Com 300 blog

Reading 5/23

2005-05-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

I think that as VoIP becomes more popular it will begin to impact cable and telephone networks negatively. This is because VoIP allows people to talk long distance to one another for less money than telephone companies. People are able to use VoIP wherever they can get broadband connectivity, which is a huge draw to consumers. Also, VoIP is fairly inexpensive. There are service plans much like cell phones where people are charged a flat fee for a month and are then able to have as many long distance calls as possible. VoIP also offers a lot of features in its package that phone companies usually charge extra for, such as caller-ID. The fact that people can get so much more for less money by using VoIP rather than basic cable and telephone networks is definately going to impact them dramatically.

Reading 5/18

2005-05-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

While reading the articles i did notice that there was a clear releationship between cyberspace as a public space and accessibility standards. First of all the internet is supposed to be intended for everyone to view, hence "cyberspace as a public space." The accessability standards make sure that this holds true. The asseccibility standards are in place so that everyone is able to access whichever website they want to on the internet at anytime. It would be unfair for website publishers to create a website that is accessible to some people and not others. That is why the standards are in place, they want to make sure that the internet remains a place where it is easy for everyone regardless of age or disability, or the limitations of their computer equipment.

Reading 5/11

2005-05-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

Internet technology can impact political activity because many people in charge of the voting process are not trained enough to handle the technology. Because these people are not properly trained, many problems can arise. Since they are not properly trained, they are unable to fix the problems. And if this technology fails as it does often, it can cause an error in the election results and therefore affect the political parties. In order for there not to be as big of a problem, those who are administering the election process need to be properly trained to try to eliminate this problem.

Reading 5/9

2005-05-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

After reading these articles i feel that everyone has a right to see anything they want on the internet. Everything that is on the internet is meant for anyone to see at any time. Yet there are firewalls up to prevent people from accessing certain websites. I don't think that it is right for the government to put up firewalls to prevent others from looking at certain websites. I dont think the government has the right to tell people what they can or cannot see on the internet. Of course there is a lot of information on the internet that i believe is inappropriate (such as porn) and should not be available for just about anyone to see. But it is still there on the internet in public space therfore people have the right to look at it and the government shouldn't be allowed to block people from it. If people do not want to see this type of material in their homes, then i feel that they should be the ones to make that decision by creating their own firewalls instead of having the government make the decision for them.

Midterm Progress Report

2005-05-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

I think i am doing pretty well with my project so far. The research assignment we did helped me a lot and i am really glad i did that assignment because it made me get started on y project. From that assignment I have found quite a few articles that will help me with my project. Since then i have also looked for more scholarly sources, although i realized it is a little harder than i thought to find these articles on my topic, so i will just have to be creative about it. So for this weekend i am really gonna focus on finding books and journals that are scholarly that will help me out with my project. And once i find those i will be able to put everything together to finish my project.

Corrected Citations

2005-05-04T14:43:00.000-07:00

Apple Computer Inc. (2005). iPod. Retrieved April 24, 2005, from://www.apple.com.

Crockett, R & Burrows, P. (2005). Major Hangups Over the iPod Phone. Business Week, (3927), 44. Retrieved May 4, 2005, from ABI / INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 815103551).

Move Over, iPod? (2004). New Scientist, (2465), 183. Retrieved April 24, 2005 from Expanded Academic ASAP Plus.

Sanford, G. (2004). Company History. Retrieved May 4, 2005, from http://www.apple-history.com/noframes/body.php?page=history&section=h1.

Hilary Hurd Anyaso. (2005). In With the New. Black Issues in Higher Education, 22(2), 4. Retrieved April 24, 2005, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 808804721).

Reading 5/4

2005-05-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

When reading these two articles I did see some of the same ideas brought up in the articles that relate to the open source software. First of all, social-networking software is all about creating a community with other people. You do this by being able to optimize your social interactions by networking with people in which you are similar to, meet new people, maximize existing relationship, etc. This idea of community is similar to open source software because when people have open source software they are able to change the software however they want. They are able to interact with other people who are also using this software and in a sense those people create their own community with one another. Another thing that I found similar between the two is that they are both free. Social-networking software such as friendship and its competitors are all free. So anybody who wishes to maximize their network of friends can join friendship for free. Same goes for the open source software. Anyone who wishes to have a free operating system for their computer can get open source software and are then able to tweak the system however they wish.

Reading 5/2

2005-05-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

Blogging software has definately allowed people to facilitate a community amongst one another. With an event like the september 11th attacks, it allowed people from all over the world to talk to one another through their blogs. People were able to share their feelings and let others know the pain they felt by the terrorist attacks on September 11th. Because so many people felt the same way, they were able to feel connected and could easily relate to one another. This is just one example that proves blogging software has developed a community amongst individuals all over the world.

Reading 4/27

2005-04-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

WiFi technology is allowing more people to become connected to the internet. Wifi is allowing developing nations to access the internet. These smaller countries or cities that normally would not have the internet are now ablet o enjoy the internet. Wifi is a fast and cheap way of getting and recieving the internet by making use of the unlicensed radio spectrum. Most people are happy with this new technology becuase more people are becoming apart of the internet and that is a good thing.

Reading 4/25

2005-04-24T23:53:00.000-07:00

I think that it is a good idea for scholars to study the open source software movement. Scholars need to figure out if this free software system will be beneficial to people. In order to do this they need to examine the pros and cons of being able to share this software with everyone. It seems like it would be a good idea because then programming time will no longer be wasted on duplicating programs, instead programmming time will be used to further improve the current system.

