How Computer Games Change the World (1)

Introduction
A computer game, or a video game, refers to an electronic game, which involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. (Baer, 1969) A video device can be a television, a computer, or portable gaming device, etc. The oldest computer game in the world is the cathode ray tube amusement device, a missile-firing game invented by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann in 1947 (WINTER, 1999). At that time, the device could only show very simple dot and line graphics on the cathode ray tube instead of a monitor or television set and only scientists who pursue their studies in physics know how to “enjoy” the game.

Nowadays, however, various computer games have become a major mean of entertainment for most people in the world. These computer games are loaded with fascinating graphics and ever-evolving complexity of the game systems. In the United States, sixty-seven percent of the American households play computer games (Entertainment Software Association, 2010). Economically, the U.S. computer game software sales generated 10.5 billion USD in 2009 (WINTER, 1999). These data imply how popular and powerful computer games have become that not only can it cause an influence to an individual’s life, but also a change to the world.

Similar to other important forms of media, such as movies and televisions, computer games have always been the central of arguments in different aspects, particularly the adverse impacts of violent or pornographic games. It is very controversial to judge if computer games bring a positive or negative impact to the world in general. In fact, the change computer games brought to the world can be described in 3 dimensions, including personal influence, financial & business changes and societal impacts. This essay explores how computer games change the world, both positively and negatively, by having a detailed investigation on each of these four impacts. As the impacts of video games in the four aspects are written by four different HKU students, some of the ideas may be contrasting or even contradicting. We believe that this is a mean to demonstrate diversity of thoughts, and the exchange and interactions of different viewpoints will have dynamic effects on each other, which I believe, is the core value of the whole common core education (general education).

Personal Influence

As the computer games become popular, we should think about the personal impact on the game player. Generally speaking, computer games have both positive and negative effects on the player. To judge computer games are good or not, that’s all depends on the player’s self-control and time management.

First, different skills can be learnt from different types of entertainment computer games. The action games require the player to have high concentration and fast reaction; also because of the high levels of action, it can improve the eyesight and hand-eye coordination of the player. Strategy games can train the player’s logic reasoning ability and problem solving. Sport games
can develop the player’s sport sense while the player no needs to be on the field. It can avoid overtraining so it is very useful to use sport game as a tool to train athletes before match. In nowadays computer games, smoother graphic reality and better sound quality provide a higher level of entertainment to the player so that they will enjoy the games more and maintain concentration for a long time. It is a good idea to use computer games as a teaching tool. Schools are encouraging students to play education games in different subjects. That education video game is improving student’s academic performance by increase the concentration on learning. Playing computer games can release stresses as the player can do anything they what inside the game and get rid of the real world. “Video game training” also use by different professionals. For example, flight simulators are used by cadet pilot for training in order to reduce the risk and also save air fuel. By the same token, military are using RPG game to simulate the combat zone situation. As the Nintendo Wii released on 2006, computer games are not limited by just using hands and eyes. Players are able to use full use of their body to play computer games and doing fitness.

As for the negative side, addiction to the computer games has already been a big issue. Just like our parents always tell us, spending too much time on computer games could lead to bad academic result. Also it might cause potential health disease like Myopia and heart attack .The extreme case is death, a South Korean player died due to nonstop playing 50 hours of online game. The affection on mental health is even worse, as anti-social behaviour is build up on the frequent computer games user, as they are lack of social skill and not good at public speaking. All this is because of they spend the time in computer games instead of joining social events. Playing violent video games can cause aggressive behaviour. This is extremely danger for countries that allow people to have guns like the US. Once the player can’t control his emotion, the society will pay a heavy price whilst gun violence occurs. To put it simple, the positive effect of the computer game mainly maintain in personal aspect while the negative effect could affect the whole society.

Reference

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_behavioral_effects
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm

Comparison between smartphone OSs

The number of smartphone user increase quickly in the past few years. There are two main factors that will affect the performance of smartphone. They are the hardware of the smartphone and the operating system (OS) of the smartphone. In my critique, I will focus on the OS of smartphone. I will compare different smartphone OS and find their pros and cons.
 

There are four major smartphone OS. They are iOS, Android, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile. I will talk about their pros and cons one by one and compare them.

First, I will talk about iOS. iOS is developed by Apple Inc. and is used in the products which are produced by Apple Inc., for example, iPhone. It is proprietary operating system and no one other than Apple Inc. can change or modify the system. Also, iOS do not allow user to install third-party naive applications. If iOS users want to overcome the limitation that set by Apple Inc., they need to jailbreak so that they can remove the limitations. Although there are some disadvantages of iOS, there are some advantages. Its performance in entertaining is extremely powerful. You can always see someone use their iPhone or iPad to play games or watch movie. Moreover, many applications are available for the user of iOS. Overall, iOS is a powerful operating system but it is inconvenience to use third-party applications.
 

Then I will talk about Android. Android is developed by Google. Since it is an open source operating system, it can be modified by Smartphone manufacturers to fit with their products. This system is used by many smartphones made by several famous brands such as HTC, Motorola, etc. As Android is an open source operating system, a large variety of applications is available for Android users. Also, as Android is developed by Google, Android users can use many Google features very well. For example, Android smartphones use Google map and checking Gmail without using Internet browser. However, the number of applications that provide for Android users is still not very much. Moreover, Android use visual keyboard to typing words.
It is not convenience for users to type when compare to real keyboards. Overall, it is suitable for users who always use Internet.

Now, I would like to talk about Windows Mobile. Windows mobile is developed by Microsoft. Windows Mobile is a proprietary operating system. Its functions are very powerful. Moreover, it is designed for business usage and therefore it is very suitable for people who always do business with others. However, since it is designed for business usage, its performance of entertaining is not very good. The resolution of the image of the phone use Windows Mobile is not very high and its video player is not very good. In addition, Windows Mobile is not user friendly, it is difficult to use when people first using it. Overall, Windows Mobile is suitable for businessman but not suitable for people who want entertainment.

Lastly, I will talk about Symbian OS. Symbian OS is developed by Symbian Foundation. It is an open source operating system. Since Symbian OS is one of the oldest mobile operating system, it is almost fully functional. It is mainly target on photo taking, listening music and entertaining. Moreover, due to the longtime of development, it provides more software for Symbian OS users. However, the Internet service of Symbian OS is not very good, it do not have many support of different Internet service. Overall, the market share of Symbian OS is decreasing. It is not competitive when compare with its competitors.

To conclude, different mobile operating system has their advantages and disadvantages. If we want to buy a smartphone, we should choose a suitable mobile operating system due to our requirement and personal needs. Different people will have different user experiments in different mobile operating systems because of their different personal needs and their requirements.

Discuss Smart Phone in a sociology percepts

Introduction

In Hong Kong, It is common to a person using a smart phone, and it is important to state that the popularity of smart phone is increasing. For example, when we are on the street, normally we can see people using Iphone, Samsung galaxy series, etc. It means that smart phone do attract people to use it selves. With the increasing popularity of smart phone , a lot of questions are also raised: Why smart phones are so attractive? How the smart phone change the society? In this essay, this phenomenon will be discussed in a sociology percept. First of all, the reason for the extra high popularity of smart phone will be discussed. The essay will then be followed by discussing the effect of smart phone on the society.

1)The reason for the high popularity of smart phone
There are two reasons explaining why a lot of people choose smart phone rather than mobile phones, mainly ,in terms of security and convenience .

