Have you ever seen that commercial where the people are talking to, screaming at, or crying in their cars? Sobbing out their troubles or screaming their frustrations to the rear view mirror? It’s not that we think the cars can understand us or sympathize, we just need to vent. I’ll admit, when my computer starts acting up I talk to it, coaxing it to continue functioning. I may even give the monitor a reassuring pat. For whatever reason whenever I give an inanimate object a name (usually a tech item), I call it “Bessie” yes like a cow. I know it can’t hear me but I do it anyway.

In chapter 23 of Snyder, he introduces us to the familiar question of whether or not computers can think. Whenever this “debate” comes up I think of the various movies I have seen where the complacent humans let technology become just a little too advanced and robots take over. There was a movie on the Disney channel when I was young about a “super-house” controlled by a robotic personality. Let’s call her Sheila. She knew when groceries were out, what everyone was doing, and she could control everything in the house – music volume, computer usage, electricity. I’m thinking you can guess the conclusion. Sheila got out of hand. Possessive of her humans she tried to take over the house and get rid of the “competition” – other females. I, Robot is another prime example. Technology has computers doing everything. Collecting mail, handing out prescriptions etc until a rogue robot/virus gets into the system – then (dramatic pause) they turn on you.

Technological advances in computers are a good thing. Computers can be used now for a wide range of activities as seen on this Web site: Evolving Trends. They are getting closer and closer to what we might call “thinking” but they are not yet there and I wonder if they ever will be. At this point in time, I would continue to say that computers cannot think. Right now they do only what they are told to do. No more and no less.

The ability to think is unique to living beings. Part of what makes us human is our ability to move beyond our basic functions and think independently. It is going outside of the box that has moved civilization and technology forward. Who would have thought in 1900 that we would be able to communicate with people across the globe in minutes via email instead of weeks or months via regular mail? Computers are programmed with functions and that is all they can do. They don’t have emotions or memories (unprogrammed ones) to use to formulate opinions and make choices. Who knows what the next few years will bring. IT advances seem to be happening in leaps and bounds so I anticipate this question will be brought up again and again as the wheels of progress continue to turn.

Chapter 7 of Snyder was pretty straight forward but had some interesting facts. Who knew that the term “debugging” was inspired by an actual bug?  As with our previous presentation, being faced with the idea of “teaching” the class certainly makes you focus more on the text material as you read it. This chapter was largely informative with limited practicum examples. I’ll admit that the HTML example went over my head the first time I read it. Upon further examination it became clearer. The facts were pretty much common sense and it was easy to draw connections between the terms in the book and reality.

I use workaround strategies a lot in everyday life so much so that the alternative route becomes second nature. During my senior year in college I learned to trick my printer into cooperation. It would often stop mid-way through printing – Its little power light blinking at me ineffectually. I would have to restart the printing from the page it stopped on. Sometimes this worked to get the rest of the paper out. Sometimes I would have repeat the process every other page or so. Another workaround strategy I use in the kitchen. My gas range is old. The brand is Frost King which I don’t think exists anymore. In case you were wondering he looks remotely like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Sometimes one of the burners doesn’t want to turn on. I hear the gas and the starter mechanism clicking but no blue flame. I’ve learned that if I turn on the burner in front of or behind it and then let it click away, it will often flame up in a minute or two with a small whoomp noise. Have no fear the flames don’t shoot to the ceiling or anything.

Troubleshooting is something you get more proficient at as you become familiar with your systems. Usually a problem is something we can fix fairly easily. Maybe the USB cord from the printer to your computer has become detached. Maybe you incorrectly entered information. Other times we need to educate ourselves on the intricacies of the program. A lot of times, when things go wrong in the IT department we place the blame on the machinery instead of ourselves. The fact of the matter is that he only computer troubleshooting you wouldn’t be able to solve yourself is a logical design error. A logical design error is when there is something wrong with the system or design itself. For our PowerPoint I included some links to articles where this was the case. Florida was again the scene of vote recounting. This time it didn’t involve hanging chads. Due to a machine malfunction, 18,000 votes had simply disappeared.  Another article described the recall of Sony Cyber-shots due to an image sensor problem.

