In-class presentation

Well, we are doing our presentation on a book by Lee Seigel. "Against the machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob".
Devin Reynolds, (who incidentally sold our anonomity out) and my other accomplice will be presenting a third each of the book. I have the first part, my other accomplice has the second part and Devin has the third. If you need more information, i think Devin just about covered it ALL. :) Nicely done Devin!

Not to change the subject but i got to attend the South Sound Technology Conference 2008 . Professor Fry, hosted the conference. I will definatly post more, but it was very impressive and informative. I am sorry i didn't get a Brain, though.

Scavenger Hunt

We have completed everything so far, except #12 & 4.
this is fun!

Virtual Tours/Worlds and where i'd go.

I never knew there was such a thing online until Professor Fry discussed this in class. But what an awesome racket to get in on if you have the capabilities to be a host of one of these sites or the know how to create the technology. The future can only look brighter for those entrepreneurs. I can see this taking off into something as addicting as the online games, except better. I'm sure, however, it will come at a cost. Someone will be up in arms about what ills it will be doing to society. But that's a whole other subject.
So who will use these virtual worlds as technology sits today? Besides the obvious gamers, people who could never afford to take vacations, people who want to see the places before they actually take a vacation there, school kids doing a report on another country, and then there is Me... I know for sure i will never go to places like Australia, or Japan, maybe never Europe. I have a few other places I'd like to go first and those seem to be a challenge to schedule in and afford. So if you can't see it in the flesh, whats the next best thing? A virtual world. Yeah! I bet there are ways in which the entire family could get in on that too.
I can't wait for the virtual world to be interactive, when i can do a virtual visit that feels like i'm on the Starship Enterprise or a new galactic federation world, i am so there! Even better, visit the places in Star Wars like tatooinne, maybe i could throw my Ex in to the Sarlac. (oops better not, i might get in trouble for that!). But i could go to Yavin 4 and train to be a Jedi Knight or do the Kessle Run in 12 parsecs with Han Solo and Chewie. THAT would be Awesome! And yes, I know there are games that i could already be playing that do those things, and strangely enough i haven't had time to mess with them. Too complicated, so depending on how complicated the virtual world is, i may not have time for that either. But i can only imagine, that with time i won't have to take several lifetimes killing myself in games & running out of life to figure out how to use the dumb remote control buttons in combinations that do things as simple as jump or changing a weapon!

Kevin and Feed Tacoma

Kevin discussed his Feedtacoma.com site, what it is, how it was born, contents, etc.. I was impressed and awed. Makes me want to live in Tacoma, well I'm close anyway...
As far as functionality, it is pretty impressive that a site can be self maintaining or at least have minimal maintenance on Kevin's Part. What a contrast to Derek Young, Exit 133, who worries when he takes a vacation. That being said, i realize Exit 133 is a founding contributor to Feedtacoma.
I also thought it interesting that Kevin thinks his website concept would only work for small community type cities, not too big, not too small. I kind of think it would work anywhere where people are contributing online into their communities. Maybe a lack of content or fresh ideas might be a challenge, but surely businesses, pta's, schools and local papers could jump on the bandwagon, if only to promote their businesses and events.
Of course i realize one of the nice concepts of the site is not being bombarded with advertisements. But Kevin's site offers a "shop" and i think that could be used effectively for local businesses benefits without peppering the website with ads.
All in all- great concept - great site- even for the neighboring cities and suburbs. I may not live in Tacoma, but i do go to school here. And i live close enough to enjoy and appreciate all that Tacoma has to offer. I'm glad for places like Feedtacoma, and Exit133, they keep us informed of what's happening around us.

Financials Online

I was one of those people who faithfully balanced the checking account up until a year ago. I was so busy with school that i kept putting it off. So for months, it started to pile up.... And the sky didn't fall.. It dawned on me that online banking was the very thing that kept the sky from falling. I have been online banking for a couple years but mostly to pay bills, transfer balances and make sure payments when thru.
Is it safe? Well i'm not entirely convinced anything online is safe. If hackers want in, they will find a way. We can keep inventing "safe" ways to protect our information, but they will always find a way to break into the system.
Many websites develop ways to keep your information safe and the more deterants the better, i think. Knowing what i know today, i don't think it will stop me from using the convenience of online banking or financing, but i certainly am a little more aware of the dangers.
The nice thing is that even your credit reports (from two of the bureaus) are accessable online these days. And that is definately somethign that everyone should be checking yearly.

Purchasing online

I usually don't get scared when purchasing online. Fraud is usually covered by your credit card companies and so far (knock on wood) i haven't had any problems with them helping to retreive funds i didn't spend.
So is there anything i wouldn't feel compfortable buying? I think it would be more a question of "where" or "whom" i wouldn't feel compfortable buying widgets.
*A badly rated seller from Amazon or ebay.
*I won't buy from Abesbooks anymore because they won't put ratings or feedback options to identify bad sellers.
*Anywhere i get a bad gut feeling,
*I also probably wouldn't purchase from Craig's list if it were out of state and had to be shipped.
* I don't think i would ever buy information from say intellius, or people finders or places like that. I don't like what they are doing and i would hate to waste money for information that is wrong.
But all in all, there really isn't much that i wouldn't buy online as far as widgets are concerned. I find it convenient, most of the time faster. Spending gas and time driving all around town for the best price, model etc.. is usually slower than just finding it online and purchasing it. I like to look at places where people put ratings or feedback on products, you can't get that from a store front.

Vanity Search

How trippy is it to see your name on the internet? Much less associated with people you don't even know? It would seem there are many places to find my name, as well as maiden name, and another name i was happy to dump, but public records, Peoplefinders, intellius are not so willing to do. All had info on all the above, name, age (sometimes wrong), town living in, relatives )(as i mentined before are not related). However there is some small hope that no one wants to pay for the REAL meat of the information. And do they get all the names or just the particular block they choose? Some places i had up to three or four different blocks of names. Other than that vanity search was pretty uneventfull, alot of WSPTA newsletters posted, Volunteer list for the school district , facebook, my space, and classmates.com. All pretty much typical. I was suprised that my name didn't appear on geneology.com . As the last time i ran it, many years ago, it popped up there.
Address search: we have done before, google was so outdated, like by 5 years (we could tell by the tree that was pictured but had fallen many years ago.) They finally updated it last year. I went to msn and just searched the address and of course msn had thier own map too. Pretty much the same but horrible angle. Can't see much due to all the trees. But it has to be fairly recent. Which incidentally is the same one that zillow uses. But zillow has more information specificallty about the house. Some correct, a lot not. Like the space available, they don't count additions apparently, nor is it listed. Baseboard heating, nope, not even. They have the sale amount off just a tad i wonder if they round up? The same with property value, taxes and the like. I hadn't noticed but our land has more than doubled in value, woo hoo. They listed the wrong High School, it should have been switched in 1984 when a new HS was added.
My husband looks at this kind of stuff all the time, i really don't care, maybe when and if we ever sell i would, but for now we arent' going anywhere and the less they know or have correct i think the better, in most cases.