Facebook, The Medium for My Medium.

     When I was first trying to decide on a platform in which to advertise my digital media production (The Hosting Facade) my initial thoughts were to place it on WHT (Web Hosting Talk), which is a prominent resource in the web hosting community for both buyers and sellers. However upon closer inspection I realized that advertising my website in such a place wouldn't be appropriate as the main purpose of my website is to expose the wrongdoings of web hosts, many of whom use WHT themselves. I came to the conclusion that placing a potentially controversial website as mine on WHT could potentially cause me personal problems, as well as legal problems.

     Since my digital media production is a website and the content is static (on my servers) I feel that Facebook is a fulfilling alternative to WHT based on its user count (1.01 Billion as of September 2012), it’s sociability and its overall recognizability, and its viral marketing capabilities. Using Facebook’s status feature I wrote a simple sentence with a link to my website for all of my friends to see asking for their feedback and to re-share the post with their friends. (Facebook Status Update) . I felt that Facebook was a good alternative to WHT because like WHT it offered a modern web 2.0 Rich user interface as defined by (O’reilly), as well as a networked participatory plethora of content created by its users. In “Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow of Information through Social Media" Danah Boyd illustrates the idea that web 2.0 is participatory in nature, meaning that users can interact with the content, create new content and even offer feedback. Facebook’s unique design allows it’s users to instantly receive feedback on their thoughts and ideas, it allows them to share content with others and it is a constantly buzzing with information. When users see something they like on Facebook they can “Like” the post or they can share it. By counting how many times my post has been shared I could create a strong statistical model for how many people are truly seeing and taking an interest in my digital media production.

     Since my website is essentially a web 2.0 product as a service that I want people to use, viral marketing through Facebook is an appropriate tactic to use in order to increase my website’s viewership (How Do I get My Website Out There?). By using so called “smart” viral marketing techniques for example creating specific groups of friends that can see my website-related status updates I can more successfully advertise my website to specific target audience(s) in order to avoid my actions being seen as spam like by individuals with no interest in web hosting. This in conjunction with sponsored stories (Facebook Turns Friend Activity Into New Ad Format) allows for the endorsement of my website by individuals who like my website and endorse it overtime. Adding to my websites creditably over time, its users can endorse it to their friends to whom their friends and colleagues can endorse to their friends and so on and so forth thus taking an advantage of an established web 2.0 participatory organism, Facebook.

Humanity and Mathematics

So I was chilling on Facebook earlier and I came across this little gem.

Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth

I have to say its probably one of the most interesting things that I have seen lately.

When I was in school we did something kind of like this in our primary schools. We even "learned" matrix multiplication in 5th grade.

Mathematics has always been my downfall in life. While everyone is "taught" to believe that computer programming needs tons of math it really doesn't  Most programs are just basic math, applied in specific patterns. I took Computer Organization which deals a lot with assembly , and for the most part I understood it. I understood how the basic math (mostly shifts) were applied what I struggled with most was memorizing the formulas for applying the shifts. I feel like in this day and age a lot of emphasis is placed on memorization, and for classes its almost always short term memorization.  Consider for example any class that you have taken within the 1 year to 2 years, if you were confronted with that material today and tested on it how would you do?

I really liked how in this video the authors of those books said that they found it an incorrect use of time when it comes to memorizing algorithms for solving basic math problems, that seems to be the general direction of our universities as well. When we pay for classes like World Cultures we are essentially paying to learn something short term, and therefore never are fully learning it and by not learning it (could be argued that this is based on the motivational level of each individual) we are only learning the skill momentarily the difference between what the middle schools and universities are teaching is only based on the content difficulty. If the purpose of a university is to prepare us for our future employment then why are we being taught to forget what we've learned after 14 weeks? By the logic of the middle schools they are implying that nothing we are learning in college is important enough to remember through graduation. If this is the logic they are following then why in the hell does society demand that I be here?

I wrote a video game once (approx 12 years old at the time) in which the main character had 360 degrees of movement, and was able to shoot in the direction of the mouse click. In order to do this, I used Google to search for an algorithm to do what I needed. If universities and schools are teaching short term learning, and anything can be found on Google then why doesn't education revolve around learning how to accomplish everything with a search engine? After all Google is a cesspool of information, both good and bad, just like textbooks. I suppose everyone has an opinion on this subject but It is my true belief that formal education will diminish before I am and dead, and all education, and the knowledge of every human being will be on place like Google. The world wide web will become reality, individuals will be able to reason through problems more effectively while knowing little about anything, all of the experts of the world will cease to exist and the summation of humanity will become completely digital.

