creepy March 13, 2008

so, in class today, we were discussing the very creepy concepts of mind control and robots and how technology seems to be bringing us ever closer to the stuff that was once considered straight out of science fiction. i talked about how in a philosophy class i had taken in highschool there was an article in wired magazine about a paralyzed man becoming part of a study that allowed him to use his mind to move objects on a screen and in the realm of reality. literally putting a sort of outlet into his brain, they would plug him into either the robotic arm or the monitor and using his thoughts- he would move them. he plays pong, checks e-mails, and they are trying to work with him and a robotic hand.

anyone else slightly wigged about this? especially with the fact that the government has a hand in the financing and is hoping to harness this technology for military purposes?

it all just seems very science fiction and unreal and yet…this article is 3 years old and i am sure we’ve progressed from that point on.

library overload March 13, 2008

i am not sure if it is merely the fact that i am pretty technologically impaired or that i am simply easily overwhelmed by the occasional information overload that can occur while researching, but i hate to leave the miami libraries page and use other sites as my method of pulling up the correct resources. i have been told several times that while it is a good source, it is far from the best source out ther, and that i am hampering my own research and the “scope of my papers” by not branching out into the other options offered but, it really does intimidate me. i also don’t see the point. i was taught way back in english 111 how to use the miami libraries search engine, why should i bother to not use what is already at my finger tips and that has 99% of what i have looked for previously? deciding to find another search source though, i went out into the world wide web and browsed until i came across the easy to use, mostly on-line research filled page, research tools/iTools. sure it’s basic, sure plenty of you guys probably already know how to use it, but i thought it was a great page if only because of the use of three different on-line encyclopedias loaded right within the search page (Encarta being one which brings me back to the good old days of windows 95). so for those scaredy cats like me, check it out. it’s easy to manage

tainted disney March 4, 2008

so, i am not sure about you guys but, i was personally more then a little heart broken when i heard how many law suits were put into action by against child care places by mean, mean disney. the more mr. r mentioned, the sadder i became with the company i grew up loving. while this article touches on the law suits, efforts, and motivations of disney in the copy right domain, the corporate drive behind the beloved company is disgusting. they make movies about living cute, sing songy, romantic lives where you should always be good and true and happily ever after always come true. since when does happily ever after include suing babysitting companies for painting mickey on their wall? jerk faces

facebook apps February 26, 2008

so i found this article on wired.com about the best facebook apps (for supsersocial geeks) and while the ones mentioned were all pretty cool, i can’t help but feel as though the ones they picked aren’t the best out there. sure the calendar 30 day program is kinda cool, allowing you to manage all your facebook dates on your profile, but, how confusing can facebook dates become? and the honesty box program made the cut? really? a place for people to leave an anonoymous message for you, the sometimes brutal program is intriguing but out of the hundreds of programs there are, how did this one make the cut?  i personally like the program “bumper sticker” which may not be too cool (probably why it’s not on the list) but i think it’s just very very amusing. friends sending eachother little pics or quotes, most pretty hilarious, and having the option to post on their profile or keep them hidden in the program’s file. i guess though that i was hoping that somehow there were super cool facebook apps i was unaware of the wired would open my eyes to. sadly, apps really do appear to be pointless. 

skype February 26, 2008

upon searching to see if there was a facebook mashup out there in the web, i came up with all these links featuring a program called “skype” that facebook is joined up with. apparently, windows users can use this program to further connect with the people in their social network, calling them through facebook becoming an option when based on their skype profile. the app is trying to “stay simple” claims the description but is allows you to other people’s online status and call them which, to me, seems over the top and semi invasive. this article and this article both discuss the problems people are having with skype.

