News Article # 10

iTech limits computer usage
By LaShana Sorrell
April 27, 2006

http://www.studentprintz.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/04/27/445030397dd58

the University of Southern Mississippi has put a bann on the personal profile websites, facebook and myspace. What prompted the decision was a cartoon drawn in the student news paper depicting a common scene in their computer labs. Students stood in line for computer time because all the computers were taken by students visiting the websites facebook and myspace.

This is an excellent step in breaking the addicting usage of these ridiculous websites that consume some students lives and ruin others reputaions. even though many schools have rules that give students with study needs the first rights to computer usage, students still get caught up in these websites and the studying students get put aside.

I can see many school computer labs doing the same thing as these computer labs. It is kind of a shame to see how many people in our UNCW library are on facebook or myspace when they are supposed to be working on studies.

News Article # 9

Library book downloads picking upBy Tonya MaxwellTribune staff reporterPublished April 25, 2006, 10:07 PM CDT

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060425library,1,1074962.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

This article is about a new library resource that are available to the public now from a website called www.chipublib.org. From this website, users with a card and the freely downloadable software can download audio books from a selection of 1,300 downloadable titles. Once the user downloads the audio book, they can put it on their MP3 players, or listen to them on their computer. After 21 days, the encrypted audio book file locks up and the user can no longer listen to it unless they redownload it. They dont need to return things, pay late fees or renew the titles. This has already cought on with many users, and they are demanding more and more titles to be available.

I think this is a great idea. its kind of like the library and its not violating copywrite laws because the file locks up after 3 weeks. however i do think that hackers will be able to override these blockers so that they can perminatly keep the files. that is however if they are pretty desperate.
One realy neat thing about this new resource is that there are no late fees or overdue media. you dont need to wory about remembering to turn in things and on the other side, librarians dont need to track down the audio books, send out reminders, and charge the users.

I cant wait to get onto the website and try this new service out. i often like to listen to books on tape when i make long drives so by using this new service, i can just download them, put them on my ipod and not worry about anything after that.

News Article #8

Science News
NASA satellite launch is scrubbedApr 26, 2006, 0:23 GMT

Article: http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1158455.php/NASA_satellite_launch_is_scrubbed



Regarding my last blog post on the new satellites programed to give us cloud information, the satellite launnch has been posponed due to bad weather at the launch site in Vanderberg Airforce base in California. At the waether report for 6 a.m. they found higher than normal levels of upper winds.

NASA, not wanting to risk anything, postponed the launch untill wednesday at 6 am. However many meteorologists say that judging on the information they are receaiving now, it may be too soon becausthe upper level winds still may be too much to launch.

I think that the date that was reset may betoo soon aswell. the new technology would bring us so much good information and i think they should definatly wait until a good day launch.

News Article # 7

Exploring Cloud Secrets
New York Times
Posted online: Sunday, April 23, 2006

http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/story/2984.html

This article explains the new satallite techniques that are now being put in to practice to monitor cloud movement and other climate condiutions. NASA sent up 2 atellites designed for this science are being launched friday.

One of the new technolgies used is called CloudSat. It is a radar 1000 times more sensitive than the radars used to profile clouds now. the satellites are predicted to orbit for 22 months and give scientists two seasons of data to work with. Having this data will help meteorologists track weather patterns and predict global climate movements.

I think this new technology is pretty cool. i think its cool that they can gain so much information from clouds and just a series of pictures of clouds at that. I can see sometime in the near future where google will get a hold of these satellite photographs and make a google-climate, where you can navagate around the world looking at photographs of earth clouds. It is also cool to think that by having these photographs, meteorologists can relay information to america. this will make the weather reports much more accurate and many people will be happy.

News Article # 6

Vice-premier stresses application of information technology
www.chinaview.cn 2006-04-21 21:14:27
Editor: Liu Dan

Article:http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-04/21/content_4458608.htm

This article is about the Chineese Premier's desicion to not only focus on economical and social development but also put high emphasis on the development of information technology. Being the leader of a group in Information technologies, the premier Zeng, strongly supported experts who were making great stides in research on strateges to apply IT technology.

I think that the Premier is making a good choice for his country. If China is to be the next world power, they need to get themselves technologically advanced and also build up their information infulstructure. America has developed very good IT technology which has helped the sompanies to thrive in the world economy.

Because much of China is still poverty stricken and undeveloped in terms of technology. It may take a while for China to become the superpower but because of the mass amount of people and the estimated growth, they have the potential to become the world super power. the Information infilstructure is also an important key factor which is benificial for the prenier to address in order to fullfill China's potential. . .

News Article #5

::WIRELESS
Mobile web surfing on the rise: report Wednesday, April 19 2006 by Ciaran Buckley

http://www.enn.ie/frontpage/news-9680810.html


This article is about the mass number of people who have adopted a relatively new way to acces information on the internet. They are using their moble phones whereever they are to visit weebsite. The article stated that Japan is leading the world with 4 out of every 10 cell phone users accessing the web with their phones. However in the US it is not that impressive. Many americans prefer notebook computers for accessing the web becasue of its extended battery life, easy usability, and that more web sites are formatted for computers.

