Reading #5

The article that we were assigned to read deals with the privacy of people now that there is so many social networking sites around the world. The first item that is discussed in the article is how there was a young kind in 2002, that was filmed in one of the most embarrassing moments of his life when he was caught on video waiving around a golf-ball and pretending to be someone off Star Wars. This video was edited by many people to make a mockery of the child. He eventually dropped out of high school to seek counseling. The next topic in the article is the idea of the Google Generation. In the article it states,” more than 90 percent of students maintain their own social networking site.” Before there was the internet social information was spread by word of mouth, now everyone can know what you are doing in a slip second by signing onto one of these social sites, and going to your specific profile. The last part of the article is what I found most interesting. One of the facts that since 1999 the amount of blogs has gone from 50 to 50 million, this is a staggering growth rate, and many of the people posting blogs are younger than 19. Another amazing fact was that people post nearly 65,000 videos on YouTube on a daily basis.

I think that this is going to be a growth concern in the years to come, and that people will continue to lose the privacy aspect in their life. With the random facts at the end of the article, I had no clue so many video, and the amount of blogs that are being posted on a daily basis. I think that this was a great article and that it outlines social networking in a different aspect than we are used too.

News Report #5

In this article there is a company from the U.K. that is in the process of developing a test for sexually transmitted diseases that can be done on a new data telephone. The test would involve spitting or peeing onto a computer chip. Then the individual would plug this chip into their phone, the phone would then process the results and give you a positive or negative result. This project is known as eSTI², and is being developed by many hospitals that are situated around the United Kingdom. The specific hospitals that are taking part in the development of this software received a 6.2 million dollar grant to help in the cost in developing the new technology. The leading scientist behind this whole idea is Tariq Sadiq, who is a professor at the University of London, and he says, “This test aims to give people no excuses not to get tested.” This is meant to be a cheap product, only costing the individual around one dollar to buy the chip. In the article it also says, “The technology is very close to becoming a reality.”

I believe that this is a good idea and I hope that the software works like it was planned. In the article it says that they hope to have these special chips in vending machines and other areas that are easily accessible so that people aren’t discouraged to get tested. I think that this would help people who are unsure if they have a specific STD, and they would also have no reason not to test themselves. There are many people who won’t go get tested because they are scared of what the doctors will have to say about them having unprotected sex, and the idea of being seen at a clinic. I think this is a step in the right direction so everyone knows if they have a STD, and will ultimately not pass it without knowing.

Yin, Sara. "UK Scientists Develop Mobile STD Test." PCmag. ZiffDavis, 09 Nov. 2010. Web. 9 Nov. 2010.http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372409,00.asp

News Report #4- "Apple's Mac App Store Brings Changes, Worries"

This article deals with Apple introducing a new Mac App store which will sell Apples software over the internet directly to Mac book and Mac book Pro device users. This article says that the new addition to Apples all ready extensive line of items, will be available in 90 days and that it will cost Apple 30% of the original value of the software sold. The Apple Mac store will not be like the Ipod and Iphone app store, it will have a lot of useful items, and there will be great scrutiny of the items that try to make it on the web based Mac store. Apple announced that they would not allow all the items that are produced, to be sold on the Mac Store. The author is uncertain if this will be a great success for Apple or not, but they will be able to use this to reach out to their customers more effectively because they will not have to go to a retailer to purchase the items.

I think that this is a great idea for Apple. Apple is always on the cutting edge for new devices and products and ways to market the products to their customers. I think that this new design will help Apple reach out to their customers and also make the sales of their software and other items expand. I also think that the idea of a Mac Store and not letting every Application on the store is a good idea because the App store is filled with useless apps. This is a good move by apple and I think it will lead to them increasing the sales of their software items, and also the sale of items developed by independent sources.

Claburn, Thomas. "Apple's Mac App Store Brings Changes, Worries." InformationWeek. 26 Oct. 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/mac/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227900739&itc=ref-true.

Reading Response #4- Infodiet

The reading article for this week deals with how libraries have to become very adaptive to the change in pace of students wanting research. The article outlined how students in today’s libraries want easy information, like Google Searches and other easy to access information. In the article it talks about how students get frustrated with searching the web for scholarly articles, and they ask the librarian to “Google-ize” the research for them, meaning to make the search easier. A researcher from Carnegie Mellon University described the idea of infobesity, he coined this term because of all the horrible information on the web is like eating McDonalds fast food all the time. The article goes into further detail about how students don’t want to put in the time to search threw library catalogs, books, and other faulty and old systems to find information.
I think this is a good article because it has some useful information about how libraries need to evolve. With the idea of google-ising, I don’t think it is the key for libraries, I believe that you should have to put in the time to do the research to write a scholarly article. I also think that the idea of infobesity is a good idea, there is a lot of useless information on the internet, and there are so many people that rely on this information to write research articles because they don’t want to put in the time to use scholarly articles. I also believe though that it is imperative for libraries to revise the way that you look for information, because the nature of computers and the way information is passed from person to person. Overall I believe this was a good read.

