Reaction to Klosterman

I do agree somewhat with what Klosterman is saying.  I do believe that in a lot of the sitcoms that there is unnecessary laughter.  I do find some of the jokes in sitcoms funny, whereas others are not.  There are just some parts to certain shows that are funny and that are not.  I do not personally laugh every time that canned laughter is presented in a show.  I do laugh sometimes though.  I do think that we as Americans do laugh just to be polite sometimes.  If someone is giving a speech and they start off with joke, it is just assumed you should laugh even if it was not funny.  Laughter in this case is just used to make the environment more enjoyable.  If no one laughs at the speakers remarks, it makes the speaker feel unwelcome and may directly affect how he or she gives their presentation.  In these types of situations, I believe that polite laughter is needed.  Even if the joke was not that funny it breaks the ice. 

I do not watch too many shows with canned laughter, but one I do watch is the Big Bang Theory.  I think it is an awesome show.  There is canned laughter from the beginning of the show to the end.  I do not think that all of the canned laughter is necessary.  There are quite a few parts where I don't think that it is that funny.  As you watch the show though it does not really have a direct effect on the show.  I think that as a viewer you just get used to it.  It just makes sense to have it in this show.  It is just something I associate with it and I think it makes it enjoyable. 

Here is one of my favorite clips from The Big Bang Theory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kov2G0GouBw

this one to :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBiVZP7KJw8

Topics for the Research Paper

I am thinking about doing research on the potential of smartphones.  I would like to find out just how advanced these things could get.  With the way that technology is expanding today I think that there are no limits.  I would aslo like to address the positives and negatives of having so much power in the palm of your hand.  Things like security issues, costs , how it will affect education, how will it affect our everyday lives and things of that nature.  I am a little concerned that since it is modern technology that I might not be able to find the most current articles about it.  I am also a little concerned about finding good books that would be relevant to my research.  I have found a few scholarly articles about smart phones ,but as of this time I have not looked into the book aspect of it.  I am not sure there are too many books even about them.  I just find the subject of smartphones interesting.  I think they will play a vital role soon in almost everyone's life.  They might even become a necessity.  It would make any employee at a job more efficient simply because of the fact that anyone that has a smart phone has access to almost anything.  I will also like to ask the pertinent question, is this a good thing ?

Bonus for English Conference Response

I went to the conference that was in room 101 that which was panel 18.  It consisted of Jessica Brown, Kelly Johnson, and Megan Ghaphery.  They each took turns reading each of their works and found it to be relatively interesting.  The first person who read their work was Kelly.  She read a piece that discussed the relationship she had with her grandmother.  I thought it had a lot of visual imagery and was very well written.  The next person who presented a piece was Jessica.  She read off a poem she was working on.  It was ok.  I did not really rhyme but it had rhythm.  I do not fully understand how a poem can be a poem if it does not rhyme, but I am not an English major.  It was still very well written.  The last person to present was Meagan.  She also did a piece on her relationship with her grandmother.  It was also full of imagery and very well written.  They each continued then to go back and forth with other things they have written.  I enjoyed there presentations.  It must have been thrilling to be giving them to the packed room of the whopping three people that showed up including me.  I do think it was worth my time to go and see this panel and to see just how good some writers my age can be.  The only person who was thinking to send her work out was Kelly.  Meagan said she might consider sending it out later and Jessica said that she only really does this because she enjoys it.  She said she was only minoring in English.  I would have to say that my favorite piece that was read was Meagans.  I thought it was the best written, but the other panel members did a very nice job as well.

Annotation

"Rhomobile| Smartphone Enterprise Application Integration." Rhomobile | Cross-Platform Mobile  

       App Development. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. <http://rhomobile.com/blog/smartphone-enterprise-

       application-integration/>.

This article talks about the basics for making smart phone apps by using integration techniques.  It includes various types of information such as how to securely store the data, the types of connections, synchronizing the data, data retrieval, etc.  This information can be very useful to me for I might be programming apps for phones one day.  This articles also helps represent where the field of Computer Science is going.  It shows that the phone is no longer the simple thing that it used to be.  There is a huge amount of data that can be stored just for these apps.  That information can contain a few hundred or thousands of instructions just for one app.  This allows the apps to be extremely technical to avoid errors thus making them very popular and dependable.

Reaction to Matt Richtel Hooked on Electronics and Paying a Price

I found this article very interesting.  I agree with many things in this article.  I do believe that as a society as we become more technology dependent we lose are ability to focus solely on tasks at hand.  It is so easy to open up another web page and wander off without thinking.  I honestly do not understand how Mr. Campbell gets anything done.  I think it is crazy that he has three monitors with different things on each of them.  How on earth would anyone ever pay attention to just one?  If I had three monitors with stuff open on each ,I would never get anything done.  I don't believe that I could allow myself, even though that I am a Computer Science major, to get that connected to technology that I could not put it down.  I find going to the gym, wrestling, and playing sports in general much more gratifying than playing video games.  I don't think I could go that long without doing something active.  Yes video games are fun, but if I do not have time to play them, I don't.  The only time I play video games now is when I am on break from classes.  I usually have way too much school work to do.  I think if they did a study on the amount of time kids spent playing video games, texting , or on the computer relative to the time they spent exercising or doing something active, I believe that they would notice a trend that the kids who had balance between the two would have higher g.p.a's.  I think that balance is the most important thing with technology.  I think most people issues revolve around the fact that they can't put there phone or computer down.  I also think that this has a negative affect on our relationships with other people.  I think it causes us to want to just send them a text instead of talking in person.  Yes it may be easier ,but it does not allow for us to display our emotions as we should.  I would feel happier to see someone smiling in person at me than seeing a smiley face on a cell phone.  I think the use of cell phones causes us to not pay attention to anything except the cell phone.  I notice that as soon as some people get a text message , no matter what they are doing, have to answer it.  I can't stand that.  If I am talking to you and you whip out your phone to answer a text, you are not talking to me or paying attention to me anymore you are focusing on your text message.  I think if it was that important they would have called you.  I just think that it is disrespectful even if they don't mean it to be.  For some people, it is just a habit.  Habits like this just don't happen over night either.  With kids getting cell phones and texting earlier and earlier they are developing habits that are harder and harder to break.  I did not get texting on my phone until I was in 9th grade.  I do not think that an elementary kid won't live without texting ,but the whole "everyone else has it" saying is true.  Most cell phone plans come with texting so you might not even get a choice now.  I do believe that technology makes things easier and more efficient ,but is it really worth the price we pay outside of the virtual world it creates?  I am not so sure.

introduction

My name is Chris Simpson.  I am majoring in Computer Science at IUP and  I coach elementary wrestling and participate in the IUP brazilian jiujitsu club.