October 2007 Archives

In a recent article from PC World, a brave man by the name of Scott decided to not use Office applications (ex. Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and just use web based applications. While Scott was skeptical at first, by the end of the week, he did not go back to using Office. Through Gmail, Google Docs, and Zoho, Scott had all the tools he needed to be productive, and he overall liked the features of these web applications. While a movement such as this one from traditional desktop applications to web applications might be imminent, I am still very skeptical of the web applications due to privacy. I do not like to trust third parties to save and protect my files. However, as web applications seem to be the wave of the future, I will have to experiment with them at some point. Knowledge is Power!

Happy Halloween! Here is your treat:

Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

Major television and entertainment corporations just do not like YouTube. In response, up to this point, all these corporations have launched lawsuits against the Google owned company. That was until today with the beta launch of Hulu, dubbed the YouTube killer. In a recent blog post by Terrence Russell of the Wired Blog Network, although Hulu has only been released to a select few users, the web site does not have many YouTube killing qualities. Hulu offers premium content or full length movies or television shows from FOX and NBC such as Scrubs and The Simpsons, in which the advertisements are limited. However, Hulu does not allow users to upload the videos, and it seems as though older content will be the content focus rather than newer content. Hulu seems like a promising alternative to YouTube, but I always thought that the charm of YouTube was You. Any user could post his or her own videos on the web and express themselves. At least, that it is what I thought after learning about digital ethnography. Still, as a busy college student, Hulu gives me the opportunity to watch my favorite shows on NBC and FOX when I have the time. However, do I have the bandwidth?..........

Everyone with an email account has at one time or another received spam emails. In a recent article from Howstuffworks.com, fighting spam might help in the fight against AIDS. What makes preventing spam email so difficult is that spammers use names that are recognizable to humans but not to the spamming filter, such as "pharmaceutical" as "ph@rm@ceut1cal." Due to these various mutations of spam, the computer has to go through many possibilities. However, recently Microsoft has developed an algorithm that reduces to the time to go through these possibilities from a year to just a day. David Heckerman, one of the Microsoft team's leaders, is not only a computer scientist, he's also a physician. He realized that the same theory used to block spam could also be used to kill HIV. After all, spam and HIV work in similar ways. When HIV attacks an immune cell, it creates thousands of replicas of itself. These aren't exact replicas, though. Each one is a slight variation on the original, and each of these goes on to attack more and more cells, each time replicating into mutated versions of the virus. This makes it difficult to design a vaccine to kill HIV. To create a vaccine, scientists include antibodies that look for specific strains of HIV. Subtle mutations of the virus not targeted by the vaccine may survive, much as the spam blocker allows junk e-mail to pass through when it doesn't see any flagged words. The Microsoft researchers hope to apply their antispam algorithm to HIV to calculate each possible HIV mutation. If they succeed, they can then provide HIV vaccine researchers with this data, and vaccines can include antibodies designed to kill all -- not just some -- of the mutated viruses. This is an excellent example of how technology can impact our lives. Something as trivial as filtering spam may lead to major developments in eliminating HIV and AIDS. These advances are very exciting, and I hope some progress can be made in the fight against AIDS.

In a recent article from the New York Times, the Internet and videos are serving as major recruitment tools for athletes, actors, and musicians headed off to college. Recruiters really no longer recruit by going to prospects games, but asking prospects to submit DVDs or links to video streamed from YouTube or sports-info trading posts, including iPlayers, Student-Athlete Showcase, Next Step College Sports, Get My Name Out or the monster sports sites Scout (which is owned by Fox), Rival (owned by Yahoo) and MaxPreps, which CBS acquired in April. Parents typically spend from $300 to $5,000 on the production of these videos because as Broadcaster Marketing Services says: “Are you willing to risk your child’s potential scholarship with a homemade videotape? Remember, first impressions last forever!” I think that the development of these sites illustrates the increasing pressure placed on teenagers and children to succeed and compete. Whatever happened to playing a sport or instrument just for fun or because one enjoys it, and not to be the best in the county, state, region, or country?

I cannot wait for The Dark Knight to come into theaters on July 18, 2008. For those who do not know, The Dark Knight is the sequel to Batman Begins. There has been a couple of creative leaks put out on the Internet by Warner Brothers to advertise the movie. The latest of these is a jack-o-lantern reminscient of the excellent graphic novel The Long Halloween put on the website whysoserious.com. Lately, the jack-o-lantern has been beginning to rot but only on one side. Could this be an allusion to Two-Face and maybe Bat-fans will be getting a treat this Halloween? I hope it is not going to be a trick.

For this assignment, I have chosen to evaluate three video sharing sites, Metacafe, Multiply, and GoFish!. Although each of them incorporate videos into their sites, they all do so in a different way.

Metacafe is a strictly video sharing service whose web page design emulates YouTube’s. Primarily, the videos offered by Metacafe are short form or generally one or two minutes in length and are geared strictly for entertainment. Videos that feature webcam chatter, personal videos, and hard news stories do not appear on this site but rather videos that "inspire, amaze, and make viewers laugh" do appear. A unique feature of Metacafe is that the videos are user-generated, user-selected, user-reviewed and user-rewarded. The audience has a greater influence on Metacafe than other video web sites because of community auditions, rankings and rewards. Community Auditions are held by a community review panel of more than 80,000 volunteers, who take a first look at each of the thousands of videos submitted to the site every day. Community Rankings is Metacafe’s VideoRank™ system that identifies and exposes the most popular videos by automatically gauging every interaction each viewer has with a video. Community Rewards is Metacafe’s Producer Rewards™ program that pays video creators for their best original work, as determined by the viewers.

Metacafe also is a kind of social network where users have their own profile. On a profile, such information as a profile picture, quote, personal information, and subscribers are shown. To subscribe to someone’s profile is like “friending” them on Facebook.

Advertisements are located at the top and on the right hand side of the website, but they are not too distracting.

The following is Metacafe’s Intellectual Property Rights which state that Metacafe rather than its users own the content on its website:

The content on the Website, including all User Submissions, including without limitation, the text, software, scripts, graphics, photos, sounds, music, videos and interactive features ("Content") and the trademarks, service marks and logos contained therein ("Marks"), are owned by or licensed to Metacafe. Content on the Website is provided to you "AS IS" for your information and personal use only and may not be used, copied, distributed, transmitted, broadcast, displayed, sold, licensed, reverse engineered, de-compiled, or otherwise exploited for any other purposes whatsoever without Metacafe's prior written consent. Metacafe reserves all rights not expressly granted in and to the Website. If you download or print a copy of the Content for personal use, you must retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained therein. You agree not to circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with security-related features of the Website or features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any Content or enforce limitations on use of the Website.

