October 31, 2008- The Election

In the article I have chosen, it talks about Barack Obama’a appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Comedy Central show pulled its highest rating ever on Wednesday night. It was viewed by 3.6 million views, beating the previous high, when Obama’s wife Michelle appeared on the show, by 600,000. This article also talks about Obama’s 30 minute infomercial, aired on seven US networks, was seen by 33.6 million viewers. The seven networks usually pull a combined average of 30.3 million viewers in this slot. This article show the effectiveness of the media during election periods.

1) According to Market Watch, 72% of 7 million teens and young adults who visit the online hangout Gaia Online would like to see Barack Obama as the next President of the United States.

2) In The Real Story Behind How McCain Chose Sarah Palin, the author talks about a group of conservatives who plan on meeting in Virginia the day after the election to plan for the future, and Sarah Palin is on their list of topics. It is said that if McCain loses, this group of conservatives hopes that Palin will be the standard bearer for the republican movement and a potential presidential candidate for 2012.

3) According to PRWeb, Black Health Magazine gives Barack Obama a B+ and John McCain a C- on addressing health care priorities of African Americans.

Anyone can post an article online. They may not know all the facts, or might have them wrong. It is better to trust a credible website or newspaper.

Smoking Gun

1) Kenneth Rowles, 50, is charged with shooting three times at two teenage boys with a rifle, leaving one boy with a minor injury. The boys allegedly yelled “This is for Obama” as they proceeded to know over a John McCain sign in Rowles’ yard.

2) Judith Rodrigues-Lytwyn of New York City sues Father Elvis Elano over an affair “ordained by God.” Elano came on to Rodrigues-Lytwyn after hearing her confession.

3) There has been a crackdown on baggy pants in Riviera Beach, Florida, and the catching of offenders as slowed. But police of just recently caught 5 repeat offenders.

October 30th, 2008- AutoblogGreen (absent 10-29-08)

1) Forbes has recently published an article about China, and the need for them to become the mecca of the Electric Car.  By the year 2050, China is expected to have 700 million cars on the roads, meaning they would need 20 million barrels of oil per day.

2) WTF will racing be like in the year 2025? This article takes a look at designs for racing for that year. One idea, for the Mitsubishi MMR25, is that it can be driven forward no matter which direction the car is facing.

3) BMW is currently working on a green supercar, which some believe to be an oxymoron. They plan on it to hit the market in 2012.

Motorways are already clogged with traffic, and in the year 2050, China is expected to have 700 million cars on the road. So I believe that if there are still cars in 25 years, they will be much smaller and mobile. The US space agency believes that because of the already clogged roads, a new generation of flying cars is needed, they call the idea the “skycar.” If this indeed comes to pass, I think they will look like mini helicopters.

In 25 years, I believe that most cars will be electric, or at least mostly electric. We are already running low on fuel and electric cars are becoming more and more popular. Hopefully, whatever we are driving in 25 years, they will be environmentally friendly.

October 28, 2008- History of the Internet

Three links where I got my information on the history of the internet.

1957- Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) is formed in response to the USSR launch of Sputnik.

1969- ARPA goes online in December, connecting four major U.S. universities.

1972- Email is introduced by Ray Tomlinson, of Cambridge, MA.  Used the @ sign to distinguish between the    senders name and the network name.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency is renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency          (DARPA)

1973- Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is designed and in 1983 it becomes the        standard for communicating between computers over the Internet. One of thesprotocols, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), allows users to log onto a remote computer, list the files on that computer, and download files from that computer.

1974- First Use of term Internet by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in paper on Transmission Control Protocol.

1976- Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter and running mate Walter Mondale use email to plan campaign events. Queen Elizabeth sends her first email, making her the first state leader to do so.

Robert M. Metcalfe develops Ethernet, which allowed coaxial cable to move data extremely fast. This was a crucial component to the development of LANs.

UUCP (Unix-to-Unix CoPy) developed at AT&T Bell Labs and distributed with UNIX one year later.

1979-The Creation of BITNET, by IBM, “Because its Time Network”, introduced the “store and forward” network. It was used for email and listservs.

1983- Internet Activities Board (IAB) was created.

Every machine connected to ARPANET had to use TCP/IP. TCP/IP became the core Internet protocol and replaced NCP entirely.

1984- Domain Name System (DNS) was established, with network addresses identified by extensions such as .com, .org, and .edu. Writer William Gibson coins the term “cyberspace.”

The ARPANET was divided into two networks: MILNET and ARPANET. MILNET was to serve the needs of the military and ARPANET to support the advanced research component, Department of Defense continued to support both networks.

1985- Quantum Computer Services, which later changes its name to America Online, debuts. It offers email, electronic bulletin boards, news, and other information.

