JOUR4551 blog

In one of my other clases, JOUR4801, we watched a clip about hacking conventions where hackers from around the world would come and gather in an effort of working towards more security; attacking hackers through hacking. In this sense, these people wanted to help companies such as credit card companies make sure their programs, websites, software, etc was difficult or impossible to hack through. They ran a test of hackers hacking into a police station's database and sending fraudulent emails to the police chief and the other officers. It was not at all difficult for the hacker to do so but they were able to improve their system. In this sense, hacking is obviously a good thing, but I guess we just have to hope the good guys are better hackers than the bad guys.

Just a little note on democracy and hacking...I was appalled to learn that in China their internet bans words just as 'democracy' 'freedom' and 'human rights'/ Words that I, and our nation, hold in high esteem. In some Arab countries the word "women" was enforced in efforts to stop women from gaining a stronger voice in numbers. This information saddens me that other parts of the world live in such oppression. It's not the actual banning of these words online, but what the words symbolize. Makes me all the more happy to be living in the land of the free I guess.

Posted by Paress Huebner at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Talking about Instant Identiy: Adolescent Girls and the World of IMing, I am able to personally identify with this notion as I was an avid "AIMer" in middle school and high school. I can remember specifically in middle school talking to boys online in a flirtatious way. Ways that I would not have talked to them otherwise, at lunchtime or after school. I feel I used AIM mostly to talk to boys, especially if there was a boy I liked. Our "relationship" consisted mostly of online conversing rather than face-to-face or hanging out. It makes me wonder if that early onset of online connecting rather than personally has molded my comfortableness with the opposite sex in some ways.
After high school I stopped using AIM until Facebook chat came out and now I find myself returning to my old chatting ways. Not at all in exploring ways this time, but just a free way to communicate to whomever I want to and maybe even mild flirting here and there. There is a weird sense of immediate comfort that comes from talking to someone you don't know that well online...but I wonder if that transforms into more comfort beyond the computer screen with them?

Posted by Paress Huebner at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kevin Kelly's video shown in class brought me to TED.org where I found a video on new technology that somewhat blew my mind. They call it a "6th sense" and I don't even really know how to explain it. Watch this video

Personally, thinking about this technology makes me want to go live in a forest somewhere. I can't believe how reliant people have become on technology. I am incredibly guilty of this myself and can't go more than a few hours without checking facebook or Googleing something but The 6th Sense takes it all to a far new level. When your choices about buying paper towel are made by a technological device and a green light shined on the product, what has this world come to? I see the point that more informed decisions can be made, but for the most part this level of technology just scares me a bit. Where is the realness and the emotion and energy in a world filled with so much technology? That doesn't seem like a world I'd like to live in. But I guess when change happens gradually and we build up a sort of tolerance to how much of our lives really do revolve around the internet and new technologies, it might not seem so shocking at the time it is on market and in use.

Posted by Paress Huebner at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In class we watched Kevin Kelly's video on the next 5,000 days of the internet. I found his talk pretty obvious for the most part in that he talked about the internet as one big machine. For me, I don't think of it so much as a machine than some abstract space of information, but still realize its "one"-ness. The fact that it is "one" is great because then everyone, everywhere has access to the same information which provides for increased global communication.
What I found most interesting about his talk probably was the fact that internet will become more personalized. I like this probably because of my mild facebook addiction. I like being online and having a profile and being able to connect to friends, see what they are up to and doing, make plans for the future, and also have an entire universe of knowledge at my fingertips. A more personalized internet will have more ads featured to my interests which I also like. Already on the side of facebook there are ads featured according to my interested. Then I can click if I like it or not and why. I've found great bands, events going on, and online clothing from this helpful feature. Why waste both customer and manufacture's time and money with ads that aren't of any interest?

Posted by Paress Huebner at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a question that comes up again and again in all of my courses and for the most part no one really had a answer. It's very two-way. Where everyone is a consumer and enjoys getting news, information, movies, music, what have you, for free, there is also the other side of it-the business side.
As someone who is studying journalism and hopes to one day be at least a mildly-successful journalist, the trends we are experiencing worries me for my future. I think it is great that everyone has the ability to be productive and go out and record and report or be eye-witnesses and most importantly, express their thoughts or concerns. THis is the part about blogging I like, because it is usually just like minded- or different-minded people discussing components that make up our world. However, when it comes to actual reporting and fact-finding, journalists are still needed for this expertise that an average individual in most cases would not be able to do. For this I think the career of Journalist is still an appreciated entity and needs to be compensated as so.
However, news sources need to think of a way that their journalists will get paid so the original investigations can still take place and be funded. Now I don't really have an answer for this, but its something that worries me. A possibility of online subscriptions for news articles could work...but still people would copy and post them up somewhere else. Or maybe higher internet user fees that will get distributed to companies? I really don't see how either of those ideas will work actually haha. So maybe we are screwed...
In the meantime, I guess its good to just keep on keepin on, taking advantage of the amount of sources we have available at our finger tips and appreciating the quality journalism that many individuals provide...

Posted by Paress Huebner at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I first started entering a virtual reality in middle school and high school, spending my weekday evenings AIMing with friends rather than spending time with my family or hanging out in parents basements. That was the days of QTpie1244. Now with Facebook, a whole new level of virtual reality has entered. Everyone jokes how it is an addiction, but I really think there is something to that.
You can get such satisfaction by receiving a message from a friend you haven't talked to in years, or writing some witty comment on a friend's wall that you see every day. Yet there is also a sense of lonliness that sometimes comes with excessive facebooking; the illusion of staying connected, yet only to a certain degree.
This class had made me realize even more so just how much I am consumed in this virtual reality. I will be half-way listening to a roommate tell me a story about last night because while she's talking I'm away in this other world facebook chatting. I realize that many many perks come with the internet and it really is a great way to see what people are up to that you otherwise wouldn't know...but then doesn't it maybe not even matter? If you were really interested wouldn't you call them or go get some coffee?
I think our generation becomes too involved in what everyones doing, and when, and where. That's why twitter has come about too, so everyone can always be "in the know". Now I haven't joined twitter yet because I think it's still a pretty weird concept to me, but who knows where that will go.

This whole concept of a "virtual reality" that me and so many of my peers live in on a day to day basis really was shown in this year's Coca Cola Superbowl commercial. Even though this is a Coke commercial and a blatant form of advertising meant to give you the goosebumps and touch your heart or whatnot...but it really speaks true. This man is walking around in a world of animated virtual creatures all on their phones or blackberries or laptops; a world of minimal actual interactions with one another. I think this commercial was great because it really makes us analyze how we spend our time and to maybe try and come down to earth more often for some more meaningful connections...

Continue reading "Our Virtual Realities" »

Posted by Paress Huebner at 7:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)