The following are Metacafe’s Restrictions, which limit what kind of videos users can post and promote what kind of videos Metacafe wants on their site. It is interesting to note the writing style:

• No cloning allowed. No, we're not talking about producing identical sheep in the lab - that's cool. We're talking about duplicating videos that already exist on the site. We HATE duplicates, because repetition repetition sucks sucks. So before you upload a video to Metacafe, please conduct a search to see if it already exists here.
• Eight is enough. No, we're not talking about that cheesy TV show from the Seventies. We're talking about the length of your video: keep it under 8 minutes. Anything longer than that should be entered into our Producer program.
• Keep your pants on. We're not prudes here, but we want Metacafe to serve as wide a community as possible. This means we will not allow sexually explicit videos on the site. Those are simply 2H4M (Too Hot For Metacafe).
• What about partial nudity or implied sexuality? We're not afraid of the odd 'wardrobe malfunction' but it's better to practice safe sex and put an 18+ filter on it.
• Filter that violence. Please remember that Metacafe is all about entertainment and entertainment should not come at the expense of others. So if your video contains violence, please stick the appropriate filter on it:
• 13+: For staged/acted violence (such as martial arts).
• 18+: For real-world violence including physical attacks; for injuries, gruesome scenes, or explicit language.
• Metacafe will reject videos which portray illegal acts of violence or videos that show or imply human fatalities however newsworthy such footage may seem in context.
• Dress for success. Package your videos with killer titles, descriptions, thumbnails, and tags to attract viewers. But, please, be accurate, or we'll tell all the people you deceived exactly where you sleep.
• Irresistible Titles: What's in a name? Everything. Boring titles = no views, so give your video a title no one can resist.
• Teaser Descriptions: Don't you hate it when someone tells you the surprise ending of a movie before you've seen it? ("Dude, did you hear that Darth Vader is Luke's dad?") So go ahead and describe the contents of your video in vivid detail, but don't give away the punch line.
• Eye-Catching Thumbnails: Pick an image from your video that accurately represents its contents and grabs attention. But if it's something gross, don't show it - we like to eat while browsing the site.
• Tag Away: Use as many tags as you want to describe your video. That helps people find it in a search.
• Pick a channel. If your video fits more than one channel, choose one that applies most. Still can't decide? Take a coin, assign one channel to heads, one channel to tails, then flip it. Later, see a counselor about how you let coins shape your life.
• No last names please! At Metacafe, we respect privacy, and that includes the privacy of the people in your Café Confidential story. Please do not use the last names of people in your story. In fact, while you're at it, why not make up the first name, too? We want truthful stories, but at no one else's expense.

Multiply is not a strictly video web service but more of a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace. Videos are just another feature of Multiply. However, like Metacafe, Multiply users can comment on the videos posted by other users in a comment board format that are supposed to stimulate conversations between users. There is a ten minute or 100 MB limit on the size of videos one could show on Multiply. A user can also limit who is able to see the video he or she uploads to everyone to just a few friends.

Like Metacafe, there are advertisements on Multiply located on the top and right hand side of the webpage.

The following is Multiply’s Intellectual Property Rights, which state that while the user owns the rights to their content, Multiply gets some royalties and licensing priviledges:

You retain all ownership rights in your Member Content. However, by posting Content to the Web site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to Multiply (and its successors) an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, assignable, royalty free, worldwide license to use, copy, perform, display, distribute and to prepare derivative works of such Content in connection with the Website and the Service, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

The following are Multiply’s Restrictions, which like Metacafe’s Restrictions provide guidelines as what is appropriate to post on Multiply’s site:

It includes Content that:
• is patently offensive to the online community, such as Content that promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;
• harasses or advocates harassment of another person;
• involves the transmission of "junk mail," "chain letters" or unsolicited mass mailing or "spamming";
• promotes information that you know is false, misleading or promotes illegal activities or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous;
• promotes an illegal or unauthorized copy of another person's copyrighted work, such as providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing information to circumvent manufacturer-installed copy-protect devices, or providing pirated music or links to pirated music files;
• contains restricted or password-only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page);
• displays pornographic or sexually explicit material of any kind;
• provides material that exploits people under the age of 18 in a sexual or violent manner, or solicits personal information from anyone under 18;
• provides instructional information about illegal activities such as making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone's privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses or would otherwise create liability or violate any local, state, national or international laws;
• solicits passwords or personally-identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other users;
• engages in commercial activities and/or sales without our prior written consent such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising and pyramid schemes; and
• solicits people you don't know to add you or accept you as a contact on Multiply;
• impersonates any person or entity, or falsely states or otherwise misrepresents yourself, your age, or your affiliate with any person or entity;
• contains the private information of any third party including without limitation, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, Social Security numbers and credit card numbers;
• contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
• contains in the sole judgment of Multiply, matter that is objectionable or which restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying the Multiply website or which may expose Multiply or its Members or users to any harm or liability of any type.

GoFish unlike Metacafe is a place for all kinds of videos ranging from documentaries, comedies, spoofs, pranks, and even episodic dramas. Online accounts are free and offer many benefits such as being located on popular search engines including: Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL, asking your favorite celebrities a Video Question with GoFish Artist Voices, and GoFish provides unlimited storage for user videos. Like Multiply and Metacafe, users can comment on other user’s videos, and users also have their own profiles.

Like Multiply and Metacafe, the advertisements for Go Fish are not distracting and generally located at the top or on the right hand side of the web page.

The following is Go Fish’s Intellectual Property Rights, which states that GoFish owns the content its users post:

1. The content on the GoFish Website, including without limitation the text, software, scripts, graphics, photos, sounds, music, videos, interactive features and the like ("Content") and the trademarks, service marks and logos contained therein ("Marks"), are owned by or licensed toGoFish, subject to copyright and other intellectual property rights under United States and foreign laws, and international conventions. Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only, and may not be used, copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, broadcast, displayed, sold, licensed, or otherwise exploited for any other purposes whatsoever without the prior written consent of the respective owners. GoFish reserves all rights not expressly granted in and to the Website and the Content. You agree not to engage in the use, copying, or distribution of any of the Content other than expressly permitted herein, including any use, copying or distribution of User Submissions of third parties obtained through the Website for any commercial purposes. If you download or print a copy of the Content for personal use, you must retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained therein. You agree not to circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with security related features of the GoFish Website or features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any Content or enforce limitations on use of the GoFish Website or the Content therein.

The following are the restrictions set by GoFish, which once again promote quality videos on their site:

In connection with User Submissions, you further agree that you will not: (i) submit material that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material and to grant GoFish all of the license rights granted herein; (ii) publish falsehoods or misrepresentations that could damage GoFish or any third party; (iii) submit material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, violate any law or is otherwise inappropriate; (iv) post advertisements or solicitations of business: (v) impersonate another person. GoFish does not endorse any User Submission or any opinion, recommendation or advice expressed therein, and GoFish expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with User Submissions. If notified by a user or a content owner of a User Submission that allegedly does not conform to this Agreement, GoFish may investigate the allegation and determine in good faith and in its sole discretion whether to remove the User Submission, which it reserves the right to do at any time. For clarity, GoFish does not permit copyright infringing activities on its Website, and reserves the right to terminate access to the Website, and remove all Content submitted, by any persons who are found to be repeat infringers.

One major similarity between all three of this video sharing sites is the emphasis on social networking. Multiply was a social network with similar features such as MySpace and Facebook, but GoFish’s and Metacafe’s social networks relied entirely on videos. Another similarity between the three sites was the placement and frequency of advertisements. All of these video sharing sites are free, so advertisements are necessary. However, the advertisements do not distract much attention from the content of each web site and are consistently located on the top and right hand sides. The restrictions placed on the kinds of videos that could be posted were also very similar. Each video sharing site wanted the videos on their site to be legally clean meaning not inciting a lawsuit against the site and to be appropriate or appropriately filtered.

