IT Careers: The Best and Worst Choices

The amount of IT jobs is very huge, so there several options for a person that decides to choose an IT career to follow. According to Leslie Stevens-Huffman, in the article "IT Jobs With the Best (and Worst) ROI", despite the strict academic requirements needed to be an IT professional, some jobs don't have good enough salaries to compensate all the academic efforts needed to become a professional in that specific area.

Source: http://starg.in/Careers.php

Among the growing jobs in the IT field, software developer is the first one of a list shown in the article "Best Technology Jobs". Therefore, being a software developer can be very profitable, once the demand of professionals is increasing. Usually, according to the author of said article being in that position offers people two options, the first is to work developing applications, and the second is developing operation systems. Furthermore, as Leslie Stevens-Huffman points out in the article "IT Jobs With the Best (and Worst) ROI", this kind a job is the forth in a list of the best paid jobs, with an average annual salary of $76,774. Also, the degree of difficulty in recruiting people to these jobs is the highest one in the North America. All these factors together suggest that software developer is a good career to follow for those who are interested in the field, and in profiting monetarily from his/her choice.

In the other hand, the job with the lowest growth nowadays, but that still have a considerable growth, is the computer support specialist, i.e, the help desk position. 

Source: http://insidetech.monster.com/careers/articles/
4322-10-recession-proof-it-careers

This job has a low entry-level salaries and a poor ROI. According to Leslie Stevens-Huffman, in the article "IT Jobs With the Best (and Worst) ROI", only 29 percent of this kind of specialists have a bachelor's degree, 18 percent have an associate's degree, and 22 percent might have some college, but no degree. Because the investment is higher than the return, this job tend to be a bad choice for a person that is thinking of getting a career in the IT field, once the average annual salary is only $43,210.

Picking a career is a hard task, and in the technology there a lot of options. Together with software developer, the other profitable jobs are database administrator, software engineer, programmer and web developer, that have good returns considering the necessary years of study. However, in addition to looking for good salaries, the satisfaction of the work are you doing is also important, because it will be one of the things that are going to help you being successful.

Sources:

- Unknown Author. (2015). Best Technology Jobs. U.S. News & World Report.
Retrieved from: http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings/best-technology-jobs

- Stevens-Huffman, L. (2015). IT Jobs With the Best (and Worst) ROI. Dice.
Retrieved from: http://news.dice.com/2015/03/30/it-jobs-with-the-best-and-worst-roi/

Being a Digital Citizen: What Is It About

The amount of people that compose the digital community has been increasing as time goes by, what is a good thing, once it means that more and more individuals are getting access to technology. Computer network were created with this specific objective, 

Source: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/classroom-modeling

turn the exchange of information possible among people, and, because they got more comfortable with the internet and its services, today we have a huge community on the network. Therefore, similar to any other existent group, it is necessary to establish some roles and responsibilities to the members, in this case, the digital citizens. Furthermore, being a digital citizen involves more than just using the services provided, it is also associated with respecting the other citizens, and being aware that rules of conduct should be considered. 

Source: https://reelfilmexperience.wordpress.com
/2011/07/29/what-is-our-responsibility-of-a-digital-citizen/

The term digital citizenship, according to Terry Heick, the author of "The Definition Of Digital Citizenship", means "the quality of habits, actions, and consumption patterns that impact the ecology of digital content and communities." In other words, it is the result of people's behavior, and their contributions will affect the digital environment (how the other citizens will respond to it). 

At the same time that the digital world becomes even more available to the population, it is necessary to make people aware that they are completely responsible for the information they share, for making sure that what they read is truthful, and for their attitudes, once it can affect the community.


Sources:

- Heick, T. (2013). The Definition Of Digital Citizenship. te@chthought.
Retrieved from: http://www.teachthought.com/technology/the-definition-of-digital-citzenship/

- Ribble, M. (2015). Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship. Digital Citizenship.
Retrieved from: http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html

Drones: A Powerful Resource Against Infectious Disease

Military drone - Credits: Wikipedia

Drones are unnamed aerial vehicles that were initially created for military use. The first drone, called "Kettering Bug", was developed during the first world war, however, only during the second world war that drones were first used. With the focus on the military use of drones, the initial development of this technology was concentrated on improving them as aerial targets. Nowadays, they are still a lot of drone strikes, but some other functions have been explored to this equipment.



