The company E Books note themselves as a "vast range of ebooks from the world's leading academic, popular and professional publishers." Electronic books, commonly referred to as "E Books" may be read on PCs, Macs, Sony Readers and Mobile Phones. On the E Books web site, various works of literature can be searched by author, title, ISBN or keywords. Like any other online bookstore, E Books promotes "Special Offers." They also highlight current best sellers on the sidebar, in hopes of helping you find a worthwhile read for each customer.
In my opinion, this emerging technology will be very easily adapted by society. Many people already buy songs and ringtones off of their various cellphones and computers. If I think about our generation, it is easy to see how marketable this new technology is to them. We love the fact that we can get anything we need at the click of a button. Communication is instant. No longer will we anticipate our favorite classic to arrive in the mail: We will have it instantly with electronic books.
If our society conforms to reading literature solely on the internet, will libraries be non-existent? A library is a thought-provoking learning center that stimulates intelligence and outside-the-box thoughts from people. Although the internet can have the same effect at times, the idea of curling up with a cup of coffee and your favorite book on a rainy day seems simply irreplaceable.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Liable for tweets?
This article from CNN is telling of how technology can be very dangerous in our lives. Courtney Love is currently being investigated due to her tweets that supposedly slammed a fashion designer.
Experts call our current technology situation a "cultural shift." It seems to me like privacy is something that is rarely respected. However, in my mind, this is largely due to the many emerging technologies in our current culture. Twitter is just one example of sharing one's personal life with the rest of the world. In one sense, I believe that if someone should post something on the Internet for the public to see, they should consider the consequences of submitting, posting, etc.
Many cannot tell the difference between a joke and reality. Therefore, it makes sense that tweets can be mis-read. Although slamming the designer via tweets might not have been the best judgement on behalf of Courtney Love, I still think it is important that her privacy is honored.
Experts call our current technology situation a "cultural shift." It seems to me like privacy is something that is rarely respected. However, in my mind, this is largely due to the many emerging technologies in our current culture. Twitter is just one example of sharing one's personal life with the rest of the world. In one sense, I believe that if someone should post something on the Internet for the public to see, they should consider the consequences of submitting, posting, etc.
Many cannot tell the difference between a joke and reality. Therefore, it makes sense that tweets can be mis-read. Although slamming the designer via tweets might not have been the best judgement on behalf of Courtney Love, I still think it is important that her privacy is honored.
Mapquest
As previously mentioned, I consider Mapquest to be a life savor. Conveniently enough, I have it on my iPhone. However, today I decided to check out Mapquest on the web. Most of the apps on my iPhone are very useful, but they do not always offer what the web does. The web typically has many more options and features. Mapquest is a great example.
Today, my friends and I were looking for a pumpkin patch in the West Lafayette area. Oddly enough, the closest one we found was about 30 minutes away. Because we were short on time, we could not drive around to look for the pumpkin patch. Mapquest was our answer. I typed in the address, as usual and immediately got results. Because there was a big group of girls traveling to the site, I expected that I would have to print out directions for everyone.
Due to the new feature of texting and emailing directions, I saved a lot of trees! Plus, it was very easy for everyone to find because the directions were easily accessible on their cell phones.
Today, my friends and I were looking for a pumpkin patch in the West Lafayette area. Oddly enough, the closest one we found was about 30 minutes away. Because we were short on time, we could not drive around to look for the pumpkin patch. Mapquest was our answer. I typed in the address, as usual and immediately got results. Because there was a big group of girls traveling to the site, I expected that I would have to print out directions for everyone.
Due to the new feature of texting and emailing directions, I saved a lot of trees! Plus, it was very easy for everyone to find because the directions were easily accessible on their cell phones.
Gin System
Just this year I was exposed to the Gin system by my sorority chapter president. She asked me to help implement the use of the Gin system within our chapter for the fall semester. This meant that I would have to learn the ins and outs of the system. At first, I was hesitant to take on this project, because I do not consider myself to be very computer savvy. However, after created my own username and logged on, I realized that this may not be as be as bad as I had expected.
The whole point of the Gin system is to stop the unnecessary house emails that are sent out very frequently. A lot of the announcements are not applicable to the entire chapter, which makes receiving 14 emails that have nothing to do with you quite annoying. Other chapters on Purdue's campus have begun to implement the use of the Gin in their chapters and I have heard nothing but positive feedback.
For new users, the Gin offers a number of tutorials to familiarize chapter members. Also, it is conveniently enough available through a Facebook application. Because everyone in our chapter uses Facebook (some probably more frequently than e-mail), they can sign onto the Gin system without going to the web site address.
The Gin system is split up into different boxes on the main screen: Announcements, Upcoming Events, New Files, Upcoming Birthdays and Discussion Board. The Announcements tab is provided by Nationals. They post information (and regularly update it) to inform various chapters of what is going on at a national level. Our chapter posts our "paper chapter" and other applications that chapter members may be interested in under the New Files tab. Upcoming birthdays lists all of the birthdays per each month. The Discussion Board tab is the most used among our chapter. Here, anyone can submit a post. Also, people can leave comments. This solves the problem of sending an entire house email out to every member.
Overall, this new technology has been so useful to our chapter. It is a great way to keep organized and provide all our information in one spot. I give it an A!
The whole point of the Gin system is to stop the unnecessary house emails that are sent out very frequently. A lot of the announcements are not applicable to the entire chapter, which makes receiving 14 emails that have nothing to do with you quite annoying. Other chapters on Purdue's campus have begun to implement the use of the Gin in their chapters and I have heard nothing but positive feedback.
For new users, the Gin offers a number of tutorials to familiarize chapter members. Also, it is conveniently enough available through a Facebook application. Because everyone in our chapter uses Facebook (some probably more frequently than e-mail), they can sign onto the Gin system without going to the web site address.
