Report March 11, 2009

1. Shadi Ghadban
2. Cloud Computing –Customization
3. B.2
4. http://netgened.wikispaces.com/2B+Customization+and+Cloud+Computing
5. Delicious tags:
a. http://netgened.wikispaces.com/2B+Customization+and+Cloud+Computing
b. http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/netsys/article.php/3807861/IBM+Promotes+Cloud+in+Universities.htm
c. http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/it-infrastructure/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212700913
6. Students currently use their own computers and school computers at the same time, so saving files on a websites such as Google Docs would allow the students a better and faster access than using CDs, Flash drives, etc...

Large co operations such as IBM and Google are encouraging and contributing the use and learning of cloud computing in universities by offering university students, professors, and researchers anytime, anywhere access to software development tools via cloud computing. This enhances the research being done by the universities and increases the number of resources available to increase the efficiency and speed as the softwares do not need to be installed.

Criteria D

Most cartoons shown on television are quite violent and the issue remains of how these cartoons alter the view of reality to the children who watch them. The issue extends when objects that are dangerous for kids to use such as knifes or guns are used in such a way to appear harmless in cartoons. One example commonly used is that when a gun or rifle is fired, the person does not get shot instead he/she would be covered in smoke from the gun, so what is a child, by any means, got a gun in his hand and shot it, a case like that would not be blamed on the child if he harmed another person as from his point of view, would only shoot black smoke. But again, in today’s world, cartoons could be said to be one of the main sources of entertainment for children and a huge business for companies, but they still continue to alter the reality for children. This issue can be solved by changing the types of shows used and the times displayed. For example, a channel could be programmed to show a real life educational program for kids after displaying an animated cartoon and repeat the process by showing different shows. This is helpful to keep the children aware of reality and educate them at the same time. This solution is feasible but, personally, I have not seen it done on any channel. Even though some channels offer both types of shows, they are both clustered separately into different times, so by changing the times of when the programs are on air, this could cause a great improvement on the psychological effect and behavior on children.

Criteria C

As CGI advanced, television shows, especially for children is starting to change from a 2-D perspective to 3-D perspective and as that continues, shows will start to look more realistic. This is an impact on the psychological effect of CGI on children since they would think it is real instead of a cartoon. According to a study, not until second grade were a majority of children able to differentiate human from animated and puppet characters (Quarfoth, 2008). Second grade students would be around 8-9 years old, which, by that time, would have watched a considerable amount of television shows. So cartoons that show fictional creatures or things that are different from what they are in real life could alter the children’s view of reality. Even though children above the age of 8-9 years old can differentiate between humans and animations, side effects or habits from their younger age could remain unchanged. From my point of view, these psychological effects would become a smaller issue as a child grows older and become a more mature person, but nevertheless, this issue is quite a problem for young children as parents would have to watch their behavior more often since actions done by the children could be more hazardous towards their health.

Criteria B

To create CGI, the main component needed is a computer and in a computer, the main component is a Central Processing Unit (CPU). A CPU works by basically translating electric signals into a visual demonstration that we can understand on our monitors. This is done by four steps called fetch, decode, execute, and writeback. Fetch is receiving a program or a software application from the memory then decode it into a language we can understand, it is changed from on and off electric signals which show up as 0s and 1s in a visual form. Then it executes the instructions of the program and what its supposed to do on the screen. After the program has been used, the CPU writes the program back into the memory (hard drive).
The trend that has enabled the creation of CGI and the display of pictures and vibrant colors on a screen is the number of pixels on a screen and the improvement of graphic cards. Pixels are what a screen is made out of and you can think of them as a grid with tiny squares and each square can be colored differently to create images on the screen. The first graphic card was called Monochrome Display Adapter and was made by IBM, it provided text-only displays that were green and white in color, but now graphic cards are able to display millions of colors on a resolution (resolution is the number of pixels arranged from Length x Width) up to 2040 x 1536. Graphic cards work by receiving information of images from the CPU and then decide how to use every pixel on the monitor to display the image then it sends that information to the monitor. Then creating CGI requires an image processing application that can create images with X and Y axis for 2-D images and for 3-D images, Z axis is added.

Art, Entertainment and Leisure Criteria A

Computer Generated-Imagery (CGI) is being seen in today’s world more often that it was before. It is being seen in movie and video game industries. But since CGI is becoming more complex and so detailed that characters look almost life-like (Johnson , 2009). This issue makes the business, especially for video games, risky because games take an average of two years to create, with a large investment of money to create complex and highly detailed games. The demand for perfect games is also needed as they cost a lot (average of $50) and as that price is very high, people would look at websites and listen to recommendations before buying a game and if that game was bad, the company could lose its reputation and over time become bankrupt. So the problem is that video games and CGI overall take too much time to develop as they are required to be drawn and be very detailed. An ethical issue with CGI the physiological effect of video games on children. Since CGI looks quite realistic, children would think that it is real and affect their lives in one way or another and one of them is increased aggression (George, 2008)