Mobile Technology-- or Why I Can't Survive Without the Internet

Wireless Internet and I have a rocky relationship. I liken it a lot to the relationship between a druggie and his or her fix of choice. It has spoiled me into thinking that I can be connected to the Internet, and when I can't be-- there are problems. There is nothing more disappointing to me than lugging my laptop around, only to find that I can't be connected to some wireless network at my chosen location. There are few things more disheartening in life than seeing the phrase "no wireless network detected."

Why have I and-- more importantly-- everyone become so dependent on being connected to other people?

With the sudden onslaught of smartphones such as the Palm and the Blackberry, searching for a wireless network is no longer a problem. You are the wireless network. While I have yet to give in to "the Blackberry craze," (I'm about to, as soon as my current wireless contract is over so I can get a cheap one.) it seems that everyone around me has. No longer just a tool for businessmen and women on the go, the smartphone has become a mainstay of anyone and everyone. Why did it somehow become a need to be connected 24 hours a day? Do you really need to check your e-mail on the bus on the way to class? Not really.

It's as if we have become more social in the electronic world and less social in the real world. Here's some advice. Next time you see a friend on the bus, put down your Sidekick and have a real conversation. Your Facebook account will be there when you get back. Promise.

Video of "the next couple of the days": This is by far my favorite show when I was little. I actually remember myself hearing it come on in the living room and would drop whatever I was doing to come watch it. My mom taped the Christmas special when I was 4, and I have since watched it at Christmas EVERY year. My 6 year old sister has now become a fan. So here's the opening sequence of the Christmas special. Enjoy!

Sparknotes.com: The Bastardized Version of Electronic Texts

Remember cheating on your middle/high school reading assignment but just reading Cliffs Notes? Well now you don't even have to waste a trip to the bookstore!

I must admit, I'm just as guilty of this as the next person. Sparknotes.com has not only created a large library of book summaries, it has taken things a step further. I came across this service by accident one night, in a fit of finals week desperation. Being ever the Shakespeare illiterate, I was assigned to write a paper on a book I did not understand (at least not enough to write 1500 words about). At about 1:00 AM, I gave up trying to decode the dark depths of Othello, and resigned myself to consult Sparknotes. I figured I would at least find a starting point for a paper.

What I found would probably shock you. Sparknotes now has a small library of Shakespeare texts that it completely "translates," a free online service they call "No Fear Shakespeare." You can now read a line from Julius Caesar that says "Trebonius doth desire you to o'er-read, at your best leisure, this his humble suit," and it is "translated" in the second column as "Trebonius wants you to look over his humble petition, at your leisure." Click here to see the rest of the text.

Video for "the next couple of days:" Who doesn't love this cartoon? I used to wish I was in this family. Actually, I kind of still do.

Ebay-- the model of e-commerce

Why didn't anyone think about it before? An online auction site! Well, there probably was one earlier that sucked, and at some point tried (or will try) to sue Ebay for copyright infringement, like Facebook. Anyway, I decided to take some time to do some research on Ebay to see exactly how it works (outside of the countless hours I see how cheap people sell designer duds outside of department stores).

My dad is a pretty big Ebayer, but I've never actually taken the time to explore the site outside of the designer section (of which I've never actually BIDDED on anything... I seem to suffer from the common ailment of not-a-big-enough-paycheck syndrome). I looked through some of the free tutorials on the "Ebay University" sections and it made me want to go through my drawers and find things to sell. Seriously.

So how does Ebay make all of its money? Well, it (refreshingly) has no advertisements to outside companies on its site, so it obviously has to make its revenue from those who buy and sell right? Well, kind of. Only that it's free to buy things on there. If you wanted an account to only buy, say, Burberry trench coats and rainboots for your upcoming semester in London, it wouldn't cost a thing to you (outside of what you pay the vendor of course). Instead, Ebay takes a small percentage of what you make (less of a percentage than those damn Coinstar machines, which is like 9%) from the items that you list.

So I started wandering around the Ebay site and thought I'd make a list of some of the weird stuff people try to (and sometimes actually do) sell. Here's what I found:

sorority badges- so that you can either pretend you are in a sorority that you are not... or to add to your really creepy collection

"Baby Sub Sandwich Combo"- appears to be various baby items that are packed in a way that make it look like... you guessed it. You probably have to see this one to believe it.

cars- if you actually buy a car off of Ebay, you are just asking to get taken for a ride... no pun intended

Beanie Babies- if this were ten years ago... this would not be on my "ridiculous" list. But it's not, so it is.

grocery coupons- does this need an explanation?

"fake food"- this actually has its own category with 166 listings. Fake Starbucks coffee spill anyone?

And now for the video "of the next couple of days!" A friend and myself found this one after a couple minutes of racking our nostalgic brains. They're actually making a movie of this, supposedly coming out some time in 2009.

We were all sitting around the kitchen table. It was Sunday morning. Pancake morning.

So I didn't have a firm grasp on exactly what "text encoding" was until I came to class. I initially thought it was another kind of HTML... which through my still somewhat fuzzy knowledge of it, it very well could be.
I decided to take the cover of my favorite children's book (if you haven't read it... you need to), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The title is written in a larger font than any other part of the page, obviously to draw the reader's attention to the title. You will usually see with big-time authors that the author's name is the same size-- if not bigger-- than the title. This is not the case with this book. All the colors used on the cover can be considered "appetizing" colors, since the entire book is about food. There is not one page in the book with blue or purple or any other "unappetizing" colors.

The picture on the cover has a special role, in that it tells you exactly what the book is about: weather that brings food. It rains soup, snows meatballs, fogs pea soup, and morning-dews eggs. It's actually making me really hungry right now. It's raining outside, and I swear I can smell soup. Yummmmm.