1a) In terms of security
Owing to the fact that Hong Kong is a city of business and a lot of people are working in the business aspect, people need to handle a lot of data of their work and transfer the data to their client through their self phone. Moreover, as some data of their work may be confidential, it Is necessary for the phone to be secure enough so that all the data can be confirmed not to be stolen. For smart phone , since some smart phone are known to be secure, many businessman choose it to help their work. Take blackberry as an example, owing to the fact that the operating system of blackberry are set to be very secure when compared with other phones, blackberry attracts a lot of people to use it . Apart from blackberry, the operating system - Symbian, which is invented by Nokia, is also secure so it attracts many people to use it rather than mobile phone.

1b) In terms of convenience
In the smart phone market, apart from some brands which are very famous in data security, there are also some brands which are famous in the large variety of applications. They are : IPhone OS , Android and Windows mobile. These Operating system provide a large variety of applications. This large variety of applications convince user to do their job. For examples, google maps and bus routes searching application. These applications are very convenient to user to get their job done. Moreover, IPhone OS and Android provide a platform for user to create their own application. This allows applications to have a much higher variety. The characteristic of smart phone that having a lot of applications do attract people very much since it can convince them very much.

2)The effect of smart phone to the society
Since the popularity of smart phone is on the increase, more and more people are affected by this kind of gadget. Therefore, it is important to look at the effect of smart phone on the society.

2a) Boosting the development of application
In the past, application mainly are developed by big companies and people seldom join the development. However, the situation has changed once the smart phone such as IPhone and android system released. Smart phone boost the development of application. The reason is that , as mentioned in above, some smart phone ( IPhone and Android) opens a new platform for user to develop its own application so as to fit their requirement. That is to say, everyone is now have the chance to join the application development. This converge of labor do help the development of new applications.

2b) Open a new market and create new jobs
As mentioned before, some type of smart phone open a new platform for user to share their application. This new platform also create a new market, that is , application market . Take IPhone as an example, Apple company gives a platform called Apple Store for IPhone users to buy applications so as to evaluate their phone. A market is formed which people can buy applications there. Moreover, apart from opening a new market, this new platform also create a new business. Since there is a high demand for applications in the market, some people choose to develop new applications and sell it to other people so as to earn money. This states that Smart Phone do create a new business .

2c) Creating a culture of movable business
Some Smart Phone ,such as blackberry ,are said to be very secure and a lot of businessman to choose to do business through their smart phone. This create a new culture of mobile business that people are now use their selfphone to do business with others. For example, people may sign a contract through smart phone. Therefore, people can now do business everywhere. That is to say, Smart Phone convince businessman to do business in outdoor.

3) Some critical thinking about Smart Phone
Although Smart Phone is said to be very secure, and convenient, it is important for us to think some questions: Do Smart Phone really that good? Do smart phone really secure? Actually, there are many unknown area that we do not know well about smart phone. It is important to state that we should not trust smart phone very much. Even though everyone said that they are secure, it still has the chance of information leakage. Moreover, since your mobile phone always access to the open network, information may be stolen and changed, which may cause a big problem in both economy and personal privacy. Therefore, everyone should think deeply whether they should believe their smart phone too much.

History of smart phones

Nowadays, many companies are trying to develop outstanding mobile phone. They are going to make the phone smaller, lighter and have more functions. And they are called smart phone. According to Wikipedia, the definition of a smartphone is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary basic feature phone.

There are many types of smart phone, for example, Symbian, Android,Apple, etc. They allow the user to install and run more advanced applications based on a specific platform.

History of Smart Phone

Why do they exist? Thatʼs because everyone is chasing the most convenience device. For example, people can run lots of program,taking photos, surfing on the Internet, chatting with friends on their cellphones. It helps people connect to this world in a more efficient way. Of course, they have their own history.

1) Simon
The first smart phone Simon presents in 1992, which is developed by IBM. It is already having calendar,address book, world clock,calculator, note pad, email,send and receive fax and games.

2) Nokia 9000, Nokia 9210, Nokia 9500 and Nokia 9300
Nokia developed a lot of smart phone products. In 1996, Nokia made its palm sized smart phone called Nokia 9000, which is a Personal digital assistant (PDA). Then Nokia was trying to improve their products. So, the first color screen phone with an open operating system called Nokia 9210 was released in around 1996. Then, Nokia added WiFi and GPS in the phone9500 and 9300 respectively.

3) Ericsson GS88
Ericsson then joined the smart phone race. It released GS88, which is the first cell phone,which can be labeled as smart phone. In 2000,the touchscreen smartphone R380 using new Symbian OS was released.

4) Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002
After two years, the next company Microsoft also released the“Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002”. And there are two smart phones released in the same year. They are Palm OS Treo and BlackBerry from Handspring and RIM respectively. For Palm OS Tero,there is a full keyboard. It also has wireless web browsing, email,calendar, and contact organizer with mobile third-party applications that could be downloaded or synced with a computer.

5) Nokia N95
After 5 years, Nokia is back, It releases the Nokia N95 integrating many features, for example, GPS, a 5megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash, 3G and wi-fi connectivity and TV-out.In 2007, one of the most important companies, Apple Inc., has introduced iPhone. This amazing device can be easily found in everywhere. It is the first mobile phone that mainly uses touchscreen in the control. The OS used in this phone can support swiping, tapping,pinching, etc.

6) Android
Another similar product Android was released in 2008, which is a cross platform OS. Google and also some software developers back android.The first phone to use the Android OS was the HTC Dream. It has integrated Google’s proprietary applications including Maps,Calendar, Gmail, etc.

7) iPhone
Apple has its 2nd generation iPhone. It created the AppStore which is similar to Android platform OS. But for downloading through AppStore, it is not necessary to connect to the computer. iPhone and iPodcan download the applications if there is a wifi network.In terms of platform, there are so many platforms launched by large companies, for example, Nokia launched Ovi Store, Palm launched Palm App Catalog, etc.

Operating System
Apart from the history side of smart phone, the next sub-topic that will be talked is operating system. There are a few important operating system, they are:

• Android
• Blackberry OS
• iOS
• Windows Mobile

Conclusion

Thatʼs maybe the start of the smartphone race. Each compan ywill then develop more powerful smartphone. The operating system must be very creative and helpful.

Hi-tech really makes miracle comes true?

When we were young, we imagined to live in the wonderland when we listened to fairy tale stories. It stimulates our minds to create such a virtual world by imagination. Time flies with the rapid growing technology development. The miracles now can be shown in front of our eyes!

Nowadays, it’s common to find some scientific, magic or cartoon movie with the background is in a virtual world. There are some typical examples like “Avatar”, “The Lord of the rings” and “Harry Potter”. They are widely adopting the graphical editing or even creating the whole digital picture. It seems that technology (graphic editing) helps us a lot as it realizes our amazing ideas in our brain. In fact, technology just like a magic ring with great power, there are some bad guys in fairy tales use this power to hurt others. Should we trust all the things captured by our eyes?On the other hand, from the comments of the audiences and the great prizes given to the movie “Avatar”, we can know that “Avatar” is a successful movie with excellent graphic elements combining with innovative ideas. However, there are some negative impacts to the society.From a piece of news article entitled ”Avatar driving us to suicide, say fans” (reference 1),it points out that some fans get addicted to Avatar’s world after watching and think that they should leave this real world and hope they can born in the Avatar’s world in their “next life”. The fact is we only live once, how come we would believe in and get addicted to a virtual world and think of commit suicide.Moreover, there are some young gamers even the well-educated ones, getting addicted to the virtual world and losing interest in daily social issue like schooling, eating or sleeping. Some psychologist and socialist point out one of the reason is the teens want to relief their pressure gained in the real world, they do not and some are even cannot realize whether our world or the computer world is the “real” one.

