Vitanza's CyberReader and Internet Confusion
A rock falls off a cliff and hits another. Both these rocks in turn collide with many other rocks as they fall down the cliff. Finally, all the rocks splash into the water with a mess of confusion and chaos. Victor Vitanza's compiled text, CyberReader , made me feel as if I had finally reached the cushioned bottom with a sense of relief and triumph, tinged with a bit of confusion. Vitanza attempts to, but does not successfully accomplish his goal, which is in his own words is "to introduce. . .the Internet (the Net) and the World Wide Web (WWW)" (vii). He progresses from an explanation of the terms used in the virtual world to an explanation of a wide array of advantages and disadvantages of the Internet. Each side is unselfishly supported by specific examples giving readers a chance to make their own opinions. Vitanza has chosen articles which incorporate the basics of the Internet, its history and its downside in an open and honest manner. Unfortunately, CyberReader is not for those who want a clear cut step-by-step method to the Internet.
Vitanza begins CyberReader with articles defining virtual reality, cyberspace and hyperreality. One murky chapter follows another, providing readers with a glimpse into the world they are entering when using the Internet. To begin with, although the articles attempt to focus on making analogies to real life events, they tend to be vague. In fact, as in the section titled, "Enchanted Castles", by Umberto Eco, there is often not even a direct connection made to the Internet. Compounding the confusion, Vitanza at times leans towards over explanation rather than understatement. The authors plunge into a long, endless spiel on privacy, censorshi...
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... the Internet and types of writing found there, which leads to confusion after confusion. Already a massively misinterpreted medium, computer technology and the Internet need a clear cut explanation, rather than a confusing and inaccurate jumble of articles.
Although Vitanza's CyberReader attempted to provide a concise, easy to follow path through the World Wide Web, he fell far short of his goal. Navigating through this confusing compilation was a long enduring battle, and quite frankly, the battle wasn't worth it. The CvberReader may become useful after many revisions and edits, but for now it is a book that computer classes, English classes and amateur computer users can do without.
Work Cited
Vitanza, Victor. CyberReader. Needham Heights, Mass. Simon & Schuster, 1996. or Online. Internet. 18, November 1996. Available: http://www.abacon.com/~cyber/
middle of paper ... ... The Web. The Web. 05 Dec. 2013.
Every day there is some new technological advancement making its way into the world in an attempt to make life easier for people. In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, author Nicholas Carr explains his thoughts on how he believes the internet is running the risk of making people full of artificial knowledge. Carr begins by explaining how he feels that the web is causing his focus issues, how he can no longer be completely immersed in a book, and the reason why he gets fidgety while reading. He then goes on to talk about how his life is surrounded by the internet and how that is the blame for the issues he has towards not being able to stay connected to a text; but at the same time says how and why the web has been a ‘godsend’ because he is a writer. In an attempt to draw the reader in, Carr uses a great deal of rhetorical appeals. He compares the differences of the past and the present and how he feels how it has changed not only himself, but others as well and how they are able to comprehend and focus due to the growing nature of the web. While comparing this, he accumulated research from several credited writers who feel the same way he does about the effects of the web.
While it is true that the internet does seem to lower the attention span of today’s society, it also is the greatest tool of the modern-day. An extensive measure of information that was inaccessible to everyone but a select few in the past is now obtainable by anyone in mere seconds. Through the internet, anyone can
The internet has given us complete access to anything and everything. Carr elaborates on an experience from Fredrick Nietzsche, where Nietzsche describes that once his sight began to fade, he was forced to begin writing with a typewriter instead of paper and pen. Nietzsche demonstrates the use of a machine had begun to change the structure and style behind his writing. Furthermore, for us, Nietzsche argues “our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.” In a sense, the internet, or “google” is a part of our writing equipment. The internet becomes one of the number one places to look for our necessary information no matter what info was needed to complete the
Moreover, Carr’s article mentions that by using technology of any kind, users tend to embody the characteristics stimulated by that technology. He says that given that the Internet processes information almost immediately, users will tend to value immediacy. To explain, Carr gives the example of a friend of his named Scott Karp who was a literary major on college and who used to be an avid book reader. However, since the arrival of the Internet, Karp skim articles online because he could no longer read as much as he used too. He cannot pay attention and absorb long texts ever since he read online articles. Internet...
Monea, M. (2009). Financial ratios – Reveal how a business is doing? Annals of the University Of Petrosani Economics, 9(2), 137-144. Retrieved from http://www.upet.ro/eng
In spite of this, you can find certain circumstances, where ratios are misused which can guide the management to wrong direction. One of the drawbacks includes that ratio analysis is utilized on the basis of financial statements. Amount of constraints of financial statements could have an effect on the precision or quality of ratio analysis .Moreover, ratio analysis intensely depends upon quantitative facts and figures and it ignores qualitative data. In addition to this, it is merely utilized as a tool for assessing the performance of business activities but ratio analysis certainly possesses some latitude for window dressing (Ahmed, 2006).A major limitation is the fact that it makes comparison of ratios between enterprises which happens to be questionable on account of variances in methods of accounting operation and
Ratio analysis are useful tools when judging the performance of a company by weighing and evaluating the operating performance (Block-Hirt). There are 13 significant ratios that can separate by four main categories, profitability, asset utilization, liquidity and debt utilization ratios. The ratio analysis covered here consists of eight various ratios with at least one from each of these main categories. These ratios were used to compare and contrast the performance of Verizon versus AT& T over the years 2005 and 2006.
It was the conclusion of the author that financial ratios when combined with statistical analysis still remain a valuable tool. The theoretical conclusion was that ratios used within a multivariate framework take on a more influential role than when used in isolation. The discriminate model was very accurate in the initial sample of 66 firms, correctly predicting 94 percent of the original bankrupt firms. The potential suggested used of the model included: business credit evaluation, investment guidelines and internal control procedures. The MDA model also showed potential to ease some problems in the selection of securities of a portfolio but further investigation was recommended.
Organizations use financial statements and ratio analysis assess financial performance viability. The ratio analysis are used to identify trends and to perform organizational comparison (financial) with other companies within same industry. Ratio analysis, using data reported on the financial statements, are divided into five major categories: common size, liquidity, solvency, efficiency, and profitability. This paper will assess the financial stability of John Hopkins Hospital (JHH) using the five ratio analysis.
Web. The Web. The Web. 01 Oct. 2011. http://www.iep.utm.edu/soc-cont/>. Goodhart, Michael, ed., pp.
Shippensburg University Journal. Sept. 1, 1997. Web. The Web. The Web.
Before beginning an analysis of a company it is necessary to have a complete set of financial statements, preferably for the pas few years so that historical trends can be obtained. Ratios are a way for anyone to get an idea of the financial performance of a company by using the information contained in the financial statements. Ratios are grouped into four basic categories, liquidity, activity, profitability, and financial leverage. This document will use a variety of these ratios to analyze the firm, Sample Company, as of December 31,2000.
...ent times, the television mediums has been slowly transitioning to digital format. Digital television has the advantages of high definition resolution and an electronic television guide. Despite these evolutions of the medium of television I don't consider it new, I see the television mediums as new features a result of inevitable technological advances. The evolution of the internet can similarly observed in this way. Packet-switching technology gave way to the ability to efficiently transfer files over the internet, this ability gave way to the dawn of the world wide web and faster internet transfer speeds lead to bigger and bigger files being transferred over the internet. From this it can be seen that the internet is not a new medium, it contains features which make it seem new. There are certain implications that are observed when the internet is seen as new.