The Gin system is split up into different boxes on the main screen: Announcements, Upcoming Events, New Files, Upcoming Birthdays and Discussion Board. The Announcements tab is provided by Nationals. They post information (and regularly update it) to inform various chapters of what is going on at a national level. Our chapter posts our "paper chapter" and other applications that chapter members may be interested in under the New Files tab. Upcoming birthdays lists all of the birthdays per each month. The Discussion Board tab is the most used among our chapter. Here, anyone can submit a post. Also, people can leave comments. This solves the problem of sending an entire house email out to every member.
Overall, this new technology has been so useful to our chapter. It is a great way to keep organized and provide all our information in one spot. I give it an A!
Wikipedia Worries
Many college students resort to the Internet for research projects, rather than hitting the library. If there is a subject, person or place that I am unfamiliar with, the first web site many people visit is Wikipedia. I almost find myself visiting this particular site daily.
Although the intentions of the Wikipedia site are good, there can potentially be problems with using this as your only tool for research. As learned in lecture, the point of any wiki is to share the knowledge of multiple people with others. The idea is that the collective intelligence of various people will be more powerful than just the intelligence of one individual.
Most information found on Wikipedia sounds like the content could come straight out of a published encyclopedia. However, if one looks further than just Wikipedia, they will find that not all information is correct. A recent example of this is when I researched the life about Barack Obama for one of my classes. I was interested in the way he rose to leadership. After finding some of my information on Wikipedia, I wanted to double check the information, so I could give my audience the correct facts. After going to the library to complete my research, I checked out various books on Barack's life. Most dates were correct, but I found some variation in his childhood and college years.
Overall, I think that people need to realize the dangers of sites like Wikipedia. Although it can give you a quick answer or overview of a subject, it is not completely reliable.
Although the intentions of the Wikipedia site are good, there can potentially be problems with using this as your only tool for research. As learned in lecture, the point of any wiki is to share the knowledge of multiple people with others. The idea is that the collective intelligence of various people will be more powerful than just the intelligence of one individual.
Most information found on Wikipedia sounds like the content could come straight out of a published encyclopedia. However, if one looks further than just Wikipedia, they will find that not all information is correct. A recent example of this is when I researched the life about Barack Obama for one of my classes. I was interested in the way he rose to leadership. After finding some of my information on Wikipedia, I wanted to double check the information, so I could give my audience the correct facts. After going to the library to complete my research, I checked out various books on Barack's life. Most dates were correct, but I found some variation in his childhood and college years.
Overall, I think that people need to realize the dangers of sites like Wikipedia. Although it can give you a quick answer or overview of a subject, it is not completely reliable.
Facebook Frenzy
Facebook tends to consume at least one hour per each of my days. As much as I love the fact that I can connect with my friends from Haiti, or the kids I went to grade school with, I have a few Facebook issues that I am sure others share as well.
There is one in every crowd. A creeper that is. "Creeping" on Facebook is a term I have ran into more than a hundred times in my life. "Stalking" is another good one. Those creepers or stalkers who friend people in which they have no connection to poses a big problem for me. Why does he or she need to see who I am or what I am doing, if we have absolutely no mutual friends? What are they possibly going to do with my personal information?
I have experienced a lot of younger people adding friends or accepting friend requests for the mere reason of having the most friends. I see it as being the most ignorant. I will admit that when I first joined Facebook, I would accept any human who added me. Now, after seeing the trouble people can get in from accepting random people to be their friends, I tend to be a little more smart. If I have never met someone or do not personally know them, I will not accept their friend request.
There is one in every crowd. A creeper that is. "Creeping" on Facebook is a term I have ran into more than a hundred times in my life. "Stalking" is another good one. Those creepers or stalkers who friend people in which they have no connection to poses a big problem for me. Why does he or she need to see who I am or what I am doing, if we have absolutely no mutual friends? What are they possibly going to do with my personal information?
I have experienced a lot of younger people adding friends or accepting friend requests for the mere reason of having the most friends. I see it as being the most ignorant. I will admit that when I first joined Facebook, I would accept any human who added me. Now, after seeing the trouble people can get in from accepting random people to be their friends, I tend to be a little more smart. If I have never met someone or do not personally know them, I will not accept their friend request.
Circuit contact lenses
This web address will take you to what my group proposed for our Com 435 Technology Pitch. From the University of Washington, our group strongly believed that this would be a great technology to pitch for our project. It is really a cool idea and something that I have never heard of.
So far, the University of Washington has had tremendous support from their community, as well as the IT and Technology departments at the university. The support alone shows that this emerging technology has a lot of potential. The fact that these contact circuit lenses are safe makes the product very marketable.
To some people, this idea may seem very far fetched. I will be interested to see if this idea ever makes it to the market. Because it is so affordable, safe for your eyes, and an undoubtedly interesting product, I believe that there will be many potential investors willing to promote this product.
I could definitely see myself using this product once it has been tested and rated by consumers. Just because they might be safe for rabbits, doesn't mean that there will not be any harmful side effects for humans. Once I read ratings from Consumer Reports, I will test this product for myself.
So far, the University of Washington has had tremendous support from their community, as well as the IT and Technology departments at the university. The support alone shows that this emerging technology has a lot of potential. The fact that these contact circuit lenses are safe makes the product very marketable.
To some people, this idea may seem very far fetched. I will be interested to see if this idea ever makes it to the market. Because it is so affordable, safe for your eyes, and an undoubtedly interesting product, I believe that there will be many potential investors willing to promote this product.
I could definitely see myself using this product once it has been tested and rated by consumers. Just because they might be safe for rabbits, doesn't mean that there will not be any harmful side effects for humans. Once I read ratings from Consumer Reports, I will test this product for myself.
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