Bibliography Makers

The Owl at Purdue showed me that all of the citation machines I used were correct. The Son of Citation was different than the other two, but only because it asked for more information. It was in the same format. I would probably use that one, just because it is more specific, though the other two were exact

The Virtual Revolution

In the video we watched in class, The Virtual Revolution, we learned about just how much the internet has changed our lives. Who knows where we would be if the drastic changes had not happened. It is true that people rely on the internet for things that they may have had a hard time with in the past. It just makes everything so much more simple and easy to access. A lot of things, of course, can go wrong with the internet too, like becoming too engulfed in it or depending on it for things that you could just as easily figure out on your own. Also, the music industry is suffering because more and more people are finding ways to download music for free...illegally, rather than buying it. The internet really is incredible, but it also comes with many consequences.

Facebook and internet privacy concerns

Facebook is only one of all of the websites out there that has access to countless pieces of your information. It sucks, but it's true. The thing is, your information is put on the internet by you. I would never post anything on the internet that would be so personal that I would be afraid would be shared with other companies. Do you need to put your telephone number on Facebook? If somebody wants it, they can message you for it.

With pictures and things that you may not want certain people seeing, delete them. If they are not yours, ask the person who added them to delete them, or simply "untag" yourself.

Facebook's default settings may be a little too revealing, but people should not be so foolish not to explore the website and see exactly what they are sharing with the world before they put it out there. If they were actually concerned, they would change the settings before sharing their life story with a website.

Like I said on my last post, If you don't want your information floating around out there, don't put it there. Do not log onto these websites if you are too paranoid about what may be done with your information. You are the one who clicked that you agreed with the terms and privacy policy, when, let's face it, we all know you didn't even glance at it.

Online Drives

Google Drive, iCloud, and SkyDrive all derive from huge companies that have their own privacy policies. There are a lot of similarities between them, but also huge differences.

Google owns other companies too. Like YouTube, for instance. Google will take all of your information from each of the websites you use and put it all together. It will use that information to show you advertisements and web searches that best cater to you. Google's privacy policy states that it can use and distribute you information to its companies and those that it works with.

Apple's iCloud is also part of a huge company, but Apple owns a lot of its own business independently. It has iTunes, iCloud, etc., but those are all a part of Apple, whereas Google owns other individually owned companies. The privacy policy of Apple also states that it can share your information within its company and the companies it works with.

SkyDrive is a part of Microsoft, so it has the policy of Microsoft. It basically states the same as the other, that it will keep your information secret except within itself.

Dropbox does not claim to own any of your stuff. They do, however, claim that they may collect some location information, and they use cookies and logging information.

All of these companies promise to never share your information with anyone outside of their own company/companies, with some exceptions. Those exception lists, however, are pretty darn long. A big exception is the legal concept. They will be able to share your information if there is significant purpose to do so.

Google claims to own your personal information. If you put it on there, Google owns it. It may use it how it pleases, within the limits of its privacy policy, which is very intricate.

A tip, if you don't want your personal information out on the internet, don't put it there.

Pinterest, Evernote, and LiveBinders.

Pinterest is by far my favorite out of all of these sites. They are all useful, but Pinterest is more for fun. I am able to find cute little craft projects that I can do, and pictures of things that I like. It may not be of use to me in any way other than for personal entertainment, or things to do around the house, but it is a great website.

The other two websites are more for business use and things like that. LiveBinders is a great way to do research. You can create a binder and have google fill it up for you. It can be very helpful when you have a research paper due.

Evernote is the same in that it can help with research. You can store notes and use it to keep pictures and things. It will help keep you organized for that same paper.

Blog Post 4-2 Google Alerts

 The article from an alert that I recently read was about how technology has advanced so much that it has started to contain so much, pardon me, but, useless "crap". Instead of just being abble to buy a blu-ray player that simply connects to your TV and plays discs, the author of the article wrote that it took him forever to find something, and everything was labeled with nonsense letters and numbers. He ended up getting one with a wireless connector and built-in netflix and a bunch of other stuff he did not need.

