Blown to Bits Chapter 3
Appendix
There are many things in everyday life that seem very simple on the surface but are very complex underneath. You may see something but you may not know the explanation or context for how or why it is the way it is. This is known as abstraction, where important information is present without its background. An example of abstraction in my everyday life is transportation. Like millions of other New Yorkers I use the subway to get to where I want. On the surface all I have to do is go to a station, wait for my train, at get to where I need to be. The more one looks into it, however, there is more to how the MTA functions. Trains run on a very old signal system from the 30s. Tracks are broken up into sections. The absolute position of a train is unknown but since the tracks are electrified the section a train is occupying is known. Two trains are not allowed to occupy the same section, which may cause a train to slow or stop. When people complain about delays they just know that a train is behind schedule, not why it's behind schedule. They miss what's underneath and while their complaints are valid, they are ignorant to what is behind the problem.
Abstraction also exists on the Internet. People know they are going to a site but they don't know all the protocols and file transfers going on in the background. They know an ad is on the side but don't know why or how it's there. In the case of what happens behind the scenes to get an ad on your screen first there is tracking. Everyone has preferences on certain things in life. Someone may have a hobby for model trains and in their free time search model train sites for anything interesting. The IP address of this user is tracked and it's recorded what their preference is, this user likes model trains. When this user visits a site, such as YouTube, he will see ads relating to model trains. In the background the site pays YouTube to put ads on the site and since the site has already recorded information on this specific user based on IP they know exactly what to advertise to the user, perhaps the last thing he searched. Otherwise, in the background to display the ad, perhaps in animated form, a series of stills are combined to make a moving image, at least an illusion of it. The ad itself is saved to a cloud system or server and when the right time comes it is called to be displayed on the user's screen, given the user has the correct plugins and software to view it.
Chapter 3
Not knowing the basics of a software and/or computer, and the abstractions they use, can lead to bad outcomes because you might do something regrettable due to a lack of understanding. To simply put it, if you don't know what you're doing you're going to make mistakes. This not only includes how to use something but knowing fully well what they do. If a designer was being paid by a customer to make something in PhotoShop the designer would show progress on the project and the final version by jpegs with watermarks. Besides knowing the process of what happens when a file is saved from PhotoShop the designer should also know it is important to show a watermarked jpeg so their work doesn't get stolen. If the psd was given to the customer the customer could just take the work and not pay. Here, it would be important to know basics and abstractions since you're dealing with money and a mistake can lead to a loss. There are many other examples of when one makes a regrettable mistake due to a lack of understanding but in most cases the party making the mistake is left at a loss and sometimes venerable.
There are many things in everyday life that seem very simple on the surface but are very complex underneath. You may see something but you may not know the explanation or context for how or why it is the way it is. This is known as abstraction, where important information is present without its background. An example of abstraction in my everyday life is transportation. Like millions of other New Yorkers I use the subway to get to where I want. On the surface all I have to do is go to a station, wait for my train, at get to where I need to be. The more one looks into it, however, there is more to how the MTA functions. Trains run on a very old signal system from the 30s. Tracks are broken up into sections. The absolute position of a train is unknown but since the tracks are electrified the section a train is occupying is known. Two trains are not allowed to occupy the same section, which may cause a train to slow or stop. When people complain about delays they just know that a train is behind schedule, not why it's behind schedule. They miss what's underneath and while their complaints are valid, they are ignorant to what is behind the problem.
Abstraction also exists on the Internet. People know they are going to a site but they don't know all the protocols and file transfers going on in the background. They know an ad is on the side but don't know why or how it's there. In the case of what happens behind the scenes to get an ad on your screen first there is tracking. Everyone has preferences on certain things in life. Someone may have a hobby for model trains and in their free time search model train sites for anything interesting. The IP address of this user is tracked and it's recorded what their preference is, this user likes model trains. When this user visits a site, such as YouTube, he will see ads relating to model trains. In the background the site pays YouTube to put ads on the site and since the site has already recorded information on this specific user based on IP they know exactly what to advertise to the user, perhaps the last thing he searched. Otherwise, in the background to display the ad, perhaps in animated form, a series of stills are combined to make a moving image, at least an illusion of it. The ad itself is saved to a cloud system or server and when the right time comes it is called to be displayed on the user's screen, given the user has the correct plugins and software to view it.
Chapter 3
Not knowing the basics of a software and/or computer, and the abstractions they use, can lead to bad outcomes because you might do something regrettable due to a lack of understanding. To simply put it, if you don't know what you're doing you're going to make mistakes. This not only includes how to use something but knowing fully well what they do. If a designer was being paid by a customer to make something in PhotoShop the designer would show progress on the project and the final version by jpegs with watermarks. Besides knowing the process of what happens when a file is saved from PhotoShop the designer should also know it is important to show a watermarked jpeg so their work doesn't get stolen. If the psd was given to the customer the customer could just take the work and not pay. Here, it would be important to know basics and abstractions since you're dealing with money and a mistake can lead to a loss. There are many other examples of when one makes a regrettable mistake due to a lack of understanding but in most cases the party making the mistake is left at a loss and sometimes venerable.
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