User:DavidStumpf

Individual Project
1.)  Introductions and Society

I. (Best) Computers - How they have changes our lives: This article explains how computers have converted hours of work into a few clicks. Over the years, computers have gone from taking up entire rooms to fitting in our pockets. I chose this article because it's a great foundation for the class as a whole.

II. Online mentoring relationships:   Mentored Pathways facilitates electronic mentoring relationships between professional adults and students worldwide, and is recognized as the leader in the field of academic-based mentoring. They use a process that combines the proven practice of mentoring with the speed and ease of electronic communication, enabling busy professionals to make significant contributions to the academic lives of students. Through mentoring by industry professionals, a corporation helps students develop the skills and foundation to pursue their interests successfully and operate at their potential.

III. Social Media is actually making you socially awkward:   This article explains how the lack of face-to-face interraction driven by online social media could lead to society being socially stunted.

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2.)  Privacy and Freedom of Speech

I. (Best) Your computer's microphone is a privacy concern:   In this article, it's pointed out that hackers are obtaining access to your computer's microphone and listening in to your conversations. While experts admit it's more difficult obtaining private information, such as passwords, through the microphone, it has happened in the past and will continue to happen unless the public is made aware of the risks. I chose this as the best because it expresses a violation to our privacy, one that isn't known by most.

II.) Encryption allows us to transfer information securely in our day-to-day actions.  This article covers what it is, how we use it, and if we should use it.

III.) Six Terrifying User Agreements You've Probably Accepted:   End user license agreements (EULAs) are rarely read, but they contain a lot of important legal information.  This article covers why you should pay more attention to them instead of always just agreeing to them.

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3.)  Intellectual Property / Copyright

I. (Best) How Media Literacy Helps Us Understand Our Changing World:   Social Media is definitely here to stay, at least in our lifetime, and it's going to be increasingly used by teachers to communicate with their students. There is a boundary line that could easily be crossed here, however, where the student feels imposed on, or they don't have a personal social media to themselves. I chose this article because it's imformative for something many of us use every single day.

II.) How to file a DCMA Takedown Notice:   Sara Hawkins explains what steps you need to take in order to file a DCMA takedown notice should you realize that your intellectual property has been used without your permission.  This information is best learned before it happens.

III.) Metallica versus Napster:   Lars Ulrich took on the role as the spokesperson for artist rights against pirated music in the late '90s when they attacked Napster.  This article covers the concerns for their intellectual property.

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4.)  Crime

I. (Best) [http://blog.hotspotshield.com/2013/08/28/what-to-do-if-your-computer-has-been-hacked/ Your computer has been hacked! Here's what to do next:]   This article covers what you should do if you're computer itself has been hacked. It guides you through changing your passwords, scanning your computer for viruses, and securing your router. I chose this article because it's something that would be beneficial to learn, or at least be aware of, again, before it happens.

II.) Gigabytes of user data from hack of Patreon donations site dumped online:   This article covers  the 15 gigabytes worth of password data, donation records, and source code stolen when the funding website, Pateron, was compromised.  If you were one of the unlucky few, you can find out what you need to do with this article.

III.) How computer crimes were handles in various countries:   This article covers how crimes have been handled in the past 30 years in the US, UK, Canada, Italy, Australia, Israel, China, Denmark, and various others.  Laws can vary from region to region, so it can be tricky to prosecute the offender.

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5.)  Employment, Education, and Entertainment / Work Education

I. (Best) We are TEACHERS is a blog that explains what STEM is from A-Z, or K-8, if you will. STEM is an education coalition that it used to inform people of the critial role that science, technology, engineering, and mathematic education holds in our society, and encourages youth to take an interest in these topics. I chose this article because I believe it's important to get a head start on things like this.

II.) The History of Assistive Technology - This is an educational timeline showing when assistive technology was invented and created dating back to the 1800s, starting with the first portable hearing aid. This is a good source of information if you're interested in seeing how advanced be have become in such a short period of time.

III.)   TheUndocumented.com is an online game that covers the war on immigration in which you can play as either the crossing party or the officers patrolling the border.  They have incoorporated hisorical facts to make the game educational as well as entertaining.

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6.)  Grand Challenges

I. (Best) Simple guide to current VR technology - Virtual reality has come a long way in the past 3 years with the release of the development kits by Oculus, the DK1 and the DK2, Google Cardboard and the like, to the more recent releases of the Oculus CV1 and the HTC Vive. This article covers the history of VR, as well as a little bit of the proposed future. I chose this article because it covers the basics of what virtual reality is, and how it's going to become integrated in our lives.

II.) A brief history of Oculus:  This TechCrunch article covers the history of Oculus, one of the main contributors to virtual reality hardware.

