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  • Taavi 13:48 on February 1, 2012 Permalink |  

    No more tech gadgets during lecture ok or no? 

    Recently Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) prohibited the use of all technical gadgets by students from its lectures. It seems like a harsh decision but are actions against the use of devices justified?
    Numerous researches have been done and it has been found that laptops, iPads and other gadgets are mostly used for entertainment purposes during lectures than for taking notes. Thus, it seems that all the devices prohibit students from gaining new knowledge and participating in the lecture. However it is doubtable whether the banning is the way forward as a lot of people who actually use IT devices for taking notes are also punished. Considering the events happening in the IT world at the moment it seems that banning is the way forward. This is due to the laws (ACTA, SOPA, PIPA) that target the illegal/unwanted deeds, meantime affecting the legal and necessary actions. Therefore, seeing that governments are taking radical actions universities should also take radical measures to ensure the welfare of everybody. It can be argued that the university’s society should be somewhat more advanced and should know what is right without making restrictive laws but as history has shown not all students are in the university to study. Thus, to ensure that tax payers’ money does not go to waste and all students get the necessary education radical measures have to be taken despite limiting the ones willing to study.
    As harsh it may seem banning use of all technical gadgets from lectures is a good way forward as it saves students’ and lecturers’ time and tax payers’ money. After all those who cannot cope with the new rules should not be going to the university as this is not the place the society wants them to be.

     

  • Taavi 14:07 on January 25, 2012 Permalink |
    Tags: ,   

    One does not simply invent time machine 

    In the dark forest of the kingdom of the mighty rhinoceros right near the land of the invincible squirrel monsters, an unhappy sister of the lord of the Prince’s road was sitting in her pinkish yellow hall. It was at this time the master Sam Sung had fallen from the height of the quadrillion femtometres. From the unlikeliest of possibilities the heavy core of the Sam Sung which the sister knew as the memory of the master Sung was to be seen no more. All the sister could do was searching the endless planes of the World Wide Web, using the services of the ASUS located in the King’s hall of the lord of the Prince’s road. All she was enlightened by the queen of the Chrome of the Google.us was about the input device called Hard Disk Drive. Little was known about the infamous enemy called the Warranty Exclusions at this time. Nevertheless the journey through the labyrinths of the road works near the Argo lake to the official Hospitality de la Sam Sung was completed by the sister and her brave male ancestor. The frightful keeper of the rehab of the Sam Sung carefully examined all the exterior parts of the mighty PC, but failed to locate and reveal the mischievous fall of the Sam Sung from the unimaginable of heights. Little was mentioned to the keeper about the faltering of the Storage Device. However after long days of waiting the Sam Sung had recovered and was returned to the castle located not far from the Shrine of Tiskre. It was at this time the lord of the Prince’s road was accosted and told about the ordeals of the master Sam Sung. He let his mightiest of roars unleash but the poor sister of the lord did not understand why. Later it was unfortunately found that all the data from the memory of the poor Sam Sung was lost. It was indeed sad times at Prince’s road. Everyone relied on the lord of the castle to bring back the lost memory of the Sam Sung. After long hours of lectures by the lord on the topic of the hardware inside the Sam Sung, it was decided that everything was lost. One does not simply invent a time machine. Thus sister was left without the mighty data held by the Sam Sung and left with a powerful chest with an operating system called 7, Windows 7. All was gone as sister cried but help was needed before the mighty Sam Sung was to be attacked by the Trojan’s and Spies. All seemed to be lost in the battle of Antivirus until lord finally departed from his hall to join the frenzy. He walked past the towers of Internet Explorer to the gate of Chromium. With a mighty click on the button with the straight block letters which read DOWNLOAD he unleashed the protective cry of the Google. The battle was turned around and everything seemed to go uphill but at this very moment the mischievous Windows 7 decided to restart Sam Sung for software update. Everyone screamed in vain as Sam Sung woke up from its sleep in lightning speed and in no time the lord was once again exploring the lands of the Internet using the magical Chrome. He cast spells which opened more and more tabs and windows until the battle was won. There stood the Spybot, AVG and Defender all ready to block attacks from the blood lusting viruses and other parasites. It was the day of success as the allied forces of Photoshop, MSN, Office, Acrobat all appeared in the Sam Sung. It was magical indeed and once again the lord of Prince’s road had helped the sister out of her misery.

     

  • Taavi 12:39 on December 8, 2011 Permalink |  

    Why not let one fly? 

