BIT320 Remix — Uncategorized

December 5, 2005

Blogs affecting hirability

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Matt brings up an interesting point, in his discussion on how having a blog can affect if you will get a job.  This is something to think about.  If you apply for a job, run for government office, or even if you are a leader of an organization, the things that you say in blogs can come back to haunt you.  I personally am very hesitant to use my real name on anything that I write and post online.  I would say that this is the solution to the problem, just use a different name or spelling of a name so that you can’t be searched.  This allows you to remain uncensored in your blogging and without reprecussions in other parts of your life.

 In response to the comment about not wanting to work for a company like that, I disagree.  You can’t judge a company by its hiring policies, because most public companies follow the same basic procedures when hiring new applicants.  It’s just smart business to do checks on applicants.  If you put your opinions on the web with your name and its googled, then I think that it is your own fault, as you knew that it could happen by posting to a publicly viewable area.
 

In musings of william h, 12/05/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

December 4, 2005

External Hard Drive Question

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I am planning on purchasing an external harddrive.  I was wondering if anyone had any advice on which harddrive to purchase.  I’ve heard that Western Digital is good.  Is there another brand that is of the same quality?

 

Also, does anyone know if the difference in quality between expensive and inexpensive external hard drives is significant? 

In musings of william h, 12/04/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

November 19, 2005

oh Matchmaker, oh make me a sibling

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I ran across a really interesting article at the Nytimes.com regarding children of sperm donors and their quest for finding their half-siblings. They are connecting through sites that allow them to insert their contact information, sperm donor number and sperm bank number. Such sites as Donor Sibling Registry.com. Mothers of children are talking with other mothers and older children are connecting with their sisters, brothers, and so on.

When I hear about these kinds of stories I am always amazed by the power of the internet and how it is able to connect people from all over the world easily, crossing things that even sometimes humans have a hard time doing. I think that’s why I love looking at pictures from different parts of the world because you can.

These children are able to find some sort of connection, if they want to. It also makes me think of the high number of children that are currently being adopted from a huge number of asian countries. They will be offered a better life but at the same time, they might feel like they are missing something and want to search back. And who knows, maybe one day they will be able to do the same thing?

Sidenote: I know its a bit different because there are more anounomity issues around real adoption. But doesn’t everyone have the right to know who and where they come from, doesn’t that just add another facet to who you are in the end?

In Shady Waters, 11/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

November 17, 2005

Looking at who’s looking at you

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Yes, I know you all want to know. You want to know who’s looking at you so that they can look at them looking at you, you looking at them looking at you. Confused yet? Yeah I am too ;)

Matt happened to be trying to get a tracker to work on his blog. I commend his efforts because, yes wanting to look at who’s looking at you when you are looking at…yes that again. HAHA. Anyways, on my own blogger, I happened to use, Webstats4u.com. I found it from a friend’s xanga or blog.

The nice thing is it tracks all sorts of things. If you look at my blogger tracker stats, It keeps things like, how many, the countries, what time during the day, how they connect, through what websites they come from, and what kind of browzer they use. So cool eh.

But the one problem with our blogs is that it doesn’t let us edit the http and layout of the blog. So what you have to do, is they will send you the links in an email that you need to have on your blog. The only way the tracker will work is if you link back to the main page of webstats4u.com, not just your own tracking site. You know, you link me while I link you linking me linking you and I coun’t your stats. Got it? get it? good ;)

In Shady Waters, 11/17/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

November 15, 2005

Elevate your Mood…with a TV

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So I couldn’t find anything to link. But one thing that was interesting on my trip was where technology was and was not.

One place it always gets me is in the airports. Since I’m in so many -_-. But many of the airports outside of the US are set up differently. They aren’t backed up against the wall, and instead are extend in lines across the room and two counters are backed to back. And the conveyor belts are going between the two counters so the clerk doesn’t need to lift up anywhere.

Also, their cell phone network was fantastic. We were out about in the middle of the country side and they still got cell phone reception. We complain about our limited access and blame it on having on having such a big country but really…china’s pretty big too ;)

And the best was the elevators. Many of the lobby areas would have tv screens there just playing random movies or tv shows. But one elevator happened to have a TV in it as you rode up and let you watched Nemo. I’m surprised no one jacks these things but there must be a reason that I don’t know about ;D

In Shady Waters, 11/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

November 7, 2005

Problems with FireFox when I open PDF

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As I already established before I am a FireFox Fan. I do seem to have a problem whenever I try to open a web based PDF file. Frequently, my FireFox will crash and so I have to copy the link and open an IE browser window and view the file with IE. Have any of you experienced this problem? The program that I use is Adobe Acrobat Professional.