As much as we rely on technology today, we cannot simply become robotic in our functions. Sometimes the technology has little hiccups. Sometimes we cause the hiccups and sometimes we don’t. What I gathered from Snyder is that, “the most common source of problems is our lack of precision” –  Most of the time we need to just step back and think. Keep your frustrations in check and take the time to go over your actions. Computers only do what they are told to do. No more and no less.

Excel, as I have discovered, is a versatile and easy to use program. Although familiar with spreadsheets, I had never used them for more than the most basic list keeping functions. 

In a job interview I was asked if I knew how to export with Excel. Things had been going well but there was a moment of internal panic at that question.  Having never heard that term in a technological reference I was drawing a blank. My puzzled look must have clued them in for they assured me it was easy and I assured them that I was a quick study. Luckily my lack of exporting experience did not prevent my hiring. I got the job and ended up increasing the comfort level I felt with PCs as well as with the Microsoft Office suite. I had worked with them in a limited capacity in previous years but I was most familiar with Apple products and programs which have different looks and systems like Appleworks instead of Office and icons instead of a start menu.

While preparing to present this chapter to the class, I was forced to take a closer look at what Excel could really do. I had no idea there were so many functions available beyond the basic addition and subtraction. Because we were to be “teaching” the class, we had to know exactly what each section meant. Knowing your stuff meant physically tooling around with the system and trying to recreate the examples in the book. Hands on learning, especially for computers, can be very beneficial and I found that to be true in this case. Things I tried to do didn’t always work the first time but if you persevere you will figure it out.  One of the sections I was to present was importing from the Web. I had used importing and exporting at work to transfer filtered contacts from our Outlook database to spreadsheets and I thought the process was similar. Turns out they weren’t really alike. In fact, importing lists from the Web was easier than I thought it would be! Exporting and importing from Outlook takes a few steps while importing from the Web is basically one step. Just go to Data then à Insert External Data then à New Web Query. This was a great learning experience for me and I felt like my IT knowledge expanded.

Exporting from Outlook and importing into Excel or mail merging into a Word document requires several steps. Nothing hard but it takes a little getting used to. The first step is filtering the contacts you want. From there you basically follow the operations prompts.  Below are instructions I left for my replacement at work. Just in case you would like to know how to filter contacts etc.

Filtering from Contacts: Pulling out specific contacts

• In the “notes” section of an individual’s contact, make sure there is some distinguishing phrase, for example, their attendance at a meeting. In their notes section it would look like this: “2006 July 10: Census Project Meeting – Washington, DC Attend.”

• View- Arrange By – Current View- Customize Current View.
• Click on Filter.
• Put distinguishing phrase in Search box (make sure it’s in quotations).
• In the “In” box, make sure it says frequently used text fields (use the pull down arrow if it isn’t there).
• Click Ok.
• And then Ok again.
• That will filter out all other contacts .

Unfilter:

• View- Arrange By – Current View- Customize Current View.
• Click on Filter.
• Delete distinguishing phrase in Search box.
• Click Ok.
• And then Ok again.
• That will remove the filter.

Mail Merge: Merging contact information into document templates.

• Filter the names from contacts.
• Edit- Select All (so all the names are highlighted).
• Tools – Mail Merge.
• All contacts in current view.
• Existing Document – Click on Browse.
• The templates (nametent, address, and nametag) can be found here: G:\100-ADMIN\GEN\Instructions.
• Click Ok.
• This will open the template. On the toolbar there will be a button that says “Merge to New Document” – Click on it.
• That will bring up your contact information merged into the designated document.
• To remove weird section breaks etc. you click on the button that looks like a backwards P on the toolbar at the top of the page. This will allow you to see the spacing etc. Use the delete button to get rid of section or column breaks that you don’t want.

