ITGS semester 1 Exam

Today was the first time I wrote an ITGS exam as an HL student. I had to write 3 papers and it was not easy at all. At first I did not know how I was going to manage my time so that I would be able to finish everything (because in ITGS you can explain something and go on and on forever). So I decided I would answer questions in Paper 1 fast but make sure I say the main points so that I would save enough time to do Paper 2 and 3 and then come back to paper 1 later. It actually worked. I was afraid that I was going to see questions about things that I didn't know but I knew it all except from dynamic pricing which I think I guessed right. Overall, I cannot say that I have secured a 6 or 7 on this exam but I am glad it was not a major disaster (at least for now).

Facebook unveils targeted 'social ads'

After last weeks announcement that Microsoft had bought Facebook for only $15 billion, Facecook has announced its new ad strategy that involves advertising to people depending on their personal interest. Friends can advertise their own things to friends and it will appear in their conversation. Faceboook is also planning on asking its users what they buy and what they're interested in so that they can receive ads that are related to their personal interest. Of course, this causes a privacy issue because some users might not be interesting in those ads and might find it annoying to receive ads from friends. Privacy has previously been an issue with Facebook when Facebook introduced NewsFeeds that allow friends to receive updates information from their friends, for instance, a wall conversation between your friends can show up in your newsfeed. Although Facebook responded to people's complaints by allowing them to eliminate newsfeed, Facebook is nw facing a new problem because it will have to find a way to introduce this new ads feature to its users in a way that they can accept it.

Personally, I don't think it's good idea because it will make the website look cheap with so many ads. This will also mean that there will be people joining facebook just for advertisement so this new feature will ruin the image that Facebook had of a quiet familiar nice socializing place.

When work becomes a game

Due to the increasing number of adult video gamers some companies are considering creating a virtual world for their workers to make meetings, discuss about work issues in a way that is familiar and interesting. Some studies show that workers are more motivated by virtual world work because they feel like they're playing a game, work becomes more relevant and personal. virtual worlds also allow employers to make a system where employees will be awarded for certain things such as finishing a project, etc. Employees will be able to accumulate points and feel like their work is paying off. However, most companies already using this technology say that employees' wages are not affected by their performance in the virtual world. Employers say that this new evolution has benefited them because it makes those achieving workers stand out by making lots of points and gaining many awards.
On the other hand, although this new technological evolution sounds interesting, I am wondering what would happen to those employees who are not familiar with games and virtual world (like me). Also, I was wondering if a virtual world would not make employees more obsessed with the game and the "cool stuff" and not care much about the meaning and value of their work.

Citation: BBC News

Internet Name for Asia Launched

With the growth of internet use in Asia, Asians have expressed the need to have their own domain ".asia". The process started in 2000 and the DotAsia Organization promised that the domain will start functioning in March 2008. The domain covers Asia, the Middle East and Australia. It is expected that Africa and Latin will soon create their own domain.

Source: BBC News

I'm an HL student now!

I'm finally an HL student and believe it or not I'm excited about it.
I look forward to working hard in ITGS and I like it because I find it more relevant to the real world. I have to finish my portfolio as soon as possible, certainly before the October break.
It's going to be very tough but I'm determined to do my best.
wish me good luck! :)

Massive hydrogen exoplanet

I was checking the news today and found an interesting story that some scientist discovered a new planet that's not solid but made of hydrogen. It is apparently the biggest planet in the solar system. Scientists discovered circling a star in the constellation Hercules (which I hope means that it's very far from us and will never attempt to hit us). But what I foud most interesting about this story is the fact that the planet was discovered by the same guy who "discovered" ex-planet Pluto! As soon as I found out about this I started asking myself if this thing is really a planet... how do you "discover a planet" anyway?

Citation: CNN

Kuchofuku's air conditioned bed

Well, it is summer, the weather is hot and if you live in Ghana you are not always guaranteed to have a nice sleep with the AC on because sometimes there lights will be off.

Over are those nights!

Let me introduce you the Nuchofuku air conditioned bed that utilizes dual fans to pull air in and circulate it through the cushion beneath you. And it only weighs 5.3-pounds. Of course, it'd be a modern tragedy to have to rise and leave such a pleasant scenario, but you can solve that dilemma as well care of the air conditioned shirt. The button-up garb touts an integrated fan that is purportedly powered via USB, which means that your armpits can now remain fresh regardless of how infrequent the AC kicks on at the office. A cooler night's sleep is but $399 away, while the new threads (seen after the jump) will run you a staggering $159 apiece.