The National Science Foundation began deploying its new T1 lines, which would be finished by 1988.

1986- The Internet Engineering Task Force or IETF was created to serve as a forum for technical coordination by contractors for DARPA working on ARPANET, US Defense Data Network (DDN), and the Internet core gateway system.

1988- A virus called the Internet Worm temporarily shuts down about 10% of the world’s Internet servers.

1989- The World (world.std.com) debuts as the first provider of dial-up Internet access for consumers.

Tim Berners-Lee of CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics) develops a new technique for distributing information on the Internet. He calls it the World Wide Web. The Web is based on hypertext, which permits the user to connect from one document to another at different sites on the Internet via hyperlinks (specially programmed words, phrases, buttons, or graphics). Unlike other Internet protocols, such as FTP and email, the Web is accessible through a graphical user interface.

1991- The NSF established a new network, named NREN, the National Research and Education Network. The purpose of this network is to conduct high speed networking research. It was not to be used as a commercial network, nor was it to be used tosend a lot of the data that the Internet now transfers.

1992- Internet Society is chartered.

World-Wide Web released by CERN.

1993- Mosaic is developed by Marc Andreeson at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). It becomes the dominant navigating system for the World Wide Web, which at this time accounts for merely 1% of all Internet traffic.

1994- The White House launches its website, www.whitehouse.gov.

Pizza Hut offers pizza ordering on its Web page.

1995- CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy start providing dial-up Internet access.

Sun Microsystems releases the Internet programming language called Java.

1996- Approximately 45 million people are using the Internet, with roughly 30 million of those in North America (United States and Canada), 9 million in Europe, and 6 million in Asia/Pacific (Australia, Japan, etc.). 43.2 million (44%) U.S. households own a personal computer, and 14 million of them are online.

1997- The term “weblog” is coined. It’s later shortened to “blog.”

1998- Google opens its first office, in California.

1999- College student Shawn Fanning invents Napster, a computer application that allows users to swap music over the Internet.

The number of Internet users worldwide reaches 150 million by the beginning of 1999. More than 50% are from the United States.

Myspace.com is launched.

2001- Napster is dealt a potentially fatal blow when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rules that the company is violating copyright laws and orders it to stop distributing copyrighted music. The file-swapping company says it is developing a subscription-based service.

Wikipedia is created.

2002- As of January, 58.5% of the U.S. population (164.14 million people) uses the Internet. Worldwide there are 544.2 million users.

2003- Spam, unsolicited email, becomes a server-clogging menace. It accounts for about half of all emails. In December, President Bush signs the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM Act), which is intended to help individuals and businesses control the amount of unsolicited email they receive.

Apple Computer introduces Apple iTunes Music Store, which allows people to download songs for 99 cents each.

2004- Internet Worm, called MyDoom or Novarg, spreads through Internet servers. About 1 in 12 email messages are infected.

2005- Youtube is launched

2006- There are more than 92 million websites online.

2007- Legal online music downloads triple to 6.7 million downloads per week.

2008- In a move to challenge Google’s dominance of search and advertising on the Internet, software giant Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion.

Microsoft is fined $1.3 billion by the European Commission for further abusing its dominant market position, and failing to comply to their 2004 judgment, which ordered Microsoft to give competitors information necessary to operate with Windows. Since 2004, Microsoft has been fined a total of $2.5 billion by the Commission for not adhering to their ruling.

1) ARPA- Advanced Research Projects Agency, founded in 1957 in response to the Russian scientists beating our scientists in putting a satellite into orbit.

2) Bandwidth- A wider bandwidth means more information in a shorter amount of time.

3) Browser- software for navigating the Web, retrieving documents and other files, and displaying them on the user’s screen. Two of the most popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

4) Ethernet- a networking technology to connect computers over a local area network invented by Bob Metcalfe and David Boggs at Xerox PARC. Named after the invisible, massless substance that 19th century scientists believed filled the universe.

5) FTP- File Transfer Protocol. One of the first applications developed for the ARPAnet, it’s still used to send and retrieve files across the Internet

6) Java- a high-level, object oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems that runs on most operating platforms.

7) Local Area Network- a group of computers, usually all in the same room or building, connected for the purpose of sharing files, exchanging email, and collaboration.

Mainframe- a large, multi-user computer. Before personal computers were available, businesses and universities purchased large and expensive mainframes and housed them away in large, air-conditioned rooms.

9) MOSAIC- a large, multi-user computer. Before personal computers were available, businesses and universities purchased large and expensive mainframes and housed them away in large, air-conditioned rooms.

10) Node- a processing location on a network.

11) Protocol- format or set of rules for communication, either over a network or between applications.

12) TCP/IP- Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, first defined by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in 1973, the protocol made the Internet possible and has become the default network protocol around the world.

