COMPUTERS

I often feel like the complexities of our own minds we take for granted, just like the complex mass of the computer network, but do we use either to its full potential, not sure any one individual is that capable and do we not often give our computers more attention, look after more than our mind! I guess our brains are as mysteries as the universe itself, unlike computers we can break down, but amazing technology… I continue to hear computers in a negative light and even blamed, so I will attempt to explain why for many on the spectrum a life saver I feel.

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CC Cartoons - http://picasaweb.google.com/caglarcoral/

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Computers like us they overload, meltdown, shut down!

"It seems computers so often our best friends, I was thinking on this

partly I feel our continue need to learn, be doing without the distraction

of social interaction. But it amuses me as I feel one on one I can cope,

be it a computer or person, but start to throw in more people and

socially I can become like a ranting baboon, online it just works.

Maybe because online we are in control of the input and output!

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Computers governed by demand have connected many of us worldwide,

given part of the transit generation a global home, a virtual cyber space,

a window many of us never had growing up and so I wonder as the more

technically advanced the world becomes, good or bad who knows!.  But

one thing that seems clear to me many of us on the spectrum often seem

to be more at home on our computers as many still struggle to fit in...

So as the world advances I wonder maybe we will be in demand!

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Work often when spectrum individuals do succeed in getting a job they

often find hard to cope, I have been their worked full time for many

years in London and found extremely stressful. Since being diagnosed

I now understand why was hell a lot of the time, why working always

seemed complicated, why I was continually let down by the system. I

ended up streamlining computer system, just a natural process to me.

Software Company Only Hires People who Have Autism

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/software-company-hires-people-autism/story?id=10260617

"I agree our minds are wired more user friendly computer wise.!"

 I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it

says something  about human nature that the only

 form of life we have created so far is purely  destructive.

We've created life in our own image.- Stephen Hawking

Computers and advancing technology: Time does it exist on the computer, we can change time by the press of a button and be in another time zone. When we speak to others we never know what time zone they are at and does it matter, whereas off the computer it often does. We can transport from one time zone to another and stay where we are, I guess time a continuum where ever we are!

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Myself I have 2 boys, well 3 including my husband and maybe at times we spent more time than the average family on computers. In fact, we have 3 computers and a laptop in my home... but we do all sit and eat together and find time as a family, I guess if everyone's time was limited to computers there would be no Bill Gates! But really most of us use for downtime and other reasons, myself like my older son Stuart find an easy way to offload, process thoughts, write on etc...

Computers have connected us worldwide a window many of us never had growing up and I wonder as the more technically advanced the world becomes what the future holds, they even have meltdown, shutdowns and overloads like us and our computers invade us with spam etc... Quote : “There is an evil tendency underlying all our technology - the tendency to do what is reasonable even when it isn't any good.” - Robert Pirsig

I so wish I could afford a brilliant technical person for my web site, as working out oneself is a matter of making do, but computer technology and processes continually seem to change and so we all have to adapt or be left behind. So I guess I am lucky my older son is computer minded, as hate all that background work, ok when I know what I am doing, but so helps having someone to discuss with, as I so feel many of us already compromise on computers, as easy to do what we know!

At times my computer is like my best friend, as helps take away the boredom factor, when you’re like myself and have an over active mind that never seems to turns off, and in need of constant input. When my mind does not want to shutdown and I am up late alone, it so helps... also because of my intellectual learning differences writing things down turns to a jumbles chaos, so computers truly help, unmuddle my thoughts, speed up my own processes and has so opened up my world.

Anyway that was a quick intro, as I really want to share my 16 year old sons thoughts on the benefits of using computers, gaming etc.. and to simply add as a parent I do what I feel is right for each of my children as the individual they are, maybe they do not do as much sport as some children, but get plenty of mind exercises!

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- An article written by my son -

Gaming is not an Unhealthy, Worthless way to spend your Time

Gaming is not an unhealthy or worthless way to spend one’s time. Gaming is in fact a very useful tool in today’s society. Reasons for this include both its mental and skill based uses, and also its real world application.