One difference between the three video sharing site was the Intellectual Property Rights. Metacafe and GoFish claimed ownership of the material its users post on their sites, but Multiply only claims royalty fees for the content that is posted on the sites of users. If I was a user, I would be more adapt to use Multiply because at the very least I owned the copyright to the videos I posted. However, another difference between the sites might change my mind. Metacafe and GoFish are meant to get people discovered for their videos and ultimately become famous for it. In fact, through using Metacafe, users can actually make money because of the videos they post. Multiply is just a social networking site to share a user’s videos with his or her friends or everyone using Multiply.

If I had to choose which site that I would join, I would become a member of Multiply. I am not looking it hit it big by making my own videos to show online. If I did post any videos that I made, I would only share them with my friends and family. Also, Multiply provides other aspects of social networking that I like while Metacafe and Multiply are focused on videos.

House calls are a thing of the past. Ask Jay Parkinson who received his MD from Penn State. In an article from the Washington Post, Jay Parkinson's medical practice is explained. Here's how it works: Pay Parkinson's $500 annual fee and you get an initial in-person consultation, at your home or office, that can last as long as two hours. After that, you're entitled to two additional visits; further face-to-face visits cost $150, which Parkinson's Web site calls an average fee for primary care physicians in New York. For patients with whom he has held that initial consultation, he's available for routine questions online and appointments at a mutually convenient location weekdays from 8 to 5 and round-the-clock for emergencies. So, say you cut your finger while slicing your morning bagel. Parkinson suggests you e-mail him a digital image of the wound; he can tell whether it needs stitches or just a drugstore bandage. (And if there's any doubt, he'll send you to get it checked.) In the past three weeks, since his practice has attracted the attention of several news outlets, Parkinson has received e-mails from people all across the country asking about his services. And his snazzy Web site has had more than 10,000 hits a day. Parkinson, who was spurred to try this experiment by what he sees as the failure of the health insurance system to serve young working people, says, "Everybody's been quite supportive. This is a great Band-Aid for a real problem." I believe that this is interesting idea with a lot of possibilities and ramifications for the health care industry. Personally, I would be more comfortable going to an actual doctor rather than just emailing him with my conditions. This also brings up the problem of securing health records over the Internet. Privacy will be a huge hurtle to climb if this is ever to be truly successful. Check out his website here.

Our group also looked at the video depicting the University of Florida Taser incident involving student Andrew Meyer at a campus talk by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" was all over the news and made the incident nationally known. My question is why does not the audience help a brother out?

In an article from the Science Daily, a landmark test flight has been made in the world of space flight and observation. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and a team of research partners this month successfully launched a solar telescope to an altitude of 120,000 feet, borne by a balloon larger than a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. The test clears the way for long-duration polar balloon flights beginning in 2009 that will capture unprecedented details of the Sun's surface. The ultimate goal of the Sunrise project is to investigate the structure and dynamics of the Sun's magnetic fields. The fields fuel solar activity, including plasma storms that buffet Earth's outer atmosphere and affect sensitive telecommunications and power systems. The fields also cause variations in solar radiation, which may be significant factors in long-term changes in Earth's climate. Why use a huge balloon rather than a rocket? Balloons are cheaper to use and allow scientists to test the equipment before sending it to the heavens. Many government organizations and companies are working on this project, such as Pro Expo participant Lockheed Martin. I think that would be awesome to collaborate on a project such as this one. There must have been a lot of creativity involved because when I think launching a telescope, I do not think balloons. And just for fun.....

Sometimes, frustration is the mother of invention, or at least it was the case for Rob Kalin, the founder of handmade products marketplace Etsy.com. In an article in The Street.com, Kalin was frustrated with eBay. He said,"I [felt] like eBay [had] grown to the point where it's this faceless corporation, and I wanted to create a company that would have a handmade feel to it." So Kalin with some college friends went to work and developed Etsy. A little more than two years later, Etsy has 100,000 active sellers and 500,000 members. More than 1 million items have been sold through the site, which has become synonymous with handmade goods. Part of the site's attraction is its simplicity. With just a few steps, a crafter can set up his or her store with a subdomain and list items at a set price. Users pay 20 cents to post an item for four months plus 3.5% of the selling price. "I wanted the company itself to be a community, based on how much we see each other but also because we do have this common purpose," Kalin said.This sense of community also pervades Etsy on the user end. The forums hum with Etsy members answering other users' questions. The latest feature on Etsy, The Storque, is an online magazine written by members. Etsy this year is looking at $2 million in sales. I think that Etsy is a great idea and representative of modern America's entrepreneurship. If you want it, make a web site on the Internet.

What is digital ethnography? According to Wikipedia, online ethnograrphy extends the traditional notions of field and ethnographic study from the observation of co-located, face-to-face interactions, to technologically mediated interactions in online networks and communities. In doing so it challenges the traditional notion of a field site as a localized space and moves it into the realm of online or computer-mediated communications and interactions. According to Kansas State University Professor Mike Wesch, digital ethnography is the study of the culture of YouTube. Digital Ethnography is a working group of Kansas State University students and faculty dedicated to exploring and extending the possibilities of digital ethnography. One of the students, user name seiji306, created a great video called Reason "Why We Tube?" The video is a compilation of responses to a simple question, "Why do we use YouTube?" You can view it by clicking here. Another student, user name thepoasm, created another great video called The Internet has a face. This video is much like seiji306 because it is a compilation, but this video's purpose is to show that the Internet has a face. It does a great job conveying this, and you can view it by clicking here. Professor Mike Wesch posted a great video about how the definition of text is changing as the Internet is changing. You can check it out by clicking here.

Voting is central to democracy, but hanging chads and dead people voting often corrupt the results of this most hallowed democratic process. However, in an article from Howstuffworks.com, the Swiss have developed a way that will make voting safer than ever. U­sing a machine developed by Swiss manufacturer Id Quantique, votes cast in the Swiss canton of Geneva during the October 2007 parliamentary elections were transmitted using a secure encryption encoded by a key generated using photons -- tiny, massless packets of light. Since this method uses physics instead of math to create the key used to encrypt the data, there's little chance it can be cracked using mathematics. In other words, the votes cast by citizens in Geneva are more protected than ever. How does quantum cryptology work? It all has to do with a photon's spin. This picture does an excellent job of explaining it:

Quantum cryptology is quantum physics, and even quantum physicists have trouble grappling with these concepts. However, for the SRA major, learning quantum physics may be a vital part of the major here at Penn State University as quantum cryptology becomes the way to keep messages private in the Information Age. For more information about quantum cryptology and other information about cryptology, please read the article.

