Jason Howarth's Blog

As technology continues its rapid expansion from the sky in the form of drones, to web-searching smartphones in the palm of our hands, the question ever looming this innovative field is often what’s next and who will make it. Amazon has been one of the companies who has built their entire reputation online/through technology, alongside brands like Google are the premier examples of 21st century business at its finest. And now, at least according to Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff and multitude of others, Amazon is getting ready to change the world again with Amazon Go. Amazon Go is essentially  designed replace the grocery store, in particular the human interactions, through the use of the Amazon Go smartphone app, simplifying shopping to a grab, check-out, and leave. In addition to this Amazon is planning on bringing physical Amazon stores to aid not only this prospect, but their online delivery ones too. This all sounds great in theory and I can understand the intrigue and excitement, but this almost feels like a giant lab experiment, one fueled by online data and consumerism, basically bringing to life the things people complain about when using the internet. [Read more →]

Tags: News Story, Personal/Opinion, Tech by Jason Howarth
3 Comments »

Everyone fortunate enough to have toys had their favorites growing up. Some inspired creativity, some intelligence, but all toys inspired fun and imagination. Since 1999, The Strong National Museum of Play has inducted toys and games into its Toys Hall of Fame. This year is no exception, as pointed out by Andrew Liptak of The Verge, with Fisher-Price’s Little People figures, the classic swing, and the cultural phenomenon that is Dungeons and Dragons, joining already announced entrants the Atari 2600, Frisbees, and the cardboard box. Dungeons and Dragons was created in 1974 by Gary Gygax, and is a fantasy game using dice and character sheets in combination with published books to create a role-playing experience. It not really surprising that Dungeons and Dragons is going in to this Hall of Fame, in fact it has a leg up of many of its fellow toys in that the game is still played today, often being updated and refined, but never truly removing the core experience. Many of the current and past generation look at D&D as a landmark game, yet very few seem to remember the struggle it went through to be accepted, with Christian groups demonizing the game for well, leading to devil-worship and increased practice of the occult. This of course, has never been proven despite the mass media’s attempts to draw people away from the game it instead drew them in. [Read more →]

Tags: News Story, Personal/Opinion by Jason Howarth
1 Comment »

Note: This is not meant to be an attack on any political party or it’s representatives

When it comes to connecting with other people and sharing our thoughts we are now just a click or swipe away from doing so. That doesn’t mean that media like magazines or TV are invalidated, but there is one common thing that journalists no matter how they spread their opinions shouldn’t do and that is endorse political parties and their candidates. Yet, this is what The Economist and several other pieces of journalistic media of all platforms have done with their announcement of support for Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Now while there are others that support Clinton’s opponent Donald Trump, that is not the issue, rather it is any indication of the media like The Economist from removing bias from there reporting and trying to herd readers together to embrace their line of thinking. Now, while every human being has a right to opinion and can even express that opinion, it is different for journalists.

[Read more →]

Tags: News Story, Personal/Opinion by Jason Howarth
1 Comment »

I ask the follow as a very serious question considering VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) technology taking off this year and a recent announcement from Microsoft declaring that next year for $299, the two concepts will be married in a “mixed reality” headset. Yet, in spite of these promotions and reported innovations, I think one thing that has been neglected by most journalists who work with technology in any capacity, which is most of them, is the question of just how VR will impact society or more importantly advance technology. Now the good news is that VR does open plenty of avenues for technology in the future, but one must also consider that this tech is really only new in terms of being available for public consumption. VR and AR have been around in a limited degree in military applications, like training test pilots and science programs. It is only new to us because for the first time, at least when it comes VR, we are now living and experiencing science fact, not fiction. [Read more →]

Tags: Personal/Opinion, Tech by Jason Howarth
3 Comments »

The way the internet has changed journalism is nothing short of drastic. In the last 20 years digital media empires like Facebook, Google, and YouTube have risen to unbelievable heights and in the process have taken the other leaders from media along for the ride. However, what started as a series of improbable garage projects and college students/dropouts working to revolutionize the world of technology as we know it falling apart. The web is still the dominate form for getting information, but like most media has hit a stumbling block, leading to questions of how prolific it will be in the coming years as it continues to grow.  [Read more →]

Tags: Personal/Opinion by Jason Howarth
2 Comments »

In the wake of multiple forms of media, some of which have lost traction in the modern era, we often find ourselves curious of the future and in the process embrace the past. This is a common them in entertainment, this desire to establish a comfort zone with something from childhood or just before our childhoods and become either hung up on something “tainting memories” or being good, but necessary on it’s own. What’s more is as time progresses we find new things becoming Nostalgic and under the threat of being remade as in a way that misses the original’s point. This is something incredibly common in video games and movies, the most noteworthy of 2016 being DOOM and Ghostbusters respectively. Even though each borrowed the idiotic naming convention of reboot/new story with the successful brand name attached to it (which carries its own risks) can be successful or unsuccessful partly based on memories, but more importantly based on its value as a stand alone product. [Read more →]

Tags: Personal/Opinion, Video gaming by Jason Howarth
No Comments »

The first blog that I chose was for Comic Book Resources or CBR.com as it’s known online. Even though these could be consider as news pieces more so than blogs, I think their greatest strength is that it is maintained by multiple writers that work together to break news on the same industry. As a result of the multiple writers a greater scope and more coverage of stories is afforded, which allows CBR.com to deal with not just news regarding the physical books, but also the various other outlets of media the material is showcased in. Although the blogs through feedly don’t allow for user interaction, comments can be posted on the official website and upon visiting said website there is a visible flow in the posts, allowing the user to see far more on a single page. Comic fans are a generally loyal fanbase who tend to appreciate information offered on the subject and generally encourages new readers/viewers to get involved which allows CBR to appeal to both demographics of comics fans by including the aforementioned multimedia news coverage. [Read more →]

Tags: Personal/Opinion by Jason Howarth
No Comments »

Welcome to Blogs.uww.edu. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Tags: Personal/Opinion by Jason Howarth
1 Comment »