Web 2.0

In short Web 2.0 is a theoretical combination of technology based services, and practices that result in a more collaborative and effective network of information.

Software companies are starting to drop the idea that software is a product and are focusing primarily as software as a service (i.e Google and Google search). Software development firms, are retraining staff and redesigning products to be accessible from within anywhere in the world through the web. No longer are techno geeks and corporations the only ones who are able to have a say in the content that gets placed on the web. Thanks to blogging individuals can promote their ideas, and discuss current events or pretty much anything they want to.
The idea that software is no longer shipped but maintained is a big aspect of the Web 2.0 idealism. Previously there were no such things as updates to software, once you purchased that particular version of software you were stuck with it until the next release cycle, or you were forced to rely on hacks to make it work.
Web 2.0 is the driving force behind RICH internet applications, for example Google maps, and gmail.
No longer are applications only available on the computer they are installed on. The web being the new primary form of application delivery, fully functional and sometimes better than traditional forms; has led to the development of an entire sub industry with its own related technologies and methods such as AJAX, JQuery, and Boostrap. (See Rich User Experiences for more info.)

Web 2.0 content is not broadcasted, it is networked. If you find something you like on a website like Amazon then you can share it with your friends/family/etc, through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or Pin interest. No longer is content read only, but its participatory. Find an article you don't agree with on the Huffington Post ? Feel free to comment on it and state your views. The whole web 2.0 concept is to promote a more unified and diversified internet, one that is not controlled by technological constraints but one that exceeds them.

I enjoyed most of the articles, but being somewhat of a technology enthusiast I already knew a lot of the information that they contained.
Thats pretty much all I've got for this reading. I'm tired, sleepy and hungry.

80% Critique

Sarah

1. The purpose of this digital media is to inform people about Vocal Achord.
2. The media is well designed and the argument is obvious.
3. Some sort of color scheme would help to improve the overall presentation of the media.

Charles

1. Inform people about club indigo.
2. Nice design, well organized.
3. A little plain too "stock" feeling not much creativity with respect to information being displayed.

James

1. Inform people about online piracy, its consequences and statistics.
2. Well designed + informative designed.
3. Poor color choice, it feels awkward.

Cassandra

1. Inform people about greek like and its leadership opportunities.
2. Pretty nice , well thought out transitions.
3. Color of font is difficult to read sometimes and the presentation went way to fast.

This Project

Makes me want to cry.

I have never been so frustrated with a project in my life.

I would rather redo mushroom mapper all over again than do this project.
Every time I start I feel like I've already failed.
The first project I wanted to do was too risky, so I changed it and then I found that again that project was too complicated (Spend 5 minutes with Adobe Fireworks and tell me how you feel), and now I'm stuck doing something that I am less passionate about than I was at the start of this project. When I first heard about this project I was excited, enthusiastic even. Now I feel like blah. Blah is such a funny word, it describes the amount of work that I have actually been able to accomplish less a design plan on this project.
I figured turning to IRC for suggestions on what tactics are used in the hosting industry to scam people was a good idea, the community was actually very helpful  But once again, I risk repercussions and steeping on some powerful toes if I carry through with this.

I would like to think that this is one of those projects that I can just half ass but its not my style.
When it comes to something in my domain, the digital domain that is I feel like I have to put in 110% effort.
I have come to realize that I no longer know what I'm doing anymore in this class. I have never felt so stressed, rewarded and frustrated from a single class in my life. I used to work in an apple orchard, and the boss there used to get mad and throw things. Once while I was working making donuts he got some bad news and walked into my area, picked the tray up where the donuts were being laid after they fried and threw it across the room. He then looked at me and said "If you can make it here you can make it anywhere". That's how I feel about this class. I'm pushed to the point of breaking, just like I was at that job. I still don't even have 60% of my project done, and I still feel very confused, if anything at this school has made me really sit down and think about how my life and how things are going its this project...

Wysocki & Lynch, Chapter 3

In chapter 3 of Wysocki & Lynch we are presented with various strategies for effectively communicating a rhetorical situation. I visited the web page that the book suggested but I was unable to find anything of interest. The first few sections of chapter 3 basically explain that arguing is a social activity, and the purpose of an argument is generally to get someone(s) to modify their position on a particular subject. The purpose of an argument as supplied by Wysocki & Lynch is "shifting someone's level of belief in or adherence to a position or attitude: through argument". Now this might seem somewhat redundant, but based on the traditional idea of what an argument is "a statement, reason, or fact for or against a point" (link), Wysocki & Lynch's definition addresses the purpose more than the argument itself. 