In a recent article from The Observer, Blackberry is planning to invade home life. Known to many as the Crackberry because of its addictive properties, creator Mike Lazaridis, now a billionaire inventor, told The Observer that he plans to turn the BlackBerry into a must-have device for ordinary families. A free piece of software, BlackBerry Unite!, available in Britain next month, will provide groups of up to five users with access to shared calendars, pictures, music, documents and other content. The home computer will effectively act as a controlling hub, much like the IT department in an office. In Lazaridis's optimistic vision, parents will buy Blackberries for themselves and their children so they can all co-ordinate their busy lives in a social network - a small and secure version of Facebook. Why is the Blackberry important or even necessary? 'Life is getting more complicated. It didn't get more complicated because of email, it just got more complicated because we're more well off and we have more opportunities for free time and activities. All this opportunity to do more is facilitated by instant communication. If we didn't have Blackberries we'd find it more difficult because we'd have to wait till we got home and power up the computer. That's an achievement. That's progress.' says Lazaridis. While I believe that the Blackberry for families is a great organizational tool, I have my concerns. Increasingly, face to face communication is fading. Through using a Blackberry, a family can be run as a corporation. However, a family is by no means a corporation nor should it ever be. In my opinion, keep the Blackberries at the office.

Anyone can edit an article on Wikipedia anonymously. In an article on Howstuffworks, the WikiScanner can now say which companies or government organizations have been editing articles on Wikipedia. the WikiScanner is a free program unveiled in August 2007 by Virgil Griffith, a graduate student studying computation and neural systems at the California Institute of Technology and a visiting researcher at the Santa Fe Institute. Whenever an unregistered, anonymous user edits a Wikipedia entry, the site logs the user's IP address, the unique string of numbers that identifies each computer connected to the Internet. The WikiScanner uses these records to trace the IP addresses of anonymous Wikipedia editors. By comparing the IP addresses against a database of companies that own them, the Scanner can name the editor, or at least the organization responsible for the user's access. Already, the WikiScanner has uncovered many malicious edits such as Microsoft editing Apple's Wikipedia article and Apple editing Microsoft's Wikipedia. I believe that the WikiScanner is a great idea and will help preserve Wikipedia's netural point of view. The WikiScanner will help make people think before they edit because people are watching them.

The Colbert Report has colbertnation.com, and as of Thursday, The Daily Show has thedailyshow.com. The newly launched site has episode summaries and a cornucopia of videos dating back to 1996. I think that it is about time that The Daily Show got its own website and think the video library they have is an awesome feature. I am just wondering what took so long. Here is a clip of a video that is relevant to class this next week.

Imagine walking to class one day with your iPod in your pocket. Suddenly, you notice that your pants are on fire, and your iPod's battery is the reason why. An article from Howstuffworks.com explores this issue of how certain electronic devices have electronically spontaneously combusted. The reason is the lithium-ion battery. While this kind of battery provides a lot of bang for the buck, companies like Sony have had to recall around 10 million of their batteries at cost to the company of more than $400 million. Sony says that the battery fires are caused by microscopic metal particles that come in contact with the other parts of the battery cell, causing a short circuit. The company says that on most occasions, the battery will shut down when a short circuit occurs. In some instances, however, the short circuit will cause an overheating of the battery cell, which could then erupt in flames. The catch-22 in the world of technology is that we live in an increasingly wireless world. Companies that produce wireless devices are forced to use batteries, and currently the best batteries for mobile devices are lithium-ion. While other types of batteries are being created, the most interesting prospect is to harness the electricity generated naturally from Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 bacteria. One of the major limitations of all technological devices is power, especially mobile devices. The technology works as long as the battery permits it to, and with more advanced technology, mobile devices are demanding more and more power. Whoever comes up with a creative solution to this problem will be a wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.

Today, the groups in my IST 110H class presented their Ning social networks. Here are some of the things I liked about them:

- Shooting Game for New Generation: I liked how this social network connected the profiles of their users with the avatars created in Gunbound.

- Penn State Gaming Society: My favorite part of this website was a video that shows how someone beat Super Mario in 5 minutes. Absolutely incredible!

- PSU SRA Students: I really liked the design of this social network. The theme picture is very impressive.

- Calvin and Hobbes: For this social network, I thought the fact that it attracted other users outside of IST 110H was very commendable. I also thought that this social networking site gave the best general impression of the four due to the content posted and the design of the site.

Everyone did a great job. I can't wait to see what everyone does for the video project.

What is 7 million users strong? No, it is not an army of one but America's Army. In an article from Howstuffworks, the United States military has been making video games and been using $7 million dollars of our taxes to fund it. Called America's Army, it is a first-person tactical shooter video game that realistically simulates aspects of combat faced by the United States' real-life troops. It has all of the quick response, challenge and graphics of a high-end major-release video game. But it also has the added punch of being created with all of the resources and research capabilities of the U.S. military behind it. One can download America's Army: Special Forces for free, but Ubisoft has released the game for the XBOX and PS3. So what is all the controversy? America's Army is made by the United States military and is a propaganda and recruitment tool made possible through US tax dollars that glorifies war. Although there are many protests to America's Army, the most fascinating is one being conducted by a University of Nevada Las Vegas professor. Dr. Joseph DeLappe spends about three hours per week online in the midst of "America's Army." But rather than take part in missions, DeLappe spends this time typing the name of each of the 3,817 American troops killed in Iraq since 2003. DeLappe calls his "online gaming intervention" campaign dead-in-iraq. By naming the troops who were lost in Iraq, DeLappe hopes to remind players of the real-life consequences of war. I think it is little scary that the government being to produce video games as propaganda, but at the same time, it is very hypocritical of them. On Capitol Hill, senators and representatives state that violent video games are corrupting our youth. Now, they can add to their argument that violent video games are recruiting our youth.

Corinne Bernstiel, Steven Dodge, D.J. Lingelbach, Garrett Miller
Team Multivac
IST 110H, Section 001
Professor Andrea Tapia
October 18, 2007

For the Glory
In IST 110H, social networking has been one of the focuses of the course. We have been analyzing many aspects of social networking sites such as site design and ways to make connections on these sites. However, through using a web service known as Ning, we have been given the chance to create our very own social networking site. While the technical aspect of our site is largely taken care of thanks to Ning, our mission was to decide what purpose our social networking site should serve and how the design of this site will reflect its purpose.

As a team, we brainstormed about what purpose of social networking site should serve. Corinne suggested a site where Grey’s Anatomy fans could talk about various aspects of the show, such as discussing characters, the plot, predictions, and fan fiction. Garrett recommended developing our social networking site for a student organization in Penn State such as the Security and Risk Analysis Club where members could get information about club meetings and events, talk to fellow members, and organize club events. Steven suggested a site where Penn State students could visit to find out more about State College downtown dining as well as posting comments about the best restaurants and job openings. D.J. recommended a site whose purpose is to connect fans, athletes, and supporters of Penn State athletics through providing music, videos, news, and groups for each sport. After much debating, we decided to go with D.J.’s idea because there is not a place on the Internet where Penn State fans can gather and talk about all Penn State sports.

After deciding a focus for our website, we needed a purpose and a creative name to attract users to join the site. We decided that purpose of our social networking site is to connect fans, athletes, and supporters of Penn State athletics through providing music, videos, news, and groups for each sport. While a book should not be judged by its cover, a website is judged in part by its name. As a team, we came up with the titles Hail to the Lion, Fight On State, and Lion Space. In the end, however, we decided to name our social networking site For the Glory after the first line of the Pennsylvania State University Alma Mater.

