Christmas Tree to Faux or No?

So it seems like everyone is getting these fake Christmas trees and it got me thinking about it.  Fake Christmas tree is this breaking with tradition a major factor.  The smell, look, and feel of a real pine in the house dates back many years it seems.   But as I’ve found, the Christmas tree was originally meant for decoration enlighten peoples spirits in their homes, trees that remained green all year had special meaning for people in the winter to brighten the gloom in the house hold.

 If this is the case I think a fake Christmas tree will do the job just fine.  In addition, there is less mess then with the pine needles falling everywhere.  There are no worries about the tree catching on fire.  Most come pre-lit so there is less hassle with lights.  It seems more cost effective since you can use the tree for many years and if you get one pre-lit you don’t need to worry about buying new lights each year.  It is eco friendly but even better you don’t have a dying tree in the house, which is kind of a contradiction when the purpose of the tree is used in a celebration of life.

Too Old for Halloween

Well the holidays are here once again and it kicks off with the spookiest of them all…Halloween.  I love to see me some tiny ghosts and goblins.  And it’s always fun to see the originals, ie. spidermans and princesses, and interesting to see new ideas with what the year brings. 

What I don’t find interesting are the mobs of teenagers who don’t have any parties to go to or anything more interesting then to go out trick or treating for candy.  I think if you’re old enough to get a job your old enough to buy your own candy!  The only way you’re gonna get me to drop a miniature candy in your bag is if you are polite and have a cool costume, not just some black hoodie and balck pants with a “well where’s the candy” look on your face, is not gonna cut it. 

It must amuse me or all you’re getting from me is gonna be coming out of my trick bowl.  So far this consists of pencils, straws, and old condiment packets which come in a variety of flavors such as, ketchup, soy sauce, taco sauce, and occasionally a wrapped fortune cookie, please note I am not above handing out my own bag of tricks.  So to all the older ‘trick or treaters’ who come to my door this Halloween, you better bring your best game if you’re looking for a good treat!

Creating Forms

I thought jotform was a really neat application and very easy to use. I think it is a great simple or temporary alternative to creating a form from scratch on your own. The user doesn’t have to deal with any long drawn out code or setting up any database for the form to work. I was able to customize my jotform by changing color and font styles, in addition I could validate email addresses and phone number fields, which was a great feature.

It was great that I could create multiple forms and save it to my jotform account in case I ever need to update a form I can go back to my saved form and make quick adjustments. The interface also tracks and posts from submissions.

The only two drawbacks, are:

1) the information from the form is stored on the jotform database, since I am not familiar with their security and as an outside party I don’t think I would ever use jotform for sensitive information from my users, such as credit card numbers and such, but for general feedback I think it is a great alternative.

2) I do not know if you can modify the thank you page after the form has been filled out. It doesn’t look very appealing and is not consistent with the design of the website.

Some of my classmates were able to fill out my form and I have received very positive feedback, which shows it works and serves it’s purpose. As a side note, I also liked that we were taught how to create a custom form, even though it was not set up to work, it was good to know how the structure of a form works.

A few FREE apps worth checking out!

http://www.zoho.com/
I know this was mentioned in our forum description but if you are unfamiliar with this application it is a great one to checkout, especially for anyone in business or companies that require client or project management. For all you guys in criminal justice if you plan to open up your own practice or work with attorneys you might have some need to manage your leads, potential clients and current clients, etc. Zoho projects and Zoho client relations manager (CRM) are both great organizational and collaboration tools to streamline business by keeping track of clients, sales, and projects.

http://www.sliderocket.com/
This application allows you to create and publish power point presentations online. It’s a great collaboration tool that is easily accessible, transferable, and easy to share. I have worked on presentation projects with multiple people in the past, who were all remotely located in different locations. Using this interface we were able to share the work in updating our presentation without needing to use the same computer or email large files back and forth for updates. Once the presentation is done it can be emailed to any recipient, or easily uploaded to a webpage, which MS PPT does not do. I know zoho just came out with a similar application but I have not tried it yet, so far I am really happy using sliderocket.

