The internet is all about connecting people. Through logging onto the internet, people can connect through instant messenger, social media, or even Skype. However, a big problem of connection is language barrier. As a first generation child, I am guilty of losing touch of my fluency of the Vietnamese language. I often have my family members who live in Vietnam message me on Facebook in Vietnamese, which I often have trouble understanding, and Google translate often has trouble translating. However, a newer feature in Skype can help demolish this problem I, and many others have.

Now, the benefit of Skype is that it is available for almost anybody around the world to download and chat with, voice call, or video call for free. Within Skype, to turn on the translator, one simply calls the other user, brings up the dialer, and toggles a translate button. This can be done within Skype messenger, or literally in a call where the call will take place real time with just a few in between breaks for Skype to translate what the user has said. The user is able to choose if they wish to have a guy or a girl voice to be his or her translator. Currently, there are nine languages Skype enables for its calls, with hopes of expanding to many more. Though there are errors from time to time, this enables users to speak to anybody across the world that may not be as fluent in a language as the other.

This technology will bring people together. Though there is value in learning a new language, this technology can help people who are in the process of learning a language, or prefer not to learn it at all, to communicate with others. The deep learning system within Skype translator is learning the different slang of other languages, to make the conversation less like talking to a robot, and more like talking to a real person. People may use this technology for business, personal, or familial reasons. Whatever reason, Skype translate does an effective job of bringing people together through technology.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/12/13918176/skype-real-time-translation-mobile-landlines

I’m not sure about you guys, but if you asked me who the person in the photo above was, I would have no clue. Meet Jared Taylor, the head of American Renaissance, an organization that champions “racial difference.” Jared Taylor had his Twitter account suspended back in December for violating Twitter’s terms and policies of promoting violence. Taylor, however, denies these violations, and is suing Twitter for violating his first amendment of free speech. Seems a little crazy, right? If I had seen his tweets on twitter and found them offensive, I would have probably reported them too. This reminds me of a TED talk we watched in class by Margaret Gould Steward, where she talked about how people on Facebook were reporting photos they did not like of themselves that they were tagged in. As a result, Facebook implemented a system where the user could send a message to the other user asking them to remove the photo – it was shown that people did this less. That always puzzled me. I think that Facebook and Twitter are very separate social media platforms. In the case of Twitter, it is being argued that Twitter cannot ban people based on their personal or political opinions or viewpoints. It’s a little like Twitter is ignoring net neutrality and keeping its viewers from seeing content the corporation does not agree with (honestly, in this case I wouldn’t mind never having to see content about white supremacy, but thats just me), but does that make it right for Twitter to ban Jared Taylor based on his views? Going back to the Steward example, I personally think it would be more useful for something like what Facebook tried to implement to be implemented onto Twitter. On Facebook, we see what our friends post or see. However, on Twitter, we see everything everyone posts (unless their accounts are private), making it much easier to respond to tweets we do or do not like. I think it could be useful for Twitter to implement a tool that allows a user to ask another user to remove a tweet. Often, when I see somebody tweet an unpopular opinion, I will see other users respond with “delete this” as a tweet back. However, it may catch somebody’s attention more if he or she received a notification from twitter that indicates that a large volume of people have found a tweet offensive and would like the user to remove it. This way, maybe people wouldn’t feel their second amendment rights are being violated when their accounts are banned immediately by twitter, but have the choice to delete their offensive content.

Source link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43154727

On February 6, 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy. This was a landmark in space history. For those unfamiliar with the history of SpaceX, it was founded by Elon Musk, who wanted to achieve the impossible. He recognized that NASA had no plans to ever send anybody to Mars, and so Elon founded SpaceX with the mission to reduce space transportation costs, and eventually colonize Mars. The Falcon Heavy proved that this was more plausible than it seems.

The Falcon Heavy, carrying Elon Musk’s own personal Tesla Roadster as a payload, is currently on its way through space heading towards an orbit that extends past Mars. The Falcon Heavy is just the beginning of a new space race. As a reusable heavy launch lift vehicle, the Falcon Heavy reduces costs that are put into building a rocket from scratch by enabling reusable boosters. Those who watched the launch saw that the two side boosters were able to land perfectly on its landing gears but were unable to see what happened to the center core. It was later reported that the center core crash landed in the ocean just feet away from its landing barge. This barge was an autonomous drone ship located in the middle of the ocean. While in IST 110, we have been talking about the possibility of autonomous cars and the pros and cons of them, as an aerospace engineering major, I am more interested in what autonomous technology can do for the space race.

This autonomous drone ship is an ocean vessel that serves as a landing platform. These drone ships are key to SpaceX’s mission of a reusable launch system as it allows for reusability of the rocket parts landing on the drone ship. These drone ships are located in the ocean since it is required that rockets that have exceeded escape velocity will have to land in the ocean (for obvious reasons, such as crash landing into land would have devastating effects rather than in the middle of the ocean). These autonomous drone ships are equipped with engines that allow movement and can detect where a core, thruster, or rocket part needs to land. These drone ships use GPS for precision but can also be remotely controlled by humans who are not aboard the ship. The need for autonomous drone ships instead of having a man inside navigating is for safety. For example, the Falcon Heavy crash landed, which destroyed much of the drone ship it was supposed to land on. By having this drone ship be autonomous, there were no casualties caused by the crash landing.

This autonomous technology is an incredible breakthrough in space technology. While some people are looking towards cars that drive themselves, aerospace engineers are looking towards drone ships that can land rockets in the middle of the ocean.

To learn more about the Falcon Heavy: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/7/16983040/spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-launch-schedule-spaceflight

Watch the Falcon Heavy launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB_nEtZxPog