Gaming money on ebay!

basically, this entire ebay listing is reserved for gaming money; by researching this i understand that these are different types of money from games and what people do is make the money on their game and then sell them on ebay for real money. the cool thing about this when you think about is that gaming money is being exchanged for real U.S. dollars; this is absolutley amazing and also absolutely the same thing that the guest lecturer (castrononva) was talking about. while looking over all of the different listing a really cool idea popped into my head; i thought to myself that perhaps in the future they will start selling these game dollars at actual foriegn exchanges for money. their is a plethura of games that are involved in this trading on ebay and it is totally up to the seller how much he/she wants to sell the game money for. when you think about it the entire gaming industry is changing because of this and their is a huge opportunity for them to make a lot more money! for example: what stops the actual designer of the game from just selling the gaming money; absolutely nothing. i find this kind of mind boggling because it brings up the topic of free money; all the game creator has to do is sell the fake product because the money in the game is not real, but if the player decides later that he doesnt want the money then he could alwas just sell it himself. the prices of this gaming money changes depending on the game, a game like warcraft sells 50 gold peices for around one dollar. warcraft is deffinetely the leading seller in this money exchange. this site has tought us that once again technology is changing the way we live our lives. and also that some people take gaming so seriously that they will actually go online and pay with the dollar that they worked for, to get this fake money so that they can play their games that they also paid for!

Monroe County Library and their opposition towards internet filters

recently, across the United States public libraries have been rapidly installing internet filters so that internet users who use the public library computers can not view things that are thought to be inappropriate. but some public libraries are opposed to these internet filters, one library that is opposed to this is the Monroe County Library which is located on Kirkwood avenenue. I decided to give this library a call and see what they had to say about internet filters.

when calling the library i decided that i would ask to speak to the shift manager so that i would be sure to recieve accurate information directly from the source. The manager on duty at the time (Christine) was more than happy to answer my questions.

when asking Christine why the Monroe County Library opposes internet filters she said that the Monroe County Library has looked at internet filters in the past, but believes that these filters are to broad; yes, they would prevent the computer users from looking at things that are considered inapropriate, but at the same time they would also block users from looking at an innumerable amount of websites that have absolutely no inappropriate material in them. she also said that these types of filters are not a hundred percent accurate; they block sites that are not appropriate for viewing in a public place, but not nearly all of them.

the Monroe County Library does however provide links for children to search engine that have internet filters installed. this can prvent children from looking at pornography and other things of that nature.

I believe that the Monroe County Library computer network should remain without internet filters for many reason. first and foremost, internet filter are not as nearly perfected as they should be; they block out an immense amount of sites that do not have any inappropriate material what so ever, and at the same time they are not sucessful at blocking out all sites that are considered innapropriate. Second, when installing internet filters you must install the software in each computer individually; this process is not only very time consuming but at the same time can be quite expensive.

In conclusion, i hope that the Monroe County Library will continue to oppose internet filters, it would not be fair to the adults (who are usually considered to be the majority in a library) that require access to particular sites to complete their work/research.

reading assignment & the definition of cool

cool is a very broad definition, if someone says that something is cool they mean that they either agree with something, respect something, or are amazed with something... but as stated in the directions for this blog homework; the word cool is not so "hip" anymore. these words grow old the same way that the people who made them up do (with time). but every time these terms get old they are replaced with new terms from generation. in my generation there are more terms that come from hip-hop than anywhere else. "gangsta, straight, phat, and bangin" are just a sample of the terms that adolsents use today. but the word does not matter because not matter what the definition stays the same; for example: the word "gangsta" might sound different than the word "cool" which is now spelt "kewl", but the meaning of both words (regardless of spelling) remains the same.

in my opinion these so called "cool hunters" are ludacris. there is no common sense in paying a company to go out and then report back with the newest "kewl" things for teens looking for in a college when you have a campus with more than seven thousand freshman student that just went through the whole "searching for a college" process. these freshman know what they looked for, they know why they decided to attend Indiana University instead of the other schools that they were accepted to. the smartest idea for Indiana University is to start a freshman organization that is in charge of making our school appear "kewl" to the prospective freshman of the following year, in return these freshman can recieve some sort of college credit most likely inside the advertising area. nobody know more about searching for colleges than the freshman do!