However phone companies predict more popularity with webaccess through phones if they can manage to reduce costly phone bills from internet access.

I beleive that if phone companies are able to make it cheep and easy, many more americans will end up using the web from their mobile phones, and stop taking their laptops everywhere with them. however i do see all the advantages that laptops have over phones. i also think that if more websites could be formatted for mobile phones then this will also atract more customers who prefer laptops.

News Article # 4

Are you watching what your kids post?
By Tim Donovan -->
Published: April 18, 2006, 10:00 AM PDT

Article: http://news.com.com/Are+you+watching+what+your+kids+post/2010-7348_3-6062106.html


This article is by Tim Donovan who is the president of a company who developes computer programs for children. In the Article Donovan states that many naive kids create trouble for themselves in the future by posting irrational things on the internet and making them available for the public.

he mentions myspace and other blog sites where kids may write about people they dont like, teachers they hate, or violent plans they plan to fulfill or just fantasize about. Never the less, the kid grows up, applys for a job, the employer googles the persons name and finds a blog from 1994 containing mass amounts of anti-semetic or racial bashing comments. Although this may not be how the person feels now, the employer will think twice about the person because of those things they wrote in 8th grade of middle school.

I think this is very true. I know i have probobly written things on websites or in e-mails that is not very good and could be used against me in the future. I do agree with the author when he says that we need to create a place where kids can say things like that and not be held accountable ten years down the road.

But on the other hand, i think that kids should learn that their actions have re-actions whether they be good or bad. perhaps they could implement some policy like the criminal policy. empoyers would not be able to use things written or posted from when the kid was under the and of 18 and still a minor.

I know i am going to be careful about what i write from now on... and maybe even go back and delete some e-mails.

News article post # 3

Google Calendar Beta: A Hot Date The beta release of Google Calendar offers a lot of interesting features, but may have been premature. By Barbara Krasnoff InformationWeek Apr 17, 2006 04:46 PM

Article:http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=185303316

Wow, as soon this new google calendar is open for public use, there are articles picking it apart.

This article states that google calendar has too many gliches in it and said something like "maybe they jumped on it too soon". besides the short paragraph about the trouble the author had with google calendar on his own computer, the article praises google calendar and reveals many new oporations that i didnt know by using it just a few minutes ago.

the calendar is a very easy to use set up with many different option to occomodate different preferences and needs. this could be used by anyone. i plan to update mine as i do my dayplanner.

one of the neat things that the author of the article mentioned is that google can send you reminders about events you scheduled by means of email or a pop-up. this is also why the author was having so much trouble with his calendar. you must disable the pop-up blocker in order to receive reminders this way... it makes perfect sense. the author makes it seem as though the product is useless if you must disable the pop-up blocker. i think that it is totally fine. I you want a pop-up then disable your pop-up blocker dumbass.

i have enjoyed using the new google calendar and hope to enjoy all the cool features like sharing calendars, changing the layout and colors, adding and editing multiple events, and creating and managing more than one calendar all for free.

news article post # 2

http://www.crn.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=185301195

Article:
Google Launches Calendar
By Barbara Darrow, CRN12:55 PM EDT Thu. Apr. 13, 2006


This article is about Google's new toy or tool the calendar. the article praises google for its ability to develope their programs out of the public eye so that they are not expected at a certain date giving them as much time as they need to complete it.

however, Microsoft is not very happy because it will give their Microsoft office programs such as word some competition. the article also mentions how many companies are now following in google's footsteps by creating multiple programs and utilities.

I have become very fond of google and cant realy think of the internet or use the internet without google. in response to my father's request, i have just signed up for a Gmail account and plan on checking out the new calendar as soon as i finish this blog post. personaly, google products are easy to use and very graphically appealing. in fact i may give up on microsoft products very soon if i can replace them with google products.

3/30 Reading

Students shun for information search online & 10 reasons why the internet is no substitute for a library.


these are two articles written by people who love libraries and may have some sort of grudge against the internet due to an online gambling problem or something. Both articles state how internet-obsessed the new generation has become and that many of them are forgetting what a library is and other sources of information besides the internet. There are many people troubled by this "crisis". They state that kids wont know what information is accurate or not and that they are missing out on a lot of useful information by not using book sources.

I myself often like to choose book sources over internet sources because of these exact reasons and because I have such I hard time narrowing down my search in googol and finding something relevant. I often get frustrated not to mention distracted when using the internet. It is nice to sit in a quiet library atmosphere and flip through a book. However I do believe that these two worlds could live in harmony. As one teacher did in the CNN article make students use one internet source and one book source. Also to eliminate students using false or outdated information, the school could have a list of sites that they know are accurate and up to date for the students to use for research.

having my own website does make it a lot easier for me to spot out unreliable sources on the internet because I see how easy it would be to fabricate something like that. I think that using the internet is great because often times research can be done at home on the internet. However I think that the library is a great place to do research not only because of the environment but because of the sources. I think that people who are looking to do research should just be aware that although convenient, the internet may cause trouble and although tedious the library is reliable.