Technology Essays (1907 words) - Apple Inc., NeXT, Free Essays

Technology Essays (1907 words) - Apple Inc., NeXT, Free Essays Technology There isn't hardly anybody around who can say their lives haven't been influenced by computers. Computers have all but taken over society as we know it. Everywhere you look, computers have greatly improved our lives. It can be as simple as going through a carwash, a computer processes the information that we feed it and adjusts the machine accordingly to give us the particular wash we paid for. Computers also play an extremely complicated role in one of the things that everybody uses in their everyday lives, our cars. Most people don't realize how much our cars have been taken over by technology, until they get the bill after one of these computers go out. Just about everything in a new car is controlled by a computer, a computer will read and recognize your driving patterns and adjusts how and when the transmission should shift from gear-to-gear so that you, as the driver, will get maximum performance from your car. In some vehicles, a computer will adjust how high the car rides from the ground. It lowers the car at highway speeds to make it more aerodynamic which will give you better gas mileage and makes the car easier to handle at these high speeds. The latest computer technology is an on-board navigational computer that will direct the driver into using the fastest and most efficient way to get to the destination. It will plan your route around any construction, traffic jams, and even inclement weather. If and when these cars break down, a mechanic will simply ask the car's on-board computer what is wrong, rather than having to go through a series of complicated troubleshooting tests. As I have clearly stated, computers have greatly improved something that most of us use every day. Another advantage of the computer that until recently I was unfamiliar with is the role of the computer in the workplace. I have worked at various jobs in my short existence on this earth. For the most part, the most technologically advanced any of them were was merely punching prices into a cash register, hardly a state-of-the-art process by any means. Most of the jobs I have worked at were more labor-oriented jobs, so I suppose that is why this is kind of a change for me. These days I wait tables at a local bar and grill. I have worked at restaurants like this before, but none of those places were dependent on a computer like this one is. For example, at my old job, when we took orders for drinks we scribbled it down on a sheet of paper and then threw it at the bartender along with another ten people so he could try and figure out just what the heck was written down. This process seemed to take forever. Now all I have to do is go to the computer, press a couple of buttons, and voila, the bartender gets a clear printout of what needs to be made. And with any luck, the drinks should be ready by the time I get to the bar. Needless to say I like the method of using the computer much better than the old way of writing everything down. This has also solved a lot of problems of the same kind in the kitchen, also. As having the experience of being a cook at one time, there was nothing that got on my nerves more than trying to read the handwriting of someone who had to take an order in a room filtering out more than 150 people making noise while trying to jot everything down as fast as they can. As you can probably imagine, this turns into a lose-lose situation for the people trying to work through all of this. The cook is mad at the server for not being able to write the order in plain English. The server is mad at the cook for always being so critical and not worrying about themselves. Eventually the person who is effected most by all of this is the customer. What happens is the cook finally just doesn't care about the order anymore and doesn't prepare a good meal, or the server gets ticked

Upton Sinclair Quotes

Upton Sinclair Quotes Born in 1878, Upton Sinclair is a renowned American author. A prolific writer and a Pulitzer-prize winner, Sinclairs work was rooted in and driven by his strong political convictions in socialism. This is evident in the novel that he is most famous for, The Jungle, which inspired the Meat Inspection Act. The book, based on his experiences with Chicagos meatpacking industry, is highly critical of capitalism. Here are 10 left-leaning quotes from Upton Sinclair on his work and his political views. After reading these, youll understand why Sinclair was seen as an inspirational but also provocative figure and why President Theodore Roosevelt, who was president at the time The Jungle  was published, found the writer a nuisance.   Relationship With Money It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon  his  not understanding it. The private control of credit is the modern form of slavery. Fascism is capitalism plus murder. I aimed at the publics heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.- Regarding The Jungle The rich people not only had all the money, they had all the chance to get more; they had all the  knowledge  and the power, and so the poor man was down, and he had to stay down.-  The Jungle Mans Flaws Man is an evasive beast, given to cultivating strange notions about himself. He is humiliated by his simian  ancestry,  and tries to deny his animal nature, to persuade himself that he is not limited by its weaknesses nor concerned in its fate. And this impulse may be  harmless,  when it is genuine. But what are we to say when we see the formulas of heroic self-deception made use of by unheroic self-indulgence?-   Profits of Religion It is foolish to be convinced without evidence, but it is equally foolish to refuse to be convinced by real evidence. Activism You dont have to be satisfied with America as you find it. You can change it. I didnt like the way I found America some sixty years ago, and Ive been trying to change it ever since. Societal Cynicism   Journalism is one of the devices whereby industrial autocracy keeps its control over political democracy; it is the day-by-day, between-elections propaganda, whereby the minds of the people are kept in a state of acquiescence, so that when the crisis of an election comes, they go to the polls and cast their ballots for either one of the two candidates of their exploiters. The great corporation which employed you lied to you, and lied to the whole country- from top to bottom it was nothing but one gigantic lie.- The Jungle