For this assignment I had a tough time deciding what I wanted to do and how I wanted to implement it. At first I was playing around with the German transit API where I wanted to show the distance between two train stations using a cirlce that would grow if it was too far and get smaller if the stations were close by. However when I tried to compare the distance and represent it using a circle nothing was displaying but the circle wouls show up when I only had one location selected. I was going to make another weather app but then while looking through the lsit of the public apis I cam across the lyrics api and the youtube api. I thought that it would be a great idea to have a site that incorprates both of these ideas together so you can watch a music video and follow the lyrics at the same time. I had the most trouble using the Youtube api becuase I didnt realize that I needed to be connected to a server in order for the key to operate and that took a while for me to slove. I used MAMP to test out the site but then I ran into another problem where I coudnt get the Youtube videos to play and get sized correctly. I was trying to solve this problem through youtube's documentation but I never got the solution. Instead for demonstration purposes I decided to display the thumbnail of the video instead. Now the user had the capability to search for lyrics and to see if a music video exists. Setting up the lyric searcher was also very difficult as following the doicumentation was hard since there was only a little bit however it helped me to understand how to set up the functions and how the data is being read from the api. This was a very difficult assignment for me but I was able to test out a lot of topics that I never had used before.
The first part of the article made me realize the true impact of servers and how temperature regulayes them. I never realized the real impact of temperature on servers until reading this article where such a large scale server system for Facebook had dealt with a situation like this where the difference in temperature let to mousture to appear. I also never realized how much sapce server farms took up. I was suprised when they said they had to set up these servers in densely populated areas becuase of the need for space. The graphics on the article were great at showing how historic train lines lead to the pathways of fiber optic cables for the internet. Its strategic location with the millatary made me realize how much thought process and importance to location is needed to set up a server area of this magnitiude. Overall this showed me the impact that the internet has had not only geographically but also many other factors like millitary location, land size, connection to other networks, and security.
The article opeing up with historical context on how the author saw the development of telecommunications was a great to segway into the article. It is crazy how the perception of cell phone use had changed when it went from people not wanting to use it to everyone having one. More historical context on how the switch from DSL Connections to a better wireless 2.4 and 5 GHz made it so that everyone one can have an easy access to wireless connections using very little hardware.However Cell networks still had to depend on the bulky wired cables that strech across the land in order to provide a connection. The idea that celluar connections above areas of residence and school was also interesting to read becuase of the idea that it might cause cancer to people. Even till tbis day these towers still exist and total confirmation if it does confirm cancer has not yet proven mainstream.
What I liked about this article is the way it shows the internets connection using geometric shapes. It really made me think on how much of an impact the internet has and how large scale is its connections between the user and other platforms. The second representation of the search engines being the connector between the user and the information sounds very accurate as using a platform that can give the user any information it wants is the perfect middle man type of situation in order to allow the user to search and collect information. I like how it mentions that our patters onnthe internet allows us to set up our own canvas and display the information requested by the user. This one was a bit confusing but the visual representations caught my attention and helped me to understand it a bit.
This artice had a great scientific , physicall, and historical explanation and representation of an AI system. My favorite part was when it said the metal found int he mountains in Bolic=va is used to greate the batteires for many things like the Echo and Tesla Vehicles. The statement on how many households have a little bit of this mountain with them made me relaize the connection of these battery based devices in a way that it was not intended.