A To Z Challenge: Technology And The Next Big Thing (That Could Invade Your Privacy To Extremes)

Technology is science applied to real-life problems. Physics equations and observations are all well and good--but technology allows the enormous range of scientific fields to play a very large part in people's everyday lives. The term technology has various uses: It can refer to a specific subset of machines (such as space technology) and it can refer to the total knowledge and capability of a society.

To be honest, the second part of this post (the "recent developments" section) came to me before the introduction. Google Glass is a piece of technology I've been wanting to post about for a while and the A to Z Challenge seemed like an ideal spot, seeing as I've already proposed some controversial subjects in previous posts.

Antonio Zugaldia, CC-BY-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Google Glass is a pair of glasses with the capabilities of a smartphone. You give it orders to give you directions, send messages, take photographs and videos, etc., and all while wearing the device as feedback appears in a small screen on one side of the eyeglass frame. While some people (me included) don't like the idea of having multimedia so close to one's actual eyeball, the privacy concerns have to be the most argued-over bit (though there are also concerns about distracted driving and so on).

The problem? There is no way for someone else to tell if a person wearing the glasses is recording--which could mean your face is unwittingly being uploaded to Google's servers and could be played back by the person who recorded the footage, or, perhaps, by governments; facial recognition software could be applied to identify crowds of people just because someone walked through a busy location with Google Glass recording. There aren't any limits to when someone can record, either; imagine all the moments most people would absolutely not want saved for another person to see.

Google Glass is scheduled to arrive some time in 2014, according to the Executive Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt.

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Sources:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/technology
http://techland.time.com/2013/04/23/three-questions-i-hope-google-answers-before-google-glass-is-released/
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-glass-2014-eric-schmidt-20130423,0,3402891.story
http://www.google.com/glass/start/

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Will you be wearing the new Google Glasses once they're released? If you run across someone wearing them, will you be worried?


-----The Golden Eagle

I'm Still Alive After NaNoWriMo: An IWSG Post

The Insecure Writer's Support Group is hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh (in addition to new co-hosts each month) and is all about writers and their problems. From his blog:

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic.

I don't really have any sage advice today to share with visiting members of the IWSG. Not that I usually have any great advice to share in the first place, but since I know a lot of writers have just escaped the clutches of National Novel Writing Month or are just stressed in general from trying to hack away at their stories, I thought I'd post this in the hopes of making someone laugh:



Anything happen to you recently that caused you to feel like saying "I'm still alive"?


-----The Golden Eagle

Happy Father's Day! (+ Why I Haven't Been Blogging And Other Random)

To all the dads in the blogosphere and elsewhere: Have a wonderful holiday!

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(Note: I don't often post random stuff, but I feel like doing it today . . . so I am. Hope none of you mind.)


As some may have noticed, I haven't blogged in a couple days, and that's if you count the little I did on Thursday. Last week I had a series of end-of-school-year tests (9, to be precise; did okay) and a dress rehearsal/dance recital (went better than the last test I took--hooray), so things were busier than normal. My apologies for disappearing without prior announcement; I didn't even get around to replying to your comments on Thursday's post (which I will do once I've published this!).

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My writing's also been dragging the past few days. I'm behind 3000 words for reaching a goal of writing 30,000 words in June, so I have to hustle with that one. I'm still pantsing the story, as I mentioned in "I Though I Was A Plotter", and it's . . . interesting so far. LOL. Still making better progress than I was a couple months ago.

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On a slightly-related subject, I was never particularly big on the whole "listening to music on your computer" thing, preferring to play CDs on another device, but I've found adding favorites (especially movie soundtracks; Sherlock Holmes and How To Train Your Dragon are current favorites) in YouTube playlists has been quite conducive toward word count.

Unless it's The Piano Guys, in which case I find myself stopping every minute or two to watch and not just listen. (Hey, who wouldn't want to see someone skydiving with a cello? Or playing musical instruments in gorgeous locations? Really, if you haven't seen them before, go check out their videos.)

