Mechanical Turk Project

Over the course of a week I attempted to try to complete at least 2 hits a day. When searching for hits I tried to narrow my search down to surveys because they require the least amount of effort. While looking through the hits I came across the issue that you have to have a certain qualification to do certain hits which narrows your choice of what you can complete. I attempted to do tasks other than surveys but a lot of them required special abilities such as being fluent in Mandarin Chinese and having work experience in designated areas. This really brought down the availability of hits to me seeing as though I am a student in college so I have barely any work experience as well as English being my first and only language. 

I did find a hit that appealed to me perfectly. The qualifications were that you had to be an African-American College student. This hit listed a series of question that basically asked my views on other races and how I felt personally about them. As well as put my opinion on the work world and how each race correlates with  the amount of job opportunities available.  

The wide variety of hit types seems limitless. I came across a hit which said "this hit requires you to leave your computer." The basis of the hit was to go out and complete some sort of community service, document it, then submit the hit. Personally, trying to make $10 dollars on Mturk sounded easier than I thought but once I started working towards it I realized how difficult it was. I ended up 48 cents short of $10 after the one week mark.

As discussed in class, I now realize how tough it would be for people who use this as a main source of income. A lot of the hits are limited and waiting on your money to be approved is a very frustrating process. Also discussed in class, I feel like the people that complete these hits should be getting paid more per hit. They do take some time to finish and most of them go for as low as 50 cents. In my results, it shows I accepted 23 hits but only submitted 12. This is because a lot of the hits were phonies and after completion for some reason they wouldn't allow me to submit or Mturk would say that the hit was authorized within the system. To conclude this weeks experience, I cannot see how people live off of this type of income; the work is very tedious and awaiting your hits to be approved gets annoying at times. 

Week 12 Entry

THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY THINGS, proved many important points. A lot of the consumers nowadays only focus on the appearance of an object as opposed to it functionality. My relatable example would have to be with automobiles. A lot of individuals want the sleek, attracting sports cars that is physically appealing and grabs a lot of attention. What they fail to realize is that the sports car's maintenance is going to cost them a lot more as well probably require them to use Premium gas which will add up seeing as though they will have to fill up every week. American's overlook the more reasonable vehicle such as a Honda Accord, very good on gas and the maintenance is affordable. Not knowing how to function certain things without instructions usually has something to do with the generation of the user. The younger generation has already adapted to technological advances and is used to the idea of modern day technology. So when a new gadget is released they already have a feel for how to use it, like a universal knowledge on technology. Older people are just becoming familiar with such technology so they are considered "foreign" to it and require a manual or instructions to use it. 


The "Prototyping for Fingers" column I felt related to me because in my Honors seminar we have to construct a lo-fi model of a camera of the future. Although in the article it claims it should only take a couple hours I see it taking us a while due to being amateurs and never actually constructing one before. Lo-fi vs Hi-fi is a very interesting argument. Of course lo-fi is a lot less time consuming and cheaper but it also lacks the finalized view of an object. Hi-fi is a lot more expensive and takes up a lot of time but it gives you almost a look at your final product. The commitment that is required to a low-fi is reasonable because you didn't put much effort into the project so if there is something that needs to be changed, it won't be that heartbreaking. Golub used a sort of crowd sourcing in our Honors Seminar to explain the process. He explained the possibility of   an interface that was created using lo-fi and someone wanted to put a random smiley face on it but it had no functionality. Well while testing it and if someone presses the smiley face thinking it will do something such as take a picture, the programmers might take notes on the audiences reaction to the smiley face and make the smiley face a button in which initiates a camera function. 

Week 11 Entry

I found it interesting while reading the essay on the virtual world, that I kept on imagining a Sims like simulated program where people set up accounts and were able to communicate and create an avatar, as stated in the article, to control throughout this virtual world. But actually the virtual world stated in the essay is "text-based." I guess that is the affect the creators of this virtual world wanted it to have, one that replicates reality as the user creates their avatar using age, gender, and their interests. In my opinion the lack of a race input would make this virtual reality less realistic. In the real world you cannot hide your race from the public usually when you come in contact with someone face to face they can determine your race based on physical features. I do understand why they might want to hide race though, of course if one person has hostility to a certain race it may cause conflict online, i.e. harassment. I did find the comparison of race in RPG worlds to race in the real worlds to be very clever. Saying that elves, wizards, trolls, and humans all have a virtual hierarchy in the cyberspace similar to those of races in our society. Many races in the real world carry stereotypes as do the races in RPG worlds.

While reading the Interactivity and Vulnerability article I connected the interactivity of this article with that of the @race article. Editing famous paintings but in this case they add mustaches to destroy it comparable to how users of text-based realms could trash the image of another on social network sites. Also refering to the "ethno-cyborgs" and how the performers must assume these personas, similar to how user assume avatars online but the only difference is in this article the performers' personas have diverse cultural characteristics that are stereotypical latinos. In the @race article they try to avoid identifying race to prevent stereotypes. The technology used in the marines training is very useful! The interaction of the troops and the virtual terrorists creates a realistic situation for them to experience and prepare them for what they may face when in Iraq. But just as the troops mentioned it's no where near the same as being in the heat of battle in reality because the virtual avatars created do not shoot back.

Week 10 Entry

The concept of a Mechanical Turk is genius. Although people cannot make a living off of this, it still is creating ways for people to make easy, quick money, without a college education. Taking in account of the opposition, I believe that it's not immoral because people are not forced to do these jobs and they are well aware that they are doing this work without much pay. Many of them are not doing these jobs for the money but only to keep themselves entertained so if you really want to look at the whole situation closely, people are sort of getting paid to keep themselves busy as opposed to looking at it as below minimum wage work. Also in technical terms they are getting paid justly for the work that they do because the tasks provided by the site do not call for much experience or effort.