VALS survey

after completing the VALS survey, i was told that my first type is experiencer and that my second type is Innovator. i find this to be very believeable because that is how i have always thought about myself; i like to try new things all the time because that is what makes life exciting, i cant stand the normal 9-5 job that the majority of the people who live in this country currently hold. i like to be adventurous and see all there is to see.

after taking this exam i am forced to question accuracy of these surveys. I believe that it was pure luck that this exam could tell me what i think about myself; i also believe that if i took that exam 10 more times in the next 6 month i would probably get a couple different responses. the questions that were asked were far from a personal level, if the questions are not personal then how can they accurately determine the type of person that i am? they can't, a one page questionaire can not accurately tell me about myself, it never met me, and it never got to know me on a personal level

steel account confirmation

i have activated my steel account!

website thesis (blog hmwk# 2)

the world wide web is revolutionizing the way we live our lives; paying bills, grocery shopping, and communicating with friends are just some of the minor changes that have recently occurred. with the help of online journals like www.livejournal.com many people are displaying their personal information on the web so that millions of people can read. as online dating services are becoming a new popular feature perhaps it is time to ask ourselves how personal is too personal on the world wide web.

many people are involved in these new online dating services, and they are now becoming more personalized. for example: an online service (www.jdate.com) specializes in matching up jewish singles . this company has been around since 1997 and is the leader of the online jewish dating community.

my website will review how sucessful these online dating services really are at finding a true match for their costumers. i will try to collect as much data as possible through each major dating site, i will also email the site operators for more information about how each particular site works. with this type of information at my disposal i would feel confident in telling whether or not these dating services actually work.

homework#1

I. make a list of all of the digital communication/information devices that you access on a regular basis: cellphone, PDA, radio, TV, phone, computer, game console, portable music devices, music/video players, electronic clock, GPS, other tracking devices, and so on.

cell phone
calculator
electric dictionary
television
digital watch
Satalite Radio
PDA
Ipod
Xbox
computer
portable cd player
Playstation 2
Alarm clock
fax machine
DVD player


II. Make a list of those that were available to your parents AND your grandparents (or people of those generations) when they were your age. How will you find this out accurately?

television- the television was introduced to the public by John Logie Baird on March 25, 1925

calculator- Blaise Pascal invented the calculator in the year 1642

Alarm clock- alarm clock with 'snooze' were introduced to the market in 1956


III. Think and write about the differences in terms of: access to sources (how many sources of information/entertainment), perceived quality (true/false/biased) of information and entertainment, yours and their ability to CREATE content for these diverse media, and how you think this affects both what YOU know and what THEY (your parents or others in their generation) know.

the differences in access to information from my parents generation to my own is immeasurable, an abundance of diverse sources have been invented to make recieving information easy for today's society. back in the 50's and 60's people relied on the newspaper, radio, and new clips in movie theatre's to inform them about different topics around the world. today we rely mostly on the world wide web and television to supply us with the knowledge of current event, breaking stories, stock quotes, weather, etc... but as more sources are being created we must ask ourselve which ones we can trust, many news stations are known to be extremely biased. it would be correct to say that with todays technology word travels around the world in minutes, in todays world we dont have to worry about getting the new, we have to worry about how accurate that news really is.

IV. Talk briefly with parents/grandparents, if available, OR people of those similar generations (staff or professors on campus, people you know who are 40 yrs of age and older) and ask them how THEY think new communications technologies are affecting the world they live in. Are your ideas similar? Include their comments in your blog.

the people of the different generation that i spoke to all agree that todays technology is amazing, it helps to bring everybody together, and provides us with lots of information about nearly any subject. most find it like they are living in another world with todays technology. i however have not felt a dramatic change in technology while growing up, this is mostlikely because i grew up with the internet.