In these times, drones have been used for several other purposes, where one of them is helping some researchers in the Southeast Asia to fight an infectious disease, more precisely in the island of Borneo. According to Elizabeth Palermo, in the article "How Drones Are Fighting Infectious Disease", these researchers are using flying robots(drones) to map out the places affected the Plasmodium Knowlesi, a type of malaria parasite. The necessity of using drones in this situation came when public health officials noticed that, despite this parasite usually infect macaque monkeys, the number of humans infected were boosting. That has been happening because the transmission mostly occurs via mosquitos, from macaques to people.


The researchers expect to find out the reason why the parasite is spreading from monkeys to people more frequently right now. In the article "How Drones Are Fighting Infectious Disease", Elizabeth Palermo explains how their procedure works. 
With some colleagues, the researchers are using a small camera-carrying drone called a senseFly eBee, that creates maps and digital surface models of the communities where the paradise turned up in humans, focusing on the land and the vegetation surrounding it.

Drone used in the research
Credits: Trends in Parasitology, Fornace at al.

As Chris Drakeley, a professor of infection and immunity at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom, and one of the researchers involved in the project, pointed out "What we're doing is creating a detailed map, which we can then superimpose or overlay with the human and the macaque movement." In addition, using a drone to explore these areas is safer than sending another person that can end up being infected by the same parasite.

These unnamed aerial vehicles can be adapted to meet other goals, such as helping with research, or with some kinds of delivery. The use of drones in the military field is known the several deaths that were caused by the strikes. However, the use of drones in this research is a way of cleaning the bad impression that people have about this technology. Furthermore, the problem is not on the equipment, but on the people that decide to use it once it is not possible to ensure how many people drone strikes can kill and who will be killed, beyond its target.  Drones can be very useful to save lives too, for this reason, people should try to invest more time developing equipment that will improve life and reduce death. We need at least a balance between the damage and the profits of this technology. I am sure that they can be used for several other good reasons, and this fight against infectious disease is just one of them. We would profit much more using drone to save people instead of using it to destroy their lives.


Sources:
- Palermo, E. (2014). How Drones Are Fighting Infectious Disease. Live Science.
Retrieved from: http://www.livescience.com/48396-drones-track-infectious-disease.html

- D. Atherton, K. (2014). The History Of The Drone In 9 Minutes[Video]. Popular Science.
Retrieved from: http://www.popsci.com/watch-brief-history-drone

- U.A. (2014). Cloud Infographic - The Drone Consumer Evolution. Cloud Tweaks.
Retrieved from: cloudtweaks.com/2014/12/cloud-infographic-drone-consumer-evolution/

3D Printing Transforming Face Transplants

The 3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, technology has been inserted in several medicine areas, where, in special, face transplants have been profiting a lot from this insert. Because this technology leads us to the new reality of customization, it is possible to reproduce unique forms and sizes. This factor has been enabled medicine to improve face transplants, and to provide people hope and a new perspective of life. 

3D printed model used in planning
a face transplant surgery.
Credits: Radiological Society of North America

Most part of people that need this kind of procedure had been through surgeries as an attempt to recover at least part of their faces and, sometimes, even body functions like eating, breathing and talking. In the article "3D Printing Can Improve Face Transplants", the author Tia Ghose emphasizes that, at the moment of the transplant, the person's face may have plates, screws, bone grafts and a lot of other small modifications, and that is mandatory that the new face fit perfectly around all these parts. Furthermore, according to doctor Rybicki, with 3D printing, his team can discern where these elements are, and, consequently, the surgeries tend to go more smoothly and quickly.

A famous case is about a woman called Carmen Tartelon, whose, according to Dana Dovey in the article "3D Printers Give Face Transplant Patients A Dramatic Transformation And Improved Quality Of Life", estranged husband broke into her house and, with a baseball bat, beat her. In addition, he also threw an industrial strength lye on her, that burnt the skin and the muscles of her face in a way that what she had left was just a little bit more than her skull. In her case, it was necessary to print soft tissues, what is extremely difficult to visualize, and printing them requires a sophisticated technique, and that is why 3D printing was so useful.

Carmen Tartelon after face transplant
CBS screenshot

Besides helping surgeons with face transplants, it can also help them with other facial reconstructions. For example, when the patient's jaw need to be reconstructed, usually a piece of rib or leg bone is removed to restore the jaw, but using 3D printing it is possible to make this cut more precisely. Furthermore, doctors are also having the opportunity to get the necessary bone from another region, from the femur or from the thigh, because, different from the rib, they have their own bloody supply, and for that reason there is no risk of collapse. 

