What More I'd Like to Learn

I would like to learn how to edit videos, but it's a very low priority in my life right now. Actually, any additional learning on computer-related doings is at a pretty low priority.

I also would like to know how to use Photoshop for "professional" photo editing. I can do basic things and make pictures look considerably better than they did before, but there are little tricks and such that really make a photo, and I would like to learn those tricks.

I wouldn't mind knowing CSS or some other advanced language for the web. Actionscript for Flash would be really sweet, too, since I can do a lot of the graphical stuff in Flash (or at least I used to be able to. I haven't had time to mess around in it in a while).

Basically, I know way more than I need to at this point for my life, and I'm satisfied where I'm at, though I'm sure I will find something that sparks my interest and causes me to research and learn more about some other aspect of computers.

Viral Videos

Viral Videos are countless in numbers. What they are, essentially, are videos that gain widespread popularity through the inter connectivity that the web offers nowadays. With high speed Internet and blogs and sites like youtube.com, viral videos have become the new email greeting cards. I often get links to funny or interesting videos on the web from friends -- no longer those obsolete FWDed msgs, but something with multimedia pizzazz.

So many of my friends know and joke in real life about the videos (viral videos at that) that we have all seen. Some that I can think of right away are the Noma Noma dancer, Super Mario Twins Flash video, and the laughing kitty.

Viral Videos have made internet celebrities, caused huge controversies, gotten people fired (the "Mickey Mouse Orgy" at France's Disneyland), disrupted, and changed lives. With the technology to upload something straight from your cell phone to an online host, video blogging and viral videos spread like wildfire and the debate about them is currently raging, especially with elections and such going on.

Computers of the Future

I have read a lot of articles in the past duscussing the future of computers.

There have been a lot of exciting concepts.

One of the most interesting ones I've read about (and this was a while ago) was bio-computers. They are searching and searching trying to make a living computer -- since living things are able to transmit and store data more quickly and efficiently. It is very interesting to read about.

Another cool concept that I have heard about more recently is something from a guy that works at Google and it's a screen that you touch to use the computer. Now, they have touch screens, but this is different. You can do everything you normally do on a computer, not just select buttons. The interface is desinged to give you more freedom than a mouse, pad, or any other input device has ever given you. Panning, zooming, and switching programs were all done with ease by the demonstrator in the movie I watched on the news. I can't find a link now.

There is talk that in the near future we won't have to wait for our systems to boot up. That'd be nice.

Computers already go beyond what most people use them for, but all of the advances are exciting and I can't wait to see what comes out next!

Computer News

IBM has figured out a new way to remove heat from processors. It takes the heat from the processor and moves it to a different location. They've also been testing out a way to actually run liquid over the processor to keep it cool.

Hot processors are largely an inhibitor of processing power expansion. Processors that overheat can cause many problems, problems that include damage to the system and an actual meltdown of the internal hardware. Manufacturers have to be very careful to place processors in good locations so the computer doesn't malfunction or overheat. That's why you see fans on computers or what a computer gets really hot in your lap (a laptop).

I know on the bottom of my Vaio, the Microsoft sticker is melting in a certain area -- though I've seen this on many computers, so it might just be a verification thing. Anyway, my computer does get quite hot if I leave it on in the summer like on my desk or something. It kinda worries me, but I back up often enough and have a protection plan :D It makes it ok.

Okay so I just looked it up and that's supposed to happen -- it's an antipiracy feature. It worried me the first time I saw it, though!

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is a term that refers to the internet being a neutral environment: that is a place where people can freely explore and travel through without barriers or restrictions based on your location or service provider.

I believe Net Neutrality is very important. It is what has allowed the internet the prosperity and expansion we’ve seen – everything from E-bay, to Cnet, to Google; these companies were allowed to freely expand and visitors were allowed to visit whenever and wherever they wanted. Without Net Neutrality, I believe it would be much more difficult for expansion. The internet would be a cumbersome tool and where would the restrictions stop?

I don’t want the internet to become some kind of censored tool like in China – the free exchange of information is so valuable and I think we should do as much as we can to ensure this free exchange to continue.

3 Interesting Websites

Alright, here they are:

http://www.myheritage.com/
By registering for free, you are able to upload a photo of yourself and,with photo recognition software, the site detects which celebrities your facial structure is similar to. There is an option to have it load a script to easily display your results on your myspace, blog, livejournal, etc. Just a fun little site.

http://reviews.cnet.com
I know you showed us this in class, but this has been one of my favorite sites for a long time -- It keeps me up to date on a lot of technological stuff and actually reviews it instead of merely introducing it. It is also a big help when I'm looking to buy new equipment.

http://www.flashkit.com
Though it has been a while, this was the site that taught me how to use Flash (the little I know). It is basically a forum of user-submitted tutorials, neatly separated into sections. When I first started using it, the site seemed a lot more clean and well-made, but recent visits have shown it to be a little more confusing and messy than I remember it being.


http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm
This one's just a bonus -- being the computer guru you are, you may have already reached this point.