There are many researches and news support this view. It’s really a tragedy if young people believe they can live in a virtual world. It is a serious and long term problem we need to solve.(reference 2 is a piece of news with some analysis and view by professional,, also pointing out some physical and mental harms to us)

I am not saying that by using technology building up a virtual world is something harm to us, it’s the matter of the way we treat it.

After we consider the believing in society, now there are some critiques on the photo issues.

In the past, the term “professional photographer” only regarded as the ones can take good photos. But nowadays, a professional photographer should also be equipped with the graphical manipulation skill to edit photos. However, photo tampering, is also notorious for the misuse of the graphical editing. This technology is widely used in the advertisement, celebrities’ scandals or military usages.

Moreover, consider the computers we are using, normally they should be installed with photo editing software (even Microsoft “paint” is one of them) or you may easily download one freely on the web, not regarding the quality. It is getting easier for us to deal with image manipulation than before.

Regards to particular cases of Internet bullying, misuse of photo editing even worsen the situation, and one of the factors that worsen the situation is it’s getting easier to manipulate photo that many people can edit fake photo for fun or bullying.

Fun image edited from the MTR advertisement.

http://evchk.wikia.com/wiki/%E6%AA%94%E6%A1%88:20071202_MTRAd01.jpg

Majority of people accepted editing cover page of a magazine treated as gimmick and for fun. It cause us would first wonder the cover is real or fake when we look at every photo.

The cover image shown is edited by adding a tear on former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s face. Is it really a funny stuff? Should the sale override the feeling of others and the morale standard and neutral respect? I wonder.

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/reagan.jpg

In conclusion, graphical manipulation seems make our life complex. Try to think if it has never been developed, we can trust each image we get. Our lives should be as simple as childhood’s purity and naive. It implies seeing should only be trusted after your self-analysis on that photo. Actually, graphic manipulation or the virtual world stimulation is by no means just a technology with no actually benefits or harms to us. .The impact to us only depends of how we adopt it. Hope by using the graphic manipulation technology can make our miracle comes true but never nightmare.

Reference

1. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/Avatar-driving-us-to-suicide-say-fans/articleshow/5436823.cms
2. http://www.hkdailynews.com.hk/life.php?id=130922

A Study of the Roles and Impacts of Computer Games in the Economy

Computer games are enjoyed by a wide range of people, irrespective of age or sex. Beginning with the relatively simple games in the 1950s, the computer game industry has been developing rapidly (Brookhaven National Laboratory, n.d.). Especially after the spread of internet services and personal computers, computer games are a regular part of our lives. Successfully adapting to consumers’ demand and expectations, the computer game industry currently supports the various countries’ economies. This critique will discuss how computer games contribute to the economic growth and a contemporary financial issue the computer game industry is facing.

The computer game industry creates jobs for professional developers and players. In order to produce games of high quality to attract consumers, computer games essentially require complex algorithms. This implies that the game industry requires skillful programmers to handle the algorithms. According to Simply Hired (2010b), programmers in the U.S. annually earn $72,000 USD. This is much more significant compared to the average college graduate salary of $46,000 USD (Simply Hired, 2010a). By paying high salaries to programmers, the computer game industry contributes to stimulating the economy. Not only the developers but also professional players play their significant roles in the economy. Professional gamers can make money either by contributing to the producers or to the consumers. In the former case, professional players test games to find bugs and to improve the quality of the games by commenting on the games. In the latter case, professional gamers can carry out the real-money trading which is to exchange the virtual items, virtual currencies or characters and real money, which can be seen among players in massively multiplayer online games. Professional gamers can also make money by creating and editing strategy guides to give hints and solutions to specific computer games so that other players can complete the game more easily. In addition to programmers and professional gamers, the computer industry relies on and pays market analysts, customer service representatives, and foreign language translators (Crandall and Sidak, 2010). Without the computer game industry, a great amount of people would come to be unemployed. In these ways, the computer game industry is crucial for many people to keep the current income levels.

The computer game industry stimulates money flow by advancing technologies. For example, the demand for faster CPUs for computer games led to the creation of microprocessor architecture called the Cell Broadband Engine Architecture (CBEA) by STI which is an alliance formed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM (IBM Research, n.d.). By applying the high-performance processing to game consoles, the CBEA allowed the fast portrayal of images, which successfully relieved consumers’ stress and contributed to the image quality improvement. This project to invent the CBEA cost $400 million, which must have stimulated money circulation in the world (QJ.net, 2006). Moreover, according to the IBM, the CBEA is also applicable to cryptography, physics, and scientific workloads. In this way, the strive for satisfying consumers’ expectations led to spending a great amount of money, and successfully developed the technology which is further applicable in other fields. Technological developments in the computer game industry will conduce to the age of high mass-consumption, and eventually to the economic growth (Nordtveit, 2010). By enhancing the liquidity of money, innovation of technologies enriches people and the nations.

ROM image leakages and emulators would cause the functional decline of the computer game industry by financially advantaging consumers and disadvantaging producers. In the same way as game consoles load their software, emulators can load ROM images extracted from the commercial software on the computer. While sharing ROMs on the internet is illegal, there are thousands of websites that allow people to download ROMs. Even though copyright holders and game managing organizations try to restrict the illegal activities, they have difficulty preventing the spread of ROMs. This problem is related to the economy because producers will come to gain fewer revenues to produce new games. As consumers try to minimize spending, they will not pay the computer game companies for the software or consoles. Instead, players will download games for free through the internet and play on their computers as long as the quality of the games is almost the same. As a result of the decrease in the demand for the computer games in the market, game companies will have to lower the price of the games in order to induce consumers to even if only slightly pay for their goods and services. It is also possible for game companies to decrease the quality of their games because of less monetary resource available. Although this appears to be disadvantageous to players as well, they can enjoy other entertainments such as anime and social network services such as Facebook. The illegal activities excessively empower consumers and fiscally damage the computer game industry.

The world’s economy cannot be successful without the computer game industry. Many people rely on the jobs in the fields related to the computer game industry in order to afford their needs and wants. Technological developments in the computer game industry further boost the economy as they involve a great amount of monetary tractions. Yet, the industry’s significant role in the economy is interrupted by players’ illegal activities that economically ravage the producers and hamper money flows. While computer games can be replaced with other entertainments for general players, the industry is essential to maintain the current standards of living in many countries. The governments may need to protect the computer game industry from the illegal activities in order to ensure the prosperity of their nations.

References

1. Brookhaven National Laboratory. (n.d.). The first video game?. A passion for discovery. Retrieved on November 23, 2010, from http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham4.asp
2. Crandall, W.R., and Sidak, J.G. (2010). Video games: Serious business for America’s economy. Entertainment software association. Retrieved on November 24, 2010, from http://www.theesa.com/newsroom/seriousbusiness.pdf
3. IBM Research. (n.d.). The Cell project at IBM Research. IBM research. Retrieved on November 23, 2010, from http://www.research.ibm.com/cell/
4. Nordtveit, B.H. (2010, October 6). CCGL9005 session eight: Growth theories [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://broadening.edu.hku.hk/mod/resource/view.php?id=299
5. QJ.net. (2006, April 6). Cell designer talks about PS3 and IBM cell processors. PC Gaming, PlayStation, Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, news, reviews, downloads, custom apps, homebrew and much more. Retrieved on November 23, 2010, from http://www.qj.net/qjnet/playstation-3/cell-designer-talks-about-ps3-and-ibm-cell- processors.html
6. Simply Hired. (2010a, November 23). Programmer salaries. Job search made simple. Retrieved on November 23, 2010, from http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-college+graduate
7. Simply Hired. (2010b, November 23). Programmer salaries. Job search made simple. Retrieved on November 23, 2010, from http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-programmer

The perasive use of Smartphones: The impact on Society

Technology has always had an impact on society. First came the PCs that changed our life as we knew it. Then came along the cell phones that transformed the way we communicated with each other. And finally came the smart phones that enabled us to do most of the things both the inventions did by just using one device. Nowadays there is an increased trend that more and more people have started to use smart phones. Their pervasive use has affected the society in many ways.