In SuperMatt, 11/07/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Reading Online

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I agree that the issue that Zee brings will undoubtedly arise in the near future.  I personally agree with Zee that I hate reading online and would print it out instead.  Second, I would prefer a real, bound book like I’ve grown up with to printed out material off of the internet. 

 
But, I think that kids that are growing up now, are using their computer as their primary interface with communication.  It gives me headaches to be on the computer all day, but to this generation below us, it is the status quo and is what they prefer in many ways.

 Therefore, I think that since the costs are lower for companies to distribute than through print so prices will be much lower for internet distribution and since the next generations won’t strongly differentiate between the two, I think that it will dominate hard cover sales.

I wonder 1) if publishers will go out of business like the music industry has as a result of internet circulation and 2) how soon this could start to take effect.  What do you think?

 

In musings of william h, 11/07/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

October 3, 2005

Amended response regarding technorati

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Just moments ago, I made the following response regarding technorati:

Technorati tracks from across the web, not just within the closed circle of this class. Further, Technorati applies an editing function to links. Some count more than others because those sites have more credibility. That can be a good and a bad thing. It somewhat enshrines the powerful and keeps them there. By another token, it helps keep down scam.

Well, it turns out the “Recent Posts” feature of WordPress uses technorati! So, they are the same! The advantage of using technorati in this case is that it will let you create a feed to track your blog which you can load on a page like start.com.

In Blogonautic Solutions, 10/03/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

September 27, 2005

Professor Bob Frost’s Website

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This is the personal website of an unbelievable professor, http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~rfrost/ , that also happens to be the great-grandson of Robert Frost.  I recommend for anyone to take his course called Introduction to Information, SI/SOC 110.  It gives a detailed look at how technology and the access of information has influenced and changed society.  The major focus is how current culture is related to technological developments, especially the growth of the internet.  He is quite knowledgeable on many of the topics we discuss.

In musings of william h, 09/27/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

September 18, 2005

Avoid Uncategorized like the plague

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Zee124 is but the latest to fall into the trap of the Uncategorized post. Avoid that non-category like the plague. If you must have a default category, use classquestions.

On the substantive topic of Z’s post:

It’s right in suggesting that we do the problems on our own first without looking at the answer, but sometimes I feel like I interpret things differently. For example the problem involving the movie receipt, I figured that the Cost of a movie could be derived from the type of movie it was. Then I remembered the difference between deriving and transitive and realized I was wrong. It’s going to take a lot of practice before normalization comes naturally.

The simple answer is yes. Also, recall that some of this is interpretation. If you feel that you are just interpreting differently but correctly, raise that issue as a classquestions with, perhaps in this case, normalization, thrown in.

In Blogonautic Solutions, 09/18/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

September 17, 2005

Coursepack Readings

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I finally got a chance to read the coursepack readings today. Even though I think the coursepack does a good job of explaining topics, I am happy that people asked for further clarification of some of the definitions. The best part of the coursepack are the problems attached at the end of the chapter. It’s right in suggesting that we do the problems on our own first without looking at the answer, but sometimes I feel like I interpret things differently. For example the problem involving the movie receipt, I figured that the Cost of a movie could be derived from the type of movie it was. Then I remembered the difference between deriving and transitive and realized I was wrong. It’s going to take a lot of practice before normalization comes naturally.

In zee124, 09/17/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

September 15, 2005

Sony better than iPod?

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In response to bookmarks here.

I noticed a couple bookmarks on the Community Engine related to iPods. I never caught on to the craze; I’m pretty loyal to non-Apple brands, especially Sony. My friend just got this new Sony MP3 Player. The 60GB iPod stores up to 15,000 songs. This Sony stores 13,000. It also costs $120 less than the iPod and has a considerably longer battery life (40 hours compared to about 5 for the iPod, or 15 if you don’t use the slideshow). The Sony is also a little smaller than the iPod, weighs a little less, and has a really cool bi-directional display feature. A lot of people really love the iPod, but I guess I don’t see what makes it better than what Sony has to offer.

In jb's blog, 09/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

September 14, 2005

SensiTile - A fascinating invention.

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SensiTile was invented by a recent U of M graduate, and is now creating sensations all over the world. The technologies used in SensiTile make the material sensitive to light intensity and color. SensiTile is on display in the School of Architecture, and I highly recommend that anyone who visits the Architecture School must see it. As you move your hand on the tiles, ripples are created on its surface. This product is indeed fascinating.

To read more on SensiTile, click here.

In supriya, 09/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

September 8, 2005

Hello world!

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Welcome to High-octane-blogging.org. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

In The Blogstar, 09/08/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati