William Semaan

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Wiki Entry #1 - Musical Robot Band

Al-Jazari was a prominent Islamic mechanical engineer and mathematician from northern Mesopotamia, who lived during the Islamic Golden Age. Al Jazari served as the chief engineer at the Artuklu Palace, which was the residence of many rulers of the Turkish Artuqid dynasty. He was known as more of a craftsman than a practical engineer, where he assembled machinery by trial and error rather than theoretical calculation. Al Jazari’s most popular work was his Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, which consists of a large number of mechanical devices and instructions on how to construct them. While many of his inventions now appear to be insignificant, the most important part of Al Jazari’s machines is the mechanisms, methods, ideas and design features which they engage. Some of his inventions and mechanisms include crankshaft and crank-slider mechanisms, escapement mechanisms in a rotating wheel, the segmental gear, Saqiya chain pumps, candle clocks, water clocks, and so on.

Al Jazari’s work explains fountains and musical droids in which water alternated from one tank to another at hourly intervals. This was achieved through his revolutionary use of hydraulic switching. One of Al Jazari’s most famous mechanical designs includes his “musical robot band.” It consisted of a boat filled with two drummers, a harpist, and flutist who were all automatic, mechanical musicians that floated on any body of water. It was mainly used to entertain guests at royal parties at the Artuklu Palace. The most significant aspect to the musical robot band is the fact that it was an early programmable automatic mechanical device. The most impressive part of the mechanism was the rotating cylindrical beam with pegs bulging out of it. These pegs bump into little levers that operate the percussion. The significant point of drummer model is the fact that the drummer can be programmed to play many different rhythms and drum patterns if the pegs are moved around. The robots even performed more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection, according to Charles B. Fowler.

Al Jazari’s work is tremendously important to the history of the digital age and computers. His methods, ideas, and designs are important to the world of engineering and mechanics, but his early design of a programmable mechanism is most significant with regards to programmable devices, such as computers. The most amazing fact about Al Jazari’s engineering is the fact that he developed a programmable device as early as in the 1100’s, hundreds of years before the first computer was developed. This is the perfect example of how far technology has come, from as early as the 1100’s to what we have now. Engineering and programmable mechanisms started as mechanical levers and rotating beams. These mechanisms has been documented and built upon by engineers after him, and this method has repeated itself for hundreds of years, and still continues today. This method of evolution will continue in the future and is the way our society has been able to master the art of mechanical engineering, and taken us into the digital age.

Reference "Articles58." The University of Sheffield. Web. 31 May 2010. <http://www.shef.ac.uk/marcoms/eview/articles58/robot.html>. "History of Sciences in the Islamic World - Light of Islam." Home. Web. 30 May 2010. <http://home.swipnet.se/islam/articles/HistoryofSciences.htm>. "The Museum of Music: A History of Mechanical Instruments -- Fowler 54 (2): 45." Music Educators Journal. Web. 31 May 2010. <http://mej.sagepub.com/cgi/content/citation/54/2/45>.

Wiki Entry #2 - Space Quest

Grand Theft Auto, The Sims, and Rainbow Six, are just a few of the computer games I used to play as a kid and teenager. If you ever wondered what kids who grew up in the 80s used to play, it was probably Space Quest. Space Quest consists of a series of six humorous science fiction computer games. The game is about the adventures of an unlucky janitor named Roger Wilco, who travels through the galaxy for “truth, justice and really clean floors." (1) The games features a goofy sense of humor based on silly themes and wacky storylines. Wilco, a bumbling loser, is usually depicted as an underdog who keeps on saving the universe, usually unrecognized while being punished for minor regulations in the process. (1)

Two video game designers named Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy originally created space Quest for Sierra On-Line, a video game developing company. Their intent was to parody both science fiction films such as Star Wars and Star Trek, as well as poking fun at pop-culture sensations like McDonalds and Microsoft. (2) Scott Murphy stated that every game Sierra On-Line would create was medieval and serious and they wanted to create a game that was more fun. The most unique part of this game was making the death amusing. “…I mean if the player is gonna die or fail, they should at least get a laugh out of it,” Scott Murphy stated. (2) They came up with this idea because most computer games around that time were mostly adventure games which usually involve a great deal of frustration for the player when the your character dies or fails. Murphy and Crowe, who call themselves “Two Guys from Andromeda,” designed many humorous ways for the main character, Wilco, to die that may lead the players to actually go back and look for a new way to die just to see what happens. (2) Scott and Mark created a short demo for Ken William, the co-founder of Sierra On-Line, and they were given the green light to finish their project. The first two Space Quests were developed in Adventure Game Interpreter, Sierra’s own programming language. Space Quest III was written in Sierra’s new Sierra Creative Interpreter, which introduced new 3-D capabilities. Space Quest IV, released in 1991, marked a revolution in terms of graphics by increasing the number of colors from 16 to 256. (1)

Space Quest, although not revolutionary, was important to the history of the digital age. It marked the beginning of a long evolutionary road of the computer game world, which would later transform into the video game world, which lead to a multi-billion dollar industry by the new millennium. There were a handful of games that were created before Space Quest, but Space Quest marked the beginning of new genres of computer games that mixed different aspects of other genres, such as satires of science fiction with pop-culture, in a computer game world dominated by mostly the adventure genre. Scott Crowe and Ken Williams used creativity and American popular culture to create a hit computer game that was truly amusing and clever.


References (1) SpaceQuest.Net - The Ultimate Space Quest Fansite! Web. 13 June 2010. <http://www.spacequest.net/>.

(2) Way, The. "Scott Murphy - Interview." Adventure Classic Gaming - ACG - Adventure Games, Interactive Fiction Games - Reviews, Interviews, Features, Previews, Cheats, Galleries, Forums. Web. 13 June 2010. <http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/234/>.


Wiki Entry #3 - Blogs

Communication has come a long way on the Internet. One modern form of communication on the Internet where people are able to post their opinion, debate, and discuss amongst each other on whatever topic it may be. This form of communication is called a ‘blog’ and is usually a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually monitored by an administrator with regular entries of commentary, opinions, descriptions of events, or other material such as audio or video, normally displayed in reverse chronological order. (1)

There are a few different types of blogs that work in similar ways but may differ in content or the way the content is delivered or written. Personal blogs are a sort of personal, ongoing diary or commentary written by an individual is considered the traditional most common blog. People may comment on that individual’s blog post, sharing their opinion or thoughts on the content matter. Another type of blogs are those classified by genre. These blogs focus on a particular subject such as travel blogs, movie blogs, music blogs, etc. These types of sites are for the sole purpose of blogging, there are many more popular websites, ones that you may visit every, that have included a blog as a part of their website to encourage debate and dialogue between people about the subject matter. Today, most news websites such as CNN, New York Times, The Detroit Free Press, etc. all include a blog after their new articles so people may post their opinion or debate about the article they have just read. (2) Also media sites such as YouTube or IMDB include blogs in their websites so that people may discuss the subject matter, such as their thought on a video they just watched.

Before blogging became popular, Internet forum software created running conversations with ‘threads.’ Threads are similar to blogs with the fact that they are topical connections between messages on a website, but still not the same. The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where individuals would keep some sort of running account of their personal lives. Justin Hall began personal blogging in 1994 as a student at Swarthmore College and is recognized as one of the earliest bloggers. (3) Early blogs were plainly manually updated parts of some common website, however the evolution of tools used to facilitate the production of web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the process easier for people to use and allowed more people to participate. (4)

Blogs are very important to the history of the digital age because they are a prime example of how the Internet has become a place where people all around the world may discuss, debate, or post their thoughts about any subject matter, where all that is required is being in a Wi-Fi hotspot. Blogs connects people together with the same interests where they may share opinions with each other, some which may be useful for others. Blogs have even evolved from personal diary type entries to shorter, personal thoughts, where websites such as Twitter or Facebook’s wall have came from. Blogs have revolutionized the way people in the World Wide Web communicate and I am excited to see how it will evolve in the future.

References

(1) "Rebecca Blood :: Weblogs: A History And Perspective." What's in Rebecca's Pocket? Web. 27 June 2010. <http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html>.

(2) Journalism, Quality. "The News About the Internet | The New York Review of Books." Home | The New York Review of Books. Web. 27 June 2010. <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/aug/13/the-news-about-the-internet/>.

(3) "Time to Get a Life -- Pioneer Blogger Justin Hall Bows out at 31." San Francisco Bay Area — News, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Classifieds: SFGate. 20 Feb. 2005. Web. 27 June 2010. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/20/MNGBKBEJO01.DTL>.

(4) Wortham, Jenna. "After 10 Years of Blogs, the Future's Brighter Than Ever." Wired News. Web. 27 June 2010. <http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/news/2007/12/blog_anniversary>.



