Since there really
isn't a major assignment I figured for this entry I would write about a few
topics at a much shorter length. Last week’s last class was actually quite fun.
As a university student I had never really thought about coding or website
design of any kind, in a number of years. The last time I even attempted coding
anything was in mid-high school trying to get basic html to work at home after
learning in an introductory computer programming class. Despite the difference
in the type of coding, I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with some basics of
coding like some of the others in the class. This really made me realize just
how much more work is involved between simple text based webpages and the more
advanced like YouTube which has embedded video, constantly updating suggestion
bar, and in video links.[i]
I can’t imagine the work involved in the early days of macromedia flash based
websites, when that technology was initially introduced to the marketplace.
This makes me think more carefully of how to properly put together my course
project and appreciate the level of work involved with creating an interesting
and well thought out web page or exhibit.
On far different note,
our class spurred some more interesting technology focused conversation namely the
novel “Nuromancer” A key entry in science
friction literature. This brief discussion made me remember the technology
focused film, War Games. “War Games” was a 1980's sci-fi movie
focused on a young computer genius who ends up hacking a NORAD supercomputer
and challenges it to a game of thermonuclear war.[ii]
This movie, although before my time, is really interesting and entertaining for
both its topic or more specifically for its portrayal of technology at the time
and how many people viewed computers, especially home computers, as the cutting
edge of technology. This film's portrayal of hacking and coding is actually not
too farfetched as it depicts simple command lines and key phrases. As with
almost any movie over five to ten years old, the perception of “modern
technology” is off, even when the technology is claiming to be
"futuristic". I find it funny that people claim to know that this
depiction of technology is wrong or outdated when the general viewing audience
has no idea how new technology works.
For our society that is so dependent on technology, it seems only right that
we should at least try and understand how some of it works and not make fun of
Hollywood's renditions of hacking or coding.
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