    Downloading movies and music will stay legal in Switzerland. On 30th of November Swiss government turned down entertainment industry appeals to ban Internet piracy. It has created a lot of discussion since as some claim “stealing” has been made legal. In order to decide whether the Swiss decision was positive or negative its reasons and consequences need to be analyzed.

    “Downloading copyrighted material for personal use does not hurt the entertainment business” says the Swiss government. In their study they found that the users who downloaded pirated files were more likely to go to concerts, cinema and buy CDs than those who did not. From this it can be concluded that stealing from the entertainment business via the Internet does not actually mean that the industry loses money but vice versa makes more money. It can be therefore said that if made piracy was made illegal and the users would have been attacked by the government all parties would have lost money. Therefore it is correct to say that by downloading copyrighted material for personal use one does not negatively affect the entertainment business.

    Making legal downloading for personal use will increase the number of pirates. It is a general opinion when making something deemed as “bad” legal will increase the number of people who start using the “bad” thing. At the moment the most discussed would be the legalizing of marihuana. In essence legalizing piracy and marihuana are very similar as both of these do not actually have negative effect on the parties who are against legalisation. Both of these instances are legalised in Netherlands but the fact that they are legal have saved the government a lot of money and human resources. Also the number of drug users has decreased rather than increased as the public awareness has increased. According to the Swiss government the introduction of the Hadopi law in France cost them 12 million and it did not help too much in the war against piracy as it brought up a lot of other issues. The same is true for drugs as in Mexico and US thousands of people die annually due to the drug wars and millions of dollars are spent on it. Legalising them would actually prevent the enormous losses and bring peace to the society.

    Legalising piracy would give room for illegal distribution. As was seen from the last paragraph the number of pirates does not increase when the action is legalised. Therefore it means that the number of people illegally distributing the software will also remain the same. It can although be argued but by legalising piracy the buyers of illegal copies would also decrease as the consumers would switch to direct piracy. This is because they think that by buying something cheaper means they will not be legally prosecuted and are therefore scared of pirating. But being sure that nothing will happen when they pirate they are prone to use it. This means that they save money and stop supporting the illegal distributors. This will eventually mean that the latter will be put out of business and their consumers will have more money which they are likely to spend on the products coming from legal distributors.

    Swiss government’s decision might seem harsh for the entertainment industry but as was seen from the previous paragraphs it would actually be beneficial to all parties aside from the illegal distributors. The latter are actually the ones who harm the entertainment business and thus it can be concluded that the Swiss decision of making “stealing” in Internet legal helps everyone. Therefore legalising piracy will save tax payers money and the society will be more peaceful. At the end of the day everyone wins.

     

  • Taavi 12:05 on November 16, 2011 Permalink |
    Tags:   

    Are specs relevant? 

    Specifications often abbreviated specs are an explicit set of requirements to be satisfied by a material, product, or service. In IT world specs are often associated with technical specifications a.k.a. tech specs. It is known that if a product does not fulfil the necessary specifications it cannot operate pleasingly. However the question is whether this is also true for IT world and are they really relevant?

    Computer gaming is an increasingly growing phenomenon. It is known however that year by year all the games require more computing power. If it did not need this extra power the game would be pretty much like its predecessor. This extra power is an expense needed to be taken in order to have better graphics and more volatile game play. If to compare Battlefield and Call of Duty franchises it can be seen that the specs of these two games have not changed at the same rate. This is because Battlefield franchise is constantly improving the game play and making it more and more volatile. Call of Duty however has concentrated on a larger audience and make minor changes to the game play keeping the specs of new releases relatively similar to previous ones. Both of these games have sold millions of copies but it is a known fact that COD has been always more successful. This brings out the question whether the specs are really that relevant. Considering better game play they are but considering the success of the company they are not as more people have access to the product.

    More is always better. When a person is asked how he would change the length of a day the answer would almost always be that a day needs more hours as he could manage more in a day that way. This is also true for specs as the more demanding the requirements the better the output would be. Usually better tech specs is directly related to better speed. This however leads to less time spent on computing and leaves the user with more time to deal with the things he actually needs. Therefore it can certainly be said that specs are relevant when it comes to saving time.

    In conclusion specs are relevant when it comes to better experience and time saving. When new products are made they usually have the most recent technical requirements to represent that they are indeed fresh items. When it comes to companies then keeping the specs similar and irrelevant will be more successful as more and more users could enjoy their product. It is however difficult to pick which is more important: the success of a company or the development of the genius of mankind.

