news report 5 !

Mikayla Chiarello
News Report 5
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10103412-52.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0


“Google shutting down 'Lively'”

This article was about Google’s virtual game world known as ‘Lively’. It was just launched this summer and was often compared to Second Life. Lively was web based and it allowed it’s users to create rooms and characters in the world which could then even be put onto blogs and on facebook. It sounds pretty interesting and like a good concept, but it never got the attention or popularity it seeked so Google has chosen to shut down the project and put the energy and workers that were working on ‘Lively’ onto other more successful projects. Google was quoted as saying, "Despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we've decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year. It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business." They also said that this does not mean they will be laying people off, they will just reassign these workers to other areas of research. I think that it is a good idea to pull out of a project that although seems great hasn’t really made a following. Those workers could be putting their time to more successful projects that could one day blow our minds. I also think it’s good that just because the project didn’t take off as expected, they are keeping the workers and just reassigning them.

reading number 5

"Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet"

Mikayla Chairello
Reading Report 5
11/17/2008

This article brings up very interesting information about the internet that people often either choose to overlook most of the time or simply don’t know or realize. Although the internet is full of uselful, high quality information, it also is riddled with sites that contain misinformation, or opiniated information or even counterfeit websites. Sometimes this misonformation comes from simple honest mistakes of typos or accidentally leaving out information, but other times, webasites can be intenionally misleading and that’s where it gets scary. There are ma y different types of these ‘false’ websites. They can range fron political, fun , to just misleading advertisements. One of the most interesting examples in the reading was the website martinlutherking.org. From its title it obviously sounds like it would be truthfuil information about Martin Luther King jr. that supported his cause and would correctly portay him and information about him. But in actuality this website was made by a White Supremecist group. Another thing that would trick most naïve people is that this website looks pretty legitamte. And people don’t realize that it is extremeley misleading for that reason. I think it is a really scary idea that people don’t look further into the information that they encounter while surfing the internet. Most people will read and use the first information they come across because it’s the easiest and quickest way, without questiong its aunthenticity or legitamacy. If we don’t start education our students on how to identify high quality information from some of the garbage out there, we will begin to see some highly misonformed people who believe extremely false or misleading information. We definitely don’t want this kind of information to spread.

reading 4

Mikayla Chiarello
Reading 4
Can WIKIPEDIA Ever Make the Grade?
11/5/2008
I found this article very interesting, because like most of the people my age that I know, Wikipedia is a very familiar site. Anytime someone needs a quick answer or some little tid bit of information (not research type information) they refer to Wikipedia. I feel they do this for many reasons. Some of these reasons are also probably the reason scholars hate it and that it may not always be accurate. The first is if you do a search through Google or some other search engine, the Wikipedia site for your search will be one of the first to appear. Also when students are looking for quick answers they choose Wikipedia because one of the things they value is short, to the point answers. So when professors try to add full length studies, they will be cut down, often offending them. Wikipedia is also very easy to read and understand which is probably because just about anyone can add to it. But that is also a reason it is so popular; nobody likes to read something they don’t understand. The most recent issue with Wikipedia is that people are upset that they don’t give priority to academic scholars and some average Joe could post about something he really has no clue about. One professor did an experiment with the site, writing under a different name, he would post articles with false information in them to see how long they would stay up. Most of the times they only lasted a few hours, which seems pretty short, but could leave some people with completely false information. The website says it may think about giving priority to scholars, but they have to learn to work with everyone else on the site and not talk down to them. They will also have to be ok with their work getting considerably shortened. I think this was a very interesting article because it really makes me think about the information I’ve looked up on Wikipedia in the past and what could possibly be false, that I

news report4

Mikayla Chiarello
10/28/2008
Google's New Android Phone Vulnerable To Attack
By Stefanie Hoffman,
http://www.crn.com/security/211600884

This article was about the new cell phone from T-Mobile and Google called the G1 SmartPhone. It was released in last week, October 22, and uses the android operating system. It was supposed to be the next big thing, without flaws and all up to date technological features. But a glitch was found in the android operating system which would allow hackers to access these users information if they use certain websites that may pose as other existing websites. They could access any information that the phone had access to including social security number and any other personal data. Charlie Miller, the principal analyst at Independent Security Evaluators said, "if you end up on a bad guys' site, he can basically take over the phone and run code, and access anything your browser has access to and do anything your browser could do,". Miller was the one outside of Google who first observed the flaw. He contacted Google immediately and they responded by simply stating that they were still trying to fix it and asked him to stay away from the public with his information. He said he felt that was the wrong thing to do and felt the public had every right to know the glitches in a product they might purchase. Google still proclaims that this minor security problem should not impact its sales and that a solution to the problem will be found in no time. The reason I chose this news report is because I had done the article on the introduction of the G1 phone in my last news report and it was interesting to see how things have progressed.

