Tag Archives: technology

Turn Off Your Mobiles

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A good piece in yesterday’s Guardian (20 August 2014) about the mania for using smart phones at concerts and other similar events to record and/or photograph proceedings rather than, as in times gone by simply immersing oneself in the activity. Perhaps the pendulum has swung too far and people have lost the capacity to simply enjoy an activity without feeling the need to photograph and record it to death. I, sadly have my doubts but, as is so often said only time will tell. For the article please go to http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/20/kate-bush-transcendence-v-smartphones

Computer Fools Humans Into Believing That It Is One Of Us

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Apologies for the previous post which contained a wholly erroneous link. I am, obviously a human for computers do, as we all know never make mistakes! There follows below the post I meant to publish!

The Turing test, developed by Alan Turing has been passed by a computer at London’s Royal Society. Turing postulated that if a machine could convince at least 30 percent of users communicating with it via text chat that it was human then the test would have been passed. This is a milestone in the field of artificial intelligence and as with all such developments possesses the potential to produce great good and (if misused) significant ill for humanity. For the article please go to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10884839/Computer-passes-Turing-Test-for-the-first-time-after-convincing-users-it-is-human.html

So Long And Thanks For All The Dots

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I became blind at about 18-months-old as a result of a blood clot on the brain. I have some useful vision including the ability to see outlines of objects, I can not, however read print.

As a young child I was taught how to use Braille, a system of raised dots which blind people touch in order to decipher text. Growing up Braille was central to my life. I read Braille books voraciously, my school examinations and university exams where in Braille and I could not have progressed easily in life in the absence of those strange, bumpy dots!

Today there is growing concern that Braille is under threat. See, for example the following article, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11258778. The growth of digital technology makes it incredibly easy for blind people to access printed material without having to use Braille. I am typing this with the assistance of Jaws which converts text into speech and Braille on a standard Windows computer allowing visually impaired PC users to access the internet, send and receive e-mail etc. While Jaws does work with Braille displays allowing visually impaired PC users to read Braille via their machines, Braille displays are not essential to the task of reading. My home laptop on which I am writing now is not hooked up to a Braille display and I don’t feel the lack of the technology. I can cope perfectly well in the absence of a Braille display.

Amazon Kindles are equipped with a text to speech facility which allows the reading of books without looking at the device’s screen. Apple products such as the iPad have voiceover which enables visually impaired people to utilise various apps including the one for reading Kindle content. Safari and other key apps are also accessible.

From the above one might conclude that braill is, like the parrot in Monty Python well and truly deceased. However Braille remains incredibly useful. Most medicines are now labelled in Braille which allows blind people to find their medication without having to rely on sighted friends, neighbours, family etc. Again some household products contain Braille labelling (next time you go to the supermarket take a look at the bottles of bleach many of which are labelled with “bleach” in Braille.

Despite the proliferation of digital technology I still enjoy reading Braille. It is lovely to sit in a comfortable armchair leafing through The New Oxford Book Of English Verse or Poe’s “tales of Mystery and Imagination”.

Braille is certainly declining but there remains fight in the old beast yet!

Help For Disabled Students To Be Cut

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As a registered blind person who is not able to read print I benefited, as a disabled student from the Disabled Student’s Allowance (DSA) which enabled me to purchase a Kurzweil reading machine. The Kurzweil translated printed text into speech via scanning books, documents etc enabling me to access material which was only available in print. The Kurzweil was extremely important in allowing me to study independently and obtain my BA and, later an MA in political theory.

I was concerned to read in The Guardian that the government intends to cut the amount of money available through the DSA due to it’s potential impact on people with disabilities. The support provided via the DSA is vital to many disabled students and the reduction of that assistance could cause disabled people to either not go on to further and/or higher education or (if they do go on) to suffer academically due to the lack of adequate support. I will be writing to my MP to raise my concerns. For the article please visit, http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/20/disabled-students-shut-out-government-cuts-allowance

Brain Hacking

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If, at some future date machines can read our memories as well as our dreams this is, obviously open to abuse by hackers and/or an authoritarian government. I wonder whether anti brain hacking software will be developed in the same way that people use Zone Alarm and similar products to prevent people from hacking their computers. Science fiction perhaps but stranger things have happened, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2632115/Machine-scan-brain-read-dreams-Scanner-powerful-detect-reconstruct-images-faces-people-thinking-of.html

Shed A Tear For The OED

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As a child (a precocious one at that) I owned a Braille edition of The Little Oxford Dictionary of Current English which ran to some 16 volumes in Braille. As a small boy I recall having the idea that one could assemble a library encompassing all the knowledge available. I possessed a vague idea that The Little Oxford only contained a tiny portion of that knowledge but, somehow I believed it was possible for me to know, at the very least, a little about everything.