     

    • Paavo Viilup 09:03 on December 4, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      A solid, focused piece. Some of the others here should take a close look and try to emulate.

    • Joel L 15:53 on December 4, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Remark re: “Computer gaming is an increasingly growing phenomenon.” – maybe most of the growth in gaming is not on the PC anymore? Casual games on iPhones and other smartphones probably get much more combined play (total hours played by all users).

  • Taavi 12:30 on November 3, 2011 Permalink |
    Tags: , , , megusta   

    Why make future vision videos? 

    Almost every tech company out there decides to publish future vision videos. It seems like a waste of time to spend time on making videos of ideas rather than trying to enliven them. So why do they still waste endless amounts of time on making the visual representations?

    How do you explain an idea totally to other individuals? The easiest answer would most probably be by giving a visual image. It is usually done by describing the idea which would create an image in the target’s head. It is a great way to explain an idea to a handful of people but moving from a small group to a larger one would cause issues. One of them would be that all individuals are different and understand the idea differently. Thus to give a single representation which cannot be interpreted differently a video is made. Video gives a lot of flexibility but is still almost identically interpreted.

    A real life example could also be brought out by showing a video. People usually do not get the idea of a real life example without seeing it in live action. Saying that the new iPhone 4S can be told assignments like “What is the nearest Asian restaurant?” does not really create this “wow” moment. However seeing the Siri promotional video where a man is driving a car and tells the phone to remind him to call his wife when he gets home, and the phone actually completes the task is really surprising and makes the audience believe in the idea. This is known as “seeing is believing”. The same is true for the future visions as after seeing the future vision videos people can see that the idea is useful and can actually be made possible. Therefore future vision videos are made to turn people into believers.

    Visionaries often do not gather too many people around themselves. However showing visionary videos to large audiences makes it possible to find workforce. Usually future vision videos are made to show ideas that cannot be completed with the technology present. Therefore the visionaries need people with skill set and equipment who can turn the idea into reality. The easiest way as seen from the last paragraph is to make a video. This would make competitors start working on similar ideas and keep them occupied, bring new workers to the company and win support by the buyers. Also these videos will inspire the scholars to start working towards a better future.

    Precious time is spent on videos in order to share ideas, make them believable and find people to work on it. So future vision videos provide everything that is required to start from an idea and end up in reality.

     

  • Taavi 21:19 on October 12, 2011 Permalink |
    Tags:   

    Accept destiny and click the link at the bottom of the post! 

    There are two things in life one must have: health and an iPhone 4S. Why? The answer cannot be more simpler than the fact that more is better. First the price tag of iPhone 4S with no contract is $649 which is nothing considering what it offers in return. The selling point of iPhone 4S is the new ARM A5 dual-core processor which does not make it as fast as iPad 2 but it will handle game graphics a lot better than previous issues of iPhone. Another great improvement of course is the 5-way lens on the camera. It can now handle full HD video recording and taking photos at the same level as the regular professional cameras. iPhone 4S does not yet support Estonian interface but at least the Emoji language keyboard is supported. So those who do not like or cannot TALK to Siri which does not support any languages other than English, French and German, can use their fingers to input their messages to the mighty iPhone 4S in the language they prefer like Wubihua for example. Now coming back to the question we proposed in the beginning why are there only two things in life one must have, we can say that health is self explanatory as one cannot live without one. But what about iPhone 4S, first of all it is well known that all humans pursue happiness and as happiness is owning iPhone (source: http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/29/happiness-is-owning-the-iphone/) we can say people with the newest iPhone are most certainly the happiest.

    “Love is in the air.” People need love to be able to reproduce which is a key element of life. Now that iCloud is also in the air there is no room left for love. But why would one need love in the air if one can take a photo of the loved one and it would be automatically uploaded to Apple servers and it can be accessed from anywhere? The answer is love is now in iPhone 4S as it has all of ones games, photos, friends, secrets, movies – in one word all of ones entertainment. Therefore if everything is in iPhone 4S and it makes people happy then why does one wait and not purchase this miracle now.

    http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone

     

    • Paavo Viilup 17:35 on December 6, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I like what you did with the title there.

      Quite a bit of irony being used in your text obviously, as well. Maybe a more moderate analysis of the situation would also yield the same answer?

    • Joel L 16:22 on December 7, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Comments regarding some details:

      The iPad 2 has the exact same A5 chip, as far as I know.

      Emoji – This is part of the OS, older iPhones also have it.

