TGH Data Center

Last Friday I took a tour of the Tampa General Hospital Data Center. its one thing to hear about things in text books, or in film... Its completely another to see them in action. They had huge IBM mainframes, not much changed from the ones in the computer history videos, though the processing power has improved quite a bit. they has a locker for tapes, which looks similar to the mainframe but refrigerated. and then there were racks and racks of servers. I'm also learning alot about this stuff in my Data Communications Class and it was great to see actual core switches and how they were completely redundant, i learned that single mode fiber was yellow and multimode was orange. They had four 56 Tb fiber SAN boxes, which i still don't understand/ or remember exactly what they did, but is alot of storage anyway you look at it. they had 16 Tb( separate) for the imaging racks alone. and probably alot more other storage. Then they also had all the storage in the backup bunker of site. The room was so nice and cool, the device for pushing cool air under the floor and up through vents was huge. and you could feel the vibrations as you walked around. The part that showed how fast stuff is evolving is when we, though VMware we saw how all the servers were virtualized. they have i think it was 11 hosts, but 130 servers. and all of this has happened in only the last 2 years. personally i think a tour like this should be done for all data communication students, and only 10 people went with us on this one. It was quite amazing.

The Age of Computers

The last few classes talking about the evolution of the computer have been really fascinating. i knew a rough timeline already and many of the names and companies mentioned we familiar, but how they all connected and the significance of it all was. One thing that i have to ask is where did all the girls go? In the ealier videos it seemed that most of the "programmers" working on ENIAC and the like where women, but later they ousted women saying that we would find it boring or somthing. I find this kinda offensive. I do understand that back then they were technicians, almost an equivalent to other clerical positions that women held and that as the invention aspect took precedent it became the world of mostly "nerdy" men. i hate the negative connotation the word nerd has, passionate is a better term for this early inventors. Grace hopper was one of the few woman mentioned that made a huge contribution. She made the first computer language that was compiled, in other words written in like english terms than translated for the computer to understand. having taken programming classes we almost take this for-granted now a days . i can't imagine programming with out a language like this. i give props to the people who were doing it make then. like with the altair box. i thought it was hilarious when they made music out of it.

Its amazing how fast computers are evolving, even in the last 20 years. i remember when i was little watching my dad ( an electrical engineer) soldering transistors and microchips onto circuit boards. he had drawers of these things, all neatly organized. today they would be gigantic for there equivalents. something an inch back then probably fits into something a few millimeters now. another memory of a computerized thing was my moms loom. my dad attached this box that was somehow programed with a pattern and attached it to the loom. i was too young to understand it then, maybe i should ask again. I miss our first computer. it was an Amiga and i would spend hours using the paint program. i still have some of the pictures i made.

Overall computers are fascinating things, the history remarkable, and the future a mystery.

Feel the Action

So I'm just watching TV, with all the usual commercial when a very interesting one comes on. it was a for a TV set , but the subject matter was foot ball. I was immediately reminded radio sports and how it was for the ears. the sense of sound. then TV transformed it into a visual medium. we learned about how the 1947 world series was one of the first major sport events on television. people were still very attached to radio however, and even would bring radios to the games to hear the commentary and feel more apart of it. even though they were live, and right there. any ways make to the commercial. as with an increasing number of commercial these days the selling point is the emphasise on the feeling. pictures of football players coming out of the screen, breaking the fourth wall are entering your living room. Its no longer good enough to have a representation of reality. it needs to be better than what being there live would be. first it it was revolutionary that you could hear it from far away, then that you could see it, now its what you can "feel" even if its not actually throwing sweat of you, or tackling you in your couch....
The in class examples of say odorama or the polyester movie and the scratch and sniff cards are other examples were the plain visuals aren't good enough. though these trends didn't catch on the "full" sensory experience is a large selling point of modern day media systems.