http://www.ge.tt/
Here’s another great collaboration site, you can manage and share any type of files which can be stored up to 90 days, and the best part the disk space is UNLIMITED! From photos, to music, to excel spread sheets (any file type), you can upload and share files in real time and you can view stats on who and how many people viewed your file, which I think is a nice, unique added feature.

http://backlinks.seopagepro.com/
This is mainly for anyone who works in SEO. It’s a great tool to track back links being used for your keyword campaigns. I find It extremely useful since you can view status of page rank and verify status of your all your back links in one location.

http://www.whosampled.com/
I’m not sure if this can technically be considered a web app but it’s fun if you like music and I thought I would mention it. You ever hear a song on the radio and you know you’ve heard it somewhere in another song before. This site allows you to search what song is being sampled in another song in case you can’t remember where you heard that original melody from way back when.

Hey Steve, we'll miss you! Here's to the crazy ones!

You were one inspirational person, your life was an ode to following your dream.  We appreciate all that you've contributed and bid you a safe journey to your next destination.

"No one wants to die","And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it"

“.. almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

-Steve Jobs

“Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

-Steve Jobs

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

-Steve Jobs

“You know, my main reaction to this money thing is that it’s humorous, all the attention to it, because it’s hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that’s happened to me.”

-Steve Jobs

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

-Steve Jobs

Education

Speaking of education have you guys heard of http://www.khanacademy.org/ it is a non-profit educational site that offers a video library of learning for free.  The subjects range from many different fields of education, such as math, science, and humanities.  Though, I’m waiting for them to build up their database for computer science, it will continue to grow.  It is not just videos but interactive learning.  In the practice area users can earn badges and pass levels of knowledge based on every learning area available on the site.  Khan academy was created by “Sal Khan” who wanted to change “education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.”  Honestly, I think it’s great.  They are trying to build a library of lifelong learning, there are subjects for many age levels, elementary school to postgraduate and beyond. 

If you have time guys I highly recommend check out this video


Really, I think you will find it funny and interesting! (Well at least I hope you do.)

The academy is backed by Bill Gates, Google, and many other influential financial sources.  So far it has helped many students in the fields of medicine, finance, and so on.  It’s interesting to see where something like this goes 10, 20, 50, years into the future.  Do you guys think it could morph into something greater than an educational resource tool?

Affect of wide availability of Info for News and Politics

While internet exposure can be bad in some cases it may be good in others.  When news could first travel it only traveled as fast as ones feet would permit; now it travels as fast as your feed will permit.  The ability to transmit information, in real time, anywhere on the planet, at the touch of a button or click of a mouse is truly powerful.  For example corruption and abuse of power can be brought to the attention of larger masses of people faster than ever.  We can hold officers of justice and representatives of government responsible for any misconduct.   Now if one happens to come across any public brutality one can capture their own mini Rodney King direct from there smart phone and uploaded faster than Antoine Dodson going viral.  Just make sure not to film a traffic stop from ones front yard to avoid being charged with a bunk criminal misdemeanor.  It’s no longer “big brother watching over you”, we are watching over each other, a great big viral village looking out for one another. 

This should also serve as warning to current and future politicians; they don’t usually fly under the radar if they get caught with their pants down.  Today’s politicians have less privacy for lewd conduct and should they choose to participate in such acts it’s probably best not to publicize it on their Twitter account.  Speaking of presidents if the internet had been widely used back in the 1930’s, FDR would not have been voted into office.  In great contrast I don’t believe our current president could have been elected without the power of the internet.  With faster, vaster, access to information people can make more educated decisions like who to vote for, what restaurant to patronage, what product to buy, even what accredited online university to attend!

Lions and Tigers

Usually I find it annoying when friends, family, or acquaintances junk up my email account with viral videos, but every now and then one comes through that I enjoy so it makes it not so bad. My sister recently took a trip to Thailand and had photos of her feeding a tiger, the lion king 3D movie topped the box offices, and it’s the last season for Lion King the musical at MGM, so there’s a lot of buzz for me about lions and tigers lately, and it made me think of that video I saw a few years back about Christian the Lion. I enjoyed watching the story, which I’m sure you’ve all seen, but it felt just as good recently watching it again after.