The web browsing facilities of smart phones have enabled people to bring their work with them anywhere. For some people it has provided a means through which they can enjoy more quality time with their family while at the same time engage in business ventures.

How the pervasive use of smart phones has affected the human behavior?

Smart phones have now transformed our social interactions.  In recent years, more people are spending more time on their smart phones than on any other things. Although they provide us with a lot of facilities, their pervasive use has made us ignorant.

There was a time that people in public areas or on public transport vehicles actually used to interact with each other and share a healthy discussion. Every day to work or to school, people used to have a healthy chat with the person sitting next to them. The pervasive use of smart phones has put an end to that as people are more interested in blogging or playing games than talking to each other. Although their increased usage for social networking sites has allowed us to stay contact with our distant friends, they have isolated us from the people around us. For instance, on our way to school or going to work, how many of us would have really talked to the person sitting next to us? We may know people from as far as the United States or Canada but this too is at the expense of people right next to us.

The need to be in style and to be associated with a particular social group has also led many people to purchase a smart phone. The type of phone a person owns has now become a symbol of status. In general, the costlier the phone is and the better its applications are, the wealthier the person is considered. They have transformed the way we interact with people. The cell phone is now a fashion custom, decorated to reflect the owner's personality, his friends, his job and much more.

What impact has the pervasive use of smart phones had over the PCs?

One of the most popular things Smartphones are used for are blogging and for accessing social networking sites. This is especially common amongst the teenagers. Both of this has resulted in a boost of social networking sites.

Twitter CEO Evan Williams is reported to have said that 46% of active Twitter users regularly use a mobile device to tweet.

According to a survey conducted by Compete, a web analytics firm, out of all the people using Facebook ,  an increasingly large number of people (66 percent) are using their smart phones to read news feeds,  post status updates (60 percent), read & reply to private messages (59 percent) and post photos (44 percent). This shows that now more and more people are accessing the internet from their smart phones rather than from their PCs. This fact has been even more pronounced ever since the integration of popular applications such as YouTube on smart phones, which now provides access to apparently infinite music and video libraries and do so at great speed.

Along with their entertainment capabilities, many smart phones have also put their technological abilities to a more productive and constructive use. It is now common to see that smart phones are nowadays being used as a scheduler, keeping track of a person's appointments. Navigation has also been aided by the increased integration of internet applications into mobile phones. Many smart phones are now equipped with internet based tools such as Google Maps and even GPS to help people to stay on their course, hence fueling their use over PCs further.

I believe that although the smart phones have provided us with many useful applications, their pervasive use has made us ignorant of the people around us. Social networking sites do connect us to the people around the globe but this too is at the expense of the people around us, people who we meet in our daily lives. Their pervasive use has made them a part of our daily live. We use them to store our contacts, our appointments and all our daily lives work, making us more and more dependent on them day by day. They have also changed the way we think. It's not about who we are anyone but what kind of cell phone do we own. The pervasive use of smart phones has now made them a part of our personality.

The Role of Smartphones in Medicine

Nowadays, we always discuss about Smartphone with friends or others around us. By the way, what is Smartphone? How smart is it? Simply, Smartphone is a combination of PDA and cell phone. In other words, it has features not only like those we can find on a computer but also making phone calls. Smartphone allows us to install and run many applications. It also let us access Internet. These features make Smartphone popular and become a useful device among different fields, especially in the medical field.

To satisfy health care practitioners' desire, many medical apps are developed and released. For example, medical calculators, clinical resource apps, medical dictionary apps, and apps for patients scheduling, prescription drug reference and electronic health record. We can read reference books, dictionary and patients' records on our Smartphone and thus not much space is taken up for storing the materials. In the old days, doctors and nurses need to write up all the data by hand, and stored them in paper form. The data could be ruined easier simply by a drop of water; as time goes by, ink might run out causes lost of important information about the patient's history. In the case of any emergency, it requires to search for the whole data base store which could be time consuming. However, medical apps can solve these problems now and physicians can search data anywhere and anytime. It also provides a better communication platform for physicians to transfer messages. They can just send out important information to the system through apps, and other colleagues can notice it immediately wherever. It seems convenient for physicians to have a Smartphone.

Nevertheless, in 2009, Software Advice surveyed health care professionals about their preference of Smartphone. According to the survey results, email, note taking and prescription drug reference are popular software among the respondents. They seldom do the clinical related tasks such as checking the medical image viewing and patients' records which are the top two tasks that physicians desire to do with their Smartphone. There seems to be a contradiction because those clinical related tasks are too slow to run or integrate with Smartphone. Therefore, they cannot work with Smartphone on a clinical base.

Apart from this, the growing popularity of Smartphone leads to security problem. Many people do many things with their Smartphone such as checking emails online. This would probably provide an extra platform for hackers to steal personal information from our phones. Furthermore, there is lack of software for securely managing the patient's record at present. If physicians handle the health care information with Smartphone, the patients' record could be leaked out easily. Potential danger of physical theft of Smartphone is also a concern. Smartphone is valuable and can be sold for a good price after all. However, it sometimes may not be stolen by others, but physicians lose it themselves; just like the staffs lost the USB which patients' information was stored a few months before. Therefore, it is not possible for physicians to use Smartphone as a "medical" device.

Like cell phones, long term exposure to Smartphone is harmful for our health. According to the report from Environmental Working Group, the top 10 Smartphone with highest radiation averagely emit 1.53 W/kg radiation, which nearly reach the upper legal limit, 1.6 W/kg. Some may probably argue that we can choose some Smartphone with low radiation. However, we would mostly choose the model based on the functions or appearance of Smartphone. Moreover, from the same research, there is a relationship between prolonged cell phone uses and brain cancer, salivary gland tumors and migraines. Health care professionals are "healer" but not the "killer". They should do no harm to themselves.

At last, Smartphone is an evidence of advanced technology. It is convenient for us to do things whenever and wherever. It also helps us to enhance the relationship with each other. There is nothing wrong with Smartphone, but it is not suitable to use Smartphone as a "medical" device now unless Smartphone has larger loading capacity to run the medical apps, can be protected securely, and emit low radiation. One more important thing is that there should be emergency measures in case of damaged medical apps, system or Smartphone. In the future, Smartphone would become a useful medical instrument.

Reference

1. EEZIPC.com. (n.d.). Radiation from SmartPhones . Retrieved from http://www.eezipc.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid=57
2. International Business Times. (2010, June 23). E-Records Could Be Hazardous to Your Health. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/30165/20100623/electronic-health-records-hazardous-to-health.htm
3. Software Advice. (2009, July 30). Which Smartphone Will Own the Healthcare Market? Retrieved from The Medical Blog: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/medical/smartphone-survey-results-1073009/

Applications of the greedy approaches

“Greedy approach”, or more technically, “greedy algorithm”, is a useful method to tackle some of the optimization problems. In optimization problems, they usually involve step-by-step decision making. The “greedy” sense of the “greedy algorithm” actually comes from the idea that we ignore what decisions have made in previous stages, and simply focus on the sub-optimal solution in every single stage. In this way, we attempt to derive the overall optimal solution. Take the “activity selection” problem as an example:

“There are N activities for someone to choose for participation. Every activity has its starting and ending time. Activities may clash in time. For instance, activity A is from 2pm to 5pm, while activity B is from 3pm to 6pm. In this case, only one of these two can be chosen. How to choose the activities so that one is able to join the maximum number of activities?”

