Important things to consider when buying a laptop for college

Size: It is important that the laptop is small enough and light enough to carry around with ease so that it can easily be brought to and from college but the screen still needs to be relatively large as we do graphic design and Photoshop skills Which require a relatively large screen for working on detailed images.

Warranty: Is an important factor to consider when using a laptop is going to be an integral part of college life. Meaning if it breaks you need to be able to get it fixed and not wait around till you can find the money to do so. In this regard perhaps paying a little extra for some extended warranty would not be a bad thing.

Battery life: When using your laptop while out and about in college or on your way to or from college it may be important to insure your laptop has a long enough battery life to last between charges. This is not a factor to be overlooked as it may seem unimportant compared with some other factors but when it comes down to it. If your laptop keeps running out of battery you can't do much with it.

Graphics card: Many laptops come with integrated graphics cards which may not be suitable for things such as graphic design and Photoshop it is important to check this out when buying a laptop and perhaps go for a laptop model that comes with an ATI or NEVADA graphics card that can support such programs.

RAM: It is important to have at least 2 GB of RAM to ensure that the laptop can run basic programs and function with multiple programs at once but it might be advisable to upgrade this to around 4GB to insure more taxing programs such as Photoshop run smoothly and do not freeze or crash.
It is also important that you have enough VRAM Photoshop specifications recommend that you have at 512MB which may cost extra as most standard laptops usually come with 256MB which is the very minimum required to run Photoshop.

Accessories: Having a bag to carry your laptop in may be important if you need to bring it back and forth from home to college without it getting damaged many computer shops may throw in a free bag if you're purchasing an expensive laptop so be sure to ask.
A mouse may also be a good investment as attempting to correctly perform detailed tasks in Photoshop may be difficult with a touch pad.

Hard drive: Hard drive space is not such a pressing issue as one might expect as there are many ways to store your files and pictures online for free with programs such as drop box or one could simply use the IADTs own storage system on the computers here that can be remotely accessed from home. Not to mention how external hard drives are becoming cheaper and cheaper meaning it is easy to get an affordable one if necessary.

CD-ROM drive: Although not strictly necessary it may be helpful to get a computer with a CD-ROM drive as it will allow you to avail of the wide array of DVDs that the IADT library has available to students and it is notable how many modern laptops have done away with CD drives entirely.

Anti-virus: Anti-virus software is an important thing to have on any computer that you use online and is made even more important by the fact that you need to have some sort of anti-virus installed to use IADTs remote file access. It is important to keep this in mind as purchasing anti-virus programs can be expensive and you can often get a year or so with certain laptop models. Otherwise there are several free antivirus programs online such as AVG.

Google search and the filter bubble effect.

http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2012/10/magic-keywords-on-google-and-the-consequences-of-search-tailoring-results.html?v=

This article is about a modern online phenomenon referred to as a filter bubble which is a term used to describe how for each and every individual there is a very specific set of Google search results even when people search for the exact same thing. This function is made as one of convenience as when we Google something lets say weather forecast we want the weather relevant to us and where we are not somewhere else and this is obviously a helpful function Google provides but as this article points out there is a notable downside.

In modern day life when we want to know about a topic what most people do is a quick Google search which can be done with the advent of mobiles and tablet computing from virtually anywhere at any time but this filter bubble effect may mean that the results we receive about our Googled topic are almost certainly already biased towards us and is simply telling us what we want to hear. This is a topic of vital importance in today’s modern culture in which we use Google to inform ourselves about many important decisions such as who we vote for. This filter bubble effect is studied in this article and they find it goes much deeper than one may expect.

As of this year with Googles privacy policy has changed (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-tracks-consumers-across-products-users-cant-opt-out/2012/01/24/gIQArgJHOQ_story.html ) which means that they can integrate all of your information gathered from their growing range of services such as YouTube and blogger along with their information obtained via Google search and use this both to more effectively advertise at you but as an added side effect this also increases the filter bubble effect by allowing Google to use even more information to personalize your search.

In this article they point out one of the many ways in which Google filters your information one example is what the article calls “magic words” which are key words that when searched have an effect on your searches afterwards. The example that they use is the word Obama and how if you Google Obama and then afterwards Google an issue such as gun control you are far more likely to get results based on Obama and gun control. This has very obvious repercussions as if one was let’s say an Obama supporter wanting to find out about a political issue such as gun control there is a strong chance there filter bubble would lead them to heavily biased information that would merely strengthen their current views rather than help them make an informed decision on the topic.

In conclusion I think that this is a very serious issue especially  in the current cultural climate as I have said before in which Google is the first place most people turn to for reliable information on a range of important topics from politics to health to law .  In doing psychology we see the importance of accepting empirical evidence and getting all the facts before making an informed decision especially on important issues and this is something that can be very hard to do when the very thing you use to search for information is already conforming to your personal bias. Thankfully many people have noticed this growing problem and there are alternative search engines such as DuckDuckGo (http://duckduckgo.com/ ) which combat the issue by not creating any form of filter bubble at all.
It is yet to be seen if this will be effective as currently all attempts at alternative search engines fall short of Googles efficiency but at the very least perhaps competition will drive google to come up with their own solution perhaps allowing you to turn off your filter bubble thereby providing you with the best of both worlds in terms of functionality and reliable unbiased searching for important issues.

Article on Google nexus devices summary

Googles nexus “The best of google, now in three sizes”

The next big thing from google is their range of nexus devices coming in 3 sizes:

The Nexus 4: Googles first Smartphone running the latest Android software jelly bean 4.2 with plenty of new features such as wireless charging, simply place the phone on the charging surface no more messing around with tangled wires. The latest android texting software which allows one to simply glide their hand over the letters allowing for fast and easy typing and the new photosphere which is based off the cameras used in google street view allowing you to easily take in large panoramic or 360 degree shots. Perhaps the most interesting feature is google now which gives you instant time relevant updates and information to you ranging from weather forecasts to important business meetings. Although it is yet to be seen if google now will be as innovative and effective as google claim or if it is just a glorified calendar and to do list.

The Nexus 7: Googles new mini tablet only 7” in size is more suited to being hauled around to work, college or school than more cumbersome tablet devices such as the iPad or the nexus 10. This tablet comes with 16gb or 32gb storage for watching films or listening to music on the go. The Nexus 7 is also available with HSPA+ otherwise known as high speed wireless broadband allowing you even more flexibility in where you use your nexus.

The nexus 10: is googles entertainment tablet with over 4million pixels and front facing speakers it is the ideal tablet for movie watching or playing games or even reading magazines which may well be a popular function of the nexus devices as google has partnered up with TIME Inc. To bring you tablet versions of many of the biggest magazines around such as Instyle and PEOPLE. The nexus 10 is also easily accessible as a family device with its multiple profiles allowing everyone to have their own space on it much like most home computers.

I think that it is interesting to follow new developments in technology especially popular technology areas such as smart phones which have really kicked off in recent years. This article in particular interested me because it is about google who have been recently diversifying there business to include all sorts of things such as self driving cars and there social network google+. This makes them a very interesting company who are at the forefront of technology and innovation and well worth keeping an eye on.

http://googleblog.blogspot.de/2012/10/nexus-best-of-google-now-in-three-sizes.html

Good article on the Milgram experiments that we looked at in class and a good website for science articles including plenty of psychology ones. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-milgrams-shock-experiments-really-mean

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2773#comic