CAJ#15 Silicon Valley - TV Series

Silicon Valley is an American television sitcom that centers on six young men who found a startup company called “Pied Piper” in Silicon Valley.

Richard Hendriks is a typical Nerd. Shy, reclusive, he loves technology and is highly intelligent. He works at a large Internet company called Hooli, while developing a music app called Pied Piper. Hooli executitive Donal Dunn discovers that the app contains a revolutionary data compression algorithm and proposes Richard a $10 million buyout of Pied Piper. The billionaire Peter Gregory, however, offers him a $ 200,000 investment for 5 % ownership in the company. Encouraged by Peter Gergory’s assistant and because of the support of his friends he decides to choose the $200,000 investment and tries to start his own company as the CEO of Pied Piper.

The TV-series that is made to entertain people, one can clearly see the typical life of people in Silicon Valley. There are the super-rich on one side and the nerds on the other. The latter are just like you would assume them to be. Shy, hoodie-sweater-wearing, reclusive, restrained but highly intelligent guys who live together in a house full with computers, game consoles and video games. They do not meet girls or have any other hobbies and therefore they have enough time to spend their days with computer programs and algorithms.

On the other side there are the super-rich people who made their money with investments in start-up companies. They own billions of dollars and do not really care if one of the start-ups they invested in does not work out quite well. They simply invest in an other company.

All in all, it is a very fun series to watch. You get a good impression of how live is in Silicon Valley. You see how the system functions and how super-intelligent and super-rich people work together. Really worth watching :)

click here to watch the trailer

CAJ#14Ethical Issues of SV

Our homework was to talk to a person about our CAJ and think about the ethical issues of our topic. I talked to my brother who studies engineering in Graz and while talking some really interesting future prospects came to our mind.

As my brother studies engineering, he already knew the most basic information about the Silicon Valley. Its location, the famous companies and also the whole concept behind this area. He also knew something about a problem that is called “braindrain” (you can read about this topic in some of my previous posts). What he did not know about, however, is the high autism rate in this area and the problem of gentrification. We set our creativity free and thought about some future prospects of this area.

Here is our current situation and below you can find two different scenarios. My brother and I firmly believe that the future of the SV is either going to be scenario A or B. (All other people I told about the scenarios thought we were crazy, but we still believe we’re right :) )

Issue:

The Silicon Valley is one of the fastest growing areas on Earth. This growth does not only relate to the development of new technologies but also to the geographical and demographical change. More and more high intelligent people move to this area in order to become famous by presenting their ideas for new technologies. As you have already learned from my previous posts, some of these people do indeed have autistic tendencies and that is why they come up with such great ideas (like facebook), simply because they think differently. More and more people from all over the world move their (braindrain) and they all work together. “Normal” people like the average neighborhood girl are expelled from this area as they either cannot afford to live there anymore or they simply do not feel comfortable living there. The result is going to be a village, town, city, country or even continent full with highly intelligent people.

We think the result of the above mentioned scenario is either going to be …

secanio A

A new community of highly intelligent people is developed who do not want to share their technologies and ideas with “stupid” people outside their continent. They use their technologies development flying cars and beaming buses while the rest of the world still uses the old-fashioned technologies like air-polluting automobiles. They use us as slaves which leads to a new version of racism. Racists do not judge other people by color of their skin or origin, they judge other people by their Intelligence Quotient.

OR scenario B

More and more highly intelligent people who have autistic tendencies move to SV, get married with other highly intelligent people with autism and have children. These children are autistic too and although their intelligence is quite helpful, the intelligence of their children cannot be used anymore as a newly advanced type of autism developed is spread and the result is a community of autistic people who cannot communicate with other and cannot use their intelligence that hides somewhere inside them. Therefore intelligent people become extinct and the world’s technologies are not going to develop or improve any longer.

CAJ#13Abstract

 

Technology is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and it has no signs of slowing down anytime soon. With the industry also areas like the Silicon Valley, which is home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations, grow and gain more importance.

The purpose of the Current Affairs Journal is to show the importance of the Silicon Valley for society. Moreover it focuses on the location of the technological heart and which social, geographical and entrepreneurial elements a country needs in order to build an area like the Silicon Valley. The paper, however, does also examine whether an area like the Silicon Valley is better for startups than other places. Precise internet research show that there are several positive aspects of areas like the Silicon Valley. Infrastructure, corporation, the right atmosphere and attitude can hardly be accomplished in other places. This leads to the implication that areas like Europe need to change entrepreneurial habits in order to regain competitiveness.