In this problem, we can see that we need to choose activities one by one, and when choosing each activity, we need to consider which activities are still available at that moment. One may come up with a single rule of thumb to make each decision. For instance, we could repeatedly choose the currently available activity which starts at an earliest time, without making any time clashes. However, “greedy algorithm” may not be always correct. Let us consider the “greedy” method mentioned above, i.e. we keep on choosing the earliest starting activity, and try to use this algorithm to deal with the situation below:

Number of activities (N) = 3

If we adopt the above method, we can only choose activity A. But obviously, this is not the optimal solution, because we can choose activities B and C instead. What should the correct method be? We observe that if one can choose an activity which ends earlier, then more time could be allocated for choosing other activities. Thus, we can raise another “greedy” method, i.e. repeatedly choose the earliest ending activity, without making any time clash. By considering again the above situation, we would firstly choose activity B, because it ends most early (2:00 pm), and then choose activity C (ends at 4:00 pm). This seems working. But does this always work?

The answer is YES. The explanation is as follows. Consider a list of activities as time intervals drawn in the diagram below:

 

In the diagram, all the activities are sorted in ascending order of ending time and the red intervals are the chosen activities by the above method.

Suppose the contrary that the above method does not yield an optimal solution, i.e. there exists an activity X (green in colour) within the above diagram and it is not chosen. 3 cases are considered:

Case (i): Activity X ends earlier than start of 1st chosen activity OR starts later than the end of last chosen activity.
This is impossible because if such activity X exists, the “greedy” method mentioned is able to choose it, and this contradicts to the real situation.

Case (ii): Activity X lies between end of a chosen activity and start of next chosen activity.

Similar to case (i), if activity X exists like this, the “greedy” method is able to handle such case. Thus case (ii) also leads to contradiction.

Case (iii): Activity X has time clash with at least one of the chosen activites (red one).

This can be a possible situation. But the problem now is to find out a better solution than the “optimal” one found by the above “greedy” method. Case (iii) obviously does not yield a better solution, since if activity X is chosen instead, at least one of the activities in “red” must be discarded.

As a result, such “greedy” method is correct.

In this example, we learn that “greedy” methods may be very intuitive, efficient, yet wrong. To figure out whether a “greedy” method is correct, one should either provide a logical proof, or a counter-example to the method.

Sometimes, the “greedy” algorithm behind requires more thorough thinking, and the proof could be quite subtle. Let us come to another problem below.

[Modified from the problem “Saving Endeavour” (see reference)]
“There are N toys. Each toy needs to pass through 2 main processes: moulding and painting. Obviously, moulding must be done before painting. The time for moulding and painting(mi and pi respectively for ith toy) for every toy may be different. Now we only have 1 moulding machine and 1 painting machine. How should we produce the N toys in a suitable order such that the total production time is minimized?”

For example, now there are 6 toys in total. Their times for moulding and painting are tabulated as shown:

If we manufacture the toys in the order B, E, F, A, D and C,

Total time required would be 28 minutes, and this is minimal for such case.

This problem is much more complicated than the “activity selection” problem. It is because one can come up with even more possible “greedy” approaches:

1. Choose the toy with minimum time for moulding first?
2. Choose the toy with minimum time for painting first?
3. Choose the toy with minimum sum of times for moulding and painting first?
4. (And more……)

Unfortunately, the first three approaches mentioned above are all wrong. Many counter-examples can be constructed and are skipped here. But why could we think of such a lot of incorrect approaches? This is because we have not yet considered the key properties in this problem.

We can observe that we should try our best to make the moulding machine complete one job as soon as possible, so that it is readily available for production of other toys. In other words, the moulding machine should produce toys with the shorter moulding time first.

But this is NOT enough. The painting time should also be considered. As the start of painting is solely dependent on the completion of moulding, the painting machine may sometimes need to “wait” the moulding machine to finish its job. Therefore, to utilize the resources well, it is not difficult to see that we should minimize the “idle time” for painting machine. To do this, we should always produce the toys with shorter painting time as late as possible, so that the painting machine could somehow work while the moulding machine is still working.

By combining these two factors, we could then derive a “greedy” approach. We can sort the toys in an order such that for every pair of toys a and b (a < b), then min(ma, pb) < min(mb, pa). This is complicated, but makes sense, because as mentioned, we should produce the toy with shorter moulding time first, and delay the production of toys with shorter painting time. If we compare any two toys by using such mathematical expression, if either ma or pb is small enough, it would lead to earlier production of toy a.

Take the comparison between toy 2 and toy 4 as an example. Since min(1,4) = 1 is smaller than min(5,2) = 2, toy 2 should be produced before toy 4.
The proof is shown below.

Suppose toy a is produced, and let D be the time required for painting machine to be available again (counting from start of moulding toy a), then there are 2 cases:

Case (i): D is smaller than ma.

Case (ii): D is greater than ma.

Thus, the time required to finish painting toy a would be max(D - ma, 0) + pa.

Suppose toy a is produced prior to toy b, and let D’ be the time required for painting machine to be available again after painting toy a, then

D’ = time required to paint toy a = max(D - ma, 0) + pa
 

As a result, time required to finish painting toy b would be
max(D’ – mb, 0) + pb = max(max(D - ma, 0) + pa - mb, 0) + pb

Suppose toy b is produced prior to toy b, then time required to finish painting
toy a would be max(max(D - mb, 0) + pb – ma, 0) + pa

If we claim that a shorter total time can be reached when we produce toy a prior to toy b, then

max(max(D-ma, 0) + pa-mb, 0) + pb < max(max(D-mb, 0) + pb-ma, 0) + pa
max(max(D-ma, 0), mb-pa) + pb + pa - mb < max(max(D-mb, 0), ma-pb) + pa + pb – ma

 max(max(D-ma, 0), mb-pa) - mb < max(max(D-mb, 0), ma-pb) – ma
max(D-ma, 0, mb-pa) - mb < max(D-mb, 0, ma-pb) – ma
max(D, ma, ma+mb-pa) - mb - ma < max(D, mb, ma+mb-pb) – ma-mb
max(D, ma, ma+mb-pa) < max(D, mb, ma+mb-pb)
max(ma, ma+mb-pa) < max(mb, ma+mb-pb)
max(-mb, -pa) + ma + mb < max(-ma, -pb) + mb + ma
max(-mb, -pa) < max(-ma, -pb)
-min(mb, pa) < -min(ma, pb)
min(ma, pb) < min(mb, pa)

This is exactly what we have proposed.

From these two problems, we learn that “greedy” approaches could be useful in our daily lives. The “activity selection problem” is a very good example. Due to limited amount of time for most people, we often encounter situations of time clashes for various events. In order to attend as many events as possible, “greedy” approach could be used and this could optimize the utilization of time. For the “toy manufacturing problem”, it is particularly important because resources are scarce and so we need to make sure that the machines are working in the most efficient way in order to reduce the production cost.

Despite the fact that both “activity selection problem” and “toy manufacturing problem” oversimplify the real situation (since attending different event may have different satisfaction, and more machines and stages are involved in manufacture), such “greedy” approaches could serve as a simple, rough, yet efficient estimation.

