The Typewriter

The Typewriter

The Typewriter is one of the most important inventions in recent human history. The typewriter allowed for writing faster than one can do by hand and paved the way for the keyboard for the computer.

Typewriters were at first huge and clunky pieces of machinery however as time progressed they became smaller, more compact and had more features. At first one couldn't even see what they were writing when using a typewriter! Even until the typewriters death it couldn't delete anything so if you made one mistake you'd have to retype the whole page!

The QWERTY design of keys was originally created so that the writer wouldn't type too fast for the typewriter to handle. To solve this the keys were split up from ones that were commonly used together.

Later on when type writers became more compact they were introduced into the workplace and companies had women use them. This piece of technology opened the door for women in the office. Sadly due to how expensive type writers were not everyone could afford to even train on a typewriter, which limited who can get a job.

Typewriters were used to write newspapers, books, scripts, anything that involved writing a type writer could do it, and more than likely was used for it if one could afford it! It'd be hard to imagine what a keyboard to look like without the invention of the typewriter and QWERTY. 

Sources

Bellis, M. (2019, April 27). The History of Typewriters, Typing, and Qwerty Keyboards. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/typewriters-1992539

The arrival of women in the office. (2013, July 25). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23432653

About Me

About Me

My name is Randall Belcher and I am currently a student at High Point University Aspiring to be a Game Designer. 

I was born and raised in Maryland. I spent most of my younger years playing video games and watching anime with my brother and our friends. Eventually we started playing basketball. Sadly I loved basketball more than it loved me so my playing days ended in highshcool.

One thing that I am very proud of was receiving a scholarship that allowed me to go on a trip to South Korea for two weeks for only five hundred dollars, everything was covered from tour guides, shuttles, food, and hotels. I got to see museums, schools, folk villages and shopping districts which was really fun. Sadly after that trip I stopped practicing Korean so please don't ask me to translate any K-dramas or Parasite, I wasn't even good enough in Korean to begin with to translate anything of that level.

My biggest influence on deciding to study game design is, shocker, video games. I have a great passion for gaming and as I was growing up I became fascinated with how they were made, marketed, patched, and balanced. I'm glad that High Point University can help me along my journey life.

Bloomberg's Failed Campaign

Bloomberg's Failed Campaign

Super Tuesday has passed an along with it came the dropping of all but two Presidential candidates. There were many democratic candidates this year however one of them made quite a splash in the media, and that man is Mike Bloomberg.

Mike Bloomberg joined in the campaign rather late compared to every other candidate, but he had one thing that other candidates didn't have. A shit load of money.

There were many people who didn't know of Mr. Bloomberg before the 2020 however now Mr. Bloomberg made sure that wouldn't be the case. Once he joined the race he put out ads every where. I personally couldn't watch a youtube video without seeing the man, and towards the end of his run he started paying meme accounts to advertise himself by making memes of him. 

Honestly to a certain extent his plan worked. Just about everyone knew who he was, whether they wanted to or not. He even managed to snag some delegates and win one U.S territory. However his ads simply weren't enough to capture the peoples hearts. Maybe if he had started campaigning a couple of years ago by visiting battleground states he would have stood more of a chance compared to bombarding people with constant ads.

Sources

Lorenz, T. (2020, February 13). Michael Bloomberg's Campaign Suddenly Drops Memes Everywhere. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/style/michael-bloomberg-memes-jerry-media.html

China Censoring of Coronavirus

China Censoring of Coronavirus

During a time in which many would think that spreading of information would benefit everyone China has once again done just the opposite. Recently the Coronavirus has been all over the news, fears of how deadly it can be, how to contain it, and how countries are taking precautions against it. Although many know that the outbreak of Coronavirus started in China not many know that China knew of it before hand and censored information about the Coronavirus so word couldn't get out.

WeChat is a popular app used in China to communicate. Doctors often use it in order to share information. Research shows that WeChat was being censored before officials acknowledged the Coronavirus. The censorship of this news has put everyone at risk. If news of this virus got out sooner people could've been quarantined much sooner which would have greatly reduced the spreading of this virus. 

Wechat wasn't the only platform to have censorship. Another platform is YY which had 61 key words that were censored around the beginning of the outbreak. One of such keywords are "SARS outbreak in Wuhan". 

As of right now it is unknown whether the Chinese government had the Coronavirus censored or if it was Tencent and other companies avoiding reprimands from the Government. Both reasons behind the censorship lead back to China and their oppressiveness on the media. 

Not only news of the virus but also phrases revolving around one of the doctors who first reported on the Virus, Dr. Li Wenliang, was also censored.

Of course this type of censorship is par for the course. Sadly China will not stop censoring the news anytime soon. China's censorship has made this a worse outbreak than it could have been. Due to the lack of information flowing not only were the people of China uninformed when they needed to be but the rest of the world was as well.

Sources

Coronavirus: Chinese app WeChat censored virus content since 1 Jan. (2020, March 4). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51732042

Ruan, L., Knockel, J., & Crete-Nishihata, M. (2020, March 4). Censored Contagion: How Information on the Coronavirus is Managed on Chinese Social Media. Retrieved from https://citizenlab.ca/2020/03/censored-contagion-how-information-on-the-coronavirus-is-managed-on-chinese-social-media/

Coronavirus: Chinese app WeChat censored virus content since 1 Jan. (2020, March 4). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51732042

Ruan, L., Knockel, J., & Crete-Nishihata, M. (2020, March 4). Censored Contagion: How Information on the Coronavirus is Managed on Chinese Social Media. Retrieved from https://citizenlab.ca/2020/03/censored-contagion-how-information-on-the-coronavirus-is-managed-on-chinese-social-media/

EOTO Radio

Radio

Radio, everyone knows what radio is right? However not many know where it came from or about the impact it has had on society as a whole. Who invented it, and how did the radio impact the world?