Hope you're having a great summer.

Source: Here

I Love ITGS!

ITGS is not just a class, it's class!

Get it?
;)

Freedom of Speech

I think we all like freedom of speech because it enables us to express ourselves with no restrictions and aslo through-out history (and even today) people have fought for freedom of speech. But again, we must not forget that there is a limit to everything. But where is the limit when it comes to freedom of speech?
Last two week we read a chapter on freedom of speech over the internet and its consequences. At the beginning I was in favor for total freedom of speech because I found it hard to judge what should be published or not. But at the end of the chapeter I was more aware of some of the bad consequences that freedom of speech brings and I was more careful judging whether there should be restrictions or not on what we access on the internet. Because I believe that as a society in general, we are not yet ready to face some of the dark realities around us. The issue of freedom of speech is a big issue because it keeps coming up.

Mac vs. PC

I find quite interesting the debate going on about Mac vs PC. Maybe that's because I don't understand why people should make a big deal out of it, everyone is entitled to their opinion and if people can not come to a common point then too bad. It is very hard to determine what's "better" because both the Macs and the PCs have features that the other one doesn't have.
But what has caught my attention and what is fun about the whole debate are the numerous funny videos from Mac (that are becoming increasingly popular on several websites) that promote features of Macs that PCs lack. Now, these videos are extremely funny!!
Here's my most favorite one!
Enjoy! :)

Obsolescence!

This is a nice new laptop from Atari. It only costs $399.95!!!

That was back in 1989!

This is one of the obsolete computers that you can only get an image of on the obsolete.com website. When I saw it for the first time I actually thought it was not so bad for its time. In 1989 there were computers with literally no screen! And it looks small but unfortunately obsolescence devored it away. I think we should actually have a museum for old computers in order to honor them for their beauty and their insipiration on the younger generation (because I'm sure they were made so nicely and the some of the same features are used to make actual computers that we use today).

Oh Ergo!

Oh Ergonomics

Thrown away my ego

And turned everything eco

For I would have known it long ago

I could have been my own hero

For Ergo has not left me solo

And my love for you Ergo

Will always echo

Ergonomics!

I love what we're doing this week, we're doing ERGONOMICS!!!
Well, ergonomics are related to the comfort and healthiness of different techy items such as the computers, phones, etc. It is also about the user and how they can use those items in the most comfortable and healthy way.
I've actually realized some stuff about seating positions and other things like that I didn't know or care about before. Now I think I'm more careful with what I do and how I do it. For instance, I've realized that most of the time when I'm working, I tend to not sit up straight but kind of shrink in my chair. I honestly don't know why I do that when I'm stressed, because most people sit uup straight when stressed... Anyway, I found out that it is not healthy and I'm trying to work on it so that I can work in a healthier way.
Definately, this chapter on ergonomics has changed my way of working and has taught me to be more careful with techy items that I buy and use. It is quite interesting!

Social Bookmarking 2

Well, one of my previous posts is about social bookmarking and how I totally don't understand it. Good news: I do understand it now because I've started using it too and it really does help! I used to use Noodletools to kind of bookmark my pages but then I would have to do the long citing process and in some cases it would be totally useless and I would end up deleting that citation... was such a waste of time basically. I used to think that I didn't need to use any social bookmarking site because I can always find the page that I visited earlier by using the same keywords. Well, in some cases that is not easy or simply impossible when you have used a chain of websites to get to the page that you want. The easier to do it all is to bookmark it online, using del.icio.us or any other social bookmarking site. I personally use del.icio.us because I think it is really good and I like the fact that it is popular because there is a larger network and sometimes I find interesting pages that other people tagged...
So yea, I recommend all students and teachers as well to use online social bookmarking!

Study shows that teens do protect their profiles online

While most people think that teenagers are not aware of the dangers of posting information on social networking sites, a study by The Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that teenagers do care about what they put on the internet. the study says that teenagers are particulary careful about putting extremely personal information on social networking sites such as their phone number, email address but they feel free to put pictures of themselves on their pages. This to me makes a lot of sense because having a profile on a social networking sites without a picture of yourself is totally useless because no one will be able to recognize you and you will not be able to connect with friends as easily as it would be if you had a picture of youself on there. Also, it is a lot of fun to put pictures of yourself on social networking sites and have people comment on them... it is really fun. Posting pictures of yourself on social networking sites is dangerous but not as much dangerous as putting your phone number or email address...
In my opinion, I think this study shows the long way teenagers have come and prove that they do care and understand what goes on on social networking sites and the internet in general.