      Happiness – to better make your point, use an actual study (surely they exist) saying that people with “The latest iPhone” are happier than
      a) people without iPhones
      b) people with older iPhones

      —

      Right now, the post (kind of) makes the point that iPhones are awesome, but doesn’t really single out the 4S specifically.

  • Taavi 05:51 on September 30, 2011 Permalink |
    Tags:   

    FKOX 

    Wednesday: NEWS PRESENTATIONS!!!
    Thursday: CODING TIME!!!
    Friday: GAMING FRIDAY
    WEEK 4: PROJECT TESTING

     

  • Taavi 05:54 on September 23, 2011 Permalink |
    Tags:   

    Facebook 

    First thing you notice is that you have a silly thing moving with you on the right which is a wall of text with a few pictures AND THE SILLY ADS NOW STICK WITH ME EVERYWHERE. Obviously it serves no purpose as you do not know whether to read the text in the middle or in the news feed. They could probably fix this if they did not make it stick with the window or make the left panel also move with the window so when scrolling only the middle part will change.(has a fix if you show the sidebar, but i do not like sidebar)
    Also the news feed consists of one million people saying “happy birthday” which is plain stupid as I do not want to see silly people writing silly things because obviously these congratulations or what ever do not mean anything to anyone and are just idiotic. Well the lists addition (or was it an addition not quite sure), anyway this might be a good thing because this way you could choose the people whom you want to get news only, not about the guys who like everything and comment pointless things (also unsubscribe, or the checklist subscription are nice). But no dislike button so yeah, still pretty much useless. Also make the LOG OUT button maybe more visible, we do not want a world where you cannot leave or do negative things; dream on Facebook!

     

  • Taavi 11:14 on September 22, 2011 Permalink |
    Tags: , yourmomsofatthatstuntagenciesuseherasanairmattress   

    Mom, mom, mommy, ma, mom, mom, ma, ma, mommy, mommy… WHAT!!… hi! 

    My mother uses a laptop to edit files with the extensions such as .PDF, .DOC(X), .XLS(X). These files have been created by clients, which she just goes through and corrects the errors. Then these files are synced with the server at her office, which can only be accessed at the office. Then these files are sent by email to the clients, email is handled by Office Web Access, so it is accessible everywhere. Work done thanks goodbye.

    My father uses a PC to edit files with the extensions such as .PDF, .DOC(X), .XLS(X). These files are created by himself, which consist of data about the workers (names, paychecks, working hours), items (to be bought, sold, prices), and other useful things. These files are also synced with the server, and these also can only be accessed at the office. Then these files are printed or sent by email (email is handled by Office Outlook, which can only be accessed at the office), money is transfered, itmes are traded, workers are happy. Job done thanks goodbye.

     

  • Taavi 20:49 on September 14, 2011 Permalink |
    Tags: Classwork,   

    Enter title here 

    Do you expect another “age” to follow the information age? What do you think it might be?
    The proposed question has been formed so that I have to answer, Yes, otherwise I could not answer the second question and that means I cannot write 250 words.
    If I was asked if a new age was to follow the information age I would have to answer “Yes”. The new age will come because people cannot stop evolving. Usually when we talk about evolution we mean that organisms get more intelligent through time but as we can see from today’s society this is not true for humans. Humans do gain new knowledge but it is not comparable to what is lost through technology. Technology nowadays is all about information and gathering it. As we know that all the info we need is available on the Internet we think that we do not need to remember all the facts. This means that we get more lazy but as all the new “technological wonders” have born from the laziness of people means that is the way our life will continue. We all know those AIs whom against we play in computer games, or who fly the planes, or tell us where we are at. Yes, artificial intelligence is almost everywhere and soon it will be everywhere doing all the things for people because it is just simpler to not do anything tedious but have only fun. This however will lead to the point where fun is tedious and tedious is fun, but until us humans figure it out AI will have evolved so far that they are independent of human input and thus no one knows how to make them do the things that before were fun. So humans will have nothing else to do but kill themselves from the stress. So the age after the informational age will be the age of stupid or should we say the age after the stupid.

     

    • Paavo Viilup 06:27 on October 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      IMHO, saying “Yes” and “No” are similar in that it’s good to give reasons for thinking either way.

      And even though I do not necessarily agree with your bleak outcome for the future, I think it much more valid as a possible future than some of the other ideas by your peers (2012, for example).

      Paragraphise!

      • Taavi 13:05 on October 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Now I know when I am getting married and get asked THE QUESTION. Then I will make a short text mini essay of 250 words why I do using paragraphs.

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