http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/pnuttall/extracredit/

I apologize that this is a bit late, it took me a bit longer to finish reading than I anticipated.

Now posted!  http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/pnuttall/final/

I have created my website organization chart in Microsoft Visio, and I have uploaded it to here.

For my final web project, I decided that I want to cover several of the major topics which we have discussed during the course.  I have selected four areas, each with three subpages.  The first area is "Dystopian Views of Technology" and under this subheading, I plan to have "Surrendering Humanity," "Quality of Life," and "Exponential Growth."  I will discuss several of the major topics brought up by the readings for the criticisms of technology.

The next area which I will be exploring is "Genetic Engineering."  I will be looking at "Biopunk," "Gattaca," and "Terrorism."  I will be examining the movement of Biopunk and then discussing some of the implications of the issues brought up in the 1997 film, Gattaca.  I will be closing with the issue brought up by some of the authors that genetic engineering could enable bioterrorism.

The third area which I will be covering is "Artificial Intelligence."  Within this topic, I will be addressing "Augmented Intelligence," "Smart Pills," and the "Turing Test."  My discussion of Augmented Intelligence will cover technologies which seek to enhance the abilities of the human brain, and on a related topic I will be examining so called "smart pills."  These drugs have generated enough controversy within themselves that I felt they merit a separate page to discuss them.  Finally, the Turing Test is an important test which has been developed to judge artificial intelligence.  I will talk about the details of the process and the implications.

Finally, I will be examining "Virtual Worlds."  The subtopics will be "Second Life," "Governance," and "The Flat World."  Second Life has been a significant experiment in a social virtual reality.  The amount of time and energy put into this network greatly exceeds other simpler predecessors.  The Governance issue became a particularly big problem with the early versions of The Sims Online.  The lack of controls led to huge problems, particularly due to the fact that it is a paid service.  I will close with "The Flat World."  This will be based on Thomas Friedman's writings, and while not directly related to a virtual reality, I think that the convergence of technology with the "real world" is a significant issue to address.  The proliferation of technology has leveled the playing field and helped overcome the physical limitations of the "real world."

I think that my website will be a fairly comprehensive overview of the course this semester.  I am excited about getting to explore so many different areas and issues related to technology.

One of the worst websites which I could find was called, "ACCEPT JESUS, FOREVER FORGIVEN!" (http://www.dokimos.org/ajff/).


The first major issue with the design is the fact that it has a rainbow background which scrolls across the screen.  After looking at this page for several seconds, you feel at the best disoriented and at the worst sick.  The fonts on the site are easily readable, but the contrast is particularly difficult because of the constantly changing background.  The font size on the navigation bar is very small and therefore, navigating the site was very difficult.  Furthermore, the moving graphics on the bottom provided for yet another distraction.  Both the changing background and the moving graphics at the bottom do not have any clear significance to the purpose of the site.  There is also music, which not only makes the page take longer to load but provides for yet a further distraction for the viewer.  Overall, this website embodies pretty much every element that you could incorporate into a site that would make it impossible to use and look at.

In my opinion, one of the best websites on the internet is one which is set to my homepage and which I view every day.  This would be the newssite of the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/).

I am finished with my third minisite!  I had quite a bit of trouble trying to figure out how to use the div sections to use different CSS settings for different parts of the page.  I was also never able to figure out how to transfer the CSS code for the navigation menu into the stylesheet.  I am going to try to solve this problem over the next few days.  I resized all of the images to 225 pixels tall to give consistency to the site and I tried to keep all of the writeups around the same length.  I think that this gives the site a very uniform look.  I also think that the CSS navigation menu gives a more standardized and professional look to the site.  I found the code at 13styles.com.  I am pleased with my new experiments in CSS and I look forward to finally being on Spring Break.

http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/pnuttall/google/

http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/pnuttall/robotics/

My mini website on robotics is now posted!  I tried to keep the general navigation of the site basic, but I experimented a bit with Cascading Style Sheets for the links and indented quotations.  I also embedded a YouTube video and incorporated several images into the site.  I tried to keep the font face and the color combinations rather basic so that the site is easy to read.

After viewing the source code, I see that the mini website was created with a link navigation bar, an image, a header, and then body text.  This should be a rather basic design to complete and I hope to experiment with some different font faces and sizes to make the site a bit more interesting.  I was hoping for some other elements to make the page more interesting, but I think that using pages while writing all of the source code manually would be a bit too daunting.  I normally write HTML coding for web pages using a WYSIWYG program, such as Dreamweaver.  However, knowledge of how to write pages completely from scratch is a text based program is an important skill and it will be good to get the practice.

I am going to write my mini website on robotics.  There are four particular areas where robotics are used which I find particularly interesting: construction, agriculture, prosthetics, and military use.  Each of these pages could discuss both the developing technologies in robotics for these particular fields, as well as any controversy which might arise from it.  There could also be a short discussion of what particularly motivated development of robotics for use in those specific fields.  I also want to try to develop some sort of consistency between the pages so that they fit as a unified site.

Today for our singularity research, I was assigned the area of robotics. I found two interestings article about robotics, particularly as they relate to industry. There was one article about how "snakebots" have been developed which can assist contruction workers at work sites. These robots are able to wrap around and climb polls in order to get to areas and perform tasks which are either too dangerous or impossible for human workers. They are meant to act as a "flexible hand" for the workers to make work easier and safer.

Another article was about exoskeleton technology, and how a new robot will be available to help Japanese farmers with labor intensive tasks.  Particularly due to the fact that farmers in Japan are aging, this technology will be important to give them the strength to perform strenuous farm work.  I am interested in this article specifically because my aunt is from Okinawa, and her elderly father is still a farmer there.  Younger people do not seem interested in entering the agricultural industry, which is physically challenging with long hours and low pay.  Therefore, the aging farmer population needs a solution to enable them to continue working despite their advanced years.

I find the field of robotics exciting, but would like to reserve it to human controlled devices.  I think that the ethical and practical issues with artifical intelligence are still significant and the fact that the public is still so ignorant regarding the possible negative consequences is problematic.  However, positive steps such as these two examples show how machines can make our lives easier, more productive, and safer.

I am a senior from Mission Viejo, California.  I am double majoring in Communication and Political Science.  This is my third year at Trinity, but I will be graduating in May and I hope to pursue a career in public relations or marketing.  I am currently looking for jobs in the Chicago area.  I am very interested in law and I hope to pursue either a law degree or a graduate degree in the next few years.  I was part of the Mock Trial program while I was in high school, as well as the Model United Nations program.  I have an International Baccalaureate diploma with HL's in English, Philosophy, and History, in addition to SL's in French, Biology, and Math Studies.  My Extended Essay was a comparative paper on the threats posed by Islamic and Christian fundamentalism.

I like watching movies, especially independent and foreign films, and I always appreciate recommendations!  I am very involved in the Trinity campus community.  I am the Co-Chair for Greek Council, which is the self-governing body for all social Greek organizations on campus.  I am a member of the Kappa Kappa Delta social fraternity and also a life member of a national co-ed service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega.  For the past three years, I have worked as an Assistant Computing Consultant for ITS.  In the past, I have been a senator on ASR and served in different officer positions for Kappa Kappa Delta and Latino Exchange.  I am also a recent graduate of the LeaderShape Institute.  Being involved in so many different student organizations at Trinity has given me a very diverse college experience and I would highly recommend it to new students.  I enjoy meeting no people, so if you haven't already met me then don't be shy!