Export from Contacts to an Excel File

• Filter the contacts you want.
• Click on your personal contacts icon in your mailbox (not the public one) and add a new folder (File- New- Folder).
• Give it a name and click Ok.
• Go back to the public contacts (which have been filtered for the specific ones you want).
• Edit – Select All (so all the names are highlighted).
• Edit – Copy to Folder.
• Go to personal contact icon on the list that pops up and select the one you named and click Ok.
• Then go to your personal contact icon in your mailbox. The copied contacts should show up.
• Edit – Select All.
• File- Import Export.
• Click on Export to a file.
• Next.
• On the following screen click Microsoft Excel and then Next.
• Select the folder to export from (it will be the one you copied the contacts to).
• Click Next.
• You can change the title or location of the new excel sheet on the following screen.
• Then click next and finish.

Curiosity-driven research is something most of us are familiar with. Having “grown-up” with access to the Internet and experiencing its developments firsthand, we are comfortable with signing online and looking up information quickly. I still remember the first time I got online. The server was E-World I believe and my friend Hillary and I would type away chatting with people all over the country. These were the days before the predatory aspects of the Internet had emerged.

When I started college my friends and hallmates quickly introduced me to the Google search engine – something I had not encountered before. It quickly became my “go-to” engine for any and all inquires. Whether it be directions, definitions, or just a random search, the World Wide Web has opened doors to easy and relatively effortless searching.Going through this case study, page by page, is a nice reminder of what we should be doing when we research online and how we should go about it successfully (searching primary and secondary sources, bookmarking pages, etc). I tested the bookmarking hint and it does make things quicker and the review of primary and secondary sources was useful. A lot of times in undergrad, my sources were mostly secondary. Seeking primary sources gives you the opportunity to formulate your own slant on what is being said.  

I found especially helpful his “Case Study Wrap-Up” section. I strongly agree with his suggestion that we, “write down our impressions right away because they fade. The amazement of new discoveries wears off, we forget things, and time changes our attitude about the content… the excitement of learning something new gives a fresh quality that we cannot reconstruct later.” This is true for scholastic and non-scholastic writings. We can’t accurately recreate our original thoughts and emotions on a topic if we wait. Initial impressions provide a more descriptive record.

 While reading this chapter of Snyder I was very much reminded of our FLAG group presentations. Snyder is doing just what they did - illustrating his points with examples to facilitate learning.

Every since I was introduced to the vast capabilities of search engines, particularly Google, I have trolled the Internet with great success. The World Wide Web provides a seemingly endless amount of information and search engines allow us to find the, “needle in a haystack.” Like many, I have become accustomed to the somewhat instant gratification search engines provide and never gave much thought to how it works.

Chapter 5’s section on How a Search Engine Works introduced me to the technical aspects of searching.  I knew about logical operators (AND and OR) but the terms “crawler” and “query processor” never came up. Although crawler isn’t the most appealing term (worms come to mind), it is aptly named. They wiggle around finding, “sites on the Internet, discovering Web pages, and building an index to the Web’s contents.” Query processors use the index created by the crawler to “look up user-submitted keywords and report back.” Snyder does mention that these two partners are not all-knowing. For various reasons, listed on page 140, crawlers don’t catch everything that the Web has to offer. Perhaps this is why you sometimes get different results for the same term when you use different search engines.

I also found the sites Snyder lists to determine a Web page’s legitimacy to be helpful and will definitely use them in the future. This site also provides hints as well as the Wabash Center. In fact, it includes a link to the Internet Detective, a “free internet tutorial to learn to discern the good, the bad and the ugly for your online research.” I didn’t realize that there were specific ways to check a site’s publisher and relied on the general “look” of the site, its partners/links, and the reputation of the organization to determine if it was on the up and up. Generally if it was a nationally known organization, like the Democratic National Convention, a bureaucratic association like the FBI, or a university site I would trust it. If the ideas on the site seem a somewhat off the wall that would also signal a red flag for me. My ah-ha moment for this milestone came with the investigation of Web site evaluation sources. There are a number of free opportunities out there to improve your researching skills. It can only be a positive to learn about legitimizing your sources and will help in your future scribing.