I know longer cherish the erroneous view that one can ever comprehend all there is to no on a single subject let alone on the ever expanding knowledge base which exists out there. Despite the fact we can never know everything I felt a sense of regret when I read that the next edition of The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) may well only appear online due to the sheer vastness of the project and the prohibitive cost (for many) of £750) of purchasing the print edition. The ever evolving nature of language is, no doubt better suited to an online work of reference hcapable of being easily updated, rather than the many paper volumes which will be out of date as soon as they leave the printing press. None the less I feel a sense of regret at the passing of the OED in it’s traditional printed form. There is something reassuring about holding a real book in one’s hands and I regret the demise of that sense of permanence, however illusory that undoubtedly was. For the article please go to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/10777079/RIP-for-OED-as-worlds-finest-dictionary-goes-out-of-print.html

Ode To A Troll

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Not a second glance do you bestow on me as I hurry by, unassuming, heading for my lair.

Wrapped in darkness, encumbered by hate I sit fingers tapping oh so busily tapping, on keyboard spewing hate. I care not for you, my pleasure is your pain. Hatred like a stench fills the air, I am a troll ensconced in his lair.

Astounding News: Bears Relieve Themselves In Woods

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Several months ago I published a post about trolling, http://newauthoronline.com/2013/12/09/trolling-along/, (no not those mythical creatures which inhabit the Lord Of The Rings but people who lurk, on the internet spewing bile for the sheer sake of doing so).

Yesterday I came across an article in The Daily Mail entitled “Online Trolls Really Are Horrible People”, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2559860/Online-trolls-really-ARE-horrible-people-researchers-Narcissistic-Machiavellian-psychopathic-sadistic.html. According to this insightful piece (if you detect sarcasm it is, of course purely a figment of your imagination) trolls exhibit sadistic, psychopathic and other unpleasant character traits. Well blow me down with a feather I always thought that they where much maligned individuals who, at bottom are possessed of hearts of gold. Thank you Daily Mail for enhancing my understanding of trolling. I am now a wiser and sadder person for this astounding new knowledge.

Of course for any authors (or, indeed anyone who has been subjected to trolling) it is no laughing matter. Trolls lurk on Goodreads among other places and goad authors by posting deliberately inflammatory reviews and comments so as to provoke a reaction from the unfortunate author. Don’t respond, treat the trolls with the contempt they deserve, They are sad people with no life who, with a little luck will crawl back under which ever rock they have emerged from.

Something Lost?

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On the bookcase in the room in which I write stands, amongst other books, The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, 1977 edition. Much of the scholarship contained in that fairly substancial tome is outdated and yet I am loathed to throw or give my book away. Looking at the Dictionary brings back memories of taking down books in the school library. As I write the excitement of finding a hitherto undiscovered author or work of reference is rekindled. I recall reading “The Story of Medicine” and other Ladybird books. The thrill of discovering new knowledge is a wonderful feeling, one which drives the student or, indeed the general reader to enhance his or her understanding of the universe.

Now most works of reference have been replaced (or are in the process of being superceeded) by the internet. Wikipedia is now the fount of all knowledge (well not quite judging by the number of articles which have caveats appended) but you do, I am sure grasp my point! The internet is a wonderful invention which, among other things allows us to access a world of knowledge with the click of a mouse. It is wonderful to click on a site dedicated to Charles Dickens and learn about the author and his world without having to traipse to the public library in the pouring rain. However the joy of searching through dusty old shelves of books, discovering something new, sitting down and becoming lost in a good book is a pleasure which, I fear children growing up today may not experience. Youngsters can click on Google or the search engine of their choice, ascertain the information for which they are searching all without needing to leave the comfort of their home. Leaving aside the issue of whether one can trust all the sources pulled up by Google there remains the intangible matter of the joy of discovery which is, as I said above in danger of being lost. Of course there exist excellently researched sources of information on the web but to someone who, like me was brought up in a world of books the internet can, on occasions appear somewhat arid compared to the garden of books.

I am no luddite. Being blind I recognise the vast benefits of the world wide web. With access technology which converts text into speech and braille I can, using a Windows computer access information which in years gone by I wouldn’t have accessed without the assistance of sighted friends. None the less I have a gut feeling that people of my generation (I am 45) have experienced something precious which many younger people risk losing, the joy of wandering around a library (in my case full of braille books and cassette tapes) and discovering something new in the world of literature, history or some other field.

 

Signed, King Ludd

 

(Note, while writing this post I looked up the word traipse using, you guessed it Google as I no longer possess the braille edition of The Little Oxford Dictionary of Current English which I once owned!

A Sturdy Sappling

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Several days ago my blog, newauthoronline.com received it’s 500th follow (as of now I have 502 followers). I am delighted that newauthoronline has grown from a tiny seed into a sturdy sapling but this growth would have been impossible without the support of you, my followers. I relish the interaction between you and I. Without your comments and likes this blog would be a dead thing, a void into which I pour my thoughts  only for them to become lost in the howling wind which gusts around cyberspace. Thank you all for your continuing support, Kevin