On A final note...

:).. I really enjoyed this class. Top 3 Reasons are:


1. My professor was really cool..
2. The lectures were enjoyable
3. The guest speakers.. except one (no naming names)


> I enjoyed the class primarily because of the professors' upbeat personality and the content we explored. We brainstormed through a couple of different topics, the effect of the Internet oops. the world wide web, on banking, airlines, media, and people in general raised great points of view.

The bottom line I think is that the Internet (oops.. the world wide web)is a very diverse and rapid part of everything. The 'past' looked at the present status of the Internet(oops.. the WWW) in awe.. I mean touchscreen devices, or virtual communities?? no way back then,, and today,its almost a thing of the past. People that have underestimated the use of the Internet are quickly learning that there is no escaping the Internet.... everything is controlled in one way or the other by a network of computer systems.. a 'plethora' of them ....

I'm happy and grateful for having the Internet(OOPS..oh never mind.. I'm brainwashed.. ).. sending email vs. mailing a letter.. is much much better.. or conference calling via email.. to my friends all over the world is sooo much better.. the inexpense of it all, the simplicity of it all and most of all the accessibility of it all... the internet is a wonderful thing.... :)....

Thank you for teaching this class.
The best to you and the wonderful world of Origami.. :)

The last day of Presentations!

so, on the last day of class we had two presentations. One was on the same book my group did, which was A World Without Secrets By Richard Hunt, and the other was on how to Steal This File Sharing Book by Wallace Wang.. I just have to vent a tad on the first presentation...it was-tooooooooooooooo-long...! I mean seriously......each presenter.. had a cheat sheet that they read out of, and they read alot out of it..no offence but presentations should not be that long.. ! ok.. I feel better... well, for the latter presentation, I felt sorry for them, primarily because they had almost no time to present, after the first group took eternity and some to present... but on a positive note.. they managed quite well. The latter book was pretty much a book teaching people how to download things off the internet. It wasn't selective of illegal or legal downloads, and on the back cover of the book, they had a disclaimer stating something to that effect.

Only in America, would a person be able to buy a book at a legal bookstore, to teach you how to illegally download. During the presentation the proffessor asked us if we were hungry and walked past a farm, would we go into the farm and help oursleves to the produce on the farm? truthfully no! well, he continued, how is it any different when we download music off the internet?..... point somewhat taken!

Personally, I really don't know how to download music off the internet, never had much of a desire to, nor do I buy CD's.. I'm happy listening to the radio for the most part, and if not, then I'll sing me a song... :) Just kidding! (ok maybe not entirely)... but if you think about it, the average person has to reach pretty deep to afford a CD.. then CRIBS.. comes on T.V and shows you just how well the celebrity's are living... its a juxtaposition..!

I guess its different for each of us.. justifications are not subject to relativity, but.... they are subject to cause and effect... !!?

-Burn Rate Presentation-

Burn Rate is a book written by Michael Wolff <<<>

Michael Wolff is an internet guru, with great ideas but unsuccessfull business models. He ends up borrowing money to fund a business idea, that ends up being a total flop. He does this a couple or so times, and at the last draw... he writes himself a check out of the investment money and walks away from the whole idea. sounds like a movie ... well its not.!

In addition, he's not a very nice person. His business ideas are great, but his personality isn't soo great.... I have to hand it to him though... I think its amazing that people were willing to invest in him time after time.after time after time.. 'get rich quick' they all thought, with the internet, anything is possible... sounds like a fancy boat ride headed to paradise... only the compass isn't working? ok.. thats a lousy analogy,..... but... its still interesting to learn and hear about him and I found a pretty interesting clip on a news book he wrote.. ..

.. the problem for the most part is that things get old really quickly on the internet.. on average 'new' or latest in technology.. is good for approximately 3-4 months, and then on to the next 'newer' model or feature. A classic example would be cell phones and how rapidly they change!! They become smaller, faster, 'savvier' by the minute.. not too long ago the iphone was the IT phone to have, then the blackberry with the fancy touchscreen came out...

I guess in my experience, technology changes too fast. ...its a bad thing environmentally... I wish they could come up with a system where the lifecycle is longer, and just the software would be updated.... ! but there is something undisputable about the advancing ways of technology..... its a pretty cool thing!

Project Speaking....

I'll type as fast as I can.. make as much sense as I can.. and get this blog in.. before the deadline...(it's due by 11:59p).. I've been home-sick.... all day.. uuugh! so forgive my overdose of Tylenol should it reveal itself...

to the point.

The group (I included)....(including myself).. myself and I... (and the group).. decided in no particualr order, no particular preference, no order to the random pick.. drum-roll, we are reading World Without Secrets by Richard Hunter. We brilliantly decided to divide the book into chapters.. coordinate our drafts/outline.. and at the end of it all, present our hardwork to the class. I haven't read it yet.. but my professor listed it on the syllabus as one of the recommended books to read for the group project. I'm taking his word for it.. that its a great read. I'll probably end up reading most if not all the books he recommended on there... eventually...but for now, I'll stick to the one book.. (World Without Secrets...)