news report 3

Mikayla Chiarello
News Report 3
9/22/2008

Tuesday phone debut is first salvo in Android war
By Stephen Shankland
cnet news
9/20/2008
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10046666-94.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.0

This article was about the way cell phone technology changes and the way it will continue to change throughout the future. Some mobile phones already have access to the internet, but not all of them and there are currently a lot of limitations. Engineers hope to eliminate these limitations and bring easy internet access to all phones. This Tuesday T-Mobile will release its first phone powered by Google's Android operating system. The phone is called Dream and was designed and built by HTC. It will be on sale starting in October for $200. This could be very good for T-Mobile because by using Google it will most likely increase their sales, kind of like what the iPhone and Apple did for AT&T. Google will benefit because they say that people who have the internet on their cell phones use it much more and Google wants to be the company to give them their information. Google hopes to bring a lot to the table in for the cell phone industry. They want to bring more openness (like in PCs) to mobile phones, which has yet to be done because of certain limitations. Some rumored features of the new Dream phone include, full QWERTY keyboard, 3G touch screen, full HTML browser, GPS, access to all Google applications including Maps, YouTube, instant messaging, SMS texting email, 3megapixel camera, music player, video recorder/player and a memory card slot. I never had an iPhone or the LG dare, but if I had $200 to spend on a cell phone I would want to try this new mobile phone. I also think that Google’s influence will definitely help boost sales, but I don’t think the iPhone will have any worries because so many people love their iPhones and I’m sure they are designing some kind of new technology to push the competition further .After reading this article I’m really excited to find a friend or someone I know who is going to buy the phone so I can see and use it firsthand.

news report 2 citation information!

"Link by Link
Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free "
By NOAM COHEN
Published: September 14, 2008
New York Times
9/17/2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/technology/15link.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

News Report 2

Mikayla Chiarello
News Report 2
9/17/2008

Link by Link
Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free
This article was about what seems to be the new possible future (or lack there of) of textbooks as we know them today. It spoke on the extremely high costs of textbooks for students and how it could be detrimental to the amount of potential readers the book may have had. The prices of these books, which can be as high as a few hundred dollars, may very well deter students from buying them and therefore hinder their learning experience and obstruct their access to information. Certain professors are aware of this and are starting to do something about it. One particular professor named McAfee has boldly chosen to put his introductory economics textbook on the internet as a free download. A few other reasons he gave for doing so included the fact that the information will be much easier to update and edit which is a growing necessity especially for people in technology or medical fields. It will also enable thousands if not more people, from all around the world, to access the information in the book and gain more knowledge on the subject matter. Another Professor, Professor Baraniuk agrees saying, “If I had finished my own book, I would have finished a couple years ago. It would have taken five years. It would have spent five years in print and sold 2,000 copies.” Instead, he put it online to download and there have been 2.8 million views of his textbook as well as a Spanish translation of it. A publishing company has also started a company called CourseSmart, that puts textbooks online, but unlike these professors, although a lot cheaper, they still charge a formidable fee. In my opinion professors should put their textbooks online to download. I do understand that it is their job to write these books and need to get paid, but the price students are charged for their education is ridiculous especially since they have to pay for the class as well as the textbooks. I think that to put books online would be a lot cheaper because they wouldn’t need to be printed in full text and therefore a lot more convenient for students and other interested learners worldwide. I think this is also the next step in the future of education.

extra credit event1

Mikayla Chiarello
Extra Credit 1
Library Event-- “Silents Please!”

For extra credit I attended a library sponsored event in the library auditorium. It was a night devoted to silent film, so I went into it knowing very little and assuming I would be bored for most of the night, thinking a silent film would not be able to hold my attention or entertain me for its entirety. I was very wrong. At first we were given a brief background to the entertainment industry back when silent films were one of the main sources of entertainment. We were then told about an actor, Buster Keaton, who was very popular at this time and who remains entertaining to this day by those who actually know of his work. That is a very big accomplishment. They then compared him to other entertainers of this time such as Charlie Chaplin, and compared their styles of acting. Chaplin was known to make comedies in which he over-acted and really over dramatized his comedy acts, as was the popular thing to do at the time. Keaton on the other hand was very different from other actors and he portrayed humor in the opposite way, slightly under-acting, which we still find humor in today, making it a timeless piece of entertainment. With this new knowledge I felt a little bit better about what I was getting into, but it wasn’t until about half way through the movie when I realized how into it I was and how anxious I was to know the outcome. The movie we viewed was called “7 chances” and was about a man (Buster Keaton) who would inherit a million dollars if he were wed by the end of that same night. He faces a variety of challenges in trying to accomplish this goal and is wildly entertaining while doing so. I now have a completely different view of silent films and how entertaining they can actually be.