Chapter 3 also talks about creating compositions to serve different purposes. For example: a composition that's main purpose is to communicate a particular argument may be different than a composition aimed at teaching others to learn. I have observed this difference myself many times. When was in Scientific and Technical communication here at Tech, I was required to create a design plan that taught someone how to do something. I picked creating a cheese quesadilla as my subject, I developed a design plan for it with the media being a paper and PDF instruction booklet. Now, for my business I use design plans all of the time when creating websites or applications. The way in which you present an informative website vs. the way you present an instruction set are very different. The main difference being when you produce an instruction set you have to take into account the audience's skill set, but with a website you only need to take in account the audience's ability to understand the material. This is similar to the concept of connecting audience, context and purpose in the reading.  For example how you communicate information to a audience of kids might differ greatly from how you would communicate the same information to a group of teenagers. Wysocki & Lynch explain in great detail about how audience profiling, and how when you create a production piece it is important to consider the audience's skill sets as well as their past experiences when trying to communicate a specific goal or idea to them. This would be extremely important to consider for example if you were communicating to children how to build a bird house from a kit, vs how you would build a bird house from scratch to adults.

All in all this reading was fairly informative, I already had a pretty clear understanding both in theory and practice of most of the concepts presented in this reading but I never knew the technical names or analysis for each of them so I feel more informed now.

Purpose Plan for Assignment #3

Statement Parts

Purpose:	I want to design a web page to create awareness about the filthy state of the plates, cups, and silverware used in the dining halls.
Audience:	The audience for this project is mainly potential students, as well as current students and their families. Secondary audiences will be Michigan Tech staff, and other people who happen to come by my web page.
Context:	Various dirty dishes that have been discovered in present time throughout breakfast - dinner will be examined, and photographed. The availability of dirty dishes could affect the outcome of this project as dirty dishes are hit or miss, but they are usually available all of the time.
Strategies:	Effective presentation of this argument will be completed by producing a web page that contains photographs, and time information about the frequency in which a dirty cup, plate or piece of silverware is encountered. I will create a timeline graphic of some sort to illustrate this information. I will go to the dining hall at 10:30 AM for Lunch, 12:30 PM for Post-Lunch and 5:30 PM For Dinner every day M-F in order to try and achieve some level of accuracy with my observations.
Medium:	The medium for my arrangement would be web based/digital media.
Arrangement:	The arrangement I have chosen to use for this project will be a simple web page layout consisting of simple three page design including a jQuery timeline. The entire site will not make heavy usage of gradients, and will be fairly quick to produce, as well as load for the user. The website content will be displayed similarly to the diagram below.
Ethos:	I will appear qualified to my audience because website will look professional, as well as effectively demonstrate my argument of how filthy the cups, plates, bowls, and silverware are in the dining halls. Since I have over 5 years of catering experience including washing dishes I will appear qualified to make this argument. In addition I am also a Michigan Tech student and that also makes my observations more valuable as it is coming from a first person student point of view.
Pathos:	I feel that my target audience (prospective Michigan Tech students) will feel more informed about the state of the dining halls here at Michigan Tech and therefore will be able to determine if dorm living is right for them, in addition if the university hears about my observations maybe they will attempt to do something about this problem.
Logos:	I have washed dishes for 5 years at a professional catering facility, I know what it takes to properly clean dishes, this in conjunction with my observations should be sufficient evidence to prove that the dishes on campus are terribly maintained.

Copyright

When it comes to the discussion of copyright it comes to a point where the discussion leads to nowhere. Even though corporations and individuals claim copyright on their creations for originality, are they really original? When analyzing these copyrighted works it is important to realize that to copyright something you are really only copyrighting the particular way that the author has expressed themselves. Under the "fair use" policy which is defined as the "various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." (U.S Copyright Office) anyone can effectively examine, alter or use a portion of a copyrighted work as long as it does not actually infringe (copy the expression exactly) on another's work.  The concept of what makes a work original, whether it be a specific attribute, a context or a idea create a unique problem set for anyone wishing to protect their "original" ideas and thus creates a plethora of problems usually only solvable by litigation.

In the reading there was a pretty clear that the goal was to dissuade students from copying materials outright. This includes not properly citing sources and copying content outright. I remember when I was in high school the plagiarism was so bad one year that we actually had to all go to the gymnasium for a special school wide event to discuss the consequences of it, and how to avoid it. Students in my class just outright copied each other verbatim usually without little resistance from most of the teachers. The though process was that if everyone did it then there's no way that the school would discipline everyone. I see this attitude lots of times online, people will outright copy blog postings of others and publish them as their own. This is especially evident on technology blogs.