Judging from the cover ... (bought it online for .53cents)....smiles:).. Judging from the cover, its the back of a man's head, staring at a bigger head on a computer screen...?!?!?.. its suspensful to some degree of light, simply by having only one side of his head has light and the other is in the dark.. if I had to judge it by the cover.. and only if I absolutely had to... I would say.... hmm.. since I don't have to.. I won't say anything about it..

from the back cover I read comments about "...it's a must read for anyone concerned about cyber security" states Dr. Bill Hancock the VP of Exodus.. Thomas Davenport states that Richard Hunter has seen the future and its really scary....

so.. even though I'm doing only three chapters for the presentation, its not too lengthy of a book, I'll be an overachiever and read the whole thing... I'm excited..

... I was going through the blog posts of some of the other bloggers in my class and bumped into one. pretty interesting blog... coincidentally she's reading the same book too....

A Virtual World...

Where would I live? ... honestly I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it, until my professor mentioned it in class, and told us to do a blog assignment on the topic. I'm clueless. I typed in virtual world into the google search engine, and the first link that pulled up was there.com,. On its into. page, it looked pretty basic, almost boring, perhaps it was the fact that it mentioned it was free, made it sound more cliche to the usual advertisements to join an online community, or just how boring the picture displayed looked..it just wasn't appealing to me.

I went back to the search engine, and an interesting article caught my attention. The summary of the article, is that a woman accussed her husband of having an affair with another woman in the virtual world. I was both humored and bewildered...Would I want to be a part of a free virtual world...? I don't have a solid justification as to why that's not appealing, the little I can explain about it, would be the fact that I just don't see the point to it.

Prior to my professor bringing it up in class, I'd heard of virtual world scenarios on Law and Order.. yes, the Television series.. well, on a tangent, they were trying to solve the murder of a female that was tied into some sort of virtual community. She had taken on the persona of a female rockstar, and was very popular in the virtual world.. she had concerts, parties, and the likes of real life celebrity acitivities.. including the fan club... well once she didn't show up for a virtual concert and her obssesed fan was very upset.. particularly on her promising they would go back to some hotel, (virtual) after the concert.Flirty-turdy, and before she knew it,

He killed in real life.. (on the series- Law & Order)

It baffles me, and I have to agree with my professor, that the relationships online are very much real. People develop an emotional attachment and act sometimes beyond the virtual walls..into reality.. I mean if I think about it,.. Virtual worlds are very much a reality. The people participating in them are real, using their real time to participate in what was created by real people...

>> I really don't think I would be a part of any virtual world. The complexity of real life is so much so, that I personally don't have room to doodle with the what-if simplicity of the virtual world.....

Feed>>Tacoma

A few days ago, we had a guest speaker in class- Kevin Freitas. Feed>>tacoma is a website that highlights the brighter side of Tacoma. Kevin started blogging in the late 90's as a way of updating his family that didn't live so close, on his daily life. More like having a conversation with his family via his blog/journal. The idea of Tacoma to many that didn't live in Tacoma was associated with negative media based stories. He decided to write on the good things he saw in Tacoma. Naturally, people were pleased to hear about his blog and fed more stories of their own into the feedtacoma section. The community bond on feedtacoma grew, people met outside the virtual world, conducted and participated in community based events...

As the first successful blogger in Tacoma, Kevin has managed to bring a great sense of community in feedtacoma. Perhaps, the greatest thing about it is that he does it all for >> FREE. Not a penny to take. It's ironic how many people would love to be paid to blog, yet when there is someone that people would love to pay..... he doesn't want a penny of it.... why? He is satisfied with what he has. His full-time job is something he enjoys to do and get paid to do. The blog is something he enjoys to do, and doesn't really need to get paid for......

I think the Tacoma feed is great for what it does/..

Despite the dangers.. why do we still shop online?

The two biggest 'worries' with online shopping that people have is identity theft or being scammed. Some have learnt the hard way while others haven't encountered any problems with online shopping. On my previous post I stated that online shopping in my particular case, was limited to books and discounted airline tickets. Why? well for the most part I really do believe there are several people out there waiting to get a hold of some sort of information that they could turn around and use for their financial benefit. Limiting myself doesn't elminate the fact that I could still fall a victim of internet crime..

Shopping online has several benefits, most people would agree that online shopping offers three distinct perks: convenience, discounted, and trendy.

The beauty of online shopping despite the risks it the fact that it allows 3d images on a pair of shoes, without having to wait for an attendent * priceless *. Or purchasing books without having to sort through isles in a book store the ultimate delight of shopping from the comfort of your couch. Save on gas, time, lipgloss, and the stress of traffic or finding parking at the bookstore. Priceless!

Online saves money. For the most part prices are relatively lower.. a dollar here and there goes a long way. I can't imagine walking up to an airline counter at the airport to buy a ticket... it would be so much more expensive than purchasing it online. I once logged onto my laptop at the airport to buy a connecting flight that would have cost $375 versus $129- sale fare.
yaikes.

Lastly, shopping online is simply the new trend. The market has grown in such a way that most business prefer consumers to shop online. Online banking is huge. Did you know you can have a personal banker -online? Its not for everyone. The older generation tends to be less accepting of online shopping for the most part.. they still write checks at the grocery store or to a friend, whereas the younger generation will use credit cards.

There are several safeguards that protect identity theft.. are they flawless? Not quite, nevertheless. they do offer some sort of protection.