References

1. “Activity Selection Problem” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activity_selection_problem
2. “Saving Endeavour” http://poj.org/problem?id=2751

Impact of Computer Games on Human Beings: Societal and Psychological Aspects

Have you ever played Computer Games before? I am sure the answer for most of the the answer will be ‘YES’. The computer games have been getting more and more exquisite in the past decade, and in turns have been gaining popularity since the very first game introduced decades ago and their popularity continues to grow today. This high popularity made the impact of computer games on Human Being, mainly psychological and societal, a main issue. In this essay both the beneficial and adverse effects will be discussed.

To begin with, despite the general worries raised by parents, there are indeed many beneficial effects to people playing computer games. First of all, one obvious advantage is that computer games help train coordination. By playing these games which require high concentration, players are trained to achieve higher reflexes, higher processing brain with advanced eye and hand coordination, more flexible fingers and joints, as well as and increased visual acuity, i.e. an enhanced peripheral vision as the games require player to be cautious of the whole screen.

Other than that, Common skills like problem solving, teamwork, logics and discipline are all demonstrated in some computer games e.g. Puzzle, adventure and word games. For instance, Adventure games where you have to complete certain goals can also help you to ‘think outside the box’. This is especially valuable for children as they find computer games more entertaining than usual school activity hence they will be more willing to learn these skills through such fun method.

Apart from that, there are many other pros for playing computer games depends on the game type. Some games may teach people more about real-life techniques. Virtual pet games, for example, help people learn what is involved in raising a pet; There are many Educational games available which were shown by studies that children playing them learn more because they do not realize that they are learning; By playing the Nintendo Wii which is introduced not long ago, players can actually get a reasonable physical workout, so this provide a chance of exercising even at home. What’s more, computer games are fun to play with during leisure time and help people to relieve stress and temporarily escape from the stressful reality.

Besides these advantages experienced by casual game player, the development of the computer game industry has provided a lot of job opportunities to people. This does not only limited to the occupation of developing new games and technologies, but even playing the computer games may be a job: there are many professional game players who actually earn their living by playing computer games.

Next, although there are many benefits, we are not supposed to ignore the many adverse impacts of computer games on human being, most of them are a result of excessive gaming and may pose great harm to the individual as well as the society.

First of all, one leading problem concerned by the society regarding gaming is Game addiction which leads to a lot of complications. Many people find computer games a great way to escape from the stressful reality as these games provide a high level of quick gratification. You are almost constantly being rewarded and, when you lose, you get to easily start over to work on your goal. This fact predisposes the risk of game addiction. As people get addicted to computer games, they will prefer staying in front of the computers all the time that they skip meals, refuse going out for work or school, do not sleep and exercise enough. They start to lose their social ability and also mix up the real and virtual world which may pose a risk not only to themselves, but other people especially their close relatives. Only earlier in May this year, A heavily game-addicted South Korean couple who left their baby to starve while raising a "virtual child" on the Internet were given prison. This revealed how game addiction can lead to harm of others.

The excessive gaming of game addicts also poses harm to their own health. There are many computer-related diseases. One most common disease is Repetitive Strain Injury, an injury of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, mainly in the upper limb for gamers, due to repetitive use of their upper limb in playing the computer games. Also, Computer vision syndrome condition resulting from focusing the eyes on a computer display for protracted, uninterrupted periods of time are common. Other than that, the repetitive motion of the thumb constantly being required to move up and down may lead to DeQuervain's Syndrome, which is pain and swelling over thumbs. Besides, as the players are always sitting while playing the games, deep vein thrombosis may be resulted due to blood clot in the lower limb vessels. Some players like placing their laptops on the lap while playing which may actually lead to superficial skin burnt and reduced fertility due to the hot laptop: The Lancet medical journal reports the case of a healthy 50-year old scientist, fully dressed, burned his genital area after placing his laptop on his lap for an hour; A recent research study showed that Long-term exposure to repetitive hot laptop use in the lap may have a negative impact upon fertility, specifically in young men. Apart from that, Carpal tunnel syndrome, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, Back pain and epileptic seizures are some other examples. Despite these physical diseases, game addicts may also experience different mental problems. For instance, they may develop insomnia because they could not stop themselves from thinking about the computer games even when they need to sleep. Depression and Aggression are also possible complications of excessive gaming, in which aggression will be discussed in the next paragraph.

Due to the interactive and engrossing nature of many computer games, aggression and violence has been a main problem developed by game addicts.  Many of these violent computer games, e.g. Mortal Combat, Marvel Vs. Capcom and Doom, are "First-person" and very interactive in the violence of slaughtering the opponent . This view of oneself as a shooter can desensitize the player to violence.

Many studies has investigated the effects of playing a violent versus a nonviolent video game, and revealed that violent-game players displayed more verbal and physical aggression. For instance, a study by Calvert and Tan showed that college students who had played a violent virtual reality game had a higher heart rate, reported more dizziness and nausea, and exhibited more aggressive thoughts in a posttest than those who had played a nonviolent game do. Karen E. Dill, Ph.D. & Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D did a similar study and concluded, ‘Violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations. It the short run, playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts.’

Moreover, many computer games seller have actually treat violence of a game as a selling point to teenagers that their focus on the game design is violence and they put Signs like "Real-life violence" on the box covers and arcade fronts. In the modern popular game Goldeneye 007, for example, bad guys no longer disappear in a cloud of smoke when killed. Instead they perform an elaborate maneuver when killed. For instance, those shot in the neck fall to their knees and then face while clutching at their throats.

There have been reports of criminals copying violent video game crimes. For example, On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two teenagers who enjoyed playing the bloody, shoot-them-up video game Doom which is a game licensed by the U.S. military to train soldiers to effectively kill, launched an assault on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, murdering 13 and wounding 23 before turning the guns on themselves. Before this tragedy happened, Harris and Klebold had already showed their interest in imitating the game that they made a videotape that was similar to their customized version of Doom where they were dressed in trench coats, carried guns, and killed school athletes. This real-life example shows the seriousness of violence induced by excessive playing of violent computer games.

Only considering the year 2010, there are already many violent crimes caused by computer addiction other than the couple mentioned earlier. A middle-school teen strangled his mother to death for forbidding him to play computer games and then committed suicide. A while ago, a game addict in his 20s killed his mother with a knife. Another compulsive game player in his 30s died after playing games nonstop for five days without a decent meal. All these illustrate the serious risk that computer addiction has posed on social security.

Apart from the disease and violence, another societal problem caused by computer games is Virtual crime. This is the virtual criminal act that takes place in a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) which requires huge investment in time and effort. As the popularity of computer games are increasing, virtual crimes are indeed on the rise as well. In South Korea, there is a report of 40,000 or so cybercrimes in the first six months of 2003, more than half (22,000) had something to do with online gaming. As this is a rising problem, many countries are actually now discussing about whether there need to implement laws covering the online dispute.

All in all, from what mentioned above, we can see that there are actually both pros and cons for playing computer games, and whether which one outweighs the other actually depends on the type of games played, duration of game playing, and our attitude towards the game. When used in moderation, the advantages can be very helpful. The negative effects are found with excessive play, so the benefits may outweigh any possible negative impact if the time spent is kept within reasonable limits. Also, we need to remain rational that games are virtual that they are different from the reality, and critically analyze the game content. By these, we can maximize the advantages and avoid the disadvantages and make the most out of playing computer games.