Reading #3-Why the Next Big Pop Culture Wave after Cupcakes Might be Libraries

The first article that we were assigned dealt with comparing modern libraries to people of everyday society. In the article they made key points about libraries that made them seem like people. The first key point of the article was that libraries get into fights, this dealt with how the libraries don’t like to share their information and also how they have to fight over the funding that they receive. The next point that was made was about how librarians know stuff. In this point it talks about how librarians organize data and make it easily accessible to users of the libraries resources. The librarians will give you stuff for free is the next main point of the article. When you think about how much a book cost these days, they are expensive to buy. Well libraries will just give them to you to use for “FREE” this is a major bonus of using the library.
This article makes sense of the library and tries to put into terms most people can relate. When you think of a library there are many things that you can compare them to, but this article does a good job at making sense of the library. I think that this was a good read and better helped me understand some key points to what the library actually does.

Reading #3-The 'Library of the Future' Begins to Emerge

In this article it took a completely different view on the library. In the beginning of the article it was talking about how the library could become obsolete due to the interne. They also talked about how kiosks were placed in libraries, used for applying for jobs,, and that it would turn the traditional library inside out. The article went on to state, “That libraries in the future will be more akin to community and cultural centers and gathering places for services, education and collaboration (Dremann).” The article then takes another direction when they began talking to the San Jose State professor of Library and Information science. He believes that the libraries will continue to prosper, but will have to change some things about the everyday life of the library. He believes that creditable information will become harder and harder to find, so a librarian will always be needed to help search the vast databases and other information areas. The new libraries will have a place for books, and other information, but they will also have access to many more computers than ever before. With the rapid expansion of the World Wide Web and the internet this is becoming the new trend in libraries.

News Report #3- "Blackberry PlayBook Hardware Upclose"

Research in motion had the first showing of the playbook today for people to observe. The display of the device is 7-inches and will have a 1 GHz processer. The amount of memory that is going to come with the device has yet to be determined, but many think it will come in a 16 GB or 32 GB models. The playbook also has a built in camera for taking pictures, and also has the capability to link to a person’s blackberry via Bluetooth; this will allow the passing of contacts and calendars. The writer of the article says that this could help RIM in the aspect of current blackberry users not happy with the device that they already own; particularly cell phones. The playbook is also compatible with Wi-Fi and also has an interactive touch screen display. It is also a bit smaller than the Ipad and they hope that this will be a niche in the market and allow them to sale the product successfully. They hope to be rivaling the Apple Inc. Ipad in the near future.

I believe that this is a good motion for Research in Motion to go with their company. The stock of RIM is currently in a state of a downtrend and this could be what the company needs to break the trend. I think this would also be good for all the people out there that have a blackberry because it would allow them to link the phone with the playbook and to use them interchangeably with the software already installed on the Playbook. This is a really interesting device and I would like to see how it works with the Bluetooth linking, and to see if it is going to rival the Ipad for market share.

Selleck, Evan. "Blackberry PlayBook Hardware Upclose." Slash Gear. 27 Sept. 2010. Web. 27 Sept. 2010. http://www.slashgear.com/blackberry-playbook-hardware-upclose-27104651/.

News Report #2-"YouTube Live Streams Live"

In this article it is talking about how YouTube is going to be trying out a new program which would allow people to stream live shows from YouTube’s site. The minimum requirements to use this feature would be for people to have a webcam or and external USB camera which most people have these days with the development of webcams in most new computers. This new feature takes all the things that YouTube knows, which is known as “demand video”; and could make them a powerful force in the live internet video aspect of the internet. If YouTube is able to make this live video feature work it could collaborate with giants like Apple, Google, and other mobile device developers that have the capability to stream live video. This video is now being tested in collaboration with Google TV, and some experts believe that the new video features from YouTube could take away from Time Warner and Comcast Cable companies. This is an interesting new idea from YouTube and could really boost their customer base.

I think that this would be an awesome thing for YouTube to accomplish. I have to work a lot on the weekends, and I go to ESPN.com to watch the NFL games on Sunday’s. When you are on the ESPN.com site it has a football field with directional arrows to tell you the direction the ball is moving, and it also gives you a subscript of what was happening on a certain play in the game. If YouTube is able to produce such a service to help stream live video to a mobile device, like and iPod or iPad it would make YouTube very competitive to other cable companies. This would make life so much easier for people that have to work, although this could make people become so much more dependent on their mobile device. I think in the end though that this would be a great development for YouTube and would love to see it on one of my mobile devices in the future.

Sullivan, Laurie. "YouTube Live Streams Live." MediaPost News. 14 Sept. 2010. Web. 14 Sept. 2010. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Article&art_aid=135649.