This reading was pretty informative on how to avoid copyright issues, I find a lot of the things it has to offer relevant to my business profession of web design as well. All in all this was a pretty decent and well structured reading.

Leveraged Buyouts In Web Hosting

"Get your piece of the web" or some form of this saying is often used by web hosts to try and lure potential customers in. Whether a web host is targeting small business or individuals though television ads, web banners, or other forms of advertisement. The message is always the same, "pick us". In this day and age it is important for small business and individuals alike to have some form of web presence.

Web hosts often try to make the idea of having one's own website for personal use attractive by promoting ideas that personal websites are hip and fun. This formula for success has been repeatedly implemented over and over again, from small hosts to large hosts. The idea that cheaper is better has driven the idea that service at cheaper prices is acceptably worse than service at higher prices. In today's web hosting industry it is war, brand warfare at its best, a flurry of DDOS attacks, slander campaigns and leveraged buyouts. When companies go bust, and the money dries up larger web hosts absorb smaller ones, clients are treated like stock; exchanged and traded at will. Enter the world of the underground stock exchange, a monopoly of sorts where there are no rules. It is ruthless, the competitors are despicable and anything goes, enter the world of web hosting.

I first got started in web hosting in late 2008, I had just started at Michigan Tech and had designed my first website for a customer. The customer was a business which specialized in breeding German Shepard guard dogs.  After finalizing a design for the website it became apparent that the customer was unable to host his own website due to the lack of ability and time, so I decided to research website hosting. A quick Google search led me to WHT (Web Hosting Talk) which is a forum dedicated to all things web hosting. After a few hours of browsing I found a thread on starting a web hosting business. The advice that the thread had to offer was simple, use cPanel, find cheap reseller hosting, get a billing system, and build a website to advertise. I followed the instructions exactly, and in the end I found a company offering a cPanel based reseller plan for $5.00 /month. Immediately after singing up with the web host I started to experience problems, there was a language barrier for starts apparently the owner of the company and the sole employee lacked the appropriate technical skills to help me. This made getting any sort of help nearly impossible. I was desperate to find a new host and fast.

In a completely unrelated string of events I discovered the ability to geo-locate where domain names end up. I decided to try and locate the domain name of the host I was using and it turned out that from that location I was able to determine that they themselves were a reseller of a larger company who had even better prices. Armed with this new knowledge I decided to make the switch to the new company.

Signing up for the new company was easy (it always is), I simply selected which package I wanted from their extremely well designed website, payed with Paypal and was instantly emailed my details, however due to some bug in their system, my account was never created and thus I had to email support. My first impressions of this new company was that they knew what they were doing, they were polite professional and prompt. After a few minutes of explaining that I was a customer of one of their resellers they moved my account off of the resellers account and transferred it to theirs. They helped me with the issues the original host couldn't resolve all the while maintaining a friendly and professional attitude.

After spending countless hours and days fine tuning my own company website advertising my new reseller hosting, I received an email. It read like this "because you no pay your bill, your account will be deleted". I was confused, I checked my invoices, everything was paid, what was this?

What did I just read?

"The Rhetorical Situation" is a intriguing piece of writing which pushes the boundaries of ones ability to concentrate on the reading as the author exposes new almost scientific explanations for why rhetorical interactions happen and how to analyze them.

The underlying meanings of this piece revolve around the concept of what rhetorical situations are and how to analyze them. Throught this reading I found myself relating the concepts presented to those that I encountered in Logic and Critical Thinking. The ability to analyze these arguments and situations are vitally important to being successful when it comes to properly responding in a situation. The ability to illustrate how one feels about these situations through a rhetorical approach is also briefly explained.

I feel that the majority of the points presented in this piece could be potentially overwhelming for most people and therefore I am interested to see how the debriefing on Tuesday goes.