After deciding on a purpose and a creative name, the next step in establishing our social network was creating it. Instead of deciding to create the code ourselves, we decided to use the set up the developers at Ning provided us. The first step in this process was to fill out information about our network. In the network name field, we typed in our name For the Glory. As a group, we decided to make our social networking site public because we wanted all Penn State fans to be able to join and make as many connections as possible with other Penn State faithful. For our tagline, we decided on Fight On State!, which is the title of one of the many Penn State fight songs. Originally, we decided that our tagline should be For the Glory of Old State, but we later changed it. The description of our site was paramount because it stated the purpose of our social network. After much deliberation and discussion, we chose the following to be our description: “For fans, athletes, and supporters of Penn State Athletics, and anyone else who bleeds blue and white. WE ARE... PENN STATE.” We agreed to use Penn State, Football, PSU, and Penn State University as tag lines because those terms would most likely be searched for by a likely For the Glory future member. As an icon, we chose the Penn State Nittany Lion logo for this logo is very recognizable for those who love the blue and white.

Our next step in creating For the Glory was to add and organize the features of our social networking site. This part of the creation process was our opportunity to design our website to help promote our purpose. We laid out our website accordingly. We decided that all of the multimedia aspects of our site such as videos, music, and photos should be placed on the left hand side of the web page because these features are not central to the purpose of our web site. Activities, forum, groups, and the RSS feed are central to the purpose of For the Glory because these features will facilitate conversation and foster connections between users. By laying out our site this way, we will promote the purpose of our site, which is to make connections with other Penn State fans.

The third step in the creation of For the Glory was to pick an appearance. A natural choice for the color scheme of our website was the traditional blue and white. We chose a clean design because we did not want the colors of our website to be distracting. We wanted the content of For the Glory to stand out rather than the colors.

The last step in the creation of For the Glory was to generate profile questions. We believed that the role of the profile questions would be to provide users enough information to find people with similar interests. The three questions that we chose to ask were “Did you attend Penn State University?,” “If yes, what year did/will you graduate?”, and “What is your favorite Penn State sport?” Through the viewing the answers to these questions of other members, one can quickly make connections with other Penn Staters.

After For the Glory had been launched, our next step was to stimulate activity on the site. We approached this in a divide and conquer fashion. Corinne was responsible for photos and exploring the various features of the “My Page”. Steven was responsible for creating groups and the blog. D.J. was responsible for RSS, Video, and recruiting new members. Garrett was responsible for appearance of the website, music, and the forum.

Corinne used the search engine Google Image to find various photos of several different Penn State athletic programs, including both varsity and club sports, which she posted on For the Glory. The photos are displayed on the left side of the site in a slideshow for the enjoyment of all members. It was decided by the group that catering to all facets of Penn State fandom was essential to the development of the site. Most of the focus of sites similar to For the Glory tends to be directed towards the football program while the university has a multitude of programs that are followed closely by devoted admirers. Corinne also uploaded several photos taken first-hand. This was mainly to encourage other members to do the same and to truly express the extent of their affection for attending and supporting Penn State athletics.

Corinne also explored several features offered in the “My Page” section of For the Glory. Each member is encouraged to upload a photo of him or herself, which adds to the sense of community between users. Close connections between users are vital to the success of For the Glory because we recognized that a large part of the appeal of the Penn State environment is that the Penn State is a family.

Another way that Corinne discovered to personalize the “My Page” section was to change the template of an individual’s personal space. Any number of colors or designs can be chosen to truly make the site one’s own. Each member also has a blog and a For the Glory box, which is a feature that allows members to add their own text, videos, pictures, or widgets to further personalize their page. On each member’s page there is also a “Comment Wall” that further allows members to connect on a personal level and enhances the image of the Penn State family.

Steven created the groups for our social networking site. The purpose of these groups is to foster and facilitate communication between members of similar interests. Steven made a group for each Penn State athletic team. He did this by creating a group name, writing a description of the group, selecting an image to be the icon of the group, and linked each group to the corresponding website on GOPSUSPORTS.com. He made all of the groups public to create as many connections amongst users as possible. Where available, Steven put video of each sport from the Big Ten Network.

Steven also was responsible for creating blogs for For the Glory. We believe that the blogs that our members maintain on the site give our members an outlet to be a more personal and to tell stories concerning Penn State athletics. Steven took his approach and wrote blog posts accordingly. Through the addition of hyperlinks, images, and the posting of comments by other users, the blogs of our members can become uniquely theirs such as their “My Page.” In addition to the groups and blog he created, he complied the report documenting the creation of For the Glory and the PowerPoint presentation.

As an individual, D. J. was in charge of establishing RSS feeds and videos. After seeing the features that Ning provided for us, he recommended the inclusion of these two features: the RSS feeds and videos. The RSS feeds would provide news about Penn State athletics, while the videos would serve as vehicle to provide a more communal pride amongst our users.

As a group, we agreed with him and decided what RSS feeds to include. D. J., who already subscribes to GoPSUSports.com’s RSS feeds, suggested using this site as our primary RSS. In order to condense our site and in an effort to not overwhelm our users, we decided that we should just use the “Top Headlines” RSS feed. After some lengthy discussion, we finally decided where the RSS should be on our main page. We decided that the RSS was important enough to be on the center part of the page because it presented vital news about Penn State athletics. Because of our purpose, our main goal should be to facilitate communication and networking amongst are users. Therefore, we decided that the RSS feed should be under other items that facilitated more connection amongst our users.

D. J. also led our group in deciding which videos should be posted on our site. He had already found some and had posted them on his Facebook. Our team took viewed the videos and concluded that these videos were a great idea because they promoted a sense of community amongst our users. He embedded the videos on our main page. Our group agreed quickly on the location of the videos. We decided that they did not provide any vital information or provide any way to link one user to others. Therefore, we placed the embedded videos in the left column.

Besides contributing to the items on the social network’s main page, D. J. also helped the site grow by inviting people to join our social networking site. Our group decided that the best way to go about getting people to join For the Glory was to send invitations to our classmates’ email addresses. D. J. went through the ANGEL page and viewed everybody’s email ID. He then used the “invite” feature on Ning to invite people to our social networking website.

Specifically, at the beginning of this project, Garrett led in the team in the creation of the actual site. In addition, Garrett was primarily responsible for setting up the layout of the site, utilizing an understanding of the primary functions of the site in order to prioritize layout and other functional elements, as well as choosing a graphical appearance. He also uploaded some musical selections that are available for playback while navigating the site, as well as some photographs that are viewable in the gallery. He continues to post and generate activity on the site using the forum, in hopes of stimulating conversation and user interaction.

We had a multitude of reflections about using the social networking site Ning, and most of these reflections were positive. Steven thought that Ning was easy to use and allowed anyone to create a fully functional social network. For a free service, Ning provided many useful features and widgets that replicated some popular and effective aspects of Facebook and MySpace such as a place to make comments, an activities list, and various applications. Corinne's general opinion of Ning was that the site made social networking more specialized and promoted an environment that caters to an individual's interests while still recognizing them as a group. The site placed no limitations on the subject matter of the groups or who can join them, and this aspect was a nice change of pace from some of the limitations of the layout of Facebook and the designation to a network. Garrett felt as if the usefulness and potential for Ning was rather limited. While it may be fun to fill a particular niche with an extremely specialized social network, the practical implications of such a site were few. Garrett felt that making a social network on Ning seemed more like creating a Facebook group than making a full-fledged social network. D. J. thought that Ning was a great tool because it provided users with personal customization for a social network. In the current world, everything is customizable--computers, cars, and everything in between. With more people using social networks and having more varied interests, the trend of customizing social networking sites is a reality with Ning. In general, most of our group thought that Ning was a good service that allows an individual to create his or her own specialized social network.