Citation: CNN

Students Sue turnitin.com

Turnitin.com is website used by teachers to help them check the students papers for plagiarism. It works this way: students send their papers on the website where the teachers can access it, the software then assesses the paper and provides a percentage of plagiarism in the paper. Then it is up to the teacher to make the decision (whether the student should be punished or not, kkk).
Well, turnitin was recently sued by two students of McLean High School for violating the property rights of the students because the papers are published and can be read by others. The interesting fact is that these students and their lawyers were claiming $150,000 for each of six papers written by students!!!
For us students it could be a great news because some of us would be billionaires right away!

Citation: The Washington Post

I love Wikipedia!!!

I love Wikipedia and I am not afraid of telling it! That is because I am a kind of person who shows gratitude to people who help. Wikipedia has saved me numerous times when I was doing my research and I couldn't find anything anywhere else, Wikipedia was there to give me some hints to make a better research. There are a lot of articles in Wikipedia that you will never find on any other website (apart from Encarta which copies from Wikipedia). That's just because Wikipedia is a place where all kinds of information is gathered and made accessible for free to anyone on this planet with internet! I love Wikipedia because it has saved my time when I was meant to do research on a topic I had no idea what it meant and Wikipedia provided me with a sweet summary that I'm sure without Wiki, I would have spent at least 3 hours trying to get all that information. One of the things that make me love Wikipedia is the fact that it is written by anybody so in other words it portrays the view point of us -- not just one elite.
Sadly, Wikipedia has been misunderstood by many because of they believe that it contains inaccurate information. Well, how do you define what is accurate or not? When Galileo said that the world wasn't flat, he was executed for wanting to spread inaccurate information but wasn't he right? Also, where is the freedom of speech! I don't want to say that all information on Wikipedia is accurate but even if there is (inaccuracy), it just shows the weak points of our society and it brings the issues forth so that we can face them, instead of ignoring them by having just one educated person controlling the information and making us think that everybody is like that. I think Wikipedia is just an alarm to how badly education needs to be improved.
I would like to clarify an important point too: Do not use just Wikipedia as your source for essays and other professional/academic stuff. It is good to take a look at Wikipedia at the beginning of the research to have an idea of what you need to know and get some keywords from the articles but Wiki is not strong enough to be an independent source. You need to find other sources that provide information in more details and that are more reliable.
In a few words: I don't know how my life would be without Wikipedia! (aaawww)

".xxx"domain?

Well well, I might be living on another planet (is it called Earth?) but I just discovered that an ".xxx" domain exists!! :o
To some it seems to be an obvisouly serious issue but to some others it just isn't because it means that there will be a way of classifying those websites (cough cough) so that no one will visit them by mistake. Others believe that creating an ".xxx" domain is like an encouragement for the people who make those website so it should be banned. But this argument doesn't seem to be reasonable because those websites existed anyway even before the domain was invented. Personnally, I think it is a good idea because it would classify them harmful webpages so that they can be easily blocked (think about that 12 year old who doesn't understand what the whole issue is... the social/ethical impact).
It's interesting isn't it the ".xxx" domain issue.

Citation: CNN

iPhone

I couldn't have an ITGS Blog that doesn't say anything about the oh-so-praised iPhone!
To tell the truth, I like it and I wouldn't mind getting one but I hate the publicity that it has created. Those advertisers should be more aware of the effect of their ads on the sells of the product because in some cases it does the opposite effect of what it was supposed to be. That is the case of the ads of the iPhone found on MySpace -- I received a million of them, so did my friends. It simply gives a bad image of the iPhone and the people who made it because it makes them look extremely desperate -- not to talk about the Mac vs. PC issue that it raised. People seem to forget the technological advantages and disadvantages of the item. Like some say, technology has turned into religion.

Social Bookmarking!!

Social bookmarking is the easier way of tagging articles and webpages on the internet. I like it, though I'm still learning how to use it. Actually, it requires a software, I'm using del.icio.us and I recommend it for anyone else who is interested in social bookmarking. The difference between social bookmarking and adding a page as a favorite is that you can always the tagged page from any computer and you can add comments to the page. Nice eh?! I'm enjoying it.

