Two years into a pandemic, with a new variant whittling away what little hope anyone had left, and it’s hard to find reason for cheer, even in December.

Still, we can at least find solace in how good Zoom calls are. Right?

Forgive me: I shouldn’t poke at a sore spot. But as a COVID-weary world drags itself into a third year of lockdowns and online meetings, it does strike one as a bit strange that a fundamental thing like video calls are still so bad, often plagued by poor picture quality, stuttering connections and low quality sound.

This week, some hope arrived in the form of an expensive new webcam. Made by a new company called Opal, the C1 uses both tech from high-end cameras and software smarts to finally produce a webcam that produces a great picture. Tech sites posted glowing write-ups, with The Verge saying the C1’s image “look(s) far better in multiple lighting scenarios than any webcam” they had tested so far.

For $300 (U.S.), so it well should. But the stark difference between the Opal C1 and other webcams also highlights the fact that, too often in tech, a basic problem that affects millions goes unaddressed simply because focus lies elsewhere.

Source: Toronto Star

Date: January 10th, 2022

Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2021/12/18/why-cant-we-make-good-quality-zoom-calls-or-easily-program-our-smart-tvs-because-big-tech-is-fixated-on-novelty.html

Discussion

1. ” in forever keeping its eyes on the horizon, tech also has allowed day-to-day issues — the sorts of things people need to make the material circumstances of their lives better — fall to the wayside ” Is this a fair and accurate statement?
2. ”  Facebook is busy creating a metaverse that it’s possible no one wants, while the problems of misinformation and polarization on the platform linger. ” Is this a fair and accurate statement?

Celebrated American author Mark Twain was very dismissive of people who think it is possible for someone to learn how to write a novel.

“A man who is not born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time of it when he tries to build a novel,” he said. “He has no clear idea of his story. In fact, he has no story.”

These days, however, technology is increasingly making the life of an author a little easier.

Source: BBC

Date: January 10th, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58098481

Discussion

1. This “technology” doesn’t look like much more than a version of social network mapping, which just shows the connections between people and things, combined with project management software.
   How might you put this to other uses?
2. Does it make sense to use this sort of technology to write college papers?