After creating For the Glory and posting content our site, we feel confident that we have fulfilled the purpose of connecting fans, athletes, and supporters of Penn State athletics. We believe that our site layout and the various features of our site facilitate connections made amongst users. One of the great strengths of For the Glory is that it is the members will make this site a success. We as a team have created a solid foundation where members can start to build their own relationships and make significant contributions to our social networking site. We are excited to see our site grow and be a gathering place for all fans of the blue and white.

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In an article from PC World, a list of the top ten ugliest products in technology is given. Acoustic Coupler Modems, the Osborne 1 (portable computer), Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (cell phone), Microsoft Windows 1.0, Nintendo Virtual Boy, Tiger Electronics Furby, iMac Flower Power and Dalmatian, Neuros II Digital Audio Computer, Commodore 1541 Floppy Disk Drive, and Microsoft Zune Player. While most of these products I am very unfamiliar with, I do remember the Furby craze, and I do not know why Furby makes this list. It was the hot item of the Christmas of 1998. Personally, Furbies creep me out a little bit, but I do not think that Furbies deserve to be on a list. The look of the Furby made it so unique from anything else that I had seen before and to this day I still have a mental image of that toy. Furby was very sticky (or memorable) because of the design. I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

In an article in APC magazine, ICANN has announced yesterday that it will begin testing non-English top level domains. ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is responsible for managing global domain policies. Initially, ICANN wants people to link to the domain example.test in each of 11 target language character sets -- Arabic, Chinese simplified, Chinese traditional, Greek, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Russian, Tamil and Yiddish -- to see what kind of issues it creates in different applications and whether it impacts DNS stability. The example.test site will host a wiki enabling the creation of pages within the tested target languages. ICANN also has to deal with the problem that some languages read right to left instead of left to right such as Arabic. I think if this works it will be an amazing development in making the Internet more personal and international at the same time. While the unity of English top level domain names would vanish, more diversity would be present on the Internet. Maybe this change in the Internet will change the way the United States views foreign language in education and put more emphasis on acquiring a language skill set beyond Roman characters.
Here is a video that ICANN released on YouTube about this issue:

Here is an Onion editorial cartoon that is related to our class:

In an article in Network World, Xerox has announced that it has the software that can scan documents and understand their meaning and block access to those sensitive or secure areas so that prying eyes cannot read, copy or forward the information. This new software is called "Intelligent Redaction." Redaction is the ability to control what someone sees. The software includes a detection tool that uses content analysis and an intelligent user interface to protect sensitive information. It can encrypt only the sensitive sections or paragraphs of a document, a capability previously not available, Xerox said. The software also creates an audit trail for tracking access. This software has many benefits for government and companies. In the Information Age, classification is a concept that is getting harder and harder to accomplish. If Xerox's software works well and efficiently, then information such as medical records can be kept from getting in the wrong hands. This innovation is very important for those who are interested in the Security Risks and Analysis major.

Recently, my favorite NBA team, the Memphis Grizzlies, have added a few blogs to their site that players and the team photographer maintain. My favorite blog so far to read is one of the player's, Casey Jacobsen's, blog. In his latest entry, Jacobsen talks about the day to day happenings of the team as they start their preseason in Spain this year.

As a fan, I have a love hate relationship with athlete's blogs. So far, I love the blogs posted on the Grizzlies website because I can see what is happening behind the curtain through someone else's eyes. However, I do hate blogs because of what kind of trouble athletes can get into due to their comments. My earlier post about Gilbert Arenas is an example of this. I want the Grizzlies to make national headlines in a good way and not for some stupid comments on a player's blog.

Because I started writing this homework assignment eariler in the week, it does not appear at the top of this page. However, you can either scroll down or click here to view it.

In an article in Computer World, the secrets of the Windows command prompt are revealed along with DOS, the Disk Operating System. I always have heard of the stories from the past about DOS but never had really known what DOS was. This article shows a couple ways one can use DOS effectively and for an actual purpose. For example, by typing in the network command IPCONFIG, information about your PC's network connection, including the IP address is displayed. This would have been useful when we had to map out a small section of the Internet. This article has definitely sparked my curiosity about DOS. I want to study a few computer programming languages over the summer and knowing DOS would be a nice little addition.

This illustrates in 3-D the actual domains and connections of the world wide web. Colors have been added to represent .edu, .gov, .com, etc. domains. I've always seen the web as bubbles - some large, some small - and vectors - thick or thin. This is the best graphic device I've seen to show that connectivity.

In an article from PC World, the top 16 greatest moments in web history are listed. I was surprised that Youtube did not make the list. Blogging, Wikipedia, and social networking services, all concepts we have learned in class, appear on the list. I wonder what this list will look like in another sixteen years.

16. Scandal in a Blue Dress - Monica Lewinsky scandal
15. Do You Yahoo? - Yahoo search engine is born
14. Blogging Katrina - hurricane
13: Bidding for Stardom - first ebay auction
12. Something Wiki This Way Comes - wikipedia is born
11. Candid Camera - JenniCam goes live
10. You and 3,255,620 of Your Closest Friends - Friendster makes connections
9. Act Globally, Think Locally - Craigslist starts
8. Odd Pioneers - Oddpost first webmail starts
7. URL Be Glad They Did - domain name system born
6. Geeks Bearing Gifts - graphical browser born
5. For Whom the Bell Tolled - Amazon opens
4. LO! and Behold - first packets sent across internet
3. When Sergey Met Larry - Google incorporates
2. Day One of Irrational Exuberance - Netscape goes public
1. World Wide Wonder - web goes online

I hope this isn't actually true......

NASA Announces Plan To Bring Wi-Fi To Its Headquarters By 2017

HOUSTON—Still relying on a single dial-up modem, NASA employees continue to get disconnected when someone at the Johnson Space Center picks up the phone to dial out.

In an article from Howstuffworks, the next revolution in communication technology might be coming to a computer, mobile device, or iPod near you. From newspapers to the radio to television, the next big thing might be Internet TV. Internet TV is a recent phenomenon and comes in a variety of forms. Internet TV can be free and paid for via ads, can be a subscription service, or can be a pay-per-view. While the quality is not that of an HDTV, if Internet TV ascends into the mainstream, not just television networks will be able to create their own television shows. Think YouTube but bigger. I think that Internet TV has endless possibilities and is actually very convenient. I am not carrying my television with me, but I am usually carrying my laptop. For while, I was considering getting a Slingbox, but Internet TV just seems easier. For an Internet TV website, check out this link.