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When did you last take a break from blogging, social networking, or writing? How are your current projects? Do you ever listen to music while you work on creative endeavors? If so, what kind?


-----The Golden Eagle

NaNoWriMo Video Songfest!

This blog event is hosted by Jon Paul at Where Sky Meets Ground.

The Goal of the NaNoWriMo Video Songfest (from his blog):

• Have a total blast!
• Share some awesome NaNo writing music, and get a chance to hear the tunes everyone else finds groovy.
• Give everyone one stop shopping for a right rockin' video playlist throughout the month.  With any luck, the combined energy of all that awesome music will help us get across that 50k word finish line just a little bit faster!  Who knows, maybe that really moving snippet of music posted by a fellow writer helps you nail a difficult scene or understand a character better.
• Even if you're not doing NaNo this year, why not throw one of your favorite videos into the mix to support your fellow writers and let everyone else benefit from your good taste!

I had meant to post this earlier in the month, but then I forgot about it somewhere in the midst of things--I really must start paying more attention to my own Current Participation page. :P

But anyway, here's the video:

Not exactly a song, I know, but Beethoven rarely fails to get me feeling at least a little bit more energized. Particularly toward writing Science Fiction, though I'm not sure why.

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Do you have any favorite music to listen to before/when you're writing?

-----The Golden Eagle

Yes, This Is A Cell Phone Ad. Yes, That Is A Wooden Ball Rolling Down A Xylophone. Yes, It Is A Very Cool Rube Goldberg Machine.

Because I won't be around to blog today, I leave you with this video. Believe me, it's worth the watch--can you imagine laying down all those supports for the wooden ramp, not to mention the actual strips that make up the notes? Can you imagine how many times they must have run that ball down the slope just to test it out and see if it works? How they managed to get all that wood right, with the precise length and angle so the ball doesn't go falling off the edge?

Amazing.

Enjoy your day, everyone!

-----The Golden Eagle

The Man Who Invented Word Verification

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA scienceNOW.

Since you might not be able to watch the video, here's what it's all about:

Luis von Ahn wanted to know what he could do with 100 million people.

When he and his advisor were approached by Yahoo! with a spam problem in email--spammers were acquiring email addresses to send junk into people's inboxes--Von Ahn invented CAPTCHA, which humans can distinguish but computers cannot. (In theory. :P I've had trouble with CAPTCHA several times.)

But it takes time to type those words, and when 200 million people are spending it, it's a lot of seconds. So Luis von Ahn teamed up with a project to put thousands of books onto the Internet, and created something called reCAPTCHA, which places a known CAPTCHA word next to one that the computer does not know--and which comes from one of those books. On average, 120-150 books per day can be typed up thanks to the anti-spam program.

And it's not just books. It's also the entire archive of The New York Times.

So you, in theory, are actually helping to puzzle out hundreds of books when you type CAPTCHA to create accounts, get through computer programs and yes, you got it, comment.


-----The Golden Eagle

On This Last Day of Christmas: Twelfth Day, Birds, Fish, Video, The Replacement, And Writing

Technically it is the last day of Christmas, you know.

Not as many people celebrate it anymore, particularly not here in the USA, (*sigh* cheer in this country doesn't last too long) but, according to Wikipedia,  it is still celebrated throughout the world. Some do it n the 5th, yesterday, because (also according to Wikipedia) in medieval times the next day started at sundown, which meant the Night came before the Day. Now the day begins at midnight.

So it all depends on where you start.

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I am trying to be friends with Zemanta right now, because it really is a helpful widget.

It's just I was trying to write a post, and it just threw everything out the window. I moved an image around, it combined the text with the image's HTML, and then when I pressed CTRL+Z a few times to get rid of the image and the changes I had made, it all disappeared.

Whoo-hoo.

I suppose I could have been a little less enthusiastic about the CTRL+Z part and just cut out the HTML with the image, but I was trying to get it out fast, because it's later in the afternoon than I'd like and I want to get around to reading blogs!

I suppose I've been taught another lesson about haste makes waste--or, in this case, an obvious lack of anything at all. I won't be doing that again.