III.) What to expect in the future: This article explains the technology in its current state, as well as what we can expect to see in the future.

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7.)  Evaluating and Controlling Technology / Control It

I. (Best) Sharing your Netflix password is now a Federal crime:   Netflix is trying to prevent users from sharing their password in hopes to reduce account sharing worldwide. This article covers how account sharing has been a problem on the Internet since the beginning, and how we can protect ourselves from legal action from account sharing.

II.) Flowchart Templates:   Gliffy is a website that allows the user to create custom flowcharts.  Flowcharts are often used as a template for which order one does things to achieve maximum efficiency.

III.) Autohoykey is a macro program that is capable of doing just about anything when it comes to keyboard and mouse inputs.  It can be used to create things from video game macros to shortcuts to help with daily tasks.

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8.)  Risks, Failures and Responsibilities / Risks

I. (Best) The Da Vinci robot:   The Da Vinci robot allows surgeons to perform surgeries with incredible precision. While the surgeon manipulates the controls, his movements are mirrored and scaled down to a much slower and accurate rate, allowing much greater room for error. I chose this article because it's extremely benneficial to integrate technology into our medical sciences to allow us to achieve better healthcare.

II.) Responsibilities:    This article explains why it's important to protect your computer from malware.  If you don't do it for yourself, do it for your friends and co-workers who could potentially be infected.

III.) Six reasons why your child should learn to code: This article has great information for parents who are considering teaching their children to code.  It does this by explaining when and why they should learn to code, as well as briefly explaining what coding is.

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9.)  Anytime, Anywhere / Mobile

I. (Best) TED Talk - Growing a garden in your own apartment:   Removing the dependability for your vegetables by growing your own food in your own apartment is the thing to do, according to Britta Riley. By growing your own vegetables, you are doing great things for the environment, as well as your body.. Britta Riley shows you how this is possible in her TED talk. I chose this TED talk because I believe it's important that we become as self-sufficient as we can before it's too late.

II.) What if 3D printing was 100x faster:   This is a great TED talk that explains how current 3D printing works, the greatest benefits, as well as the benefits of printing faster.  While most printers will take 3-10 hours to print a model, he demos how their new 3D printer can do the job faster.

III.) Can PayPal's mobile wallet compete with Apple Pay and Android Pay?   This article explains the basics for Paypal's intentions to become a part of your mobile-pay methods.  It compares the hurdles they're going to face when competing with Apple and Android pay options.

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10.)  Technology Advances, Social Trends / Future

I. (Best) TIME - The future of Virtual Reality:   TIME discusses the rapid evolution of virtual reality (VR) that we have seen in the past few years, and also talks about the future of VR and what we should expect to see. VR offers experiences to people of all sorts of backgrounds, whether you're using it for video games, simulators, or education, VR will have a place for you. I chose this article because it has all the bases covered, past, present, and future applications for VR.

II.) Americans overwhelmingly prefer paper bills, but increasingly pay them electronically:   This is an interesting article that talks about the amount of people that choose to still receive paper bills as well as pay their bills electronically.  It also discusses possible reasons as to why they do this.

III.) DayOne Waterbag:   Purifying dirty water can be difficult and sometimes impossible for certain people, so the DayOne Waterbag was invented to create a personal water purification system for those in need.  This website explains the application for their product as well as how it works.

Grand Challenge Summary:
Virtual reality has come a long way the past 3 years. With the release of the development kits by Oculus, the DK1 and the DK2, Google Cardboard and the like, to the more recent releases of the Oculus CV1 and the HTC Vive, VR is finally becoming a reality. Faced with many challenges over the years, such as hardware limitations and financial support, it seems as though those hurdles have finally be conquered. Oculus not being able to afford the research and development on their own turned to Kickstarter and was able to raise nearly $2.5million. Over the years, they were eventually able to be bought out by Facebook for close to $2billion.

The current VR headsets on the market today have near perfect 3-axis head tracking, along with two 1080x1200 resolution displays at 90 Hz, and a field of view at 110 degrees. The screen resolution has come a long way as technology has advanced. 4K displays are greatly awaited and will surely soon be implemented.

Another concern with the technology has been the hardware limitations of your desktop computer. It takes a lot of "brain power" to compute the two screens at their current resolution, and running two 4K screens will be much more demanding. Nvidia has recently released their latest 10x-series graphics cards and these will easily handle the current resolutions. I expect to see 4K displays in headsets around the time of Nvidia's 11x-series, which are both likely (hopefully) to pop up around 2019.

How long until the hardware catches up to the point where we can't even separate virtual reality with reality?

http://www.eleventhmedia.com/tech/a-simple-guide-to-current-vr-technology-the-basics/

http://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality-games/future-expectations.html

https://techcrunch.com/2014/03/26/a-brief-history-of-oculus/