163 words

Abstract Zombie

Technology is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and it has no signs of slowing down anytime soon. With the industry also areas like the Silicon Valley, which is home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations, grow and gain more importance.

The purpose of the Current Affairs Journal is to show the importance of the Silicon Valley for society. Moreover it focuses on the location of the technological heart and which social, geographical and entrepreneurial elements a country needs in order to build an area like the Silicon Valley. The paper, however, does also examine whether an area like the Silicon Valley is better for startups than other places. Precise internet research show that there are several positive aspects of areas like the Silicon Valley. Infrastructure, corporation, the right atmosphere and attitude can hardly be accomplished in other places which leads to the implication that areas like Europe need to change entrepreneurial habits in order to regain competitiveness.

CAJ#12 Is SV taking over SF?

San Francisco – a small city that was famed as an artistic, bohemian place with a history of flowering counter-cultures that spilled over and changed America and the world. From the beats in North Beach to the hippies in the hilly region of Haight-Ashbury to the gay rights movement in the Castro neighborhood. This is what San Francisco is famous for – or better “was”? Some literary legends who live there complain of a “soulless group of people”, a “new breed” of men and women too busy with iPhones to “be here” in the moment. Shiny new Mercedes-Benzs on the strees and several major art galleries have to close because they cannot afford the new rent as bigger computing startups offered to triple the rent. Is the Silicon Valley taking over the city?

San Francisco has definitely become the hype- and capital fuelled epicenter of America’s technology industry, which has centred on the string of suburban cities known as Silicon Valley. The impact on SF is significant. Rents and house prices began to soar. Eviction rates soon followed as property speculators sought to cash in by flipping rent-controlled apartment buildings into flats to sell. Residents have found themselves unable to afford to live in their city anymore. They are not only worried about being forced out of the city they love, but also that their city is being changed for the worse. Critics say that San Francisco’s communities of alternative culture, ethnic or otherwise – the soil of its creative legendary social movements – are being turned into playgrounds for rich people. If San Francisco’s soul is its social and economic diversity and status as a refuge for those outside the mainstream, the it is being lost.

                                                    

The problem San Francisco is now facing is called “gentrification”. Gentrification is a shift in an urban community toward wealthier residents and increasing property values. It is the result of investment in a community by, in this case, the technology industry. Gentrification leads to population migration, which involves poorer residents being displaced by wealthier newcomers. Poorer pre-gentrification residents who are unable to pay increased rents or property taxes may be driven out.

How Instant Photographs Work

 

In 1947, Edwin Land introduced a great innovation to the world – instant cameras. This camera with a film that developed itself in a matter of minutes was a huge success. This text will determine the process inside instant films, which may seem like magic but is actually a chemical chain reaction.

Instant camera film has three layers that are sensitive to different colors of light. Underneath each color layer, there is a developer layer containing dye couplers. All of these layers sit on top of a black base layer, and underneath the image layer, the timing layer and the acid layer. This arrangement is the chemical chain reaction waiting to be set in motion. The reagent, which is a mix of opacifiers (light-blockers), alkali (acid neutralizers) and white pigment, starts the reaction. It is placed above the light-sensitive layers and below the image layer. The reagent material is collected in a blob at the border of the plastic film sheet. After a picture is taken, the film sheet passes out of the camera, through a pair of rollers. These rollers spread the reagent material out into the middle of the film sheet. When it is spread between the image layer and the light-sensitive layers, a reaction with other chemical layers in the film takes place. The opacifier material stops light from filtering the layers below, so the film is not exposed before it is developed. The reagent material moves downward through all layers which causes the change of the exposed particles in each layer into metallic silver. Then, the chemical dissolve the developer dye and it begins to diffuse up toward the image layer. The metallic silver areas at each layer grab the dyes so only the dyes from the unexposed layers can move up to the image layer. At the same time other reagent chemicals are working through the film layers above. What makes the image visible is the acid layer in the film reacting with the alkali and opacifiers in the reagent. The timing layer slows the reagent down on its path to the acid layer and gives the film time to develop before it is exposed to light. Through this final chemical reaction one can see the image slowly coming together although it is already fully developed underneath. However, the opacifiers clearing up creates the illusion that it is forming right before one’s eyes.