13) Unix- an operating system developed by Kerrighan and Richie at AT&T Bell Labs in the late 1960’s. It was written entirely in the C programming language, which made it easier to port to other platforms. It is still the primary operating system for the biggest servers on the Internet.

October 24, MLA Papers

1) Use standard white, 8.5 X 11 inch paper

2) Double spaced, Times New Roman or Courier font, size 10-12

3) Set margins to 1 inch on all sides, indent first paragraph one half-inch

4) Create a header that numbers each page consistently in the upper right hand corner.

5) Do not underline title or put it in quotation marks, or in all capital letters.

6) In upper left hand corner, write your name, your instructor, course, and the date, double spaced.

October 23, 2008

1) A chain email is an email that attempt the reader to make several copies of it and send it to more people.  They usually include emotional stories, free cash rewards, virus warnings, urban legends,  and other superstitions.

2) A chain letter is the same as a chain email, it is just written on paper rather than sent to your inbox. Most have to do with money, and this is considered gambling and is illegal.

3) A pyramid scheme is a business model that involves the exchange of money used to enroll other people into the scheme, without a product or service being delivered. It is illegal in many countries, including the U.S.

4) Chain mail causes damage because they may contain trojans, which appear to give a desirable function, but really cause your computer a lot of damage. Chain mails also get multiplied and the damage becomes more widespread.

1) A lot of chain mail includes promises of cash rewards or that you will meet you true love in 3 days if you send this to 10 people, or something of the sort. It is always exciting if you win free cash, or think you are going to fall in love in the next three days.

2) There is an attempt to get a person to take a survey on the BreakTheChain site. The cartoon referee looks pretty silly.

On the same website, there is another attempt to get a person to take a survey, this time with a bird seeming like it is delivering a baby, but really it is delivering the survey.

On the same site, there is a advertisement asking for you to sign a petition to end the killing of wolves. It is scary think about wolves being slaughtered.

There is a scary kidney stealing hoax shown on the Hoax Slayer website.

September 21, 2008- Parts of Your Blog Window

1) “My Account”: It opens a set of links to different places on wordpress.com. You can view the global dashboard, your comments, and your stats. You can edit your profile, or contact support, or go to the homepage of wordpress.com, and you can logout of your account.

“My Dashboards”: This is the main page of your account. Whenever you login you are sent here. If you have any recent news you can view it here.

“New Post”: When you click on New Post the computer sends you to where you can write a new post for your blog. You can enter pictures or videos, write in different fonts or colors.

2) “Visit Site”: When you click Visit Site you visit your blog site. This is where you can see all of your published blogs. The blogs are organized from newest on top, and oldest on the bottom of the page.

3) “Write”: The first option is to write a New Post, which is the same as clicking New Post. You also have the option to write a New Page and add a link.

“Manage”: You have the options to manage your posts, your pages, links, categories, tags, link categories, media library, imports and exports. Links to your posts are shown here, organized by date.

“Design”: This is where you can design the layout of your blog. There are themes, and widgets, extras, custom image headers, color headers, and you can edit CSS.

“Comments”: This is where you can view the comments made about your blog. You have the options to approve them, unapprove them, delete them, mark as spam and check for spam. You can show them all, or just the approved, or the awaiting moderation comments.

“Upgrades”: Theses are options that you can pay for for enhanced functionality. There are six different upgrade options.

4) “Post”: Where you write a new post for your blog.

“Page”: Where you write a new page. This creates a whole new blog, on an entirely different subject.

“Link”: Here you add links to your page.

5) “Title”: This is the title of your blog of the day. It can also be the title of the new page. It is like the subject line in an email.

6) What is a blog?: A blog is someones online public journal. They can have a topic or not. They are just a place for people to share their thoughts with other people.

7) “Permalink”: It is the direct link to this exact blog. If you were to put it in your address bar it would take you to this very entry, instead of having to go to my main site and then finding this entry.

Yes

9) “Add Media”: This is where you can add music or pictures or videos to your blog post.

10) You have the option of either view images of the tools you can use, or to view them written out in words.

11) “HTML”: It is the actual words that the little pictures represent. If you do not understand what the ABC check-mark means by just the picture, it spells it out for you.