Then it reminded me of the movie “Two Brothers” which was a great family movie about two tiger cubs who were separated from their mother and each other and their adventures of how they reunited. It’s much better than the trailer let’s on, so if you haven’t watched it and you love animals, especially if you have kids, this is a movie that I think is worth watching.



Gone are the days when you could just buy a lion from your local pet shop. On a serious note, no wild animal should be placed in an unnatural environment, look what happened to Charla Nash. Thank goodness we have become aware enough to create some basic rules and regulations to protect some animals. It’s also important that documentaries such as Earthlings have been made to raise awareness about our roles and relationships with animals, by protecting animals we also protect ourselves.

Please let me know what you thought about this post by placing a comment or selecting one of the check box options below.  Thanks!

Play Fair Murdoch

First it was napster and metalica, then limewire, Jammie Thomas-Rasset and the RIAA. Fining $1.9 millon dollars for downloading $10 worth of music off the internet is quite a way to make a point. It was the first time I’ve really seen the seriousness of the internet in regards to media and copyright laws. It brought to light some important issues that needed to be solved with regards to access on the internet. And resolved it was, with new avenues such as iTunes, Rapshody, and ironically even Napster is back without stepping on any toes.

Today the latest scandal in regards to fair use and the media have recently been most prevalent in Britain. Smart phones have opened a whole new window of security issues through the internet. It's ironic how some newspapers and magazines, who's sales fell victim to information on the internet have managed to leverage the internet to get news first (and illegally) to increase their sales!

Yes the media can be ruthless and in Britain there is a line that has been crossed to get the story. Hacking the phone of a murdered girl, and potentially deleting messages, is tampering with evidence. Just because people can do it, doesn’t mean they should do it. The media has gone from hacking the phone of Paris Hilton to hacking the phones of family members of dead soldiers and missing children. It’s audacious, unethical, illegal, and a complete violation of privacy.

When it was the music, the fear factor was that any individual could be sued for ridiculous amounts of money; it didn’t matter if you were a 12 year old girl, you download music without paying for it and you were a target. Though what will be our solution for this new type of conduct? The difference here, is the media against the individual not the individual against the media. In this situation the media has so much money they have been sued repeatedly since 1995, but they can afford to settle and still continue to hack stories because they make so much profit. I am interested to see how it gets resolved.

Don't Fumble the Football

Recently, INSA (Intelligence and National Security Alliance) had their computer systems hacked with a list of 3,000 members’ names and information being posted on Cryptome.org an anti-secrecy website. “The list of INSA members includes at least 95 individuals with email addresses from the supersecret National Security Agency, as well as scores of others in key positions at the White House, the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, the Office of Director of National Intelligence and the State Department.” INSA has stated “key economic and national security assets are exposed to significant threats.”  With information like this exposed to the world, it makes these operatives and covert agents easy targets.  “Some members, whose affiliations were not provided, had their home addresses and phone numbers listed.” 

The INSA is supposed to be our countries “premier intelligence and national security organization”.  So it’s concerning that they recently published a “major report (PDF) warning of an urgent need for the country to beef up its cyberdefenses.” (MSNBC).  Kim Jong-Il told his military a few years back, “Modern war is electronic warfare. Victory or defeat in a modern war depends on how to carry out electronic warfare.”  Electronic security is a serious global concern. 

I guess it makes sense that our presidents get their critical information hand delivered to them in order to keep the information safe.  When away from the White House, they even bring a brief case called the “football” that contains all their nuclear codes and classified locations, which are all written down on paper.  After this INSA hack it seems best to keep some things, old school, and off the digital radar wouldn’t you agree.

If you'd like to read more, check out the following link Intel officials' emails posted after hack of cybersecurity group

It’s more than just a fad!

