ScottB's onMason

To Digitize or not to Digitize….that is the question.  Whether tis nobler to use analog and hear every sound in the symphony and risk losing the recording altogether after several hundred listens or break it down to 1’s and 0’s, lose some of the complete recording but have it forever (possible?).  Certain digitizations have proven to be almost more valuable than the originals: an original copy of Beowulf from the Middle Ages, which was covered by a paper, protective frame in the 19th century was digitized to discover words hidden by the frame providing the only extant record of certain Old English words.  Would they have ever been uncovered had they never been digitized?  Online resources are increasing the academic access to valuable documents, films, recordings, records never before seen.  Digitization allows the curious to examine something from across the planet at the click of a mouse that they may never have the access to in their lifetimes.  It permits a journalist in Massachusetts to consult a professor in Santa Barbara, and engineer in Berkeley, a Sun & Shadow Position Specialist in Barrie, Ontario, a scientist in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a forensic software programmer in Ashville, North Carolina regarding the backstory of a set of photos taken over 150 years ago.

But alas, I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who said, “don’t believe everything you read on the interwebs”.  I’m pretty sure he never said that.  He knew it was called the internet.  But seriously folks, how can we trust all that we see online when we are even given all that there is to find online?  My Google searches are tailored to me.  Through a series of algorithms Google decides what they think I want to find when I’m searching for stuff on the web.   If you and I put the same thing into the Google search bar, or Bing or Yahoo etc, our results will be drastically different.  This “filter bubble” is a contentious topic.  When I hit my return button, Google is searching hundreds of thousands of webpages for the frequency, accuracy, and commonality of what I’m looking for, based on my previous searches and my most popular websites.  When it finds a possible page I can use it runs a series of about 200 questions at it such as does the page have my search terms in its title? How often is my topic used on the page?  Are there synonyms for my search on this page?  And it does it all in the span of about .5 seconds!!  This is insane!!!

Off topic, my 5 week old son is now in an open crib instead of his Isolette.  No more feeding tubes, no more nasal canula.  No more tubes of any kind anymore.  He is still having apnea spells, reflux, and “de-sats,” which is when his red blood cell count desaturates to an uncomfortable level.  But he’ll be home soon enough.  His mom and dad think it’s only a matter of another week or two.  Yay!