12) B- this stands for Bold. It makes the text bolder than it is in its normal font. I- this means Italic. It italicizes the text. ABC- this stands for Strikethrough. It puts a line through the text if clicked on. the next stands for an unordered list. It creates a bulleted list on the page. The next stands for an ordered list. Instead of bullets it uses numbers. “- Stands for Blockquote. It centers the paragraph, like you are quoting someone. Next stands for Align Left. The text is aligned on the left side of the page. Next is Align Center. The text is setup in the center of the page. Then there is Align Right. The text is aligned to the right of the page. The little closed chain link stands for insert/edit link. You click on this if you want to insert a link in to your post. The broken chain link stands for Unlink. You click this if you want to unlink something in your post. Next to that the is the Insert More tags button. If your blog is about so many different things and you want to tag them all, you push this. The ABC checkmark stands for spell-check. If you are uncertain about your spelling or grammar in your post, you can click this and it checks them for you. Next to the spell checker you have the option to, when you are writing a new post, for it to take up the whole screen. The button with all the little colors stands for Show/Hide Kitchen Sink. This button show all of the Visual tab buttons. The Paragraph box is where you can choose your font. U stands for Underline. Click this if you want to underline your text. Next is the Align Full button. If you click this, all of your text is aligned evenly. The A button stands for Select text color. This is where you choose the color of the text. The clipboard with the T in front of it stands for paste as plain text. The clipboard with the W stands for paste from Word. The eraser stands for remove formating, which will undo all of the formating you have selected so far. The Mu sign stands for insert custom character. By clicking this you get options of different letter and signs you can insert into your post. The next is the outdent. If you have a new paragraph but don’t want it indented click this to outdent it. Then there is the indent button. Click this to indent new paragraphs. The arrow curving to the left stands for undo. This will undo all of the work you have done. But by clicking the arrow curving to the right, redo, you can have it back. The question mark stands for help. By clicking this you get information on editing.

13) Some buttons are greyed out because you don’t have the necessary information to use them. To use the link buttons you highlight what you want to link or unlink and then you are allowed to use them. For the others, you have to use the opposite button first, before you can use it.

14) This is where you can add certain topics that your post talks about.

15) A tag is a keyword that is used to group things together. They enable you to associate pages with certain key words, then retrieve a list of all of the pages tagged with those words. If I wanted to read blogs on rock music, I would look up all the blogs that were tagged with rock music.

16) Categories are used to separate different blogs. If you have a blog for your homework, a blog for class assignments, a blog for tests, you can separate them into different categories. This post should go into an assignment category. You are not missing any categories on your posts. ThinkB4YouSpeak should be in the information category because it provides us information about the organization. The posts in the assignment category need tell us we need to complete something, while those in the information category just give us information.

17) Excerpts- by giving in excerpt you are giving a summary of your post.

Comments and Pings- you have the option to allow comments and pings on this post or not to allow them.

These are advanced options that are not necessary to use.

18) Preview- This allows you to view your post before you actually publish it.

Publish- This publishes your post into your blog, and allows people to view it.

October 3, 2008- DRM

What is DRM?- DRM stands for Digital Rights Managment. It is a term used to describe access control technologies used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, and copyright holders to limit the usage of digital media or devices.

What is the RIAA?- RIAA stands for the Recording Industry Association of America. It is a trade group that represents the major labels of the recording industry in the US. The association is in charge of certifying gold and platinum albums and singles in the US. Their goals are to protect the intellectual property rights world wide and the First Amendment rights of artists; to preform research about the music industry; and to monitor and review relevant laws, policies, and regulations.

What is the MPAA?- MPAA stands for the Motion Picture Association of America. It is a non-profit business and trade association formed to advance the business interests of movie studios.

What is RealDVD?- It is a program that allows people to save their dvds to their hard drive.

What is the EFF?- EFF stands for Electronic Frontier Foundation. It is a non-profit organization based in the US with the purpose of preserving free speech rights in the context of today’s digital age.

Articles

This first article is about the founding of the EFF. It was founded in July of 1990 in response to a threat to free speech. The EFF protects freedom where law and technology collide.

Sony BMG created a software and included it in millions of music CDs in an attempt to restrict consumer usage. Unfortunately for Sony BMG, the software caused security vulnerabilities to the consumers.  After pushing Sony BMG to take the CDs off the market, EFF filed, and won, a class-action lawsuit against Sony BMG.

October 2, 2008- New Zealand in the News

South Korea finds melamine in New Zealand dairy products. The New Zealand company Tatua rushes to stop all exports of their products.

Julia Catherine Davis admits to stealing over $270,000 in a five year  period while working for a small, family-owned business, and is jailed for three years.

Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, is the only city in the country to be recognized for its green initiatives.

Bus drivers in Wellington, and their company, Go Wellington, reach an agreement on new pay deal, to put an end to the one day strike by drivers and retaliation by company.

New Zealand’s central band chief assures country that the banking system is safe, even amid the chaos of the American system.

Election dates in New Zealand have been set.

Latest figures of New Zealand fish stock have been released.

New Zealand Finance Minister Michael Cullen believes the New Zealand market will react positively to U.S. bailout plan approval.

New Zealand A losses big in cricket to India.

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck New Zealand’s Kermadec Islands, that are greatly uninhabited.