            Mentally gaming is a very stimulating and rewarding experience. Through gaming, users gain many mental rewards and benefits, both in terms of interaction with people and in building a sense of community. Gamers are now heading towards social gaming, (gaming with peers) and it has become widespread enough to reveal its benefits. These include an increase in social interaction skills and leadership abilities. A good example of this is a case study done of an asperger child by Cambridge University in England. The boy in question, due to his Aspergers had a distinct lack of advanced social skills which was openly evident by the age of ten. These issues had been compounded over time until the discovery of social gaming as social learning tool. Though playing a number of Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) the boy, in the words of the researcher; “Became adept at dealing with a range of social situations he had previously found troublesome.” Due to this, and a number of other studies gaming is beginning to lose the dark single player stereotype and take on a new social face. Leadership is a trait developed though gaming by an increasing number of players. Leadership though games is developed in a number of ways where a player can command anywhere from one to sixty three other players. These abilities then move forward into the real world so effectively that a number of companies use it as a team building exercise, (Bioware, EA etc) to varying degrees to help promote such abilities. This provides proof that such abilities are indeed generated by gaming. Another good example of this generation is an upcoming patch to a game called World of Warcraft, in which the creators, Blizzard, will implement a feature that rewards players who lead groups though group oriented game content.

            Gaming has always had a certain degree of skill associated with it, why else would be attractive and challenging to an ever increasing user-base? However, what gaming does unintentionally is promote skills that are real world transferable. Most notably of these is hand-eye coordination. This skill is best built though first person shooters, within which players must use accuracy and speed to take out either artificial intelligence or more popularly, other humans. Because of the progressive learning curve against artificial intelligence and the dexterity of human opponents these games can quickly and efficiently build hand-eye coordination. Resource management and strategic planning is another notable that can be trained though the use of Real Time and Turn Based strategy games.  Games such as Age of Empire, Sins of a Solar Empire, Civilization and Galactic Civilization create these skills on an area by area basis. They do this because both human players and computer players are very good at adapting during the course of a game. Forcing players to plan for the short term and also have long term goals with planned routes to said goals. For example in Sins of a Solar Empire (Real Time strategy), players must constantly adapt to the weigh ups between offence and defence. This requires very quick planning as their opponent will likely be doing the same in real time. However, looking at Galactic Civilization (Turn Based strategy), players must instead plan heavily for the long term in order to keep the empire safe and running smoothly. Both these types of game produce the planning skills at both a macro and micro level that many companies require and demand of their managers.

            Real world of games is a fairly new field and is primarily used as a training resource for both the military and aviation industries. Both these sectors use these games for training for live fire/real world scenarios. With that said the best example of military use is a game called America’s Army. The game is used by the American Military as a recruitment tool to find gamers with both the tactical ability and the means to follow conventional rules of engagement to the letter. The game has been a huge success for getting recruits outside the main stream of recruitment programs. Aviation uses games as a training tool. The highly successful Microsoft Flight Simulator has now had software created for it that allows pilots to get full real licences from the comfort of their own homes. Because of the computing power of the home computer the lessons can be incredibly detailed and modelled on the real thing

            In conclusion, gaming has a very useful and helpful niche in current society. This is though the creation of social and mental skills and also the recruitment and training of real industry, gaming has become much more than a recreational device.    

By Stuart Bradley (my son age 16 - somewhere on the bigger spectrum of life)

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A computer chip sometimes I feel existence within me, the

connection I feel via cyber space so fulfils the gap that maybe

some can not understand or fill in for me, computer's give me

reason and purpose, which many individuals unable to do, they

answer my endless questions and so make sense to me. So I can

not help but thank you all for being their for me. - Alyson Bradley

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Article about Aspergers and how MMOs (World of Warcraft)

http://www.wow.com/2010/04/13/15-minutes-of-fame-wow-buoys-autistic-youngster/#continued

Autism Awareness Month, EASe Video Games

Are Therapeutic Fun For Kids With Autism

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/185337.php

Confidence Game - Is AS being used as a false front?

http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2010.05--confidence-game/

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"We wouldn't even have any computers if we

didn't have Asperger's." Temple Grandin"

. Asperger's: the IT industry's dark secret

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/spec/CE96C5C608138FABCC25747000784BD0

Asperger's and IT: Dark secret or open secret?

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticle

Basic&taxonomyId=10&articleId=9072119&intsrc=hm_topic

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Hacker basks in the spotlight  When he was 10, Walker

 was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome,  a form of autism often

 characterised by social isolation,  but higher intelligence. ...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1501833&objectid=10523651

biTtorrent founder Bram Cohen isn't limited by his ASperger's

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_43/b4105046863317.htm

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