References

1. http://wpangel.com/health_center.html
2. http://www.bautforum.com/archive/index.php/t-36225.html
3. http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/html/Deep_Vein_Thrombosis.html#animation
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetitive_strain_injury
5. http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/hotlaptops.html
6. http://www.repetitive-strain.com/causes.html
7. http://wpangel.com/cvs.html
8. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1723
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_crime
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game#Educational_games
11. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/world/05/28/10/skorean-game-addicted-couple-jailed-starving-baby
12. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2928614
13. http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/virtual-crime-is-on-the-rise/2008/11/03/1225560726242.html
14. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3138456.stm
15. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2928614
16. Calvert, Sandra L., & Tan, Siu-Lan. (1994). “Impact of virtual reality on young adults' physiological arousal and aggressive thoughts: Interaction versus observation”, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 15(1), 125-139. PS 527 971
17. Sheynkin ,Y., Jung, M., Yoo, P., Schulsinger, D. and Komaroff, E. (2005) “Increase in scrotal temperature in laptop computer users”, Hum Reprod., 20 (2) 452-5.
18. Ostenson, C. G. (2002). "Lap burn due to laptop computer." Lancet 360(9346): 1704.
19. Rani A. Desai, Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, Dana Cavallo, Marc N. Potenza ,“Video-Gaming Among High School Students: Health Correlates, Gender Differences, and Problematic Gaming”, Pediatrics published online Nov 15, 2010

Performance Criteria of Google Search

Google was started by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two PhD students at Stanford University in 1997 as a research project. It became the leading search engine 10 years ago. Such is its popularity today, that it receives several hundred million queries each day through its many different services.

Google search engine accepts queries and tries to find the answer to the query. After doing so it displays the results on the result page. Other than text, one can also search for images and videos. Apart from its searching capability, Google has many other special features that make Google even more special. These features include similar synonym words, weather forecasts, time zones, stock quotes, maps, earthquake data, movie showtimes, airports, home listings, sports scores, news, shopping, Gmail etc. There are other special features for numbers including ranges (e.g. 70-73), prices, temperature, money/unit conversion (e.g. 12.3cm in inches), calculations (e.g. 3*4 – sqrt 6), package tracking, patents, area codes and language translation of displayed pages etc.

These features make Google so special that it becomes almost impossible to stay without using this search engine. The popularity of Google means that it must have an excellent performance otherwise people would not be using it. Considering the number of users it has, it can be stated that Google has definitely not disappointed many. According to Alexa Traffic Rank, Google is the most viewed site today. Keeping in mind the salience of user experience associated to Google, this essay would basically focus on the empirical aspects of Google’s performance.

While judging the performance of Google one of the most important things is the run time of the search. Run time basically is the duration of the period in which the computer program executes itself. Google has a run time which has amazed many of its users. It takes very little time to display the results of the search, which sometimes is even less than the human reaction time.

Furthermore, for any query, Google can display the first thousand results with up to a hundred displayed per page. The option to specify the number of searches is only available if ‘Instant Search’ is not enabled. If ‘Instant Search’ is enabled, regardless of how many searches you want, only 10 are displayed per page.

Whenever a person starts typing anything on Google search, Google has this special function that displays several related texts that match the initial characters of what one has typed. This makes it quite simple for the user as now the person can directly choose any of the related searches that match the text one was about to type. However, this is not always the case as sometimes the related texts do not match what the user was about to write in the search box.

If a person does not know the spelling of a word or phrase or makes a typing error while typing in the search box and if it’s close to the original correct word or phrase, Google has another function that points out the mistake by displaying ‘Did you mean: ‘ followed by the correct word or phrase. This saves a lot of time as the user immediately knows what mistake he/she has made.

Google also has this feature of displaying the related queries that have already been previously searched, on the result page when a person is searching for something. However this is not always the case as Google might not be able to find any related searches of that particular data.


Google compiles information that makes it searchable via the internet. It not only caches or indexes pages but also take snapshots of the other different file types such as PDF, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Flash SWF, plain text files and so on. It allows the user to access the file even if they don’t have the corresponding viewer application as the cached version is converted to (x) HTML. This results in the saving of precious amounts of time and resources of the user as the user does not need to download the specialist softwares.

On the other hand, Google Search may also be the source of user disutility instead of satisfaction. Google places a cookie on each registered user’s computer. This enables Google to track the person’s search history and retain the data for a year. For this reason it has been criticized a lot as people feel they do not have any privacy left.

Google’s Page Rank algorithm has been criticized a lot. This is because the relevance of the search is not always accurate. For example if one wants to find information regarding Michael Jackson, a member of the faculty of HKU, Google will display results of the famous American singer Michael Jackson first. Thus, the order of the search result is not always how you want it to be. Ordinary users like us tend to rely on the first pages of the Google search. Even the journalists rely on the first pages as they assume that everything listed is not important. A source tells us that Google helps us see only a small part of what one could see if one uses other research tools. The same source also said that Page Rank algorithm can be influenced by individual views of the Google staff as only they get to edit the information and decide what will go online and in which form.

In my opinion Google has many special features. It also has functions that enhance its performance and makes it user friendly and at the same time popular with the users. Moreover, it has an extremely short run time. However it has a few drawbacks as well as it is not perfect. The information we get from Google can be biased as it can be influenced by the Google staff. Also the order of the search is not always like how we want it to be. The privacy of users is also affected as the specially placed cookies enable Google to track vital information. The snapshots for SWF and text files cannot be converted into (x) HTML. I believe that despite the drawbacks, Google still has become one of the most important applications of our daily life. And if Google overcomes all these issues it will be even closer to becoming the perfect search engine.

References

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_search_features
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Google
3. http://www.alexa.com/topsites
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
5. http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/2-16-2005-65844.asp
6. http://www.searchenginehistory.com/#google

Computer Games Change the World: Financial and Business Changes

The development of computer games has provided many business opportunities to the world. Many companies have successfully targeted this potential market and made a lot of profit. Similarly, individual game players have also used this golden opportunity to earn some money. But what big changes were actually brought by the introduction of computer games for both individuals and companies to the business market? For easier understanding, I would take an online game called “Audition” which was developed by one of the Hong Kong game developer, Gameone Online Entertainment Group Limited [1], as an example on how computer games change the business market throughout this part.

From companies’ side, the most significant change to the business world is the launch of different online games that require regular subscription payment, as there were no firms that will focus on the online games business before. Apart from subscription payment, some online game developers have also introduced “virtual items” , such as virtual money, inside the game that require real dollars to purchase. Therefore, in order to play such kinds of online games, game players need to pay certain amount of fees. There are two common ways for the online game companies to charge users, one is by periodic payment such as monthly payment, and another one is by selling game credit points through some game packages which are usually available for sale from convenience stores. For the example of Audition, it is currently using game packages as a way to sell its virtual items like virtual clothing and virtual money to game players from places like 7-11 [2].

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Besides the launch of charged online games, computer games developers also finance their budget to advertise their products through channels like magazine, television or even Facebook. Audition has also invested substantially to their advertisement. They have launched their first television commercial at TVB on June 13, 2008 [3]. Also, setting up interest group and links at the advertisement column at Facebook. All these promotion activities have helped Audition to gain popularity and hence more potential players would be attracted to try the game and make money contribution to the company.

The introduction of computer games not only brings financial changes to game developers, it also brings business opportunities to individual game players. For instance, trading virtual items in reality is the most common one. Sometimes the virtual items even cannot be purchased by real cash, but can only be obtained by luck or continuous playing individually. These virtual items were usually regarded as “rare” or “valuable” inside the game. This has, however, boosted the trading of virtual items between players in reality by cash. In the game Audition, the virtual clothing and other virtual items that used to customize the virtual character are also transferrable inside the game. Therefore, this created demand and supply of the virtual items between players. The potential buyers and sellers usually search their needs from online forums like Discuss.com and Uwants. After they have found their buyer/ seller, they will negotiate the trading details and make transaction subsequently.

