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Archive for May, 2009

War Against Technology

May 24th, 2009 Comments off

Technology has been a blessing to virtually anyone who had contact with it. Technology has also contributed to the quality of life we have. We live in times when technology is generally easily accessible, however, there is still a lot of work to be done in order to spread new, innovative technologies into an average Joe�s household. That is why many countries signed a World Trade Organization agreement that prohibits taxing of many new technology products. While it sounds reasonable, it seems that some organizations/countries seem not to care very much about it. In this case, I am talking about the European Union. It violated this agreement by taxing products including LCD monitors, cables, and satellite boxes, instead of supporting them. The question is, does European Union realize that it is impairing the continued technological development?
There are also other examples of many officials do not fully appreciating our technological advances. For example, last year the Chicago Transit Authority removed the ads for the Grand Theft Auto IV game. Grand Theft Auto is a game which involves driving and shooting in an action-arcade environment which is based on action movies. In a sense it is like an interactive movie, as it has an interesting plot and the player can make many decisions. Why would the CTA remove the ads? I think that fear of the unknown, and having double standards is the only way it can be explained. CTA would not remove indecent posters which contain nudity and disturbing images, but it is quick to react to video games. Once people were afraid of movies, right now they are afraid of games. I hope that the war against technology will not continue for long, and that it will be easier for average consumers to have access to the newest gadgets and devices.

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Are Robots Our Enemies?

May 14th, 2009 Comments off

Robots are something that often reminds us of sci-fi movies where robots are usually portrayed as evil and are often trying to destroy humanity. I do not think that this will happen as robots do not have free will. On the other hand, they might be able to partially imitate human behavior. This ability could potentially make them good companions if they were programmed properly. There are already robots being made that spend time with children. Although they do not speak a lot, children often treat them as living beings. There is some potential for robots becoming our companions, and while they will never replace humans, they could become alternatives to pets such as cats or even dogs. Are you ready to replace your cat? Probably not, but maybe in the future people will.

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USB

May 13th, 2009 Comments off

We all have heard this term before, but do we really know what it means? USB stands for Universal Serial Bus and it was designed to make connecting various peripherals to computers a lot easier. USB has been present in the market since around 1996. Before it was introduced, computer users had to add different electronic equipment to the computer�s CPU by using cables that had to exactly match the sockets of one�s computer. This was not an easy task at that time, and it was very frustrating for some. To make things even worse, the older computers had a limit on the number of peripherals that could be attached to one�s computer. Those of you who never had to deal with older computers might not even know how lucky you are to have USB nowadays.

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Cleaning Your Monitor

May 11th, 2009 Comments off

You will want to clean your monitors from tiem to time if you do not want it to be blurry and covered with dust. You will notice that your monitor needs cleaning if you start having problems like, for example, the screen starts to be blurry due to being covered with dust. Of course, you should unplug your monitor before you start cleaning it. After all, you do not want to damage it while cleaning. You should use compressed air to clean it from the back to the front. Never open any covers of the monitor. Compressed air in general is great when it comes to cleaning computer components, not only monitors. When it comes to the back side of your monitor, use dampened cloth and paper towels to dry it. Do not use too much water, and do not use any liquids near the ventilation hole of your monitor. Humidity is quite harmful, however, actual liquid could deal some serious damage. Remember that the monitor screen should always be cleaned with soft cloth. That way you will avoid any unnecessary scratching.
I hope the advice given above will be useful to you. After all, you want to keep your monitors in good shape for many years. Even if you will decide to replace your monitor for a newer model, you will be able to fetch a higher price if the monitor was taken care of properly. In the long run this can save you a lot of money.

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