The comical feel to the Aaron Shaw video grabbed my attention and made learning more about the turk system more enjoyable. I kind of was confused to how the Colbert Report video related to the turk subject though. I do find it funny that the turks became upset when the grad student began to sell their drawn sheep for $20 when only paying $2 for them to draw them. Maybe in the aspect of products in that sense it may be immoral to sell the work of art of another. But according to the site his actions were still considered moral so he's not to blame.

Week 8 Entry

After reading all the readings I came to a conclusion that the common point that was supposed to be made was that technology not only has a digital effect on issues that take place in the world but also has a social effect as well. While reading the Is it a Crime? article I sort of related it to the social network, Tumblr. You are allowed to ask any on there a question as an anonymous person. Usually those are the boldest people to  speak just because of their unidentifiable profile. One of my friends was asked a simple question on there and ended up somehow giving away her hint for her password to her email, which was connected to her facebook as well. The hacker then took her profile and somehow received her number and held her facebook page captive, using it to message random people and deceive them as if it were her.

On Electronic Civil Disobedience began by speaking more about reality and Civil Disobedience in the real world. I really thought it was clever how they transitioned into the cyber realm and how hackers are considered disobedient when it comes to their activity online. Then the use of the physical blockade that was used to compare to the blockades that are made to prevent hackers from doing anything unethical sort of made it more understandable and in terms I could relate to. The Zapatista Effect: The Internet and the Rise of an Alternative Political Fabric was kind of confusing to me, I always get lost when the articles are sort of lengthy and don't necessarily clearly state the point. Rebellion and the use of the internet during rebellion are the main points I reached from that article.

Critical Analysis Pseudo-code

Learning programming this way gives people like me, non-computer science degrees, an easier way to comprehend the subject matter. It would be almost near impossible for me to learn code in enough time to effectively execute it in an actual program. Dance would not be the only thing that could be done in a pseudo-code, everything you do that is considered an action could be put in pseudo-code. For example, waking up in the morning, you would start the code with get out of bed, and you could loop your movement to and from the bathroom because many people take more than one trip during the morning for brushing teeth and other things. Another pseudo-code could be made from driving, starting the engine would be the beginning and you could loop using turn signals after a certain about of passed cars or streets.

While making our pseudo-code the hardest part was probably figuring out the song to use. We came across a few choices; "Party in the USA," "Thriller," and "Sunshine" but we decided to use "Hey Ya!" because of it's flexibility and our ability to break it down using loops and other computer science tools. Our objective is to have at least one group member act as Andre 3000 while the rest of the group acts sort of like his back-up dancers. I did have a question regarding the actual performance. During the performance does the narrator speak while the group performs or after?

"Now all Beyonces and Lucy Lius and Baby Dolls, get on the floor"

During our performance on Sunday you will figure out how these shots are relevant to our routine.

"Hey Ya!" Code

#include <Freestyle>

#include <Math.rand>

#include “Heya.mp3”

Main{

            Gather dancers

            Let random dancer be Andre 3000

            Start music

            While count is less than or equal to three

                        Wait

            Call Heya

            Start BackUpThread

            Start AndreThread

            Exit(EXIT_SUCCESS)

}

function Heya{

            define right = +1 right hand shake //left to right

            define left = +1 left hand shake //left to right

            define rightInv = -1 right hand shake //right to left

            define leftInv = -1 left hand shake //right to left

            for count equals 1 to 2

                        sing “Heeey”

                        right++

                        left++

                        sing “Yaaaa”

                        leftInv++

                        rightInv++

}

BackUpThread {

            Var count

            Sleep(“Fellas”) //wait until “fellas” is said

            If male

                        Cup hands around mouth

                        Say “Yeah!”

                        Sleep(“Cool”) //wait until “cool” is said

For count equals 1 to 2

                                    Shiver

                        Say “Ice Cold!”

Else

            Loiter

Sleep(“Ladies”) //wait until “ladies” is said

            Cup hands around mouth

            Say “Yeah!”

            Sleep(“Suga’”)

            Blow kiss

While Andre says shake it

            Shake //Shake something

Sleep(“Beyonce”)

            Place picture of Beyonce in front of face

Sleep(“Lucy Liu”)

            Place picture of Lucy Liu in front of face

}

AndreThread {

            Var count

            Sing “Hey, alright now\nAlright now fellas.”

            Sing “Now what’s cooler than being cool?”

            Cup hand around ear          

            Sing “I can’t hear ya. I say what’s cooler than being cool?”

            Cup hand around ear

            For count equals 1 to 14

                        Sing “Alright”

                        Number = rand(0,1)

                        Switch(Number)

Case 0: Jump in place

            Break;

Case 1: Jump around back up dancers

            Sing “OK now ladies”

            Cup hand around ear

            Start Freestyle

            Sing “I see we gonna break it down in just a few seconds”

            Sing “Don’t make me break it down for nothing”

            Sing “Now I wanna see y’all on y’all baddest behavior”

            Sing “Lend me some suga. I am your neighbor”

            For count  = 1  to 4

                        Sing “Shake it, shake, shake it”

            Sing “Shake it like a polaroid picture

            For count = 1 to 3

                        Sing “Shake it, shake, shake it”

            Sing “Shake it like a polaroid picture”

            Sing “Now all the Beyonce’s and Lucy Liu’s and baby dolls, get on the floor”

            For count = 1 to 3

                        Sing “You know what to dooo”

            Stop Freestyle

}