In an article in Business Week, Google is aiming to compete in the social networking world with its social network called Orkut. What is Orkut? Well, there is good reason why Orkut is relatively unknown in the states. Beyond Asia and Latin America, which account for nearly all of Orkut's 24.6 million monthly users, the site's traffic remains simply anemic totaling just 600,000 in North America and about 1.2 million in Europe, and not growing very fast. Google has resigned the design of Orkut, offered the site in many languages, and plans to allow users to create more APIs (applications like on Facebook) with few restrictions than other social networking sites. Another plan is that Orkut itself could conceivably become a hub for accessing multiple social networks in one place, a concept demonstrated by another Google-funded Carnegie Mellon group last year in a project called Socialstream. Will Orkut ultimately be successful? I believe that Orkut has a shot because a big company such as Google owns the social networking site. I believe though that Orkut has to be truly unique and innovative to establish its claim in the social networking word. For more information about Orkut, check out this article.

The point of social networking sites is to connect with other people. To find out how social networking sites facilitate making connections through meeting other people and site design, I have chosen Facebook, MySpace, and Last.fm as examples.

Users can make connections many ways through using the social networking site Facebook. Users can add people as ones friends, join groups of people that share a common interest, or rsvp for an event. To make connections on Facebook, users can use a variety of methods, but the easiest is the search engine.

Through typing in the person's name or anything such as a movie title or favorite sport into the search field always located at the top left of the web page, users can find all the people, profiles, groups, and events that match what the user is searching for. Also by clicking on an hyperlinked item in someone's profile such as their hometown, the user will be taken the search engine and the results for that particular hometown. Usually, there are different tabs in the search results to specifically look at names, profiles, groups, or events that relate to ones search.

From the search results for a person or profile, users can see what network the results belong in, the profile pictures of the results, and the match results (for example, name if the user is searching for a person). If that person belongs to a network that the user belongs to, the user can also click on the person's name and see the person's profile. If not, users can still send that person a message, add him or her as a friend, poke him or her, or view his or her friends.

From the search results for groups, users can see what network the group is located in, the size of the group, the type of group it is, and what the search criteria matches. Then, users can either view the group to find out more about the group or join the group right from the search results. The search results for events are very similar to the search results for groups. The only differences are additional information is able from the search results for events. This information includes host, where, and when.

Another way is to use the find friends option located in the top menu called Friends. Through giving Facebook one's email address and password, Facebook can find people who are on Facebook who are also in the user's email contacts list. From the same Find Friends screen, users can click on the More Friends option to search for classmates from different networks such as college or high school networks.

The design of Facebook is very organized which lends itself to making connections easier. Since there is no excessive clutter such as advertisements on the website, the user does not need to comb through a website to search for someone or add someone as a friend. The menu for Facebook is simple and not overly crowded with options. The website's content is organized into columns and is consistent throughout which helps the user look for the information he or she wants faster and easier.

For MySpace, making connections is somewhat similar to how the user would on Facebook. There is a search engine whether users can search for a friend via email address, name, school, or other network affiliation. The search results screen has similar features as Facebook's except that the users can send an instant message to a person, can add a person to a preferred blogging list, and can to view anyone's profile. However, it is only after viewing a person's profile that users can add him or her as a friend. The process of joining groups or rsvping for events is also similar to Facebook. However, MySpace has different menu tabs for search engines for people, groups, and events.

In addition to making connections through adding friends, joining groups, or rsvping for events, MySpace also provides users with their own blog. Users can make their own posts and subscribe to other people's blogs on MySpace.

The design of MySpace is cluttered and full of advertisements making it difficult to make connections with other users. The information is organized into boxes of a similar size which makes finding valuable information even harder to find. The MySpace menu bar is provides the user with a ton of options that could be simplified considerably to improve usability. The search field is conveniently located at the top of the page, but the advertisements at the top of the page distract the attention from the search field making it almost appear invisible at first glance. Facebook is definitely cleaner than MySpace meaning that there is more white space and less content that is just there to fill up the page.

Last.fm, a social networking site for music, also has ways for its users to make connections. One major difference between Last.fm and the previous two sites is that Last.fm is a representation of what a user does rather than who a user is. One way to search for friends or add friends is through contact lists through a user's email address. However, there is a search engine to search for groups and events and works the same way that Facebook's and MySpace's does. Last.fm does provide an additional feature to make more connections. Last.fm tracks what music a user listens to on a music service such as Windows Media Player or iTunes. Then, with that data, Last.fm will show a user other users or "neighbors" who are listening to similar music. The search engine unlike Facebook's or MySpace's searches for music instead of people, but this works to the advantage of Last.fm's theme of connecting people with similar musical interests. However, once users find an artist, one can click on a profile of a listener of that artist and add him or her as a friend. Last.fm also provides like MySpace a journal or blog that users can post material, and other people can comment on.

Last.fm's design is just as clean as Facebook's but is organized a little differently. Last.fm is organized similarly into columns but has tabs that a user can click on to view such information as friends or groups. The menu is nicely organized just like Facebook's, and the only advertisements can be found at the very bottom of the page. This simplicity helps aid in making the website easier to use and therefore help the user make more connections.

Social networking sites are designed for their users to make connections with other users. To facilitate this, social networking sites provide tools to find those connections. Even the design of the social networking site though can have an impact on making those connections those. The best social networking site of the three was Facebook because of its organized look and effective tools to make connections. While MySpace and Last.fm did have their merits, it comes as no surprise that Facebook is one of the most popular websites on the entire Internet.

In an article in http://www.forbes.com/, Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell, says that his company is going green. "By the end of 2008, we will be the first major computer company to become carbon neutral," Dell said. Carbon neutral means that Dell plans to eliminate or offset all of the greenhouse gases it produces worldwide. The company was responsible for emitting 385,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide in fiscal year 2007. Companies that make and use computers are starting to shift their focus from lowering costs by increasing processing power to now efficiently using their processing power or trying to get the most processing power out of a small amount of energy. In addition to good public relations, energy efficiency means a company saves money, and, at least for now, carbon offsets are relatively cheap. I think that this is a step in the right direction, and Dell should be commended for their leadership. If it is possible to make a better more environment friendly computer, then by all means we should be making them.

In an article from the Wall Street Journal, Gilbert Arenas, a professional basketball player for the Washington Wizards, is getting into trouble with companies that have endorsement deals with him due to his blog. Recently, Arenas has posted comments that he dislikes the GillZero, the second "Gilbert Arenas shoe" designed by Adidas. "I'm sitting there looking at the shoe like 'I hope you guys aren't serious. Because I'm not going to wear this shoe…Nobody is going to wear this shoe," said the blog post from the Washington Wizards guard. He said parts of it reminded him of a "ballerina." EA Sports realized this risk, but still put Arenas on the cover of NBA Live 2008. "We knew if there was something he didn't like, he would say so -- probably to everyone," Mr. Edelstein, the marketing director of EA Sports, says. Ultimately the company decided that Mr. Arenas's honesty was a plus: "That's why his fans respond to him. ... We felt it was worth the risk." As more and more athletes enter the world of blogging, it will be interesting to see the consequences of blogging. Already, athletes such as Curt Schilling, a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, have made headlines due to their blog posts. As a fan, I love the fact that athletes blog because it bring the fans into their world and find out what is really happening in the lives of these sports stars.

