not as good as it used to be, and more repetitive. Before I could listen or read anything else I already had the thought that this article was going to be the perspective of someone who dislikes mainstream ‘pop’ music and is placing their opinions of what music has become into the “loudness war”. After reading more of the article I think the author can support a few of their claims with the studies they cited. I think they should have just stuck to those claims that have some sort of actual data to prove their point instead of making claims like ‘just not as good as it used to be’ to describe pop music because it makes them seem bias.