Research Poster Presentations

Last Monday, I did a research poster presentation (similar to a Science Fair layout) on Google Wave. I did the research on Google Wave through using it- I watched the introductory how-to videos, and sent messages to my husband (the only other person that I know who currently has it). I also did research by searching the web for other people's opinions on Google Wave. I felt like I had quite a bit of information and I thought the presentation went well.

As my poster stated, I think that Google Wave is going to make a great impact on the technological world as we know it because Google Wave not only has created a mixture between messenger, e-mail, and Google Documents in real time, but has brought a lot of options to one single place. The Google Wave user will be able to access all of the elements that they would need from their Google Wave account, like gaming, weather, maps, teleconferencing and videoconferencing among others.

It was nice to have people come and ask me about Google Wave, because many of them had heard of it but were unsure what it did or how to use it. Some people even had invitations but had not accepted them yet because they were unsure. After telling some people about the technology, they wanted me to use one of eight invites to invite them to use Google Wave.


On Friday, the other half of the class did their poster presentations and those of us that went on Monday became the audience. It was really great to walk around and see the emerging technologies and which of those people thought were important. As an audience member you had to post tweets on Twitter of your thoughts about the posters. It was really cool to see the updating tweets on the screen in the front of the classroom. On both days there were a lot of great presentations, you could see that people put a lot of effort into them.

This class, Communication 435- Emerging Technologies and Communication, has really provided me with a lot of insight into the digital world. I was never a big "techie," I just used a lot of the programs that were mainstream. Through this class I not only learned how to use more technologies, but how they worked, and the best way to tell others about them.

The Newest Universal Remote

The URC MX-5000 is the newest universal remote that runs at about $1200!!! It controls everything from your wi-fi to your TV. It was a pretty nifty touch screen, but is such a complex system that you cannot program it yourself- you need a professional. It even has "no limit to customization."But while this seems pretty awesome, does a person need a universal remote enough to pay $1200 for it?

I think that this instance of emerging technology says a lot about American society. Today, it is all about efficiency and making things easier- but at what cost? I mean, even the most basic remote is a movement towards efficiency. You can adjust things without having to walk across the room! As well as being a movement towards efficiency, it is also a major movement towards LAZINESS! I mean it is one thing to even use a remote, but what is so hard about keeping track of a couple remotes? Is it necessary to get one so that they are all together because you lost them or just for convenience sake?

As we move towards more universal things for convenience and efficiency, I believe we lose a part of ourselves, a part of aesthetic properties that items once had, and lose a sense of the world around us. Sometimes the world just needs to be enjoyed as it is, not modified to be more efficient for users.

Google Wave

In class, Professor K. had mentioned the program Google Wave several times, and I wasn't really sure what it was, but it interested me. I found out that it is the newest platform for the growth of social media. It is still in the very early testing stages, so this kind of technology is known as a Beta. In order to become a part of Google Wave you have to be invited to join. I thought that I was not the type of person that would be invited because I am not really in touch with my technological side. But... my husband was invited to join by a friend, and because he knew I was in Com 435, and I might enjoy it, he invited me.

So, Google Wave is a mixture between instant messaging and e-mail. They have what is called a wave, which is a message that is sent and can be seen in real time. If I were at the library and sent a wave to my husband who was on at home, he could get it the moment I completed it and reply immediately. Or, it could function more like a normal inbox, and be waiting for him the next time he logged on.

Not only is Google Wave good for just social messaging, but also for organizing and planning events, or group brainstorming. There will also be a combination of other media options such as photo sharing, instant weather updates, videoconferencing, teleconferencing, and gaming. Because all of these are in the same place, it will greatly increase the user's efficiency and be very user friendly.

I sincerely believe that Google Wave could completely change the way that we use the internet.

Real Media

So, I am taking an online course this semester because I needed to pick up an extra elective at the last minute. Over my collegiate career, I have found that unless an online course is your only responsibility, it never works out as well as you would think it would. At least for me, that is.

Anyway, in my online course I was required to view National Public Radio's website and listen to a documentary on Jonestown. When I got to the website, I was unable to listen to the piece because it was a .SMIL formatted file instead .HTML. At that point I was very confused. I had come to believe that I had all the necessary add-ons and plug-ins necessary to make it through normal internet usership. I, of course, was wrong.

The type of format, .SMIL is something that is only read by Real Media programs. I had never heard of Real Media and did some research to see if it was safe to download to my computer.