From this class, I have learned that social networking on the Internet is revolutionary and getting bigger and bigger each day. Businesses are starting to realize that they need to get on board with social networking before they are left behind in the late 1990s. I read two articles that dealt with the new found relationship between social networking and businesses.
The first article I found was on MarketingWeb and entitled "Social networking will impact your business." The author Christine Leonardi explains that business must incorporate the "ground breaking technologies" of Web 2.0 into their business plans in order to be successful. Companies need to cognizant of blogs, wikis, RSS feed, podcasts, and instant messaging. Leonardi makes three claims:
1. Web 2.0 means companies are no longer solely in control of their message.
Word-of-mouth has never been more important as online users can voice their opinions about any of a company's products or services through the various outlets of Web 2.0. Instead of sticking their head in the sand, companies should join in the dialogue and address consumer questions or concerns through establishing their own blog or commenting on other people's blog.
2. Web 2.0 fragments marketing channels.
While this might seem like a bad thing, it really is not. Companies can inexpensively and easily target a specific audience, and companies can take advantage of fragmented channels to perform targeted, inexpensive product research, since customers already use these channels to describe what they love and loathe about companies' offerings.
3. Web 2.0 offers a bullhorn for consumer complaints.
Word-of-mouth is amplified as consumer complaints are more accessible and easily spread throughout the Internet. It is best for a company to recognize the complaint and respond in an effective manner to keep a good reputation.
This article was intended for a business audience to wake up and smell the Internet so to speak. Many social networking developments are happening on the Internet and can be a powerful tool if a company uses these technologies effectively. The author does a great job including corporate examples from the past in order to better illustrate her article. Because the article was written on MarketingWeb, the author approaches the Web 2.0 issue from a marketing stand point to enhance or maintain a company's public perception.
I agree with Leonardi that Web 2.0 is becoming a more and more vital component and tool for businesses. In the world of Web 2.0, it will be important to understand the various social networking activities happening on the Internet because that is where the customer is. To know your customer well is always good business policy. I can see my life being affected by this by using various social networking technologies in the business world.
My second article I found was on vnunet.com entitled "Business faces up to social networks" by Lara Williams. In the article, Williams explains how big companies are paying big stakes to be a part of Facebook. The article is divided into two topics:
1. Companies trying to buy Facebook
Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo all want to own Facebook and are willing to pay at the very least $500 million dollars. Facebook has finally taken over MySpace with 6.5 million users versus 6.4 million users and one in five online Americans use Facebook. To control Facebook is to control a significant portion of the Internet.
2. Facebook's Applications are acting as a hook to a company's website
While some companies are blocking their employees from using Facebook, others are ahead of the curve. Deutsche Bank has 500 employees on Facebook and is keen to consider using the site to complement existing customer contact processes. There is also significant potential to use social networking methods to improve internal communications, between individual employees and between different areas of the business.
This article was intended for a more business orientated audience. VNU, the company of vnunet.com, is a global information and media company. This article was actually first published in Computing, the UK's leading business technology publication. This article is biased towards the integration of social networking services such as Facebook and companies due to its angle as a business technology news source. The author does a great job with providing facts and quotations as evidence.
I understand why Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft want to own Facebook, in order to control a significant share of the Internet. However, I do not know if Facebook will be as socially powerful if it is bought out and controlled through another company. For me at least, a part of the reason that Facebook works is that it is separate from the corporate model and is unique. To integrate Google's, Yahoo's, or Microsoft's corporate plan with Facebook would destroy why Facebook is so powerful. I do believe though applications are the way to go for a company to get its name out there, especially if the application is popular. As companies start to get more involved with social networking services such as Facebook though, I wonder if the social networking environment will change. Will it be as open as dorm life where I always keep the door open or will it be a private as home life when someone rings the doorbell I duck down and secretly see who is at the door?
Both articles show the value of social networking that businesses need to tap into to be successful. If they neglect to do so, they will be swept aside as the rest of the world rides the Web 2.0 wave. These developments impact me because knowing how to social network effectively is becoming a necessary skill to possess in today's workforce.

For Team Multivac, I read the terms section of Myspace's policy. I found the following section to be interesting:
MySpace.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") that you post to the MySpace Services. After posting your Content to the MySpace Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the MySpace Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on and through the MySpace Services.
I thought it was interesting that while MySpace does not claim any ownership rights to the content its members post, it does have a limited license to use user content freely but only through MySpace Services. Facebook has a similar policy:
By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.
Always good to remember what is yours can actually be Facebook's or MySpace's.

In the third quarter, Republican Ron Paul has raised more than $5 million in donations for his presidential candidacy. How did he raise that much money in a relatively small period of time? Campaign spokesman Jesse Benton estimates that as much as 80% of the campaign's donations are received online. In the final week of the third quarter, Dr. Paul, a licensed obstetrician, raised $1.2 million in Internet donations alone. The $5 million haul more than doubles his $2.4 million showing in the second quarter. The campaign has also enjoyed an aggressive network of Internet activists who use online communities such as MySpace and YouTube to promote his candidacy. This just demonstrates the political power of the Internet and how much of an impact the Internet has on an national level. To read the article, check this out. To learn more about Ron Paul, check out one of the 32,500 videos on YouTube about Ron Paul.

In a recent article from CNN.com, Dongmei Li of Queens, New York is not satisfied with Apple's $200 rebate for people who had bought the iPhone a week before the price drop and $100 in Apple store credit for those who bought the iPhone earlier. Li had purchased the 4GB model for $499. She is now suing Apple for $1 million due to Apple's alleged violation price discrimination laws and the price reduction injured early purchasers like herself because they cannot resell the product for the same profit as those who bought the cell phone following the price cut. The lawsuit also named AT&T Inc., the exclusive carrier in the U.S. for the iPhone, and alleged the two companies' required two-year service contract for the iPhone constituted unfair business practices. Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren declined to comment on the suit. It will be interesting to see whether this lawsuit goes. While I don't necessarily agree with the price discrimination charges, I do agree that the AT&T contract with Apple is pretty unfair. With no competition, the price will never go down, and there is no incentive to make the product any better. This is not good for the consumer.

Recently reported by Reuters, the social networking service Myspace is adding a new section to its website. Teaming up with Weather Channel Interactive Inc., a new weather section will be added and links will be available to weather.com for further weather news. I forecast this to be a success because just as some people are obsessed with Myspace, others are obsessed with the weather. Now, a Myspace user can check both at the same time. The Weather Channel is a big corporation, and I wonder if a similar thing is being offered to Facebook.

Whatever can go wrong will go wrong or at least that it what Murphy's law says. A recent article on Howstuffworks.com explores Murphy's law. Murphy's Law taps into our tendency to dwell on the negative and overlook the positive. It seems to poke fun at us for being such hotheads, and it uses the rules of probability -- the mathematical likeliness that something will occur -- to support itself. Murphy's Law reminds engineers, computer programmers and scientists of a simple truth: systems fail. In some cases, a system's failure means that the experiment must be repeated. In other cases, the results of a failure can be much more costly. Here are some other laws that I thought were interesting:
Etorre's Observation - The other line moves faster.
Barth's Distinction - There are two types of people in the world: those who divide people into types and those who don't.
Acton's Law - Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely
Boob's Law - You always find something in the last place you look.
Clarke's Third Law - Any sufficiently advanced society is indistinguishable from magic.
Franklin's Rule - Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he will not be disappointed.
Issawi's Law of the Path of Progress - A shortcut is the longest distance between two points.
Mencken's Law - Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach.
Patton's Law - A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.