Kudos to Mona Leiter
for her top-notch Owl & Ibis – A Confluence of Minds presentation on October
2, 2021. In her “Computers and the Internet: The World They Have Created – Is It
Worth It?” Mona was superb in presenting objective information about the
history of computers and the Internet, her analysis of its impact including her
personal experience, and her point of argumentation in answering her question “Is
it worth it?”
What follows is
a note from Mona with links to material she presented.
Great job,
Mona!
Jim
}:> & ~:)
~ ~ ~
NOTE FROM MONA LEITER
Here are some related links to my Owl
& Ibis presentation on Computers and the Internet.
1. A video essay about the movie 2010
which was the sequel to the classic 2001. This essay features
spoilers. So if you think you might want to watch the movie first go
ahead and then this is a great essay about it. This is the movie where
Hal the computer has a redemptive story arc. I really love 2010 and own
the DVD and have watched it many times. It came out in the mid-1980s and
has great visuals and acting (Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, and Helen Mirren lead
the cast). For once it is a sci-fi movie of hope and not a dystopia. https://youtu.be/N8CxmraQzBI
2. Here is a video essay on
Sneakers. It is a 1992 ensemble comedy heist thriller that truly is one
of my all-time favorite movies. I again, have the DVD, but I cannot tell
you how many times I have watched this and it never gets old. I love the
acting, the story, the music. It is a complete delightful gem. And
it came out right before the internet took off. I cannot recommend this
movie enough and the video essay is a sampling of what it is all about!
(It stars Robert Redford, Sydney Poitier, Dan Ackroyd, Ben Kingsley and
more. Everyone brings their A game to this and seem to enjoy working
together). https://youtu.be/-9q_UvScmWg
3. Some asked if the Johnny Cash
Project I shared about in my presentation was still accepting drawings.
It does not look like it but here is the link to read about it and see the
music video. https://www.radicalmedia.com/work/the-johnny-cash-project
4. Here is a link to the full
music video for the virtual choir of 17,572 singers from 129 countries coming
together using our modern technology to do something that could not have been
possible 30 years ago. Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir 6: Sing Gently https://youtu.be/InULYfJHKI0
5. Here is what I mentioned in
my presentation that Abba – my favorite group of all time is back together
after 40 years! This video shares the high-tech way they are coming back
to us – in a way that will live on. It is truly amazing as they worked
with Industrial Light & Magic (the special effects company Star Wars
director, George Lucas, started in the 1970s) on this project. I and fans
all around the world watched live on September 2, 2021, when this video debuted
along with the launching of two brand new songs and the announcement of a full
album! Us fans thought they would never record one song again together
let alone a whole album! https://youtu.be/OE8aSnhzTfQ
6. A website I must recommend if
seeing the images and videos about the internet in its infancy may have made
you nostalgic – check out this site: https://archive.org/about/
They have a feature on here call the
Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine is a
digital archive of the World Wide Web. It was founded by
the Internet Archive, a nonprofit library based in San Francisco, California.
Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go
"back in time" and see how websites looked in the past. Its
founders, Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, developed the
Wayback Machine to provide "universal access to all knowledge" by
preserving archived copies of defunct web pages. Since its creation in 1996, over 613
billion pages have been added to the archive. The service has also sparked
controversy over whether creating archived pages without the owner's permission
constitutes copyright infringement in certain jurisdictions. [Wikipedia]
7. Here is the website for the
company bringing virtual reality to seniors. https://www.rendever.com/
Movies featuring computers and the
internet:
The Desk Set (1957)
2001 (1968)
The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)
Tron (1982)
Wargames (1983)
2010 (1984)
Sneakers (1992) - written by the same writers who did Wargames
The Net (1995)
The Matrix (1999)
And just one more thing…. My favorite
character of all time is Columbo – so here is Columbo with a computer. It
is from a 1975 episode, A Deadly State of Mind with George Hamilton: Columbo and Computer - Stat of Minds
- Etat d'esprit – 1975 https://youtu.be/SEPgMhqUuvs
Mona