Real Media is almost identical to Windows Media Player in the way that it works with audio and video files. According to the sources that I read, they believed that Real Media and programs like it that use .SMIL will completely take over by 2020.

The thing that strikes me about this statement is that if the internet and all of its video, audio, and text files had to change from .HTML to .SMIL, then that would be a lot of work.
I may be a little hesitant to change, but I do not see the great upgrade from .HTML to .SMIL. I just see all of the work that programmers will have to do when changing the format of all the files in cyberspace.

Black Friday: No longer just IN the Stores

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the craziest shopping day of the year. People get up (or stay up) very, very early on Friday morning and wait in line only to make it into the store and fight crowds for the greatest sales of the season. As the internet market grows, there are also large groups getting up to shop online.
For instance, I got this in an email from Kohl's Department Store:
Shop early and take advantage of over 300 Early Bird Specials
Available in our stores 4AM-1PM (local time) & online 12AM-3PM (CST)
Friday, November 27.

Shop Friday. Build your list.
Build your list, then shop in-store at 4AM (local time)
or online at midnight (CST) this Friday!



On TechCrunch.com, they placed a report on the top websites' population of visitors this past week and how the websites held up to the high traffic. The top websites were: Amazon.com, Apple.com, barnesandnoble.com, dell.com, target.com, toysrus.com, and walmart.com.

They found the statistics within the report by checking the websites every minute for the entire week. They found that Toys 'R Us' website was down for about five minutes, which in the entire scheme of things may have been .01%. All of the others had no shutdowns at all, although they had slower processing times. Dell.com had the slowest processing time by quite a bit.

The greatness of the internet never seems to amaze me! I never would have even thought to avoid Black Friday in the stores by getting online, and be able to still get the deals!!! Crazy!!!

Cyborgs...More than Fiction

The other day in class, we started talking about Cyborgs and all of things that come along with that kind of technology: especially ethics.
My friend and I started talking about all the Cyborgs that you see in popular media. The first one and of course, most awesome one would have to be Wolverine from Marvel's The X-Men. As you may or may not know, Wolverine has a super healing power which made him a prime subject for the injection of the alloy adamantium. They injected adamantium into his skeleton. He is most known for the claws that come out of his hands at his knuckles (which were originally just bone).
Other cyborgs in popular media include Iron Man, Wolverine's female clone- X 23, and of course, The Bionic Man.

I can't say that I had given a lot of thought to what a Cyborg would be in reality, but after watching a video in class, I realized the definition that applies to Cyborgs. It is any person who has had a piece of machine or electronics put with their body to improve their human abilities. This includes people that own prosthetic limbs, or as our Professor does, an electric cochlea. So, then I began to wonder about people with heart monitors...are they cyborgs?

Where will the human race be as technology continues to evolve and the quality of life improves?
And will there be an appreciation for the strides we have made, or will it all be taken for granted?

KINDLE 2

Amazon just released their new and updated Kindle, a wireless reading device that can hold more than 150 titles at one time. They are selling it for $259.00 and there are more than 350,000 titles to choose from. The Kindle weighs about 10 ounces which is much less than a normal book, and is completely wireless. You can transfer a book to your Kindle in less than 60 seconds and change the book from text to sound- having the Kindle read it to you. The Kindle also has options of newspaper and magazine subscription as well as Internet access to Wikipedia and blogs that a person follows.
As you may see from reading my blog, I am a little hesitant about going completely digital. I love to read, and the Kindle would probably not be a bad investment for myself from a logical perspective, but aesthetically, I would much rather have a tangible copy of a book. Although many times you could buy the digital copy at a cheaper cost, I am the type that loves the smell of a book. I am the type of person that when I love a piece of literature, I want a copy on my bookshelf in my home.
Having a digital option is nice, but I really don't think that it is right for me.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m3BETPLR0S7FKW

Technology going Green

With the frightening threats of global warming on the horizon, many parts of our culture are talking about Going Green. We are revamping the way we recycle, the type of cleaning products we use, and are no longer using paper or plastic in the grocery. It comes as no surprise that this is also spreading to the new and upcoming technology of our society. For instance:
-The New Panasonic Hydrogen fuel battery in Laptops- converting methanol into electricity:
http://tech.msn.com/products/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=21952088&imageindex=3
-Masc Design Chukka Music Player- Changes Kinetic Energy into Electricity to provide Music on the Go
http://tech.msn.com/products/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=21952088&imageindex=8
-Nikola Knezevic's Solar Powered Notebook with a Solar power grid as an extension of the Case providing a charge to last all day!
http://tech.msn.com/products/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=21952088&imageindex=12

I am personally all for the move to make electronics more earth friendly! There is no reason not to, we only have so much that we can take for the earth in the ways of things like oil and electricity. But then I come to wonder, will all of the employees of the current electric companies lose their jobs and we start this recession all over again?