Technological Education For The Masses

With job markets becoming increasingly more technologically competitive it is imperative that today’s higher education students be well versed in nearly every aspect of basic computer literacy. Recently Michigan Technological University installed over 250 wireless access points across campus (Source), in theory making MTU completely wireless. With the installation of these new access points MTU has banned all resident provided wireless routers and access points in the residence halls. In direct result of these “improvements” many students find themselves being disconnected from the university access points and unable to perform even the most basic of internet searches. In past years whether or not one had wireless access would solely depend on if they had purchased a wireless router of their own. This instability has led many students to ignore the ban and bypass the MTU provided access points and to replace them with their own. In addition to the wireless connectivity issues, MTU has implemented a new Network Access Control System which in turn dictates who is authorized to use and connect to the network at MTU. This Network Access Control System has been the culprit of many of the wireless issues witnessed by both myself and other students.
The ability to understand and access the internet is vital in today's university and workplace atmospheres. This paper will attempt to propose solutions to help better educate individuals who lack the technical skills to appropriately troubleshoot internet connectivity issues by helping those individuals become more technologically literate. In order to grasp the full scope of this paper it is important to define what technological literacy is and what components of Michigan Tech student’s issues are related to a deficiency in it.
Kate Williams writes “Generally, computer literacy has acquired a skills connation, implying competency with a few of today’s computer applications, such as word processing and email. “ (Literacy and Computer Literacy) In today's day and age this observation is what most of us would consider an appropriate definition of computer literacy. However with the ever increasing roles that technology plays in the workplace (Technological Change in the Workplace), colleges are striving to turn out more technology savy graduates. Access can be defined “freedom or ability to obtain or make use of something” (Access) .Michigan Technological University is one such school that prides itself on creating extremely well technologically literate graduates in the areas of computer science, engineering, and business. However not all of the student population falls into one of those three categories and therefore they often lack sufficient technical proficiency with computer systems.
During my second year at Michigan Tech, I was required to take a computer literacy class (then BA1200) in which the majority of students demonstrated technical literacy with the Microsoft Windows operating system, and Microsoft Office collection of programs, however there were times in that class when issues would arise (missing files, usb drives wouldn't work etc.) in which I had to offer my assistance to the victims of such atrocities as they were often left bewildered and confused. All of my life I have witnessed those who do not understand technology look helpless and terrified at printer jams, blue screens of death and other technology related problems. At Michigan Tech especially I find that most people I come into contact with lack the abilities to solve basic technology related issues. Since tech implemented their new wireless system I often find myself helping random people down the hall with internet connectivity issues, driver problems etc. I find that often times as Kate Williams writes “[A] highly FIT [fluent in information technology] individual may simply decide that it
is not worth his or her time to fix a problem, even if he or she could do so.” best describes how I feel about these technologically influent individuals problems. Worse yet most of these people refuse to try and Google or search for solutions on their own.  I feel that by teaching how to troubleshoot technology related issues, including wireless connectivity issues my fellow Michigan Tech students would be better prepared for the future, and thus more technically literate.
In order to teach students how to troubleshoot these issues, I believe that a required class should be implemented into every degree requirement. This class would be for only 1-7 weeks and would only cost a single half credit. In this class students would be faced with issues regarding simple things such as accidentally deleting a file, identifying if your computer is infected with a virus, and how to use ipconfig release and renew commands to provide your computer system with a new IP address. In addition students of this class would learn how the internet works, and how common everyday technologies work. Major areas of focus for the class will be how to effectively use internet search systems such as Google, and Bing to resolve technology related issues. It is my observation through experimentation that once people are more educated about technology and how it works they would feel less naive about its capabilities. A reading by PewInternet provides evidence that suggests that technology illiterate individuals “are not comfortable using computers or the internet on their own” (Home Broadband 2010) further examination of the reading indicates that in 2010 twenty one percent of adults did not use the internet, these numbers are relevant to the localized community of Michigan Tech because students come from all over the world at any age, each with varying levels of technology experience and some with very little. It is very possible that any number of that 21% could be enrolled at Michigan Tech right now and because they lack the proper knowledge on how to troubleshoot and use the internet they are potentially stunting their academic growth and are creating a technological handicap for themselves in the future.
Implementing classes for everyone to learn how to troubleshoot and solve their own real-world technology related issues would create a better prepared workforce and would potentially increase the productivity and confidence of individuals who once struggled with technology.

Works Cited

"Access - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/access>.

"Home Broadband 2010 | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project." Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. <http://www.pewinternet.org/Press-Releases/2010/Home-Broadband-2010.aspx>.

"Literacy and Computer Literacy: Analyzing the NRC's Being  Fluent with Information Technology." literacyandtechnology.org. Kate Williams, n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. <http://www.literacyandtechnology.org/volume3/literacy.katewilliams.pdf>.

Mitchell, Bradley. "Release and Renew IP Addresses on Windows XP | 2000 | NT." Networking - Computer and Wireless Networking Basics - Home Networks Tutorials. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. <http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/windowsnetworkin1/ht/renewipaddrwxp.htm>.

"Technological Change in the  Workplace: A Statewide Survey of  Community College Library and  Learning Resources Personnel ." Technological Change in the  Workplace: A Statewide Survey of  Community College Library and  Learning Resources Personnel . Carolyn E. Poole and Emmett Denny, n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. <crl.acrl.org/content/62/6/503.full.pdf>.