The Invasive Power of Radio

While taking a look at otr.com I found my way to the science fiction, and being a big scifi fan decided to listen to Flash Gordon all the way through. At first it was hard to get into the words, since we are so used to visuals. and sometimes it was just hard to hear, or if you didn't pay attention we might get a little confused, but since it was aimed at young kids it was very simplistic and i got into it pretty quickly. i really like the fact that they had commentary and the voices of the characters. the plot was kinda amusing and certain lines such as " love me or die", and " the merciless Ming", made the story ever more exaggerated. i could imagine a 10 year old getting quiet into it. praying that the earth girl will be saved and the earth won't be destroyed. the music and sound effects were quite intense and varied enough to keep things interesting.

In class Santiago made a comment that the fourth wall make you feel safe when watching tv or movies. but when you are listening to radio the sound can invade you. I find that very true, and even lately have been paying more attention to the sounds around me. both from reality and tv.

I also looked and read on the radio news. the snippet on the pearl harbour page was showing how a sports broadcast was interrupted by an announcement of the bombing of pearl harbour. this made me realise that sports wasn't really effected by tv, i mean its definitely televised, but its still widely broadcasted over the radio still. I even know a few people who perfer radio still to tv.

Flipbook

Before i give my opinions on other peoples flip-books i want to reflect on my own.

This was my first flip-book. The hardest part i discovered was figuring out how many increment pages to do for transitions. If i could redo it i would have made certain parts transition slower, so in effect it could be flipped faster or at a more natural pace, i feel like now you have to slow the flipping down to understand it. coming up with the concept of what to draw wasn't that hard, even though i changed it slightly as i began to practice drawing in another book. I was originally gonna start with a rain drop, then zoom out in effect and then see the ocean. but in my practicing it was too difficult/ i don't have the patience. I used adobe Flash in the very beginning. i made about 40 blank keyframes, and went through and drew out the random changes. it was crude, with barely no transitions but helped me form ideas. i hope it wasn't too confusing that you had to flip the book half way through. but the boat worked better the long way and the tree the tall way. probably wouldn't do i tree if i knew how hard it would be, through i used the help of a tree cutout which i made so the consistency would remain somewhat intact. overall i felt pretty confident of the final result, and happy for it being my first one.

Comments

Dylan Villiati : I Like the idea of the helicopter. words are good, but i think maybe it would be more interesting if he made the words do something like the FREE balloons thats was fun. i like the pen for the beginning. very primitive feeling. would have been cool if there was color slowly added as he landed on the island or something. some of the words get lost in the page folds.

Andrea Boltwood : The small paper makes the flipbook limiting in space. the idea and transitions are good. i love the bird nest with eggs into the frying pan with the eggs. its mean but creative.

Cheryl Gibbins: simple but good. looks good fast. wish it went longer. like the color

Greg Cochiaro: Love the idea of something escaping the page. fist very impressive. i love how the lighting and the pushing is so simple but very well done the little guy suddenly was confusing. i wished you kept it in the escaping perspective.

Ellery McCardle: has a title which gives an understanding: Trees against the Forces of Nature. very consistent, and the repetition never gets old because its always different. love the color. nothing is disappearing in the cracks or anything, very clear. happy ending . i like how you have the tree grow every time, rather than say just appearing again.

Kasey: took a second to get it but after that i loved the movement of the little ant. speed of flipping doesn't really matter. well executed.

Gina Moccio: loved the pinnochio- excellently drawn. wished there was more of an expression change on the face. and maybe more clarity as to what was going on later. took me awhile to figure out which way to start. bird seemed random didn't interact with the nose.

Brian: confusing what way to flip it. i like THE END animation. good job.

Maria Cano: the photos give it a new feeling, and almost changed the assignment. loved the subject matter regardless.

Michael: Love the cutting through the page. i love the varied subject matter. certain transition could use some work, like the seahorse into the eye, though the concept is interesting. the gun into flower was so creative and very well done. overall great job.

Jessica: Awesome drawings and use of color. used the whole page which worked well. character is amazing. the transitions were slow enough that you didn't have to make it artificially slow.

Cara: love the color, and the fact that you use the whole page. the scale could maybe be changed for visibility but overall good. the balls when together look like a butterfly, could have been cool transition if you made it so. like how the beginning and end are similar.