Posted 9:28 PM by Melissa
Another classmate's blog site I visited is IceeEye's. I was reading her blog about her time over spring break. I don't even know her but I'm happy that she found someone that makes her happy, do ever settle for less. I know what its like to finally have someoen that you like and your parents like too, it just makes everything seem easier. Anyway that's great that he treats you like you deserve to be treated. I like how you do for him and he does for you, that;s the way it should be and I;m glad to see it working for you. How did you guys meet?

I am also in a long distance relationship, my boyfriend ,Vernon, goes or should I say went to school in Atlanta (long story) Anyway he didnt drop out or anything, his school lost there accredidation so hes back home ( Miami) until the fall. Anyway I think it's good for me, cause I can focus on my work alot which i think would be harder if he was here. Don't get me wrong I would absolutely LOVE to see him every day.

That;s great that you surprised your grandfather, for a minute there I thought the fright might have been to much, :-). Well my grandfather lives in Jamaica and is about the same age as yours so, but I don't get to see him as often I would like. I miss my family also and of course Vernon, :-).

I think if you feel like you want ot go to USF then go ahead, don't worry about what other peopel think because they can't do anythign for you. If you feel that your better of going to USF then go ahead. I have alot of friends down there also. I hope everythign works out for you.

Posted 8:52 PM by Melissa
The next blog site I visited was The Daily Blogger. I read his post on his best friend dying in a car crash. It was very sad and my condolences(sp) goes out to him and his family. I could never understand waht you're going through but it must be hard.

As you explain there are alot of unanswered questions, you say he always wears his seatbelt adn never drinks. I don't knwo what to say. You are right that if you're gonna drink please give up the keys. It will be better in the end.

I've heard so many stories of kids drinking, driving, and speeding. Even while I was home in Miami for spring break there were so many accidents on the news. Four people were driving in a SUV on the way back from the County fair, it's a very big event. Anyway, from what I understand he was going so fast the car got out of control, a van t-boned teh SUV adn it eventually crashed into a tree where it blew up on impact. I can only shake my head when I hear these things, we just have to be ready because we never knwo what's going to happen next. Then there was another incident where a girl was driving home i guess and her boyfriend behind her(not following her like stalking her) and she was going like 100mph and the car got out of control and hit a barrier or something, No seat belt and killed instantly.

I'm jsut begging you guys to be careful out there, don't think it can't happen to you.

Posted 8:12 PM by Melissa
While browsing through the class website I decided to visit Lunchbox's Blog Cabin. His blog on a new way for websites to earn money caught my eye. This lady, Stephanie Olson, charges people to view her site at either $6 a month or $30 a year. But with this new idea that he talks about people can sit through a 4 minute long commercial and not have to pay anything, but they have to do this everyday.

I could not imagine having to sit through that long of a commercial just to view a site, which is understandable why people would pay the monthly subscription. O I think I get it (now reading through his blog again, im slow :-)) Companies who are advertising through these commercials will pay these sites more money than if the add was a pop up because poeple are able to close out pop ups and the company would get a full four minutes of advertissing with this new form of advertising.

I think I would just have to do without the site, because 1) I'm not paying the subscription and 2) I'm not sitting through a four minute commercial just to eventually see a site. I can't even stand watching TV commercials. As soon as someting I'm watching goes on commercial I change the channel, so this would not work for me.

Posted 5:01 PM by Melissa
Online Privacy and Security

As I was browsing through the Electronic Frontier Foundation's section on privacy news, I saw some disturbing headlines. "59,000 social security numbers stolen by a University of Texas student," or this one, "Important information stolen from a welfare office". This just makes me wonder how safe it is to send information through the web.

Then I was taken to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse where I decided to look at their factsheet. I came accross the article on Online Privacy. Privacy in Cyberspace: Rules of the Road for the Information Superhighway talked about the risks of transmitting information through the handy, not so dandy, internet.

Since the internet gives us so many advantages we tend to forget the concerns that they bring up, "Information sent over this vast global network may pass through dozens of different computer systems on the way to its destination. " I never really thought about that happening, but it sure does make sense. Even though the information I'm sending may get to the desired location it doesn't mean it hasn't showed up elsewhere.

Most online services offer some sort of privacy. "The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) makes it unlawful under certain circumstances for someone to read or disclose the contents of an electronic communication (18 USC § 2511). This law applies to e-mail messages." But there are alot of exceptions to this rule. Such as if the email service is owned by an employer they can view the information, or if the service suspects that the sender is trying to harm the system they can also legally view the email.

Did you know that all your online activities can be tracked? Many people seem to think that their online visits are anonymous, but they are far from that. This information can be collected by the ISP or web operators.