Helping people is something that’s always in style.  So I thought it was cool that Nike decided to partner with Michael J. Fox to help raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease research.  Basically Nike recreated the Marty McFly shoe Fox wore in the movie Back to the Future II!  They teamed up with EBay to auction off 1500 pairs of these limited edition shoes.  They are an exact replica, they even glow, but they don’t self lace, not until 2015 at least.  A British rapper Tinie Tempah even donated $37,500 for the shoes which I thought was very generous on his part.  Speaking of generous, Sergery Brin, one of the founders of Google, is going to match up to $50 million dollars donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation until the end of next year. 

Shoe collectors have listed these shoes as one of “the greatest shoes never made”, that’s one shoe no longer on the list.  Its funny how something that otherwise would be just some funky looking shoe off the shelf, is morphed into an item that could fetch $37,000 for one pair, based on its background and its beneficial purpose.  I think it was a fun creative way to help and raise awareness to a worthy cause.

Back To the Future II Shoes

Blog Post 3 - Internet: Communication and Relation with One Another

It seems everyone agrees there are positive and negative qualities that come with the internet and the way we communicate with one another these days.  There are generational differences in attitude toward hanging out with your friends that are so prevalent in today’s society that companies are even making commercials pointing it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUGmcb3mhLM.

There were a lot of great comments other students had made, like “if u dont abuse the power of gift of the internet that it is a blessing”, another student mentioned it “should be used as a tool and not the rule” and another comment said "Using the internet as the primary means of communication is a tragedy." because though it keeps us connected we also become disconnected when we rely on it as our only source of interaction with others. 

With great power comes great responsibility, and a lot of, mainly younger, people don’t give thought to the negative implications the exposure of the internet can bring, like ridiculous party posts on their Facebook or embarrassing pictures or videos emailed or posted for the world to see.  Once information is made public online it is virtually impossible to remove. 

On a lesser level someone made a great point that “splitting up how you talk to your friend and fam is important”, sometimes when I am upset with someone I find it easier to communicate and work through problems via text or email, which gives me time to think about what I am saying rather than saying something in the heat of the moment. 

I believe face to face communication is important to the growth of our human core, but whenever it is not possible to meet face to face alternate communications have made a major positive impact for keeping in touch with the people in our lives. 

Blog Post 2 - September 11th

Ok I thought I read somewhere we were supposed to post two blogs every week (though now I can’t find where I read that).  So this would be my second blog post then for week .  Every week I would like to just share with you guys something new I may have learned or whatever I find interesting that week. 

(DAN METH - TWIN TOWER CAMEO)
Today is September 11^th, and I would like to take the opportunity to give thanks and honor the memories of the Firefighters, Policemen, and all the brave individuals who acted with courage and selflessness that day.  The world has changed but we will never forget.  There was an amazing sense of bravery, unity, maturity, and honesty that came over the entire country I have never experienced before.  It’s unbelievable to think that 10 years have passed.  In a way time will always stand still for that day. 

I’ve heard people say they can recall exactly where they were and what they were doing when Kennedy was shot.  I was not yet born when that happened, so though I could sympathize there was no way to really know how it felt to live through such a massively moving event.  911 is my first real equivalent experience, I was actually going to college in Hawaii when it happened and I can remember vividly where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news.  It set in motion a chain of events that changed the course of my life and everyone in the world. 


Do you remember where and what you were doing September 11, 2001?

Let me introduce myself...

Hey Everyone,

My name is Melissa and I currently work in web marketing and project management.  I've finally had the opportunity to come back to school and finish what I started over 10 years ago.  I am trying to complete my degree in Information Technology, which I hope to get done this semester.  I'm grateful for the internet and our technological advances, affording me the opportunity to continue. Without online distant learning offered at an accredited university I would not have had the time to come back.

Although I work in a segment of the online world, technology has moved forward so quickly, I don't feel I have been keeping up with the latest avenues on the internet, such as facebook, twitter, blogging, etc. I'm amazed with how quickly computer technologies and the internet have progressed. Mr. Moore predicts every 18 months the density (complexity) of silicon chips will double. That means as technology increases so will the speed of the rate at which it is developed. I don’t want to get left behind, so it's important that I refresh my knowledge of the Internet every so often. I believe by “Exploring the Internet” with all of you under the care and guidance of Mr. Annuziato I can bring myself back up to speed!