Do you remember writing a letter on a piece of paper to a friend during the last few weeks? How about texting or calling that friend during the last few hours? What is the last time you used spell check on a typing software like MS Word? What is the last time you pick up a printed encyclopedia to find information for a school/work paper? Forget about going to the library and picking up the Encyclopedia Britannica because after 200+ years of printing the book in March 2012, the publishers decided they will only issue electronic/digital editions of Britannica. It is an advantage that items like Encyclopedia Britannica is now electronic. If you were to find a single article in the encyclopedia of full of thousands of articles, it will consume a lot of time to find the right one. With the electronic version you have the advantage to quickly search the item and dig into even more refined articles you didn’t even know about. The software version of Britannica will not only find all the related articles in a second, it will even create a map of according to relevance to the searched topic. But this is not the scenario for all the items available electronically. This paper will specifically address the issue of distractions related to technological tools. Continue reading Is technology making you dumber?
Category Archives: Opinion
Personal and professional opinions that are not meant to offend anyone but promote outside the box critical thinking.
Is Buddhism a philosophy or a religion?
Several people asked me whether or not Buddhism, a popular belief system in Asia, can be consider as a religion. Several high profile academics from both the East and the West argued one way for the other. Some even called in a cult not because they hate Buddhism, but because it is a heated debate how you place Buddhism in this well organized educational structures. I used to have several documents on my website on Buddhism. After I enrolled in university, I decided to distance myself a bit from Buddhism because while I agree with the psychology and psychotherapy side of Buddhism, I do not agree with the social practice of Buddhism in Asia. I do not consider myself as a Buddhist, but if I have to pick a so called “religion”, it would be Buddhism. Continue reading Is Buddhism a philosophy or a religion?
Systematic discrimination in disguise
After I wrote this article on January 6, 2012, I decided to not publish this article in fear of personal attack on me from the general public. Attacks against my opinion itself is a strong indication of how so called Canadian democracy loving peaceful society works. However, after seeing so many issues in Canada, I decided someone has to speak up knowing there will be a backslash against the nature of this article. The root reason for this article is that most of my friends believe there should not be any negative consequences for Canadian and US military services killing civilians while if it is committed by Indian or Sri Lankan army there should be punishment against those countries. This double standards came out of the subconscious racism seed within the European communities and their non-European supporters. Please take note that this article will test the democratic values and freedom of speech in Canada. Therefore if you are unconformable with reality, feel free to leave the site or voice your opinions by posting a comment. Continue reading Systematic discrimination in disguise
Which smartphone should I get?
Before the the first ever iPhone was released on June 29, 2007, the only two clear choice was available in the market when it comes to PDAs. They were Palm Pilot(1992) and the second choice was RIM’s Blackberry(1999). Although there were Japanese companies such as NEC tried their best to invent smarter super phones, it was the RIM’s Blackberry that was able to penetrate the market specially through their cooperate users. The fist device that RIM manufactured was a two way pager known as RIM 850, which was targeted towards business and health care professionals. But in 2003 RIM revolutionized the smart phone market with their successful BlackBerry devices. Again, RIM largely focused on the cooperate market. With the partnership of Microsoft, RIM introduced the state of the art secure private Blackberry Enterprise Server, a software driven system that can be install on Windows server to push IT policies allowing companies to control the flow of information to their employees smartphone. In 2007, Apple Inc released the iPhone by modifying their iPod (2001) digital music player in to a smartphone. With the addition of third party software to the iOS operating system, Apple Inc unleashed a new wave of mobile phone market. Today in 2010 with the new players like Android OS by Google, it is getting more harder to choose which is the best phone for your needs. Continue reading Which smartphone should I get?
Term paper: Communications Studies
University of Calgary, COMS 201, FALL 2010
Dr. S123456789
by
Sanuja Senanayake
07-Dec-2010
We communicate in many different mediums. Modern communication is predominantly shaped by the advancement in technology. The human race has come a long way from “tribal epoch” to the “electronic epoch”. (Wood 305-308) However, the electronic approach to communication has grown exponentially during the last decade. Most communication mediums we use today such as cellular phones, the Internet and television are all associated with advancement in technology. In many ways the electronic mediums are similar to the natural form of communication, while they are different on other levels. Continue reading Term paper: Communications Studies