Journal Entry #9
Web 2.0 is a second generation of Web-based services. With new features such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies, Web 2.0 emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. Today, the world wide web is constantly changing. Each day, a new blogger, video or website appears and whether it becomes popular or not, it still effects the whole web in a way. When the internet first came out, it was so new people didnt know what to do with it or didn't have the smarts to figure it out. But today, it has become so easy, a child could do it. Before, the internet was used for truley meaningful things such as studying, research etc. Now, with all the new innovations, people use it for endless things such as blogging, listening to music, watching television, watching videos, accessing photos, creating videos, creating photos, games and work. The internet and the computer at large has evolved over the years and it is now a must have thing for many people. Think for a minute and ask yourself this question. Without a computer, how would you get to do the things you normally do? In my opinion, this is an easy question. Before computers, people had to resort to different means of doing things. Computers are just a luxury to have. It makes your life easier. So in conclusion, over the years the world wide web and computers have changed dramatically but the overall use of them remains the same.

Journal Entry #8

An ongoing trend among many people around the world is the downloading of music. 7 years ago, a small compnay by the name of Napster appeared out of nowhere and quickly spread across the world. Napster was a music sharing program that allowed people around the world to download free music. In my opinion, I believe that Napster has changed the world. Before the downloading era, people had to resort to either buying thre CD's, Audio cassettes, records or listening to the radio for their music needs. Today, people continue to download music for free from many different types of P2P (Peer to Peer) programs. Now, the music industry is losing their revenu quicker and quicker. If they had signed up with Napster in the first place, then mabye things would of been different for them. At the end of the article, Don Dodge states that he had learnt 5 important lessons from his experience. In a short summary, he states that you should know who and what you are dealing with and have options on how to deal with the certain problems that would arise. In conclusion, the downloading of music is still something that many people do. I myself enjoy downloading music for free because it allows me to listen to my favourite songs without paying for them. Until the record companies find a way to stop these different programs from running, i suugest that if they cannot beat them, join them and work together to find a way to settle the situation.

Journal Entry #7

In my opinion, the Nintendo Wii is just another craze that will soon die down. I say this because just like the walkman, Playstation, and the Ipod, the hype of the product raises the sales, but after a few months the need for one quickly diminishes. Yes, the Wii has new technology with its new cordless hands on motion feature, but what do you expect, times are changing. Very soon, other gaming systems will pick up this technology and it would come as nothing but hype for the new product that would be released. I myself have not yet tried the Nintendo Wii but I'm not falling head over heels just to get my hands on it. This is why I believe that this is just hype, a craze that would soon pass by. So in conclusion, I believe that the Nintendo Wii is a technological innovation with its new feature but it is still just hype that will eventuall die down.

Journal Entry #6

After viewing one of the episodes on BBc's Click, i found out something about search engines. Search engines work by finding websites on the web and listing them in order of how many times the word appears and the number of visits to the site. The point of the article is how people could easily manipulate their sites to have a different outcome appear on a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. Bloggers would create links on their sites to a word that when typed in on a search engine, the website they linked to would appear. This is called a "link bomb". Search Engine websites say that they are fine with this as long as the other links help people find what they are looking for. One other big example that you could relate to this is the growing website "Wikipedia". Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that could be manipulated by anyone. Wikipedia is an online resource for many people and since so many people use it, it would be proper for it to contain right information. In my opinion, I believe that doing these types of things just for spite is wrong. When I'm doing research on something or someone, I expect that the internet search engines would be a helpful tool, and if people continue to do these things, search information on the internet will continue to become harder and harder.

Journal Entry #5

Google Book Search is a tool from Google that searches the full text of books that Google scans and stores in its digital database. This kind of tool once open to the general public, would either spread like wildfire or quickly diminish. Google's relationship with publisher's I believe would grow because the service only publishes books in there full content only if the publisher agrees. Otherwise, they take what they call "snippets" from books thats copyright date have expired and uses them as a reference whenever someone "googles" that books title. Having such a tool, Google is know reigning as the king of all search engines to date. But other search engines such as Yahoo are trying to keep up with Google by making similar tools. This project will become a great reference tool to many. An example of a group of people that this would help out are students. It will become a great studying tool for them. But they have to know the limits of it. If they copy, it is plaguarizing. With this new development, librarians would not need to worry. Many of the books that are on Google Book Search are not copyrighted anymore. So Google saw this as an oppurtunity to create their own little library so to speak. But they are many books that do not appear on the sight including "Harry Potter", "To Kill A Mockingbird" etc. These types of books are what people go to the library for. So if i were a librarian, I would not worry because with the vast variety of books being published daily, there will always be a new book that Google would not be able to put on their website. In conclusion, i think that Google Book Search is a wonderful, helpful tool that can help many people on a daily basis.