I have to say that I have found myself thinking the same kinds of things at times. I am thankful of how easy some things have gotten over the years, what with having everything at the tip of your fingers, but why is it that we can no longer find simple devices? If you want something that will just play DVDs, why can't you buy just that? It has to come with all kinds of things that you will either have to pay to use (like Netflix) or that you would never bother using anyway. It's good to upgrade, but maintaining simplicity is nice, too.

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/04/20/the-annoying-commoditization-of-technology/

Flickr Haiku

 

From photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bispham2/1146233942/

WolphramAlpha, Sporcle, and Qwiki

Glogster Glog

Google Alerts 3/16

An article I found in my alerts was about Music Education and the importance in schools. It said that music actually helps kids to focus and stay involved in school, and it calms them to make them more at ease at school. It also creates teamwork if there are a few children playing instruments together. I think it would be horrible to take music programs away from schools. The kids need to be exposed to other experiences besides just learning in a classroom, and music education is a big part of that.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/03/28/how-important-is-music-education-in-schools/

Reaction to Digital Presentations

It is pretty scary that so much of your information is just on the internet for other people to access. It is wrong to make people give you their password, but I do not think the shoulder surfing is as bad. If a potential employer says "Hey, can we see your Facebook?" you should be prepared for that sort of thing. Don't post pictures or statuses that you wouldn't want someone you are working for to see. They are just trying to get to know more about you.

Also, I am definitely going to set a Google Alert on my name. That sounds like a really good way to find out if information about you is out there.

Digital Ethics

Digital Ethics on Prezi

Alternative Music on Prezi

Digital Footprint

Our class watched a few videos on digital footprints, and it was pretty scary how much people can find out about you, just based on your internet history. If you do not delete certain cookies, or turn your computer's browser to private, you could be at risk of identity theft.
A lot of people do not know how to delete their cookies, or take these security precautions, so they could easily have their identity stolen.
One of the videos showed a man and a woman who had no connection to each other. The man looked up all of the woman's information up online. He was even able to find her social security number.
Everybody needs to be careful what kind of information they put on the internet, and always know how to keep yourself protected from having a dangerous digital footprint.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts are very useful if you want to know more about a topic and don't want to go to the effort to spend hours at a time searching for it. You just type in a topic and Google will email you some sites that may be of interest. This tool will be very helpful in later years like college when you have multiple research papers due. You can "do research" without putting as much effort into it.


In my Alerts I found an article that dealt with being able to use smartphones on the battlefield. They have new technology that enabled them to communicate better with others on a battlefield where before they had difficulties coming up with the proper wiring to be able to do so. I think this is a tremendous leap in our digital age.

http://www.defencetalk.com/smart-phone-technology-takes-leap-to-battlefield-40122/

Class Reflection

In this class, we have gone over a few different websites that I have never visited before, this site being one of them. I have never really had a blog before, but it is nice to write out your opinions on things and see what others think too. Another thing I have never done is diigo. I still don't really understand how to use it, but I am slowly getting the hang of things. I also have never worked on a project with other people at the same time on different computers. It is interesting to only communicate using chat. I thought this class would be going over a lot of things I already knew, but it is nice to learn new things about social networking that I never really explored before.

Digital Nation Video Reaction

This video really focused on how much our lives are depending on technology. People spend their whole lives on their computers or iPhones and do not really get out much. They can even develop disorders from spending so much time playing online games or just staring at a screen for a long period of time.

It is really scary how much our lives become dependent on the internet and other technologies, but at the same time, it helps us to interact more with people in ways that we would not before. It is good to be involved in the digital world, but you also have to be able to interact in the real world. Without being able to handle both, you run the risk of falling behind in one or the other. You may even lose touch with both worlds.

This video focused on multiple aspects of digital involvement. It talked about people in schools being so involved in their computers, people being obsessed or even addicted to online games, and air force soldiers flying their droids from a whole separate location. All of these things can either hurt or help our society in ways that we may not even be able to see. I only hope we can still stop and think about real-life interactions and how they affect us even more than our digital ones.