Master of my Domain

Edward Tufte Article

evanasher — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:56:36 +0000

    In today’s world, there’s no question that PowerPoint has become the most obvious choice for presentations. Anyone ranging from students, teachers and professionals all have used this program in effort to deliver a message to their audience. According to Tuft, even such professions as NASA engineers use PowerPoint to share their ideas. In his article, “PowerPoint Does Rocket Science–and Better Techniques for Technical Reports” Tufte goes into detail about the uses and misuses of powerpoint as well as possible ideas for better PowerPoint use.
     One of his main points dealt with the hierarchical method of organizations. In theory it sounds great: organize you thoughts and display them in the most effective way. However, this is not always the case. Illustrated by the slides, Tufte shows that the hierarchicalmethod took away from the effect and almost acted as a filler, or fluff, of information inwhich the NASA presenters were misinformed or uninformed completely. Either way the organization reflected thier confusion. In reality that many points of division are unnecessary and wastes the audience’s time.
      Another point that Tufte made was the use of specific words. Yes it is good to be specific is some areas and vague in others. However, in this particular presentation the use of “significant” is a perfect example of what NOT to do. The over use of the word is obviously something that should be avoided. But more importantly, words must be have a specificmeaning and not simply thrown around as if it has a universal meaning.  This word for example manged to have multiple meanings, ranging from alot to a little, even to a “vague” amount completely eliminating any “significant” meaning attached to the word. Instead the use specific words that correlate to a specific meaning would be best.
    Overall, Tuft did make several good points. While he does discourage some use of PowerPoint, he certainly does not disagree with it as a usable option. As long as the presentation is created and executed effectively, then PowerPoint an excellent way to go. At no point in the article did he completely bash the use the PowerPoint. Instead he simply showed both harmful and helpful methods of using PowerPoint.

media for project

evanasher — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:42:25 +0000

zamzar.com

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1034938/december_21_2012_the_end/

http://www.viewzone.com/endtime.html

NEW IDEAS

evanasher — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 01:14:47 +0000

CHANGE OF PLANS…..

ne topic: december 23, 2012

the supossed end of the world.

video project first blog

evanasher — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:35:36 +0000

after thinking about technology in classrooms, and survellience technology, one topic came to mind that seems perfect.

ONLINE DATING

now it was an impulse thought so its very underdeveloped but i think with something it could turn out to be very good.

With our current economic and social status, many people in our country do have the time or patience to go out of thier way to meet others. In person communication has been lost while email, aiming, and blog communication is growing exponentially. Due to these new trends, even the ability to finding relationships is travelling to the internet. With my video, i shall examine this new trend of online dating, and qalify whether is it is a legitimate way to find your supposed soulmate. The video may include an interview from my sister who recently did a speech on the subject or friends who have tried them. I may even create my own profile in order to learn more about it.

annotated bibliography

evanasher — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:00:51 +0000

http://books.google.com/books?id=RVlnL_X6FrwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=robotics&lr=&sig=239OinJV22q-pWnag7Lm81IxIjU#PPA2,M1

This book describes what are AI obotics and the paradigms of that follows this subject. Defined in the first part of the novel, a paradigm is a philosophy or set of assumptions and/or techniques which characterize an approach to a class of problems. The essence of robotics is the systmatic function within the make of the robot. It must be able to sense, think, followed by a function. In this article, the author discusses these aspects and terms them ”sense, plan, act.” These are known as the hierarchel paradigms. Throughout the work, he analysis and reconconsiders these paradigms in an effort to ”transfer these princeiples of the paradigm into a coherent, reusable implementation on a single robot or team of robots.”

Firstly the article does seem decently credible. However, most of the writing is philosophical and theoretical writing and nothing qauntitative so it is mostly observations being made. In addition it appears to be written in an objective manner, but from the tone of the writing the authors opinion certainly comes through. An interesting part of the writing though is its level of jargon. A topic such as robotics would normally lead to inflated jargon that mostly like would be confusing. This writer however, Robin Murphy, manages to be friendly to the reader. And while it seems the original intent of this piece is meant for professionals, it could easily be understood by anyone interested in this field. On several occasions, Murphy uses simple metaphors to parellel a robotic characteristic as well as giving definitions for any word that may seem intimidating.

evanasher — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:38:12 +0000

I actually used this image when I first decided on the topic of my wiki.

The singificance of this photograph is not so much the literal meaning of it. Although it depicts a robotic mechanism putting together the parts of an engine of some kind, I don’t believe that is its initial intent. Instead the dense concentration of technology within the photo is what is most interesting. At first glance the viewer notices the orange-colored arms that clearly standout from everything else. This, whether done on purpose or not, seperates the robotic arms from the rest of the environment and adds a small emphasis on them. In addition thier physical complex design shows that they are not simple devices for petty purposes. Rather they represent a larger meaning, showing how robotics are pivotal in our society. This particular image shows an assembly line. If the observer takes a closer look, there is a similar operation going on about 15 feet down the assembly line with the same robotic arms as well as the same complexity of design. It’s clear what this photograph is trying to show. This “dense concentration of technology” represents the growth in the use of robotics and its inevitable take over of man power. Yes, this appears to be very daunting but it will undoubtably better our society

annotated bibliogrpahy

evanasher — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:52:48 +0000

use actual scientific text

web of science
web of knowledge

3-4 sentences, summary and analysis

additional notes

evanasher — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:38:55 +0000

survey, research topic and about your findings (the science itself)
controversies , questions, foundations, research, applications, the future

analysis of how that material is presented into various audiences

BIG QUESTIONS:
what kind of “Text”
does it report on experimental research? on field observations? analysis of a process?
what were the key questions that they tried to answer
what was thier methodology
what were the results
how did the results aplify understanding of subject
were th findings major or minor

notes for wiki

evanasher — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:25:44 +0000

use rhetoric strategies-not jus information

add possible qoutes from experts for objective/subjective analysis

images or video of evolution of robotics

a detailed/brief process of how robotics actually work.

topic choice

evanasher — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:20:58 +0000

i think a really solid choice would be something about robotics.
the mechanics
the ethics
the uses, helpful….prostetics, entertainment

…A.I.???
very multidimensional

still not 100% sure yet though

seems pretty impressive if u ask me….