Journal Entry #4

In partnership with IBM, National Geographic has taken on a project that would change the world. Together and with the help of many scientific experts, they will find they true answers to where we have come from and how did wew get here. This project is titled "The Genographic Project". The Genograaphic project is a project that involves world wide participation. Scientists have been placed around the world where they will encounter indigenious groups of people trying to find an answer to their question. They will do this by taking a sample of DNA from people from these groups hoping to find an answer. They would also need as many samples of DNA from people around the world so that they may build a family tree of sorts so that we may trace our exsistence back to the beginning. Scientists belive that when DNA is manipulated throught the life cycle, many change while others stay the same. If they could find those strands that stay the same between us and the many other people around the world, they will be one step closer to finding out this mystery. This project has just come to par with us because now, we have the right advancments in technology to accomplish a feat such as this. This has also come under great timing because with the world now mixing and the indigenious groups of people diminishing, scientists have to work fast if they hope to get the answers they want. Without the indigenious groups, we would have none or a very little to start from. So in conclusion, this project in my mind is a great idea that should be monitored more seriously by the general public because I believe you don't really know who you are unless you know where you came from.

Journal Entry #3

Over the last couple of years, games that deal with any form of war have been on a steady popularity rise. The reason for this is simple. When game designers have to come up with a new game, they try to reflect on what events are happening around them so that people would be more interested in their product. A great example of this is sports games. Companies come out with the newest sports games for all the sports just before the season would start for each respected sport. So when gaming companys such as Microsoft and Sony came out with war games, they new that people would sweep them off the shelf with the on going war in Iraq. Also, these games are very great when it comes to the actual gameplay. Games such as "Call of Duty" and "Socom" bring you right into the action. In respect to the comment that "If it's not realistic, it's not worth playing.", I believe that playing games like these is all fun and games but i truly think that it desensitses people on the real aspects of war. When we look at a bloodied cartoon character, we see no harm in this because it is just a cartoon, so in relation to these war games, when someone dies in the game, you don't really care and you move on. But now picture yourself in an actual battlefield. If someone in front of you just stepped on land mine and was killed, you probably would be paralized in a trance that you wouldn't know what to do. So in conclusion, i fell that war games are a great genre of games. They are very exciting to play espically with friends and when you do, you have fun. But we must remember not to be insensitive to the actual people that are fighting in the war right now. To them, it is not a video game, it is their life.

Journal Entry #2

1. One of the reasons why I came to Mary Ward because I'm a very hands on kinda guy. I don't like people telling me what to do every 5 minutes. In my opinion, using ipods as a method of teaching is a great idea. Many of the students in our school tend to work by themselves or with others with as little teacher student interaction. Having the option of viewing their teachers lectures or seminars on their ipods would make a great tool for these people. I myself enjoy working with others but if i ever need help, i would ask a teacher. But the idea of the ipod classroom would do me well because if i ever needed to review something that i may have missed the first time, i could always look it over again and again.

2. If Mary Ward would embrace such technology, there would be a handful of both advatages and disadvantages. On the brighter side, we as students would have a great tool for catching up on a seminar that we may have missed or just for the sake of looking it over again. Other advantages include less seminar times the teachers would need meaning more floor times. But with the good comes the bad. Having this kind of technology could always backfire on you in an instant. If the school were to have this technology, not all students would have the necessary equipment needed for this. Also, if there were to be a problem, the whole system would be shut down andd no one would be able to use the service. In conclusion, i think that in the not so distant future, that this kind of technology would be in almost every school.

Journal Entry #1

Today, technology is everywhere. From our homes to our schools, to the mall, we just can't escape it. As we learn to live with the ever growing technology, we find that it is constantly changing. Changing technology has both its advatages and disadvantages.

One type of technology I would like to focus in on is portable gaming. From the first GameBoy to the PSP, portable gaming has been around for a long time. Advantages for portable gaming is that it is very fun to play with because you are now able to enjoy your favourite games in the palm of your hand while on the street, in your car or anywhere else rather than having to be restricted to a television or computer to play. I, myself have many portable gaming systems including the PSP and GameBoy. I find these devices to be very helpful to me when i am bored but at the same time it could be very distracting. This leads me to the disadvantages about portable gaming.

Disadvantages to portable gaming might not jump out to you right away, but if you think about it for a while, you would find out that they are many of them. Two main disadvantages of portable gaming are that the are addicting and very distracting. If for example your are playnig your game out on the street, you are more likely to be completly focused on your game. As you are playing your game, you may come up to a crosswalk and without paying any attention, you could cross while at the same time a car could carelessly be speeding and eventually hit you. Also, it could be very annoying to the people around you that might not want to hear the noise that the game is making.

In conclusion, portable gaming has its advantages and disadvantages but overall, it is a great piece of technology.

Introduction

Hello, my name is Rico Lindo and this is my first blog. Well what is there to know about me....... I'm 15 years old and i'm half Jamaican half Guyanese. I'm in Ms. Huebner's Grade 10 section 4 Media Class and so far, i'm liking the course. My hobbies are listening to music, playing video games, chilling with friends and watching the TORONTO RAPTORS!!! Well then, thats about all you need to know but if you want to know more about me, just reach me at school. Until then, PEACE OUT!!