The improvement provided by the 3D printing technology is just one thing that we can profit from it. As pointed out above, it is also possible to create different and better alternatives with the models that can be printed. Nowadays, it is still considered as an expensive technology, it really is. However, the current accessibility, that we have, has been showing us the benefits of it. I think that, as the author of  "3D printing: 10 factors still holding it back", Lyndsey Gilpin, emphasizes, the usability of this technology to customize 

3D Printer
Credits: digitaltrends.com

smartphone cases, or other personal items will not help to expand it. It is not something really necessary in our lives, however, the 3D printing being used in the medicine field is a common interest for the whole population. What if we start using it to improve security systems or other medical procedures? I do not know specifically how, but it is possible and I am pretty sure that would change people's perception about it. Furthermore, the price would not be considered a big problem, in the case of a hospital, for example, it is not necessary one 3D printer for each patient, because one equipment could be useful for several areas. In conclusion, the overall usefulness of this technology should be focused on before anything else.



Sources:

- Ghose, T. (2014). 3D Printing Can Improve Face Transplants. LiveScience.
Retrieved from: http://www.livescience.com/48950-3d-printing-face-transplants-models.html

- Dovey, D. (2014). 3D Printers Give Face Transplant Patients A Dramatic Transformation And Improved Quality Of Life. Innovation.
Retrieved from: http: //www.medicaldaily.com/3d-printers-give-face-transplant-patients-dramatic-transformation-and-improved-313124

- Gilpin, L. (2014). 3D printing: 10 factors still holding it back. TechRepublic.
Retrieved from: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/3d-printing-10-factors-still-holding-it-back/#.

- Fleming, M. (2014). What is 3D Printing? An Overview. 3DPrinter.
Retrieved from: http://www.3dprinter.net/reference/what-is-3d-printing

Wearable Technology is all About Convenience and Necessity

According to Steve Mann's definition of wearable computer presented by the author of the article "Definition of  'Wearable Computer'", wearable computer is a computer different from the regular ones, that takes place into the user's own space and can be controlled by him/her. The main difference is that a wearable computer is always on and the user can access it any time it is convenient.

Usually, most part of the tasks that can be executed by a wearable computers can also be completed using a smartphone or a regular computer. What makes them different is the purpose they were created to. As the author of the article "Why Wearable Tech Will Be as Big as the Smartphone", Bill Wasik, emphasizes, the data that people need will not be helpful if they will not be able to access it exactly when they need. That is why we can say that the wearable technology came to supply the necessity of accessing your computer/smartphone while executing some other activity that requires a lot of your attention. 

Cycling with the Recon Jet - The first heads-up display for sports.

Skiing with the Snow2 - The next generation display for alpine sports.

Both products displayed above were created by the Recon company, that was founded by a man who saw in his own need, as a recent ex-athlete, the opportunity to provide the information people want to access when they are practicing sports. Being aware of the data they need can give them some advantage in a competition, for example.

Besides providing the user the ability to access a computer and realize another activity at the same time, one other very important feature of the wearable computer is that the user will see only the essential data. No distractions will be available, so the user will be able to get exactly what he/she needs and nothing else. Furthermore, this is one more aspect that makes it more convenient than a smartphone in situations where the user should be only focused on completing his task effectively.

Not only helpful in sports, the wearable computer can also be very advantageous in daily activities. As the author of the article "What is a wearable computer" points out, because this technology can provide a greater degree of encapsulation between the user and the computer, it can give us a better sense of perception of the world that is around us. Thus, we have the ability to obtain as many data as it is convenient for us at the moment. Moreover, our awareness of what is nearby us enhances according to the amount of data we get from the wearable computer. 

What makes the wearable technology attractive is the convenience that is provides for the users. The possibility of having a computer attached to you while you do other activities, with no distractions, is what turns it so interesting. In addition, the fact that this computer will directly satisfy the need of the user also increases its usability. 

----

Sources:

- N.A. (1998). Definition of Wearable Computer. Wearcomp.

Retrieved from: http://wearcomp.org/wearcompdef.html

- Wasik, B. (2013). Why Wearable Tech Will Be as Big as the Smartphone. Wired.

Retrieved from:  http://www.wired.com/2013/12/wearable-computers/

- Bilton, N. (2012). Wearable Computers Are the Next Big Devices, Report Says. Bits.

Retrieved from: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/wearable-computers-are-the-next-platform-wars-report-says/?_r=0