-jc

Computer Gifts I Would Buy for Friends and Family

For my little bro, I think I'd buy him a tuner so he could watch TV on his laptop. He loves watching TV and since you need special software, cables, and connectors, I think it would be something he'd like but wouldn't buy for himself.

For my older bro, I actually got him something only available on computers for his birthday -- since he's on a tether and on house arrest, he could never go get movies or anything to entertain him at home, so I bought him Netflix for the next three months for his bday. It seems like he loves it.

I am unsure of what I would get my parents -- they're in their late 50's and don't really use the computer much. Maybe for my mom I would get some type of software that manages family trees and contact information -- also birthdays and such. She's kinda into that stuff. For my dad, I think I would get him something to manage his images from his digital camera. He doesn't know how to use any type of photo editing software, but I guess I could get him an entry-level one for him to try out. I don't think he'd have much interest in editing, since it seems like his favorite thing to do is read and not have much to do with the computer, but just software to manage the photos might be good.

Am I included in what I'd get for my family? . . . there's too much to post.

-jc!

Social Engineering

Social Engineering is applying knowledge of human behavior and faults in order to place malware or obtain otherwise personal information, usually for malicious purposes such as spreading a virus or observing behavior on the computer. Examples include trojan horses, spyware, malware, keyloggers, fake computer support lines, false emails impersonating a reputable company, watching someone type their password, relying on the user to pick an easy to guess password, etc.

One example of a high-profile actress that was "Socially Engineered" (is that a proper term?) is Paris Hilton. Her SideKick was hacked and all of the hottest names in Hollywood and around the globe had to change personal, house, and vacation numbers, emails, and other personal information due to this act of Social Engineering. This caused disruption in the life of those stars, as you can imagine, and although Paris is usually associated with fine wines and desserts, the taste this time around was a bit more bitter. In this instance, the "Engineer" pretended to be an employee of T-Mobile when he called another location and asked for the username and password to their system. Without much effort, he got it, and had access to many of T-Mobile's "secured" pages. The rest of the story can be found at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/19/AR2005051900711.html

-Jon

What I Want to Learn about Computers

I would like to learn how to edit video and possibly some actionscript for Flash. I’d also like to learn how to create real graphics/cartoons in illustrator or freehand. Other than that, I feel pretty satisfied with where I’m at with computers.

The reason I want to learn how to do these things is because it’s kind of my hobby to just waste time on my computer – not much of a hobby, I guess, but it’s what I like to do. I really enjoy editing photos and that kind of stuff, and I think it’d be fun and interesting to make movies and stuff with and for my friends and family. I love taking pictures and videotaping and stuff, and I’m the type of person who likes to know how to do something from start to finish if I am doing it.

One of the things holding me back is time constraint. It takes a lot of time to work on something like that, especially on my laptop, since it’s only 1.73gHz (which isn’t bad for a laptop, but much slower than today’s desktops)

Anyway, that’s what I’d like to learn.

My History with Computers

I started using computers when I was young -- I think I was about 9 years old or so. It was a Packard 433 or something like that. It ran Windows 3.1 and you had to start it up with a command prompt. I loved AOL and "proggies". From there, I quit using a computer when I moved to Oklahoma when I was 11 because we were always playing outside and our computer was so crappy.

We got a new Gateway and I loved using it. I used it for email, AOL, chatting, and started getting into graphic programs like flash and such. I knew very little and progress was slow. I wanted to learn how to code things, so my parents bought me a program that taught Visual Basic and then eventually I had a tutor for about 4 months. I quit learning that after I realized I really didn't like that aspect of it all.

I learned HTML when I was about 14 and made a Pokemon website. I was pretty proud, since it got like 100 hits a day haha. Pretty lame.

I kinda lost HTML when I was introduced to computer programs like Frontpage and then Dreamweaver. From there, I kinda just went to graphics and started editing pictures and such in Paint Shop Pro and took a few tutorials for Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, and Paint Shop Pro. Just recently I got Photoshop CS2 and have been playing around in it. I kinda just do it as a hobby and am quite inexperienced (oh, and I tried to learn Actionscript for Flash). I never got too deep into coding like CSS or forms and such, but whenever I need something I just find a tutorial online and learn how to do it.

I guess the branch of computers I'm interested in is media -- for web or print. I have Sony Vegas for editing video and Adobe Audition for audio, but I'mm not too interested in audio and video editing is too slow a task for me on my 1.5gHz (around that?) and 1gig RAM laptop. Also, I haven't really found the time to do much with it anyway.
Anyway, that's about it.

-Jon