Reading Respone #2- "Is Wikipedia a Victim of Its Own Success?"

In the reading about Wikipedia it is talking about how big the web based encyclopedia is becoming and how more and more people are not posting new information. The article starts out by talking about how up until 2007 there were people posting about 2,200 new articles every day. In the 2007 though the growth of Wikipedia had flat lined. The article goes on to talk about how websites have limits to the amount of information that continues to be posted; they say that the exponential growth stops at a certain point in time. They call the phenomenon crowdsourcing. The people that are still posting information on Wikipedia are mainly trying to correct errors, and doing other types of editing tasks for the current information on Wikipedia. The people that run wiki are trying to find ways to get better information, more accurate information, and to be fair to the people that are making edit’s to the online encyclopedia. There is so much information already on the Wikipedia site, so ultimately how much more will be put onto the encyclopedia? We don’t really know and some people believe that Wikipedia will no longer be around in five year to ten years. They think that the site will continue to lose peoples interest and ultimately go to the website graveyard.

I think that Wikipedia is an awesome site to have at our disposal. There is so much information in the online encyclopedia that has all been published by some volunteer. Though Wikipedia has gotten so large in a short period of time, and not that many people trust the information that comes off the site, I believe that it is something that makes searching for information better. We you go to Wikipedia and you type in some random fact or something completely out of the blue; you will usually get some information about the entry. I also believe that Wikipedia will continue to slow, because there is so much information already on the encyclopedia that you couldn’t feasibly put 2,200 new articles every day. In conclusion I think that Wikipedia is a very useful resource and that it will be around for many years to come.

Reading Response: "Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet"

The reading was focusing on all types of information that is misleading over the internet. In the first few pages of the reading it was talking about counterfeit websites. This is one of the major problems with online research; there are so many fake websites out there, which also have very misleading information. Furthermore in the article it talks about the Martin Luther King website, which if you click on any of the materials would lead you to some white supremacist type websites. This is a counterfeit website that people would go to and not find the information that they were looking to research. Another one that was spoken about in the article was the MaKah whaling tribe of Washington. They were given the right to whale by the US government and within days there were sites up that were counterfeit, and lead people to places that talked about how whaling was a terrible act, and how it was unjust. The next major topic that was covered in the article was suspicious websites. These are websites that are more properly classified as hate sites. There are many of these types of sites on the internet. The news is the next part covered in the article. The article talks about how the news can mislead anyone. I believe that this is so true because if people see it on TV or they read it on the internet, then it has to be true. This is completely untrue, and in the article they talk about how in one county they put two hundred orange vests on deer, and anyone that brought an orange vest back got a prize. Well this story was covered by ESPN, and other top news organization, well it was a hoax. The article continues to talk about disinformation, hoaxes, parodies, September 11th hoaxes, and other items dealing with the internet and how misleading it really can be.

I believe that the article was a good read because there are really people out there that do this stuff on a daily basis. I think that the money that people collected in the aftermath of September 11th is ridiculous and should have to be paid back, or given to the victims’ families. I also believe that most of the information on the web is biased in some way or another. I believe that news organizations should have to be set to a standard; they blow many things out of proportion in relation to news and other media that they cover. This was a great article and it really laid out some of the more important ideas of the misleading internet.

News Article #1

Itzkoff, David. "Plans for Print-Free Oxford Dictionary Aren’t Fully Defined." The New York Times. 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010.


In the article published by The New York Times, they are talking about the plans for a third edition of the Oxford Dictionary and the possibility of the dictionary being published over the internet. The first two editions of the dictionary, which were published in 1928 and 1989 respectively, were published in paper format. The chief executive of the Oxford University Press said in an interview with The Sunday Times of London that, “the market for print dictionaries is just disappearing”(Itzkoff). In the article they didn’t say that they would for sure be publishing the third edition of the Oxford Dictionary on the internet or not, but it seems that they are leaning towards that decision based on the lack of interest in the paper or book editions that are being sold. There is a long time before the decision has to be made because according to the article, it is going to be more than a decade before the third edition will be published. There are eighty lexicographers currently working on the edition, they are nearly twenty-eight percent complete, but they have yet to set a completion date. So Oxford has a long time before they have to make the crucial decision, and drift away from the norm.

I think that it would be good for the Oxford Dictionary to be published in a web type format. This would make it a lot easier for them to reach out to certain customers, who just aren’t into sitting down looking through a dictionary to find the word or words that they are search for. With the development of cells phones that get online, and the many types of other deceives that can go online, I think that it would be best if Oxford published their third edition with online capabilities. Many of my friends, which are mostly college students, all go online to online dictionaries to find the definitions that they are trying to define. In conclusion I think Oxford will publish their third edition online. Doing so would allow them to reach out to more customers, and ultimately help them raise profits.