pretzels and rhett and link February 23, 2008

skip to the second paragraph for my actual informational post. i was working pretzels yesterday and another student from our class, Matt, was working critics choice and we ended up discussing rhett and link (the two guys from the facebook song video he posted that mr. r used in class), and as i told him there were several other videos i found of theirs that also would’ve worked with our class syllabus this semester. before i get into that though, the real reason for this post is a small tangent about working pretzels. i usually love to do so, it is a fun job and makes you feel like you have accomplished something when you crank out 50 some pretzels in a shift. friday though, was hellish. the dough is supposed to be set aside in ropes for you to stretch and shape into pretzels, lightly coated in oil and saran wrapped so that it won’t dry out and crack and be impossible to deal with. however, the people who made the pretzel trays didn’t saran wrap them shut and tada! instant terrible pretzel day. there is a mark on the pretzelmania sign (on the words “salt”) where i threw a chunk of pretzel dough that snapped off when i was attempting to shape- that is how frustrating it was. so there, for all of you who didn’t know, pretzel making can be horrid if you have the perfect storm of dried out dough. and matt- told you i’d still be frustrated enough post about it.

back on track though, so rhett and link (again, the two guys from the facebook song video we watched in class) have their own live show on-line and always make a video such as the facebook song video to show within their show and then later on youtube. two of these videos jumped out as particuarily entertaining considering how we discussed the original videos they mock in our class. the first is their “drive thru rap“ video which is responding to the mcdonald’s rap video that went from youtube to their actual advertising. the rhett and link version is healthy. and then they also made a ghost riding video in response to the ever popular rap video and on-line video jokes. 

Flickr Mashups February 12, 2008

so, the top ten flickr mashups , are all really entertaining and useful but i would have to say that my favorite is Retrievr, the color/sketch mashup that we were shown in class. while not necessarily useful, it is very very very entertaining and CAN be useful if you tinker correctly.a very close second though is the program Spell with Flickr, which spells out anything you want with letter images from the photo site. i did my name and some other words and have used them on a web page, it is pretty amusing and a very cool look when all is said and done. it uploads letters and you can click and change them to form the words, i would say it is well worth toying with!

how to be a journalist without a degree! February 12, 2008

so, due to citizen journalism, just about anyone can get into the media of the web and make a difference out there with the shattering news the world contains. and how does one go about becoming such a journalist? by joining an already established site, sure, or by simply creating your own! it’s by using instant journalist, you can make your own news site and keep people posted with the news you feel is important out there. breaking news on the weekly behaviors of your cat? sure you can make a page! more seriously though, you can try to get scoops on modern issues, events, and interest stories and keep people connected to your site by tagging. or at least that’s how i understand it.while i feel like this is good in terms of getting the news that needs to be brought out into the open into, well, the open, i can’t help but wonder what this is doing to the actual journalism field. do they support citizen journalism with the mantra of “all news is good news! the public must know!” or begrudge it when citizen journalists get the scoops first or report on issues the mainstream media wants to ignore? and if it is so simple to be a citizen journalist, how does this affect those who study and work toward that goal? CNN seems to be on board, even creating their own site. but what is the general feelings of journalists to citizen journalists? yay or nay? 

“what is a blog?” February 5, 2008

what is a blog is apparently the number one search involving the word “blog”. this small article that lists a pair’s blogging know how () starts off with this in the first bullet point and is something they say adds to the mystery and allure of blog culture. i don’t exactly get how people not understanding a blog is helpful in getting people to blog but, apparently these guys think it is. some of the other points they touch on but (as they even end up saying) it all boils down to originality and practicality taking over. which are two rather good things. tagging makes it simple to keep in touch with things as does the wonders of the RSS feed. i am pretty technologically impaired (one of the reasons i thought this class would be a good thing for me to learn) but, even i can understand how this would all be a good thing to get everyone involved in. blog culture is not just a way to connect to your friends and journal (which is honestly what i thought prior this course) but more a connection of ideas. the little article i referenced is merely a list as to the hows and whys.

K- link help? February 5, 2008

i know we were shown in class how to make target words links but, i can’t seem to remember how and now my posts are all… tangled looking with URLs killing them. anyone want to reply with an easy how to? that’d be the best