Newsfeed

Some people seem to be very excited about them... well, I am not. I like the whole idea of having everything for you on just one button but I personally really don't need and I enver felt a need for it. That's because I visit a few common websites so I just click on them and the rest are new websites (usually for my research...).
I don't really have that much to say about newsfeeds but I'd love to hear (read) your ideas. Feel free :)

Surprise on MySpace

On MySpace, we usually find celebrities' profiles which is totally comprehensible because they want to be known and they want people to feel like they can be their friends through myspace...
But it seems like it's not just hollywood celebrities who are interested in MySpace but also PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES!
I've already visited two profiles of presidential candidates, well, they didn't look that great. Personally, I find it a little weird because it shows how much of a big deal MySpace is in the American society. Maybe too much of a big deal?... I don't know.

Citation: CNN

Dogllywood introduced in France

The French society was introduced to the Dog Dvd industry last week and there seem to be a lot of interest from the French people. They're now being sold even online on French websites.
J'aime mon chien!

Citation: Here

Paying for MSN?

It has been a hot topic and I'm sure you've already received a message on hotmail warning that MSN is closing down or becoming a paying service and you thought to yourself: "whatever..."
Well, I never took it seriously too until yesterday when one of my friends helped me discover a link from BBC News that talks about MSN switching to a paying mode! :S
I don't know about you but I'm certainly not ready to pay for MSN and if we'll soon going to have to pay for using it, then for me it means no MSN. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's not ready to pay for MSN and that shows what a financial scandal it would be to impose a fee on MSN users. Plus, that would mean that people like me and I would just start using Google, AOL or Yahoo...
Personally, I believe that it would be a big mistake to try to impose fees on MSN users. Here's the BBC link.

Blogs

I think everybody who knows what a computer is knows what a blog looks like. Blogs are a revolution and they have had a big impact on our lives because we get to share our thoughts, our problems our good and bad times with the rest of the world. A person from Ireland and share their problems at work with a Japanese woman in Tokyo. Now isn't that amazing!
But I've realized one thing with my friends: people seem to create blogs just because they want to because anyway they won't get famous. There are millions of blogs that were never visited by anybody but still there are more being created! It's like an obsession people! Well, I must admit that I share this obsession... nothing shameful... not.

New Tech

There's always something new in technology everyday, that's the fun of it.
Today I was reading an article from CNN that talks about Microsoft's new invention that allows people to send pictures of buildings to databases and get a map of where they are. Isn't that cool?
How about a an answering machin that's in form of "bubble board" that allows you to listen to different messages not necessarily chronically. This touch-screen device also displays a picture of the caller on the bubble. Nice!
Technology's really intriguing and we love it. It makes our lives easier and more FUN!

Citation: CNN

Google Earth controversy

This week we've been working on Google Earth in my class and I really enjoyed to manipulate the software. But I also found out an interesting fact that I want to share with you and I want you to share your opinion. Some images on Google Earth were blurred because they showed "sensitive" locations such as the White House or the US Naval Observatory and some actualy believe that providing images of such locations will be a threat to the national security. But Google Earth has received several other demands from countries that wish to censor images of different locations, some were done and others were rejected (or still undecided).

Now this makes me wonder, who determines what is sensible or not? Did we all agree that images of our houses be shown on Google Earth (and I'm not trying to go against Google Earth)? But we all have right to privacy though. And doesn't blurring some images contradict the statement that is found on the official website of Google Earth and that is also a very popular description of Google Earth: "point and zoom to any place on the planet that you want to explore"?

Citation: Wiki, Google Earth

Welcome to my ITGS blog!

My first entry in my ITGS blog, yey!

I'm an ITGS student and I love ITGS class. ITGS stands for Information Technology in a Global Society. It is basically a class where we analyze the impact of technology on our society, social/ethical issues on technology, etc. It is a fun class too because we get to do a lot of useful/fun activities such as making podcasts, etc.

So this blog will serve as a reflection on different events that are related to technology, including different things discussed in my ITGS class. Of course, I'll talk about some interesting tech news of which I'm sure you all can't wait to find out about.

I aslo want to encourage you to make comments to give me your opinions on my blog, maybe a particular post that you have suggestion to make about, do not hesitate!

And once again, welcome! :)