Video of the next couple of days: This show started on Disney before it was on regular cable, so I didn't get to watch a lot of it when I was younger. This cartoon is definitely from Disney Channel's "glory days," when I didn't feel like I was getting more and more stupid watching (have you ever seen Max and Ruby? If you have, you'd know what I'm talking about).

Intellectual Property & Piracy

So I thought instead of thinking about intellectual property as a whole, I thought I'd explore a subtopic in it that I came across in one of the articles: piracy (and no, not just because it sounds like pirates). According to Merriam-Webster, piracy means "the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright." It also means "an act of robbery on the high seas," but that definition doesn't really apply to this subject.
I thought about some main targets of piracy, and i came up with a few... some of which I myself have been guilty of (dun dun DUN!!). Obviously when people think of intellectual property and piracy they think of downloading music, which has single-handedly brought record companies to its knees. Another major victim of piracy-- also a part of the entertainment industry-- is the movie industry. You can now go to a number of sites that allow you to view bootlegged movies for free.
The problem of piracy is a touchy subject. The recording industry has begun suing selected people caught in the act of music piracy, but this has in no way deterred others. The more the industry seems to go after people, the more mad the public gets and then downloads even more files. The situation they have put themselves in has actually caused a problem with an impossible solution (the impossibility lying in the fact that there doesn't seem to be one at all).

Video of the... next couple of days?: I didn't appreciate this show until it was gone. My little brother used to make me watch it. I was more interested in Doug and Rugrats (the ORIGINAL Rugrats, before Tommy got a new brother and Chucky's dad got remarried). This cartoon is one of a kind.

Hot Trends

So I went online today to check the "trends" on Google's website, and I easily wasted a half hour of my life trying to figure out what the heck half of the things are. It makes me wonder... "where the hell have I been?" I feel like I've been living under a rock lately. How is it that so many people are searching for these things... yet I have no idea what they are? Here were a few of them:

XLPaws- apparently the Myspace nickname of some elementary school teacher who took too many pictures wearing too little clothes. Hasn't anyone learned their lesson yet? Oh, and in case you were wondering... she got fired. #28 on The List. (see also #2: Melinda England)

babywit- the current #1 search on Google today. This website is an online store (babywit.com... in case you couldn't figure that one out for yourself) where people who hate "the man" can buy mold-breaking, unique, semi-witty baby shirts, bibs, and the like. The average bib will set you back about $14. Doesn't that just scream anti-establishment?

columbus day- either Googled by a ton of foreigners who have no idea who Columbus is, or by a group of lazy elementary school teachers (see XLPaws) who needed something to take up class time today. (see also #27 Christopher Columbus)

rose red- scary ass Stephen King novel-turned-TV movie. I saw it in the 11th grade. I didn't sleep for a week. Why it's being searched now... not even Google knows. #11 on The List.

Alexa Havins- fans of All My Children everywhere will mourn the loss of Babe. Oh wait, she's being replaced by actress Amanda Baker in the same episode. Just kidding. Maybe no one will notice that Babe is looking a little different these days. #26 on The List.

postal holidays- no one wants a stale fruitcake... so don't mail it around a postal holiday. #9 on The List (see also #8, usps holiday, #10 columbus day, #32 columbus day federal holiday... though it's a little too wordy for my liking).

Other interesting "hot trends" on Google today: rottenneighbor.com, chicago marathon death, shalom auslander, tufts 10k, tru calling, drphil.com, pasta pomodoro, that hagen girl

Visit the Google hot trends page. It updates constantly.

And as promised... the video for the day. (I think I'm getting a little carried away with this blog.) You may or may not have seen this one. I think I was a little too old to be watching it-- but I did anyway.

Privacy on Facebook

Facebook, from my experience with networking sites, has the most extensive privacy features of all. Users have the ability to be as public as they want (even go so far as to have their profiles available on major search engines).
I prefer to be more on the private side, for multiple reasons. It is a well known fact that potential employers search for their prospective employees on social networking sites, and a profile showing that person in a negative light can mean the difference between a job and unemployment. On my account, I have it so that only my friends are able to view my information. On top of that, only other students are even allowed to search for me (so faculty, staff, alum, high school students, and others do not even know I exist on Facebook-- except you, since you're reading this and I'm telling you I'm on Facebook).
I disliked Myspace for a number of different reasons, all having to do with privacy. Myspace is just too full of spam. Even though I was on their highest of privacy settings (which consist of either private or visible... not very sophisticated), I would get messages from strange people, friend requests from even stranger people, and sketchy "phishing" messages that would cause you to involuntarily post things on others' walls (though luckily I never fell for those). It seemed to me that Myspace was more involved in advertising and getting more revenue than protecting the privacy of its users. Not okay.

And-- as promised in the previous entry-- here is the video I found today. I used to watch this show every day with my little brother while my grandmother watched us. She never understood why we liked this show, and she said the characters were "just the ugliest things I have ever seen." She just has no idea what genius is.

CSS

So I've been doing this web design thing for a while (don't get too excited, my knowledge of HTML doesn't extend too far), and I'm a little stuck in my old ways. See, I've been used to sticking the style sheet on the same page as everything else. Keep things nice and simple, I say. Also... I never thought to use a style sheet to alter something as basic as something in bold. Whenever I wanted to do that on my page, I would just use the < font > tag with the alterations followed by the < b > tag. To put all bold under the same style seems a bit limiting to me. But anyway, go ahead and check out my webpage on the class website and let me know what you think! I'm sure you'll be able to tell... I'm a little obsessed with butterflies.

In other news... I spend a little too much time on Youtube. I thought I'd share something that hopefully everyone in this class remembers. I used to watch this all the time when I was little, so enjoy the trip down memory lane. I've decided to put a different Youtube video on here every entry :)