Tag Archives: Seekers

Foxconn: Relativity and Choice

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-02-02/news/31019111_1_foxconn-iphone-labor-agency

Following our discussion on Tuesday regarding the iPhone and Foxconn’s 17 suicides, I decided to look for articles that took the opposing point of view.  I looked for articles that supported Foxconn for their work and one article I liked in particular was “Apple, Foxconn and your iPhone” by Joshua Greenman.  Greenman takes a global perspective on the issue by basically saying economics are relative.  The standards we have here in the United States are very different than those in China.  Working conditions, from our perspective, may be very poor, but that doesn’t stop Foxconn from being able to easily employ almost a million workers.  Also, Greenman emphasizes the simple yet complicated word of ‘choice’.  I can’t help but agree with him when he concludes his article with the idea that Chinese men and women choose to work at Foxconn because it is what’s best for themselves and their families.  Although Foxconn does not provide the best working conditions, what Foxconn does provide is opportunity.  As tragic as the suicides were at Foxconn, I believe that Foxconn is doing a good job in providing its million workers with food and homes, for as long as the workers choose to work there.

“Supplier Responsibility” — The Start of a Manufacturer’s Conscience

Last class we discussed the joining of Apple into the Fair Labor Association (FLA). I was curious as to how much Apple, being the “slick” marketing empire that they are, might address this on their website. I was very pleasantly surprised to find an entire section of their website devoted to what they call “Supplier Responsibility.” In this section, they identify some of the problems that they have observed and are attempting to fix within their own corporation. These include some of the problems that Daisey addressed in his podcast, such as work hours, worker age, and living conditions. Needless to say, we as the consumer must take an evaluative approach to these claims. What I mean by that is that we must really wait to judge the severity of their commitment on the results, not the means. Intention, in this facet, is not what counts as much as reaction, change, and actual results. However, I respect the Apple Corporations enactment of this area, and the fact that they are willing to be open about the problems that they see both to the consumers, and in essence to themselves. Now we can only hope that they do something about it.

Using your eyes to control your avatar

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/eyes-instead-mouse-151319314.html

When reading another seeker’s post about the HUD contact lenses, it reminded me of a video I saw a little while ago about being able to use your eyes to control something on the computer screen instead of using a mouse or controller. The brief part of the video I focus on is the use of this technology for video games of course. This type of control system in the video game realm is described as a diegetic operator act. The operator’s gaze makes his/her avatar move in whatever direction you look, and basically takes away the need for you to use your thumbs to move in whatever direction you want. What would be interesting to me is how they would be able to incorporate more actions through just your eye movements, such as firing weapons, selecting, jumping, etc. I know that some of these actions can be seen through a few gaming consoles, such as the XBox Kinect or Wii. But, just using your eyes brings it to a whole other level of gaming, and hopefully this idea will expand into a lot more.