Blog Post #5 (EOTO Presentation)

 Personal Computers

    Before personal computers were introduced, computers were huge, expensive, required a team of engineers and other specialists to keep them running, and were mainly used in the military. One of the most significant inventions that paved the way for the PC was the microprocessor. Microprocessors were small and ran the computer's programs all by themselves. PCs were defined as a machine usable and programmable by one person at a time and able to fit on a desk. It was inexpensive, accessible, simple enough for most people to use, and small enough to be transportable. 

    The first PC was fully assembled and offered for sale on the general market was the Apple I, created by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. In 1976, they created the Apple Company. In the early 1980s, they created the Macintosh that intended to be user-friendly. The Mac uses a mouse to allow users to point and click to execute commands such as opening a file. They also borrowed the idea of the Graphical User Interface—using “icons” on a television monitor to represent files and discs, which the user could move, copy, open, or delete using the mouse. 

    Personal computers changed the way individuals did business, kept family records, did their taxes, entertained, and wrote letters. Soon computers were everywhere, in ATMs, paying for groceries, and the internal system of automobiles. Computer literacy became a requirement for jobs such as, banker, salesmen, librarian, and waiters. Today, the definition of personal computers is a computer that is used by a single operator anywhere. Small enterprises like restaurants, motels, and repair shops also use PCs to link together in networks in larger businesses like chambers of commerce, publishing companies, or schools. Most PCs used at home are for accounting, playing games, or word processing. They have become affordable and anyone can learn to use one. The impact of PCs was largely due to the creation of the Internet. Together, the PC and the internet have made it so that anyone can communicate around the world in real time. With this wide scale communication and affordability of the pc, people and businesses are able to commit fraud, scam, or hack other people. 

Blog Post #3 (8 Values of Freedom)

On the Eight Values of Free Expression, the one that stood out to me is promoting tolerance because of the internet and social media. When content creators or people post something to social media, a lot of the time, they will get hate comments on their posts about their content. For people new to social media, when they see those hate comments, they might get discouraged, embarrassed, or angry and stop posting content. Content creators get hate comments all the time, but they have learned to tolerate the hate comments. By becoming more tolerant, they are able to ignore hate comments and become a better person. Another expression that stood out to me is promoting innovation because being creative is what allows society to grow in terms of new ideas and inventions coming out. Promoting tolerance and creativity goes hand in hand because sometimes the ideas that are created will be hated upon by other people, so having tolerance to those hated responses allow the ideas to continue to be improved on.

Blog Post #2 (Supreme Court)

    The Supreme Court is the most powerful court in the United States. It gets its power from the trust earned by the people. The people trusts the Supreme Court to make the right decision and will obey the Court when they made a verdict. The Supreme Court's job is to safe guard liberty, preserve the union, upholding the rule of law, and checks and balances the other branches of government. The court deals with human dilemmas and controversies and every petition gets the same individual consideration, no matter who wrote it. Supreme Court justices are nominated by the president and most of the time presidents will shape the court to their liking. In the history of the U.S., just over 100 Supreme Court justices have been nominated, serving an average of 16 years. When justices are confirmed, the public no longer has the ability to directly influence the decision through voting. Every week, the Court receives more than 100 new cases, most are petitions for certiorari. The job of the justices is to decide which case to work on and they meet weekly in conference to decide which case to accept. The Supreme Court hears cases in public and lawyers on each side have 30 minutes to present their argument to the justices. After the justices hear the argument, they gather in the conference room to vote on the decision for the case. After they voted, one justice on the majority side is assigned to write and opinion explaining the legal reasons for the decision. Other justices can also write a separate opinion dissenting from the decision. Opinions can be one page or 80 pages or more, when there are multiple opinions from other justices. The court tradition is to announce decisions by the end of the term in late June and the press simplifies the opinions and released them to the public. 

Blog Post #1 (5 News Media)

 1. Social media

    My top source of news and information is social media platforms because I am on social media platforms, like Instagram and Youtube often. I like using Instagram because there is a discover page where you can view other people's posts and sometimes there will be posts about what's going on in the world. Youtube is another platform that I use often for entertainment. There are also youtube shorts, which is similar to TikTok, and on youtube there are news media channels where they post news on. 

2. Google

    I use Google for my source of news and information because when I am searching for something, a lot of the time there are ads and other links to daily news and information all over the websites. Google is also useful for looking up information in general generating thousands of content with some key words.

3.  LinkedIn

    I use LinkedIn as a source of information for jobs and businesses. LinkedIn is similar to other social media platforms where people can post content and comment, but it is mainly used for advertising businesses and for people who want to find a job. 

4. Apple News

    Since every iPhone has apple news, it is a easy and quick way to find news article for top stories and trending stories and sports news. The downside to apple news is that you have to pay a subscription to view more news and stories. 

5. Friends 

    Sometimes I would hear about interesting things going on from friends when talking because even though we all have social media platforms, we will rarely get the same information, due to the people that we follow and the "for you page" on Instagram and TikTok.