Apart from trading virtual items between individual game players, the rise of computer game also lead to different kinds of public competitions. Some game developers would launch regular computer competitions or tournaments that open to the public, usually there would be a prize or reward for the winner. For example, Audition had launched a competition for the 12th ACGHK 2010 at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre during July 30 to August 3 this year. Winner has got a prize which is a guitar simulator and a few virtual game packages [4].

To conclude, the development of computer games not only brought a commercial opportunity to game developers such as launching charged online games and sales of virtual products, but also provided an environment for individuals to trade virtual items and to participate in open games competition.

Reference

1. http://www.gameone.com/intro.php
2. http://shop.hk.9you.com/au/
3. http://news.hk.9you.com/article/au/readnews1.php?artid=807
4. http://news.hk.9you.com/article/au/readnews2.php?artid=2134

Carrying a computer all the time? The Pervasive Use of Smart Phones

Mary McDowell, Executive Vice President for Mobile Phones at Nokia, states that “80% of the world’s population is now within range of a cell-tower – people aren’t going to use PCs to connect [to the Internet], they’re going to use affordable mobile devices”.

Few years back with the inventions of portable, compact computers the business transactions became very convenient. But today this technology is being replaced by smart phones at a rapid pace. When asked 79% of the respondents cited the smart phone as a means of organizing the business than the office PC’s or the laptop. According to another survey 38% of Chinese mobile subscribers access the Internet from their hand.

According to a research by Ypartnership/Harrison Group which involved of 2,524 households, three in ten mobile phones in USA are internet enabled phones. One in five of them (19 %) had downloaded travel-related application. Travel app is a particularly easy and efficient way to get information for the business individuals. Previously laptops were used to access to any information. For example with the invention of TripIt, iPhone travel app that keep routes updated whether one is online, offline or in airplane mode have made the trip for the business individual more feasible. According to a research about 47% travelers use GPS to find the way to destination. Hence the use of laptops is becoming outdated from the lives of the business individual in looking forward for the information about the destiny of their business trip. The maps are available in the phone which can be conveniently accessed.

Business individuals use smart phones to keep track of their daily appointments. Applications such as reminder in the smart phone play the role of a secretary. The functions on the smart phone for example a calendar let the user create a reminder and add details of the meeting. In his busy schedule, the business man might forget but the phone serves as his assistant. In order to run the business successfully, one should show up for the meetings on time. Otherwise this will have an adverse impact on the business. Clients may consider one as non-serious or unprofessional.

The smart phones are further used in organizing the business by pairing them up with the computer. The phone can be connected using a USB cable or via Bluetooth. An individual will stay updated with the information. The data can then be processed in text editing softwares which are easily available in phones. The information can be accessed when offline or immediate access in a meeting. So it gets very convenient to access the information just by clicking few keys rather than to carry a laptop. With the push of a button, one has instant access to a client’s email address, phone number, instant messenger name and much more. This becomes very efficient when contacting a client when one is not at the office. With the smart phone a business individual is always in reach of the co-workers and clients. There are no barriers of internet usage which occur while using e-mail service.

With the data and contacts the individual can work at any place whether he is relaxing at home or travelling in a car. The usage is very convenient too as the personnel just have to carry a small device of negligible weight when compared to laptops.

The next question which arises is “does a smart phone have a fax service?” The fax is not the first priority when a business individual has internet access via his smart phone which allows him to e-mail the important documents. The documents can be saved or read in the portable document format (pdf). Fax services such as “Myfax”, “efax” can be approached which allow the user to send and receive faxes on a smart phone.

The camera in the smart phone is used for video conferences with the clients and workers. The smart phone can be used as a mini copy machine as important document can be captured via camera. Some phone cameras, such as the one on the Omnia/Omnia II, include a Text mode setting to make it easier to photograph a document. In some phones, camera can further be used for the efficient uploading of the directory. For example in Omnia there is a business card reader called Smart Read; with this software we can photograph a card and the information is extracted and directly put in the contacts phone book. It makes use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program that converts images to text.

If one is in a field, images of the items can be taken relevant to job and can be mailed to the office. It can even be sent to the client or used in a meeting to give a clearer view to the client rather than describing. Picture of the clients can be taken and later can be assorted in the directory along with their names. In this way it gets very easy to remember the people in future.

Due to the priority given to the smart phones over laptops, the software companies are devising new programs to further increase the efficiency of phones in business organization. One such software is “Google Finance”. It enables fast access to finance data, charts, and reports. With the aid of graphs and charts a person can predict the future trend. This is immensely useful in stock market and in other fields. In stocks a person can evaluate a constant change in stocks rate by device carried in a pocket (smart phones). This enables them to take quick decisions thus decreasing the reaction time. The individual can perform market research. This can in return save a particular company from potential loss as a person can understand the impacts and risks of investment. Furthermore the overall economy will also be strengthened. This is because of the integrated approach of the individuals in managing the capital due to the convenient access to market analysis with the aid of smart phones.

The smart phones on the other hand are not user friendly. They have a small screen of few inches and small keyboard size. It gets tiring while using them for a long time. At the end of the day, the individual may not be able to concentrate on the work and think intellectually. This may further lead to commitments and transaction which may result in a potential loss.

More over from the other aspect I will say smart phones have become essential part of one’s life. A person could not take a day off from using his phone. As a result there is no designated number of hours a person works daily. There is no clear delineation between home life and work life. This further impacts the relationships and give rise to social problems. Additionally this will affect the health of the individual. As the person is under continuous stress and workload with little leisure time, he may suffer from health drawbacks such as psychological problems, diabetes mellitus, cluster headache, blood pressure and heart diseases.

The websites viewed on the smart phones are edited by the software to optimize the web pages for the small screen of the phone. There may be some important data missing. The small size of the screen and the scrolling of the page become exhausting for an individual. As a result a person may ignore some information. This again is an important factor with can have unfavorable consequences.

The cost of using the smart phone for business purposes is relatively higher than using the computers. This is because of the long-term contracts between the users and cell phone providers. According to a research, the internet service provided increases the cost by $70 to $100 for the user. This tells us that small businesses cannot make use of smart phones to organize their business efficiently. So this can be regarded as a drawback. It can be concluded that this technology can only be availed by big enterprises.

Some users find the smart phones complicated. It takes time for them to learn and adjust to new features. As the new technology is emerging this means the user has to spent considerate amount of his time in learning the new programs. Handsets of different companies have unique features and graphics. So as a result it gets difficult for the user when he switches on a new handset. This problem is very frequent as the average life of phone is one year.

The smart phones have several advantages as discussed above but on the other hand there are many setbacks. According to my perspective the unique features of the smart phones outnumbers the drawbacks. The immense importance given to the smart phones can be judged by the sale of the smart phones even during the recession period. According to a research firm NPD Group “the high-end devices, which assemble computer-like features into handheld devices, accounted for 23% of U.S. mobile phone purchases by consumers in the fourth quarter of 2008, up from 4% two years earlier.” Due to the increasing use of the smart phones, the worldwide sales of smart phones grew 30 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 53 million phones. The number of smart phones in use globally is expected to hit 1.7 billion by 2014.

Under the light of the above discussion, the success of smart phones as mobile computing platforms can be attributed to the ‘micro- form’ factor. It is a tremendous benefit for convenience and portability. The smart phone for a business individual provides a dual function of a mobile and as an organizer or a laptop. Due to this psychological factor the use of smart phones for business is increasing at a rapid pace.


Reference

1. http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/smartphones/?p=1364
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