"The Technological Fix: How People Use Technology to Create and Solve Problems - Lisa Rosner - Google Books." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. <http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Technological_Fix.html?id=8mrBegA8KXwC>.

"What is a driver?." Microsoft Windows. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. <http://windows.microsoft.com/is-IS/windows-vista/What-is-a-driver>.

My Unfinished Draft

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q3WrkY_CNhnfl9qIDs0vuhRa13nTxBr5wIA7lfyHwfQ/edit

Literacy & Literacy, an Integrated Approach.

Literacy and Computer Literacy: Analyzing the NRC's Being Fluent with Information Technology, is an analysis of the varying forms of technological literacy. The paper places emphasis on how in today's day and age computer skills are mandatory for any society to be considered technologically modern. It discusses the varying theories used to develop the technology integration policies of the 80s and 90s which were used to fill public schools with new forms of technologies.

Aspects of this paper discussed a unanimous need for graduates of higher learning systems to be able to use computers in order to achieve their maximum potential. Once new graduates were hired employers were discovering that many of the graduates were lacking basic computer literacy (word processing, spreadsheet software,etc) a decision was made to re-enforce traditional teachings with new technology. For example I remember in the late 90s when we were still running windows 98 on our machines in school, and many of the teachers were unable to perform basic tasks such as taking attendance , and properly entering grades into spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel. Today (2012) the inability to perform ones job using computers could potentially be grounds for dismissal. In addition during my 2nd year at Tech I was apart of the last group of students who were able to take a class on basic computer literacy. Even though I barley escaped the class with a B due to effort and being a "know it all", it didn't take me long to realize that this obvious body of knowledge, my computer literacy for the lack of a better word was not to be taken for granted. There were lots of students in my class who struggled with basic tasks from finding files to calculating values in Excel. By the end of the course I had come to a single determination that this entire class was focused on using the Microsoft Office Suite, and in turn was heavily Windows based. I would have to say that this grooming process definitely helped to illuminate what is really going on in the institutional world and how Literacy and Computer Literacy practices are applied to the masses in order to generate new customer bases.

Overall this article helps to identify criteria for defining technology literate individuals within specific communities and illustrates how to design a formulated approach to supplying computer systems and technologies to varying communities in order to achieve the best widespread technological saturation.Which can be done by identifying what people do when accessing public computing sites such as libraries, schools, public WiFi zones, etc. and how these locations can be better outfitted to better facilitate productivity and learning by placing more emphasis on mathematics understandings and computer programming. In summation societies can become more technologically literate if technology is forced upon them in an understandable manner.

So basically because I did a ton of research on computer literacy, learning and HCI when I was taking classes for my psychology minor, I didn't learn anything new. 

I have included screenshots of Windows 98 below for your amusement. 

Born Digital

I was not really able to relate with the first half of this reading, as I am in born in the digital age. What struck me most about this reading was the fact that the author had assumed the audience was someone of their own age. The reading Born Digital illustrates the different age generations, with respect to technological advancements. One of the developments relayed in this reading is that of the development of "bulletin board systems", which later gave way to the more popular forum, and from the concept related technologies emerged such as texting and Instant Messaging. In this digital age religious ceremonies are carried online, and entire support systems for churches are being designed and applied so that anyone in the world can access them. The reading goes on to discuss how individuals of the technology age shop online, rather than go to stores. Communicate through social networking sites, and how ultimately there is rather large gap of technological challenged people who still have to catch up. This work thoroughly illustrates how important it is to be born in a digital age, and to be brought up with technology. 

An original digital bulletin board system.

YouTube: Digital Media Artifact

In this day and age it is difficult to speak to anyone who has not heard of YouTube. The online internet video sharing platform first launched in February 2005 and since has achieved over 2 billion views per day (4) and according to Alexa the internet statistics company it is the globally ranked the third most viewed website in the world. YouTube was created as an avenue for users to easily share videos created by themselves or others. YouTube's user driven content model is the exact reason why I choose YouTube as my number one online information source. YouTube users often have specific goals or points that they which to communicate. From learning about mathematics, to watching comedy sketches YouTube is a plethora of information that is fully searchable and scalable.