WIKI ARTICLE WILLIAM SEMAAN HST 250

Abstract

Ever since the creation of the Internet, the potential for social networking rose dramatically. After the first social networks websites were created, their popularity skyrocketed. New and improved social networking websites soon followed and changed the way people around the world communicate. The Internet sparked a social networking revolution and has brought the world together with websites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc., enabling one to start new friendships and maintain old ones all through the click of the mouse. Social networking websites have become a multi-million dollar business and provide users many different forms of social networking, such as dating social networks, blogging social networks, music social networks, and more. With the amount of people that now use the Internet, users of social networking websites are at an all time high, and the world of internet social networking continues to evolve.


  WIKI ARTICLE - HOW THE INTERNET HAS CHANGED SOCIAL NETWORKING

Robert Kerrigan once said, “The way of the world is meeting people through other people.” (1) This quote captures the significance and the reason why social networks are important to have in our society, and why they have become popular to this day. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, humans must meet certain requirements to survive in the world as a human and social being. (2) As the world continues to advance technologically, one phenomenon has tremendously succeeded in bringing people closer together: the Internet. Through social networking, families, friends, and strangers looking to meet new people have found ways to enhance their lives. There are many websites that have been created because social networking has recently become a competitive market due to people’s growing desire for them. Websites such as, Facebook, MySpace, and eHarmony are examples of immensely popular social networking websites that allow people to keep in touch or meet others. With people consistently joining social networks, many involved in more than one, people around the world are closer together than they have ever been before, and this unity continues to grow today and will continue even into the future.

Before the Internet, social networks were not nearly as large of a part of everyday life as they are today. Social networks before the Internet consisted of face-to-face interactions that happened maybe once a week, once a month, or even once a year. Social networks then consisted of sports clubs, fraternities, organizations, etc. The only connections people experienced occurred when members of the same social network verbally communicated or only occurred to people who were affiliated with the same network, sometimes not even acquainted. Today the Internet has allowed us to interact with members of our social network at the click of a mouse. Today there are hundreds of different social networking websites, connecting people together all over the world in the comfort of their homes. Social networks on the web allow people to stay in touch with friends or family that may be in different countries, they could help find a single individual, their soul mate, or even spur an aspiring musician into fame. Although it wasn’t long ago that the phenomenon of social networking came into existence, it is important that we learn how the first social networking websites were created.

The idea that computers linked electronically could form the basis of computer mediated social communication and networking was suggested early. The first social networking websites focused on bringing people together to interact through chat rooms, sharing personal information, sharing interests, usually done by way of personal homepage publishing tools. These early websites, such as Geocities, The WELL, or Theglobe.com could be described better as generalized online communities than social networks. (3) Some sites focused on indirect ties between people, such as linking users to each other’s e-mail addresses. User profiles could be created where you could send messages to those on your ‘friends list’ by adding users with similar interests as you, who are usually recommended by the website. New networking ideas were quickly developed by the end of the 1990s, where users could search for and add their own friends rather than by recommendations. These new networking systems began to blossom with the emergence of websites like Friendster in 2002, which resulted in the expansion of their service from national to worldwide. (4) Friendster was followed by MySpace, which became the most popular social networking website of them all by 2005 with 22 million members and a growth rate of 2 million a month, receiving more page views than Google. (5) Facebook emerged in 2004, which has since become the largest social networking site in the world. (6)

Social networking websites were rising in popularity since the 90’s, but since the creation of Facebook and MySpace they have become a worldwide phenomenon to this today. There are numerous aspects to Facebook and MySpace’s similar structure that has made them so popular. In general, both sites allow users to create an elaborate profile for themselves, usually starting by uploading a picture of themselves, and then listing some basic personal information about yourself including your interests, the school you attend, the city you live in, etc. Facebook, MySpace, and most other social networking websites’ structure can be broken down into two broad categories: internal social networking and external social networking. External social networking includes the connection of all participants of the websites, who you may search for by name, city, school, interests, or other means (depending if they have made their profile private or not). Internal social networking is the smaller connection and interaction between a users ‘friends’ and the relationship that individual maintains with his or her friends. Internal social networking is a user’s inner circle of friends where depending on the site, you may have access too more information about that user including personal pictures, blog posts, status updates, and more. (7)

Although very similar, MySpace and Facebook both have their own unique features that have resulted in their domination of the social networking world. To describe the features of MySpace in depth, you have to start with their trademark mood feature. This feature allows the user to depict what type of mood they are in by choosing from a selection of emoticons. If an individual changes his mood to sad, a sad emoticon will appear on that person’s profile that looks like a face with a frown. A user may customize the background of his profile with any picture or theme, which usually reflects that person’s interests. MySpace allows users to upload personal pictures as well that they may post on their profile. The most useful tool in finding and learning about new friends is the ‘details’ section. Under this section they list their hometown, orientation, status (whether or not they are in a relationship), ethnicity, zodiac sign, education, if they smoke or drink, income, even their body type. The information under the ‘details’ section gives users a basic understanding of the person, which is usually available for all users to see so they may decide if they want to add that particular user to their friends list. (5)

One of most popular and unique features of MySpace that attracted an entirely new base of members is the MySpace Music section. This section, different from normal profiles, includes a sort of separate MySpace reserved for aspiring musicians where they allow artists to upload their music. Musicians who are unsigned can use MySpace Music to sell their music using SNOCAP, which has become immensely popular among MySpace users. Due to the popularity, in 2005 they launched their own record label, MySpace records in an effort to discover unknown talent lurking in MySpace Music. Whether the artist is already known or not, they may upload their songs onto MySpace and give listening access to millions of people on a daily basis. (5)

Although similar to MySpace, Facebook introduced many of its own groundbreaking features that propelled it past MySpace to the top of the social networking world. Originally intended to help college students get to know each other, it soon expanded due to its rapid growth in members to include a heavy majority of university students, followed by high school students, and finally anyone over 13. The most significant difference between MySpace and Facebook is the amount of interaction available. Facebook includes numerous ways in which users may interact with each other, but before you may interact with other users, you must be ‘friends’ with them.

In order to become friends with other users, you must request their friendship and they must accept. One of the wonders of Facebook is the simplicity in searching and finding people. If a user wanted to search for a long lost friend, Facebook makes it incredibly easy due to the fact that every member is connected with a certain network, whether it is a school, college, workplace, or city. A user may perform an advanced search depending on the amount of information known about the desired person. If an individual wanted to search for their friend who moved to a different state or country, all you would need to know is their first and/or last name along with either the school they attend, the city they live in, or some other affiliation. The search may result in a list of numerous other users with similar names, but after skimming through the list the individual should be able to find his or her long lost friend. (8)

Once a user becomes friends with you, you are able to interact with that user in numerous ways. A frequently used feature on Facebook is the ‘Wall’, a space on every user’s profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user, or everyone to see or limited people depending on that user’s privacy settings. Recently, Facebook updated the Wall so that users can post attachments on other users’ walls, such as pictures, videos, even music. A ‘Status’ is another feature of Facebook that allows users to write a short message on their own Wall, usually informing their friends of their whereabouts, actions, or thoughts. (8)

One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the ‘Photos’ feature, where users may upload an unlimited amount photos and organize them into albums. Privacy settings make it so that only friends may see the albums. An additional feature of the ‘Photos’ application is the ability to ‘tag’ or label users in a picture. For example, if there is a picture uploaded by a user that shows his or her friend, the user may tag that friend in the photo which sends the photo and a notification to that friend so that he or she can view the photo as well. The last major feature available on Facebook is instant messaging. Facebook has their own version of instant messaging, where it shows you everyone who is currently logged in and if they are available or idle. (6)

These features provided by Facebook make it incredibly easy for users to keep in touch their real friends who also have a Facebook account no matter where they live. If a user were curious as to what an old friend was up to, the user simply has log onto Facebook and view their profile. On that user’s friend’s profile you can see his pictures from the weekend, his status, maybe even post a message on his or her Wall. This is much easier than giving that old pal a phone call, which many might not be very comfortable doing. Another way users are informed of what their friends are currently up to is the ‘News Feed.’ The ‘News Feed’ appears on every user’s home page and highlights information such as profile changes, upcoming events, and even the birthdays of the user’s friends. Although most users personally know many of their friends on Facebook, many users may meet new people through another feature. Whenever a user is viewing another individual’s profile page, whether they are your friend or not, a small section in the corner shows all the mutual friends that you share with this person. Some may discover that they have many mutual friends with a user they do not know, which could sometimes lead to them becoming friends. (8)

Facebook and MySpace dominate the social networking world today by connecting people through common interests and social interaction. However, the web has opened up the ability for new and modern forms of social networking. Twitter is a perfect example of a more modern social network that takes on a different purpose than just connecting and maintaining relationships with friends. Twitter mixes social networking and microblogging, enabling its users to send and read other messages by users called ‘tweets.’ Tweets are text-based posts that can be up to 140 characters displayed on the users profile page. Tweets are publically visible by default, but users may choose whether they would like to restrict their messages to friends only. Instead of adding friends like you would on Facebook or MySpace, you can subscribe to other tweeters, which is known as ‘following’ or followers. A dedicated user updates his tweets throughout the day, usually consisting of the users whereabouts, actions, and thoughts, similar to the ‘status’ on Facebook. Tweets made by people you follow show up on your profile page in a way similar to Facebook’s ‘News Feed.’(9)

Twitter differs from other social networks because not all of the users you follow are not necessarily people you know, many people like to follow their favorite celebrities or even random people they stumble upon. Twitter symbolizes evolution in online social networking, because it takes the connection to the next level. Instead of the site being based on interaction between ‘friends,’ it represents a more intimate connection between users and could be called more of an online community. Tweets from users they may follow appear in chronological order on their home page and might consist of interesting new links, music recommendations, or a few inconsequential thoughts. (10)

Dating networks are another type of service that has emerged by way of the Internet and operate in the form of social networking. Before the Internet, there were not very many efficient methods for singles to search for a person of interest to date, which at the time usually happened by speed dating, blind dates set up by mutual friends, or singles events. Today there are numerous online dating services where you may find a person based on mutual interests and matching. eHarmony is an example of a popular online dating service that finds mates by way of compatibility. They first ask applicants to answer a bunch of personal questions and match people up by compatibility through what they call a scientific approach to a deeply personal and emotional process. (11) Since the company’s launch in 2000, eHarmony currently has about 20 million members (12), and averages 236 marriages between members every day. (12)

Whether you are trying to find your soul mate or just trying to keep in touch with a relative abroad, social networking websites have changed the way people around the world socially interact. The Internet has revolutionized social networks, which since their beginning have grown almost exponentially. Those who we used to refer as nerds or computer geeks, people like Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, and Tom Anderson, the creator of MySpace, were visionaries and are the masterminds behind these social networks. Who would of known that in the 90’s when we thought these antisocial geeks were rotting their brains in front of a screen and keyboard, they really were developing something that would become an omnipresent cultural phenomenon. This revolution that quickly spread all over the globe truly brought people together around the world. Who knows, maybe this could lead to international tolerance and understanding. There is one thing that is for certain, and that is moving forward with this social networking movement. I don’t know what is in store for us in the future, but I am positive we will be reading about the field’s continuing development, one status update at a time.

Work Cited

(1) "Quotes by Robert Kerrigan :: Finest Quotes." Source for Famous Quotes, Inspirational Quotes & Sayings :: Finest Quotes. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://www.finestquotes.com/author_quotes-author-Robert Kerrigan-page-0.htm>.

(2) "MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS." Home | Honolulu Community College. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/maslow.htm>.

(3) "The Industry Standard - InfoWorld." Business Technology, IT News, Product Reviews and Enterprise IT Strategies - InfoWorld. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard>.

(4) "Facebook,Myspace Statistics « TechRadar." TechRadar. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://techradar1.wordpress.com/2008/01/11/facebookmyspace-statistics/>.

(5) Sellers, Patricia. "MySpace Cowboys - September 4, 2006." Business, Financial, Personal Finance News - CNNMoney.com. 04 Sept. 2006. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/09/04/8384727/index.htm>.

(6) "Statistics | Facebook." Welcome to Facebook. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics>. "There's a List for That." Twitter Blog. Web. 01 July 2010. <http://blog.twitter.com/2009/10/theres-list-for-that.html>.

(7) "Social Business Planning: Aligning Internal with External | Futurelab – We Are Marketing and Customer Strategy Consultants with a Passion for Profit and Innovation." Futurelab | We Are Marketing and Customer Strategy Consultants with a Passion for Profit and Innovation. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://www.futurelab.net/blogs/marketing-strategy-innovation/2010/04/social_business_planning_align.html>.

(8)"Facebook Is Off-the-wall | Facebook." The Facebook Blog | Facebook. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=3532972130>.

(9)"There's a List for That." Twitter Blog. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://blog.twitter.com/2009/10/theres-list-for-that.html>.

(10) "The 12-Minute Definitive Guide to Twitter | Dev.aol.com." Dev.aol.com | AOL Developer Network. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://dev.aol.com/article/2007/04/definitive-guide-to-twitter>.

(11) Palmer, Jason. "BBC NEWS | Technology | How to Live and Love Online." BBC NEWS | News Front Page. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7651293.stm>.

(12) "Matchmaker, Matchmaker Make Me a Match . . .if the Algorithms Agree - Times Online." The Times | UK News, World News and Opinion. Web. 02 July 2010. <http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article4887501.ece>.