The invention of the Radio cannot be credited to one individual. There were numerous people who took part in it's creation. Since radio was built off of radio telegraphy it has a rich history however there is one man who proved using radio to send signals across vast distances was feasible and his name is Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian who sent a signal across the English channel then later across the Atlantic from England to Canada. Later on however his patent was over turned in favor for Nikola Tesla's in 1943.

At first radio was radiotelegraphy and was used not for spoken messages but for written ones. Armies made great use of this technology from long distances, information is one of the most powerful weapons in war and radiotelegraphy was a very powerful weapon because it was used to transfer information and its successor, radio, was used to do so later.

In the early 1900's Lee Deforest, also known as the father of radio, invented Am radio and coined the term radio. AM radio allowed for there to be  multiple radio stations.

In 1915 speech was transmitted using radio for the first time. A message was sent from New York to San Francisco and across the Atlantic ocean. This set in place the beginning of an era, Soon the radio would be used to broadcast many things from music, weather, election results, traffic reports and more. In 1933  Edwin Howard Armstrong invented the FM radio which allowed for even more radio stations to be used. In 1965 the worlds first FM Master System as set up which allowed for multiple radio stations to broadcast from the same source. This once again revolutionized radio and had a huge impact on the world as we know it.

The invention of radio allowed for media to travel much more easily, and one piece of media is music. The transfer of music has also helped shape the world. Music is used to share ideas, feelings, and emotions and thanks to radio people didn't have to go well out of their way to listen to music they could enjoy it from the comfort of their home, and now they can enjoy it from the comfort of their phone, home, car, just about anywhere. If radio hadn't been invented the world would be a much different place.

Sources

Radio History Documents. (2019, May 7). Retrieved from https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/radio-history-documents                                  

Bellis, M. (2019, May 11). Everything You Need to Know About the Invention of Radio. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/invention-of-radio-1992382 

What is Google Stadia?

What is Google Stadia?

Google Stadia review from techradar by Nick Pino January 16th 2020

 Recently there have been talks in gaming about the next platform, and companies like Sony and Microsoft are preparing for streaming services for video games since there has been a lot of talk about the Netflix of video games. Google has jumped into the fray and has released a streaming service for games called Google Stadia, but what is Google Stadia and how does it perform well?

Google Stadia is Google's take on streaming games. Their idea is simple, you pay a monthly fee for the premium edition and you get a selection of free games to play games anywhere, on your phone, tablet, TV (with Chrome cast) or on your computer! If you opt for the free version (which doesn't exist yet ) you don't get the selection of free games however you can still purchase games on the platform and play whenever and wherever you like with your devices as long as you are connected to wifi, but there still are some free games on Stadia like Destiny 2 that anyone can play for free! However there are problems with Google Stadia.

One of the problems with Google Stadia right now is the lack of content. Google promised a vast library of games however as of the writing of article there are only 22 games (as of launch) and there will be more games later in 2020. However this is a very small line up when compared to the Xbox One library, the PS4 library, the Nintendo Switch library, and of its not even close to the most gaming libraries on PC especially Steam, which can be expected to a certain extent since Stadia just launched recently, however since there are only 22 games on Stadia one would expect for them to run well right?  

Yet another Problem with Stadia is that it has serious latency issues. Some of which can make it unplayable which is absolutely ludicrous. The fact that this service is being championed on little to no latency and one can have so much latency with high speed internet that makes the game unplayable is nonsense. Latency can absolutely ruin game play especially in multi-player games like Destiny 2 which was supposed to be one of the big titles that Google Stadia had to offer for free. This latency problem persist in all of Google Stadia's games. If latency was only every now and then it wouldn't be such a big deal, however when its a constant issue that compromises gameplay to the point that the game is unplayable, that's when there is an issue.

Google Stadia is a service with vast amounts of potential but as it is right now it is not worth the price tag. Other companies that are going through the route of making streaming services for games are still in beta, are free, with the around the same quality or better than Google Stadia. The mistake Google made with Stadia is marketing it as a complete product when in fact this is still a beta. Personally I look forward to the future of Google Stadia, it can revolutionize gaming as we know it, however as of the writing of this blog I can and will not recommend it to anyone unless they live in very close proximity to one of Googles servers.

Sources

Google Stadia - One place for all the ways we play. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://store.google.com/us/product/stadia_learn
Nelius, J. (2019, November 21). Here's how Stadia's input lag compares to native PC gaming. Retrieved from https://www.pcgamer.com/heres-how-stadias-input-lag-compares-to-native-pc-gaming/ 
Park, G. (2019, November 19). Review | Unplayable at times, magical in others: Stadia's dream is still in the clouds. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/reviews/unplayable-times-magical-others-stadias-dream-is-still-clouds/
Pino, N. (2020, January 16). Google Stadia review. Retrieved from https://www.techradar.com/reviews/google-stadiahttps://www.techradar.com/reviews/google-stadia 

Honorof, M. (2020, February 26). Google Stadia review. Retrieved from https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/google-stadia