Founded by three former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim and financially backed by a 3.5 million dollar investment by the Sequoia Capital Investment Firm YouTube remains one of the fastest growing websites in internet history. It has users all over the world, and is easily accessible by anyone with a computer and an internet connect. It aims to bring the world together in a digital community. One can easily observe the digital organism that it has become by simple visiting the website for themselves.
Perhaps it is because of YouTube's accessibility and easy to user interface that the online gaming community has found it usefull for creating tutorial videos describing how to play through specific games. In fact just a single search into YouTube for "game walkthrough" produces about About 7,600,000 results. In fact entire channels are dedicated to these walk throughs  online cult communities are based on these channels, and more often than not there is more than a single walk through for any given game, all ultimately similar but by different users. You don't have to read Baudrillard to come to the realization that all of these videos regenerate over and over the same message in the exact same way until all original meaning is lost. A testimate to this fact is easily viewable by watching any video on YouTube and clicking on the "similar videos" suggestions at the end of every video.

In order to provide sufficient evidence that YouTube videos are in fact digital media artifacts, I would like to talk about a specific YouTube user, xNuclearGamingx, this particular user produces tutorial walkthroughs on the latest games, as well as new games that most YouTube users have never heard of. This particular user's selection of "indie games" as well as games designed by big name studios make him an up and coming credible source for new and potentially great games. Recently he posted a video tutorial walkthrough about the recently resleased video Borderlands 2. The walk through below: 

Based on Manovich's criteria for what constitutes a digital media artifact, it is clear that this YouTube channel is in fact a digital media artifact. Each video is digitally encoded and represented in binary form on YouTube's servers (Numerical Encoding, Manovich). After watching this video, algorithms recommend new videos to the viewer by xNuclearGamingx without needing human intervention. Therefore it is automatic. Because YouTube allows for variability, and it is modular, demonstrated as the content of the site changes every minute and the individual videos are interchangeable and even in some cases customization using a easy to use time-frame based annotation system. And because each video can be encoded in different formats for different media applications it has variability. In addition YouTube allows other users to comment on xNuclearGamingx's videos and profile thus creating a digital organism.(Manovich) If that's not enough the YouTube API offers individual website owners and developers the ability to fully format comments, videos and channels in any way that they wish. This digitalism/flexibility has given users like xNuclearGamingx the ability to embed their videos on websites and even upload videos from smart phones and other electronic sources.

I remember my first experience with YouTube, I was researching web programming, and one of the first search results that came up was a YouTube video on HTML programming. I don't remember the name of the user who uploaded it, but what I do remember is how clearly they spoke, how their video illustrated all of the key points that auditory learning alone could not fulfill and how easy it was to view other videos about the same topic. There was something magical about learning something for free. I think in some respects that's why I started to use YouTube it felt wrong, like learning something new shouldn't be that easy, or free. This same idea can be applied to the tutorial walkthroughs provided by xNuclearGamingx, by purchasing the game and broadcasting his game play it gives users a chance to decide based on his game play whether or not they want to purchase the video game. 

With the discovery of new technologies which enabled screen recording, YouTube became a haven for online academic learning tutorials which eventually were carried on over to gaming industry. Like the videos produced by xNuclearGamingx these videos allow for the monetization of game publishers games as users like xNuclearGamingx demonstrate and in some cases promote their games. By utilizing the concept of "instant and global self publishing" as described by Sullivan , YouTube gives users like xNuclearGamingx the ability to express themselves and to promote their personal views and opinions and to organize their ideas and thoughts in a digital organism.

Medium With The Massage

Quentin Fiore, Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium Is The Massage" is a conceptual overview of media, in all its forms. From clothing to books, to television and telephones media is all around us and apart of us. It is this unique approach to defining media that makes this literary work an informative and thought provoking read. It does not matter if you are the slowest reader or the fastest, this book clearly relates its message in volumes through photos and extensive observational points. On page 26 you will find a message formulated to both inspire and bring to consciousness to your dulled sense. "All media are extensions of some human faculty- psychic or physical." The base of this message can be best described in the self contained phonetic sense of early humans which was the cause for much confusion and irritation. The lack of ability with respect to formulating ideas and opinions and relating them only by voice led to the creation of the pen and quill which in turn gave birth to newer more modern forms of communication, just like the discovery of the alphabet gave way to grammatical independence, so did the telephone the tape recorder and the television. Each replaced the psyche senses with a less restrictive and burdensome form of communication, thus removing the need for volumes of information, ideas and concepts to be stored in memories of their holders.

"The medium is the massage" courtesy of Google.