Reading 4/20

2005-04-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

I dont really know if electronic voting would necissarily be a better method for voting. Yes it would be nice if for example, we were able to vote by computer and then were able to doublecheck our votes with a paper copy to make sure that our selections were the ones we really wanted. Overall i think this method would be easier for voters, yet there are still mistakes that can happen with the system. So that is why i have a mixed feeling about electronic voting. Even though i do not know if electronic voting would be better, i definatley think the system that we have right now is no good. First of all i think that we need to have a universal way of voting. I think that every county and every state for that matter should use the same method for voting, whether it be paper or electronically. If everyone voted the same way i think there would be less confusion for the voters and it would be easier to tally up the results. Overall i think it would make the whole voting process much better.

The real 4/13 post - a little late

2005-04-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

This is my 4/13 post cause i goofed last week...

I think that its true that more and more people are going to the internet for political knowledge. The internet provides people with a lot more national politics than what is normally covered in the local newspaper. There is a great deal of information to be found in the internet and that is why more and more people are getting their politics from the internet rather than a local newspaper. Although a local newspaper is a great resource for local politics which is not usually covered too much on the internet.

Oops!

2005-04-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

Looks like i accidently did the wrong reading for today (4/13). I did monday 4/18 instead, so i will try to post wednesdays readings before friday so you all can comment on it.

Reading 4/18

2005-04-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

I found it interesting how the article continually mentions that humans evolve due to evolution. That we have adapted ourselves to the environment and in turn the environment has adapted to us. Therefore the traits that we embody are due to the concept of "survival of the fittest." The characteristics that allowed us to survive our environment are the ones that have lasted and are carried on through many generations, while other characteristics that are no so good become extinct and no longer survive. I found that this concept of "survival of the fittest" relates to how technology itself has evolved. It can also help to explain why certain machines have survived and why some are no longer available. Technology today is nothing like it was some ten, twenty, even fifty years ago. Technology has evolved a lot over the years. Machines that were once popular, such as VCRs are no longer as popular due to the evolution of technology. VCRs are now being taken over by new machines such as DVD Players and/or Tivo. These machines are more technologically advanced which people like. Therefore VCRs will slowly but surely become extinct as the new technology of the DVD players and Tivo which embodies the characteristics that consumers want will be able to survive. Eventually technology will advance once again and a new product will come out that will compete with DVD Players and Tivo which may possibly make them extinct just like the VCRs. I guess only time will tell.

Reading 4/11

2005-04-10T18:22:00.000-07:00

I agree that the internet and the television is now a place where people go to get more political knowlegde. This especially true with people our age. Nowadays college aged people usually do not pick up a newspaper and read it for political information. Instead they look up political information on the internet or watch shows such as the Daily Show with Jon Stewert and other nonconventional shows for political information. So this article did not surprise me too much with its findings that people are beginning to gravitate towards sources other than the newspaper to gain more political knowledge.

Reading 4/6/2005

2005-04-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

I found it interesting that modern media emerged during the Industrial Revolution when the factory system was created. The creation of the assembly line allowed machines to take over the manual labor and in turn manufacturers were able to produce more products. The factory system worked so well that modern media followed. The media found a way to be able to expand by utilizing the factory logic. They began to mass produce copies of new films, photographs, and audio recordings that could then be sold to make a profit. The technology advanced enough during this time that media was able to emerge during this time period.

I never knew that all digital pictures have to be made smaller by deleting some information by lossy compression in order to be stored on a comptuer. I guess that makes sense when there are millions of pixels in one image which makes it too big to be stored on a computer. No wonder my pictures never look so good when i scan them into my computer.

Assignment #2

2005-04-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

First of all i must say that i do not know much about computers so after reading Introduction to Internet Architecture and Institutions i had many "ah-ha" moments. The first "ah-ha" would be that i now have a better understanding of what an IP address is. I only found out that computers had IP addresses last year when my computer was acting up and somehow i had lost my IP address and had to get a new one assigned...but i had absolutely no idea what it was and why i needed it. Now i know that it is needed for my computer to be connected to the internet and be recognized by other computers. My second "ah-ha" moment came when i was reading about how an email message gets sent from one computer to another. I never knew that the message had to be sent through many routers before it even reached its destination. I just thought you sent an email and it just went straight to the person you were sending it to. I also found it very fascinating that an email passes through many routers to reach its destination and still gets there within seconds. Technology certainly is amazing!

Assignment #1

2005-03-29T22:52:00.000-08:00

Cable television offers more low-involvement channels that have more people tuning into them just to pass time. This is definitely true in my case. Whenever I am bored I tend to turn on the television to pass time or to relax. I usually tune into MTV or VH1 which airs mindless programs, yet I find them entertaining enough to watch especially the “I Love the 80s” show on VH1. I can watch that over and over again. Often times I just tune to these stations for background noise. I definitely watch TV a lot and my viewing has defiantly become habitual.

McLuhan says that “electronic media made us more interdependent” and I tend to agree with this. The rise of electronic media allows us to receive a vast amount of information while print media does not allow us to explore more than what is in print. I think that it is good that we have electronic media such as the internet that allows us to explore and obtain more information about the world.

Testing

2005-03-29T22:38:00.000-08:00

Just seeing if this works