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Did you hear about the fish and birds that have been dying? Over 3,000 red-wing blackbirds, common grackles, and European starlings died in Arkansas, and 100,000 fish died 125 miles away. There has also been a major fish die-out in the Chesapeake Bay: 2,000,000 or so there.

It's sad. Not because these are signs the world is going to end--and this is perfect fuel for the that wacky Mayan theory--but because those were birds and fish and creatures are dying much too fast already.

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Speaking of animals:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/american-eagle/video-full-episode/4349/

(I would have embedded the video, but the code hates me today.)

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I finished The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff on Monday, and since I don't want to write a separate post to review it, here a brief idea of what I thought it was like:

Plot: A little slow at the beginning, but it moved quickly enough to keep my interest I read it in a matter of hours. Characters: Loved Mackie Doyle, probably because I'm kind of solitary and an introvert myself. Setting: Creepy and a little disturbing, and I loved the way the human prejudice and general dislike of anything unknown was presented.

Overall: 4 out of 5. J'adore the cover.

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I had a good writing day today, and made up for yesterday's losses (I didn't write anything yesterday). I was also inspired by the music I was listening to--Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Usually it's not my favorite music, but it actually fits my book rather well.

Which leads me to ask: Are there any pieces of music that you've felt match your writing well?

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Well, there's my random and miscellaneous post for the week.

Hope you have a great Thursday!


-----The Golden Eagle

Merry Christmas, All!

It's finally Christmas!

I hope you and your families all have a wonderful day. :)

And here's a Hallelujah video, just for some music (and a laugh):






-----The Golden Eagle

Herculaneum Was There, Too!

You've heard of Pompeii, I bet. You also probably know what happened that day, August 24th 79 AD. But did you know about Herculaneum?

I've noticed that in a lot of history books there's practically nothing about Herculaneum. The most I've found is a mention that it was buried under 65 feet of ash. You would think that there would be more about a city buried under 65 feet of ash, but unfortunately, no.

That's why I was thrilled when Secrets of the Dead: Herculaneum Uncovered was aired last night:

Watch the full episode. See more Secrets of the Dead.

Because someone had decided this Roman city was finally worth looking into!

I didn't know about much of what they said. Like, that the Bourbons looted the place through a maze of tunnel leading underground. Or that the citizens of Herculaneum hid in the boat sheds as the pyroclastic flows enveloped their city. Or that 2000 year-old-bread is in existence, and even has its owner's name on it. There's ancient, carbonized furniture, and some pieces of wood that were not carbonized.

But even Pompeii and Herculaneum weren't the only cities--Stabiae and Oplontis were also wiped out.

I always find less-discovered places and people fascinating. There's so much more to learn that way. :)


-----The Golden Eagle

Friday the 13th

Created by Oatmeal

That frequency is painful! Ack! How dare they use this in malls!

JK. Actually, it's probably a good way to shoo people out; only the targeted audience can hear it.

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If you're wondering why I posted that, it's because I really had no other brilliant post ideas. But I will leave you with a video in case you're thinking This is so boring. It's a cool video. :)





(Though I do have to say that Harmonic Voltage and Aqua Harp are also cool. And Pipe Dream is still at the top of my list.)

-----The Golden Eagle

Theremin

This is a theremin:

And this is Theremin with a theremin:

Can you believe this guy spied on us for the Soviet Union?

Watch the full episode. See more History Detectives.

Watch the video. (If it doesn't load, click the link that says "full episode" and then go to "Chapter 4 of 4: Theremin".) Or if you don't have time, I'll give you gist of it. Leon Theremin, a Russian inventor, invented the Theremin, and is widely credited for the beginning of electronic music. However, while he befriended RCA and other companies who wanted to buy the rights to his inventions, he also spied on company practices for the Russians. He reported what he saw back to his home country, and later, invented "The Thing", an espionage device that needed no battery, and could transmit everything the Americans said through the passive device.

Pretty sneaky, huh?

-----The Golden Eagle