SIMULACRA AND SIMULATIONS

SIMULACRA AND SIMULATIONS  by JEAN BAUDRILLARD
is a wonderful example of why someone needs to take all of the documents written by old school scholars and re-write them into modern day socially acceptable 10th grade English. When I first attempted reading this work I was baffled by how many of the words I did not know, as I got further into the paper I realized that it was going to take me multiple readings to grasp the full curriculum of what the author was teaching. Simulacra "is a slight unreal, or superficial likeness or semblance" in 10th grade English this basically means that something is "similar". This concept is perhaps the most strongly relayed in Jean's overall view of the current state of affairs. He presents the idea that idol ism with respect to "God" as an idea of symbolism or what he believes to be initially a thought, feeling or idea as a man made physical manifestation which in its similarisim it becomes in some cases the overall embodiment of "God". Basically he is stating that the way things are today, are that way because of imitation, and all real world values are lost thought the iterations of time, slowly pseudo-genetically altered to fit the idealism of prominent individuals and their parties.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baudrillard

Fuckall

So I had a slightly shitty week thus far, and I'm going to share it with who ever decides to read this.

Shitty Thing #1)
Chegg, that wonderful book leading and selling place everyone hears about fucked me over royally. I ordered a book from with a Wiley Plus Registration card from them on 9/04, what I received on Friday was a book but no registration card. (online homework was already past due) So I was pissed, started a live support session with one of their reps who told me "Sorry, well ship you a new book", even when I said all I needed was the registration card they said they still had to ship me a new book." So I said fine, waited 4 more days and on the 11th I got an email from Chegg:

"  Hi Cody,
We are sorry to inform you, but 1 or more of the item(s) in your order #none of your business could not be shipped from our warehouse. A refund has been issued to the payment method used to place the order.  Please allow 3-5 business days for this credit to post to your account. "

"

My internal translation of that email is as follows:
"Dear Cody,
Sorry we fucked up, here have a cookie."

I know what you are thinking, what the hell does a cookie have to do with anything. Well it doesn't, but Chegg's lack of inventory management is bullshit, and I had to pay $95.00 to Wiley Publishing for the registration card. So Fuck you Chegg, I'm keeping the book you asked me to ship back as payment for putting up with your shit.

Shitty Thing #3)

Google... Sometimes you make me so mad that I could kill a flock of chickens by making them eat KFC.
So I was responding to an email using GMail, a very important decide your future type of email. My email response is pretty long right, nice and grammatically correct, I get to what is pretty much the bottom of the scrollbox, and  I click to fix a word, well instead of the word, due to someones fucked up calculations in padding text boxes, my click lands on the send button, why in the FUCK would you put a send button right below the fucking text box, no vertical spacing what so ever. Below is my internalization & thought process of this incident:

"Good email so far, must fix spelling error, right click activated, wait.... what the fuck, did that just really. well  hope they cant spell."

Shitty Thing #4)

IT User Services, oh how I want to dump you.
Ever since the start of this semester and MTU's new 100% Wireless Campus Crusade my internet has been shit-tastic, in fact I didn't have internet for the first 2 days of the semester. I've called them 3 times, filed a complaint in person, and today the 13th nearly 1 week later I get a response to my ticket.

"Cody,
I understand your frustration with not being able to connect to the wireless. I will have this issue assessed and resolved as soon as possible. The issue is most likely due to an unknown wireless network. I will relay this info the the appropriate person and have the unknown wireless access points shut down. Thanks again for your patience. "

This is the same bullshit line that they have kept feeding me,
I can still see the wireless access points, I can connect to them. Do I have to manually knock on each door in the dorms enforcing the policy of no wireless access points (user services asked me not to), how long is this going to take. Will I be forced to live in the labs this year because User Services can't get their shit together, its a pretty easy fix send some muscle to find the punks who are disrupting my wireless signal. I deserve more than 2 bars damnit!



So yeah, I could probably be doing homework right now or the actual assigned blog post, but I'm too drained from dealing with fuckall to do so, so hopefully I get some recognition for this awesome post, or real cold hard canvas points would be swell too.

As We May Think

Upon reading as we may think, I immediately find myself entranced by this authors ability to almost seemingly foretell the future. While futurists like Jacque Fresco who portrayed the future as quite alien, that they had the  the author VANNEVAR BUSH relates many of his concepts in his 1945 Essay "As We May Think" to technological advancements of our present time. Combining futuristic goals with problems of the past Vannevar is able to make the connections between photography and digital photography very easily. He is able to predict that through modernism and industrialization that technology will get cheaper and better. In his article whether it is stated that he believes that scientific research intended for war will be applied towards the common good. Vannevar  is very good at expressing his views on future inventions, as well as distinguishing the need for some things to stay modernized and simple.

All in all I think this was a pretty good article its a shame I didn't have more time to post about it.

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