When to Work

So, besides going to Purdue full time, I also work at Cold Stone Creamery. They have an awesome system that is online scheduling tool. It is really awesome that they have created a tool to do this online. Through this system you can request time off, send emails to other employees, put shifts that you would want to trade up. The owner and manager actually create the schedule through this tool, so when they are doing so the system will notify them if you want a certain time off, or if it is your preferred time to work. When the schedule is complete and published an email notification shows up in your inbox.

The website is easy to navigate, and I can see not only my schedule but everyone's schedule, or just the group that is working right now. It is so nice to have the schedule on the internet so that you don't have to go into the store and write down your shifts on a sheet of paper so that you remember them. They are right at your fingertips. Also, if the owner has something he wants to tell the whole staff, he can use that because it has all the contact information that he would need on there.

It is really wonderful! It makes things so much easier for everyone. For instance, if I was in a computer lab on campus and realized I needed to ask for a certain time off, I can just go on the website and do it rather than having to wait and possibly forget.

Avatars: Creepy? Yes? No?

In lecture last week (I think last Monday) Professor K. was talking about the development of relationships through online entities.
Social Media like facebook or myspace are rapidly growing and the populations that use these tools are changing as well. Both of the sites were created as socially networking sites: to maintain relationships, rejuvinate them, or create new ones. I know that I personally, did not join either of those sites to make new friends, but some do. For instance, my cousin met someone on myspace, and then the relationship developed and they were perfect for each other. It came as no surprise to the family when they got married this past summer.
But, in their relationship, while they may have met online, they went on dates and met each others families. They interacted offline!
In lecture Professor K. was talking about the ability to have virtual dates; to be able to choose where you want your avatars to meet, and to make them interact based on what you or the person you are on a date with creates as dialogue. It was at that point that I began to worry. Why would someone need to use an avatar? What is the point? Do you not have time to leave your computer and go meet someone for dinner? I guess the thing is: if you are too nervous to go on a first date in reality, what makes you think you will be less nervous when you actually meet that person face to face?
The speaker this morning on Geocaching said that he had 10-15 avatars. Why? Why would need more than one?
When avatars are brought into play, I really begin to wonder of identity. I understand that people want a bit of privacy, but past a certain point I wonder if there is a misrepresentation of the original identity.
Which in turn, makes me wonder, what do they really have to hide that they need 35 avatars?

The Internet and Me

Well, the first thing that I should make clear is that I am not necessarily an Internet savvy individual. I know how to search, and I am an e-mail and facebook user, but besides that, I am quite in the dark.
The major obstacle that hinders me is me. I do not always understand why you want to perform some functions via the Web, when you can do it at your kitchen table or with pen and paper.
I have been using Microsoft Office for quite some time although I updated to 2007 within the past six months and still have not quite gotten used to the new layout.

Last semester someone I was in a group with introduced me to Google Documents. I was amazed at how much it changed the process of developing a paper with four individuals. It had always been an annoyance to have to download documents, make a few changes and then have to reattach them to an e-mail to send back. Plus, when there are many revisions and more people involved, your inbox gets pretty clogged, and it can be confusing to decipher which document is the most up to date. You avoid all of these problems with Google Documents because one just saves the most recent version to the site.

I cannot say that Google Documents has completely changed the way I write personal documents, but when it comes to group projects- it is definitely the way to go!

Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI4JLa0hbUw&feature=fvsr

Music is very important to our society, especially the new and changing media that is used to share it over the internet.

My husband and I were discussing the beginning and growth of Youtube (where you can find an endless number of music videos, live footage and covers of songs). When my husband first started using it, it was still in its early stages of life. There were just a few videos and it was still undiscovered by the general population.
Since then, if you go to Youtube, on its homepage there are the most popular videos for the day, the ones that most people have "favorited." An additional factor that was added that made using the page easier and more enjoyable was the addition of the category of "related videos." These videos may have been posted by the same user or just have a similar topic.
One day, my roommate and I were watching funny commercials with kids, and because of the sidebar including related videos and Youtube's set up, we spent more than hour watching video after video.
Youtube changed the way that the internet was run: because of the amount of information used on that site, there had to be a change made to the way and the amount of information the internet could process and transfer.