I don't know what I would do without my phone. All I know is I never want to have to find out. The cell phone is there for so many purposes, and even my basic functioning one has its obvious advantages.
Without texting, what would I do when I'm bored? How could I contact people without calling them on my cell? ...Despite the fact that half the people I call live in THE SAME building as I do... that's besides the point.
It's there for those awkward situations when you see someone you know but don't want to talk to... just look like you're sending a very concentrated text, or your phone just rang and you can't talk to them now. Hey, that's life.
It's there for you when you're bored and don't know what to do. Just text someone and see what's going on. BAM! You've got something to do.
It's there for you when someone else needs you. In all honesty, life without a phone would be a sad one. Maybe one kind of like this...
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Al Quaida
It legitimately aggravates me to know that Al Quaida may not even exist today if it were not for the internet. It is another remider that with all of this convenience of technology, there also comes the bad things such as this.
Although hate groups and even these terrorist supporters may be allowed to be online, it's hard to draw the line of where responsibilty lies when actions result from hate on the web. This is one thing that will need to be sorted out in the future because until then these hate websites may grow and spread, and do resullt in lone wolf reactions. Acts of violence are carried out because of these websites, or at least that's what I believe. It disgusts me to know that people have died because of orders made online from some unknown source, or even from the Al Quaida media mysteriously posting "educational" videos on the web.
Although hate groups and even these terrorist supporters may be allowed to be online, it's hard to draw the line of where responsibilty lies when actions result from hate on the web. This is one thing that will need to be sorted out in the future because until then these hate websites may grow and spread, and do resullt in lone wolf reactions. Acts of violence are carried out because of these websites, or at least that's what I believe. It disgusts me to know that people have died because of orders made online from some unknown source, or even from the Al Quaida media mysteriously posting "educational" videos on the web.
Seeing Temple Grandin and her abilities surprised me. I have worked with people with Autism working for the Fox Valley Special Recreation Association. Knowing that she had autism and was probably similar to the children I had worked with, it's amazing to see how far she's come and gives hope for these children.
With the children I've worked with, they are all wonderful and special in their own way, and I can see how Temple may have been this same way. She shows how these children are intellegent, and explains how as a child she had fixations and her symptoms of autism.
In the BBC documentary, "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow," her abilities and acheivements are laid out to amaze the viewer in the accomplishments of this intelligent yet autistic woman.
With the children I've worked with, they are all wonderful and special in their own way, and I can see how Temple may have been this same way. She shows how these children are intellegent, and explains how as a child she had fixations and her symptoms of autism.
In the BBC documentary, "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow," her abilities and acheivements are laid out to amaze the viewer in the accomplishments of this intelligent yet autistic woman.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Hate.com
At Aurora University all I seem to be able to see is diversity and coexistance. It seems like all of our different ethnicities mesh well and most people here seem to have friends of other races. Personally I am even dating a guy of a different race. All of these things make me feel pretty good about my generation and it's acceptance of equality and diversity.
Unfortunately, when we log onto the web, there are places to easily access that spread hate and anger. It makes me sick to know that some people are so extreme in their hate to want to extinguish other races such as Hitler tried to do. The documentary we were watching in class hit home with these ideas, showing us websites like Stormfront, and how even the creator's young son created a Stormfront website for kids. It's sad to see such hate ingrained into a young mind. It's also upsetting to see how these websites can go from being just freedom of speech to leading to violence. The documentary showed us how when a white supremesist leader was denied his law license, his followers acted on it by targeting and killing minorities.
Despite these hate sites, I still have faith in my generation to get over racial differences, or at least keep advancing it for other generations to wholly accept someday.
Unfortunately, when we log onto the web, there are places to easily access that spread hate and anger. It makes me sick to know that some people are so extreme in their hate to want to extinguish other races such as Hitler tried to do. The documentary we were watching in class hit home with these ideas, showing us websites like Stormfront, and how even the creator's young son created a Stormfront website for kids. It's sad to see such hate ingrained into a young mind. It's also upsetting to see how these websites can go from being just freedom of speech to leading to violence. The documentary showed us how when a white supremesist leader was denied his law license, his followers acted on it by targeting and killing minorities.
