Final Exam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZhCY9FF608

1. The way Google Living Search approaches the news differently is that they set it up in a way that it is constantly updated. They have the timeline for people to look at and they can read the parts that interest them instead of having to read the whole article and maybe getting nothing out of it that they wanted. They unify coverage on a single page with a consistent URL and they organize information by developments in the story. They also call your attention to changes in the story since the last time you viewed the page so you can easily find new material.

2. I think that this approach is trying to reduce bias in the news, but I'm not sure that it will because they are only pulling information from certain news groups. When you are getting information from only certain places it is hard to make it unbias. They are getting information from more than one source but these sources all seem to have the same view on the subject matters. I think that as the project develops more than it will become less bias.

3. I don't think there is really anything Google needs to add to their pages. I think that they sort of already have to much going on in one place. They need to make it more organized. It isn't hard to follow what is going on on the page but there is a lot going on and if it was a little more organized it may be easier to follow and look at everything.

Screencasting Final Project

Here is my screencasting for the final project. I did mine on women's softball-rules, regulations, history, and different games plans that can be used.

Check it Out! :)
Screencasting Presentation

Black Friday

I did not go shopping on Black Friday, but my mom did go out and she said there were people everywhere. There was one shopper who completly skipped Thanksgiving to sit outside Best Buy to get whatever deal was inside.

I think that there are good deal on Black Friday and I did hear about some of them and see them in the ads. I saw a newsreport that had exectutives from Toys R Us and Macy's. They said that all their inventory was out on Black Friday and if it wasn't there when shoppers arrived it was gone and there would not be anymore of that item before Christmas. Stores such as Macy's and Toys R Us are cutting back on purchases this year because of the economy. They are not buying as many of products to sell to buyers.

Online shopping does seem more effective because you do not have to go to the stores and risk getting into the fights that happen on Black Friday or wait in the horrible lines. Also there are sometimes sales online that are not in stores. A friend of mine said she bought a whole series of books from Barnes and Noble for $35 online and it was $65 in the store, shipping and handling was also free. So if you look there are also deals that happen online that aren't in stores.

Pros of online shopping are no lines, and less comotion. Also you can shop in the comfort of your home and not worry about all the crazy shoppers at stores. The cons of shopping online consists of not getting some of the deals that are in stores, and your gifts maybe no arriving on time. Also a lot of sites may charge for shipping and handling and if you buy the wrong size it is harder to return.

Cloud Computing

The video posted on the website about Indicee was very interesting because it showed ways in which businesses are able to find an easier way to do things such as accounting and share the information with all those who need it. I think that this is very helpful and makes things more proficient because business people are able to share this information easier and do not have to deal with all the tabs and questions and re-writes.

I think that Cube Tree may be more effective than Indicee because it is free forever. Indicee was not free forever. Also Cube Tree has all the essentials such as social networking and collaborations tools. The website seems very good and does the same things as Indicee for cheaper.

DocVerse does basically the same thing as the other two sites but it also charges money. This makes it less effective than Cube Tree because it is charging companies and with the way the economy is right now people want the cheapest thing out there which is free.

SocialCalc is a good website that has been around for quite sometime and does have more experience than the other websites. It has been in business longer so it has more credibility than the other sites. The only down fall to SocialCalc is that is charges. The charge although is cheaper than DocVerse.

Adaptivity is another cloud computing website that is being used other than these top four. It is just like the others and seems to have good credibility along with the others. It does all the same basic things as the other systems.

The final site is Akamai. Akamai is another company that does cloud computing. It has a descriptional video describing why this is so important. It also has all the same features as the other websites.

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking is a system that people can use in order to save sites when there are lots that they use. The part that makes it social is that they can share their tags with other people in there groups because everything is public.

Anyone can use social bookmarking services. The video described teachers and students using bookmarking to find helpful sites for classes.

People go on a website and they choose one that they want to save for late. They clock tag on the bookmarking site and fill in more information so that there is a list of tags on all the websites they bookmarked.

This is significant because instead of having to write every website that you find interesting down you are able to just go on your computer and still have the website tagged 2 months later or even longer.

It is going to be a better system for people to use who need to do a lot of research and things because it can save all these websites on the internet instead of people having to write everything down.

It can be used by teachers and students to share websites on a particular subject in the class. This helps to share information and get more involved in the classes because all tags are public.

Downsides could consist of you tagging too many websites and everything being just as disorganized as before social bookmarking came about.

The benefits compared to traditional bookamrking are the fact that everything is public in social bookmarking. When tags are public everyone in your group is able to see what you are doing and this makes things easier for classes to share.

Three popular sites are delicious.com, twitter.com, and digg.com. The top one is most likely twitter. Everyone uses twitter nowadays and it seems to be very popular.

Picture from Halloween

Screencasting - What still needs to be done

My plans for my screen casting are to record it at home or in a lab in the library. I think at home would be the easiest because I can control the volume of the room, where as in a lab I cannot control any these things.

The system I plan on using is Jing. It has been discussed in class and I feel more confident in a system that has been discussed and that my professor understands. With this system I will be able to get help from my professor and also have some online help that has been provided on the website. I will have to download it in order to use it but when I am done with it I can get rid of it if i need to. I would also be able to use it at a location on campus that may already have it installed.

I will have to "check out" a headset from the technology lab. I do not have my own to record my screen cast.

My To-Do List

1. Get the tools that I need such as: install Jing, and get a headset from the tech. lab.
2. Read over my script a few times so I know exactly what I am going to say.
3. Edit my screen cast so that it sounds good for everyone to listen to and it makes sense with which slide is being shown.
4. Show my screen cast to my class for viewing.