reading #2

Mikayla Chiarello
Reading#2
9/15/2008

"Information Navigion 101"

In this reading I learned a lot about how librarians and other information imparters are going to start teaching their methods and information finding strategies to college and high school students. We have been learning a lot in class about how there is going to be a whole new wave of technology and information access and it did occur to me that not everyone would know how to use or take advantage of it. In this reading I’ve learned that even students my age in colleges around the country seem to think they know more than they actually do about computer and information technology. We all certainly know how to type keywords into a search engine, but its what comes after that that we need some work on. Students know little about determining whether a website is authentic and is copyrighted and not just false information that somebody who knows little on the subject made a website on. Because of the technology up to now people are overloaded with information, but the problem now stems with being able to decipher what’s important and also being able to find what’s important and not have to bother with the un-authentic information. This article says that we need to teach students how to “develop effective research skills” so they can get right to the point of the matter on what they are looking for. They say we need to embrace what they call “information literacy” because if it is becoming the major research method in the future we need to make sure it is done correctly and efficiently. They are even going as far as testing students to make sure their information literacy skills are up to par. In these tests they are tested on finding, sorting, analyzing and communicating information and the technology that now goes with it. In my opinion this is probably a good idea because, as said in the beginning of this reading, our generation is completely savvy with the new technologies having to do with our social lives like facebook and text messaging, but our technology is allowing us to do so much more and it would be a shame to not learn how to take advantage of it.

Reading #1

Mikayla Chiarello
Reading #1
9/8/2008


The Future of LibrariesBeginning the Great Transformation

This reading was unlike any other I have ever read. Until now I was completely unaware of how advanced our informational technology had become and how amazing our expectations are for future generations. The way they will access information and interact with each other will change drastically. I was also extremely surprised at how soon this technology is projected to change the way our society goes about it’s every day life. The gist of the reading was to show it’s readers a sort of timeline of events in which libraries and other information technologies (such as books and search engines) came into being and how they keep evolving. Of course it started as precious handwritten books that were very expensive and hard to come by. They were locked up in libraries and not everyone was able to get a chance to read them. Then came the printing press which made books a lot more readily available to the public and really started a new informational revolution. The next big step of course was the World Wide Web, which gave everyone in contact with a computer the chance to access almost any kind of information in seconds flat.
All of that was old news to me, but what really fascinated me about this reading was what these technology scientists claim is next. They say that the one of the next steps is that we will transfer to a verbal society and literacy as we know it will be dead. They claim that this revolution can come as soon as 2050! Another part of the reading that surprised me most was how they say they will have the technology to pretty much give computers their own personalities and characteristics eliminating the business-like relationship we currently have with our computers. Another technological advance will change the way we use search engines. It is now said that in the future they will be able to not only search with words by text (which is how they currently work) but they will also be able to search by things like taste, smell, density, speed and volume. From the looks of it nobody can be quite sure of what’s to come for the future generations and the informational technology that they will have mastered.

न्यूज़ रिपोर्ट ओने

Mikayla Chiarello
News Report 1


On the move with the mobile Web: libraries and mobile technologies

This article is about the technological advances relating cell phones and the mobile web. Most people could not even imagine what this technology will enable them to do, nevermind how soon it may be available. Once perfected, this research will allow it’s users to get access to anything they may happen to see, anywhere, with a simple click of a button on their very own cell phones. It will go as far as being able to simply take a picture of something and through that picture, your phone will browse the web, calling up the same kind and amount of search results it would if you were sitting at your computer. Some examples they shared were say you were at the mall with your friends and saw a poster for a new movie that just came out. This technology will allow you to take a picture of that poster and will instantly give you movie dates and times, allow you to purchase tickets and even find ringtones from the film. Another feature of this new technology will allow you to find the score of any professional athletic game by simply taking a picture of that team’s symbol. This research has already begun in both Japan and the United States and it will most likely be here before most of us could imagine.
The reason I chose this article is because I can remember this one time when me and my friend Adam were taking an art history class and we were supposed to be able to identify pieces of artwork from throughout history. Neither of us were experts and I can remember looking through our worksheets and us joking around about how cool it would be if we could just take a picture of it or something and do a search on the web, yielding the results we needed. We didn’t realize the research for this technology was going on as we spoke, nor did we realize it would be available through our cell phones and so soon. I am constantly being amazed at how through technology we are beginning to see things we never deemed possible. Who knows what’s in store in the future. One could only imagine.




http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2008/august2008/LTR.क्फ्म
Dan Freeman
American Library Association
9/3/2008

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