It is important that we be careful of the information we send to remote computers because of the software we use to browse these sites. Most web site providers give out information on you, your ISP and other sites that you've visited.

It just seems that when we think we're alone, we really aren't.

Posted 3:08 PM by Melissa
Hypertext was a great addition to how we explore the internet. Charles Deemer talks about how hypertext came about and how we use it today. Hypertext allows you to make many choices. He gave the example of going to the supermarket to buy your favorite cereal, but next to it theres another cereal that is on sale. You now have to make a decision between the two. This is similar to hypertext in that as you read you have the option to continue reading or pause and find out a little more on that link.

Hypertext is very helpful because when you're reading an article its so much easiser to click on the link instead of having to research the term or person yourself. Through hypertext the web allows " "horizontal links" to other sites."

Deemer gave the example of having choices of do you want to hear the poem being read, hear the author read it, or just read it yourself are options that we have when hypertext it used.


The next article or should I say site, was the The Company Therapist . When employees at a San Francisco company need psychiatric help they turn to Dr. Charles Balis. He put his findings together on this site "which uses hypertext to create a collaboratively written narrative."

The site really has no specific direction. You can go any way you want, by following any link. When I first got to the site I was thinking where is this article that we are supposed to read.

This Hyperfiction is navigated by the links. On the original front page there is a story with one line about each patient. On this page you are able to choose which link you want to follow. You can decide which patient you want to read more about.

The doctor's diary of each patient is also filled with hyperlinks. In his diary he briefly talks about the patient, and there is a link availible to view the whole conversation between doctor adn patient.

Posted 2:55 PM by Melissa
It is hard to believe that technology has evolved so much in the last ten years. I had no idea of the innovative ways that would eventually become a part of everyday life would be so effective. We were discussing how ten years ago very few people had cell phones and if you did you sure weren't a college student. But when the question was asked who has a cell phone, it should have been asked who didn't have a cell phone. Cell phones back then were one size fit all, very bulky and pretty unreliable. But at the time that was all we had, or didn't have, so who could complain. Nowadays everyone who is anyone has a cell phone, we can download ringers adn change the face plates on our phone.

Email is another thing that wasn't as popular as it is now ten years ago. Email has become a very vital form of communication rivaling the telephone. Not only do we have email, but there is Instant messaging, discussion boards, and I think in time they will all become more advanced and lead to newer ways of communicaiton.

I really think that in another 10 years email will take a backseat towards some other genious form of communication. Instant messaging seems to really be on the rise, so email better look out:-). I hear people talking about video emails which will be similar to video phones. Those two forms of communication will definitley be used as email and IM is used today.

There are many people who use web cams and talk to friends all day. I haven't gotten him to this as yet, and really don't think I will. I like talking to people without them seeing my facial expressions, well at least sometimes.

I don't know what technology will produce next but America will sure take it and run. Well some things are great for a while and then the hype dies down. For example, two way pagers, I remember when they first came out about 2 years ago while I was in high school. Everyone seemed to have a two way pager. It was great to be able to send a receive messages, especially while in class. Now, I don't that many people using the device mainly because cell phones have picked up that skill. When using the two way pager many poele also had a phone, for immediate and direct contact. But now cell phones are beign used for both.

Posted 12:23 PM by Melissa
Its hard to believe that SOuth Korea is more wired than America. They are using the multiplayre games to merge the gap between physical and virtual space. Since Korea has been released from Japanese rule they still weren't hip to Sega, Nintendo etc. so they turned to the conputer as their main game platform.

Tournaments are held to help promote business. I think this is a great thing since their economic crisis. Tournaments for the role playing game are mainstream in South Korea. The use of Broadband is extremely inportant in South Korea. The high rise in the use of the digital world is because of the constraints of real estate. Im not quite sure what the article is trying to say, I'm assuming that there wasn't much else to do inside and these games were what peopel did.

The next article by Jewel talked about the addiction of people to the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games (MMORPG). She didn't even uinderstand until she did it herself. Before her experience her fiance was addicted to the games which caused a strain on their relationship.

I think peopel become so fascinated with these games because it allows them to become something they could in most cases never be. They are able to forget about the real world and become lost in a virtual one. The fun is no longer fun when you can't even continue doing your normal duites in real life.

The games I play oneline aren't role playing games so I guess I won't be able to understand. But they are for the most part like the games that we paly on the consoles, but the interaction online cause more of an addiction that can be very dangerous.



I wrote this long response to this blog and some error occured when I clicked on post and publish. So I don't remember what I wrote and am very aggravated!