Despite these hate sites, I still have faith in my generation to get over racial differences, or at least keep advancing it for other generations to wholly accept someday.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Super Bowl Ads
It's amazing to think of how much money is put into advertising, and then to see the results of billions of dollars spent to create and run an ad during the Superbowl.
This year I suppose there were a few good ones. Doritos always has good ones of course: This one in particular cracked me up
Many of them were seemingly unrelated to the product they were advertising, and wasted a minute of your life just barely getting some sort of a point across, such as Budweiser's
Despite these one's I'm pretty sure my favorite has to be the Careerbuilder one. I understand what it's trying to say, and it gets its ideas across in a personable and funny way that kind of reminds me of the tv show The Office
This year I suppose there were a few good ones. Doritos always has good ones of course: This one in particular cracked me up
Many of them were seemingly unrelated to the product they were advertising, and wasted a minute of your life just barely getting some sort of a point across, such as Budweiser's
Despite these one's I'm pretty sure my favorite has to be the Careerbuilder one. I understand what it's trying to say, and it gets its ideas across in a personable and funny way that kind of reminds me of the tv show The Office
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Music Online
I would definitely have to say that the internet has improved my music listening abilities by quite a bit, and I'd like to say thank you :) Thank you Pandora, Playlist, and Youtube, you give me great auditory pleasure, and are nearly always on when I'm on my computer.
I love playlist.com because it seems to have any song I ever want to listen to, and lets me build my own playlist to listen to anytime I want for free. I can mix up my music and have a personalized playlist, and because it's online I don't have to purchase each song to listen.
On the other hand, Pandora is always there for me when maybe I'm not sure exactly what I want to listen to. Or in the event that I want to hear some new things, but I don't know what. On this website I can put in any band, song, or genre that I want to hear, and it will play me songs from those. I can rate the songs that are played on the "radio," by "liking" or "disliking" each song, and from there, it automatically plays more things like the songs I liked. The radio station becomes personalized to what I like, but also plays things that I've maybe never heard, but might like according to my previous suggestions. For me it's a great way to find new songs, but also listen to a consistant stream of ones that I enjoy!
I love playlist.com because it seems to have any song I ever want to listen to, and lets me build my own playlist to listen to anytime I want for free. I can mix up my music and have a personalized playlist, and because it's online I don't have to purchase each song to listen.
On the other hand, Pandora is always there for me when maybe I'm not sure exactly what I want to listen to. Or in the event that I want to hear some new things, but I don't know what. On this website I can put in any band, song, or genre that I want to hear, and it will play me songs from those. I can rate the songs that are played on the "radio," by "liking" or "disliking" each song, and from there, it automatically plays more things like the songs I liked. The radio station becomes personalized to what I like, but also plays things that I've maybe never heard, but might like according to my previous suggestions. For me it's a great way to find new songs, but also listen to a consistant stream of ones that I enjoy!
No Rules
In reading the article No Rules: Internet Security a Hobbesian State of Nature, it seems to throw into perspective exactly how serious hacking is and can be. We've seen examples in class of what a lack of security or just a very smart hacker has done to companies like AT&T, and now we even see recently attacks on Google and Twitter.
The article gives the results of a study funded by McAfee, showing the very real scale of attacts that major enterprises face online. Of those surveyed, "54 percent... experienced 'large scale denial of service attacks by a high level adversary like organized crime, terrorists, or nation-state.'" This statement shocked me, but thinking on it, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise because of such recent events like the attacks on Google. But in my head it is such a large business that I feel like it should be well protected, and it just seems invincible to me. But suffering such a large attack shows that maybe we all need to check those invisible walls that help keep out hackers.
The article gives the results of a study funded by McAfee, showing the very real scale of attacts that major enterprises face online. Of those surveyed, "54 percent... experienced 'large scale denial of service attacks by a high level adversary like organized crime, terrorists, or nation-state.'" This statement shocked me, but thinking on it, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise because of such recent events like the attacks on Google. But in my head it is such a large business that I feel like it should be well protected, and it just seems invincible to me. But suffering such a large attack shows that maybe we all need to check those invisible walls that help keep out hackers.
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