Internet Studies Blog

Office Hours

2011-12-12T09:36:00.001-05:00

I'll have office hours Monday 12/12 from 9:00 -11:30 am at Espresso News. Otherwise, I'll be available by appointment this week. Good luck with your projects. See you Friday morning!

Tuesday 11/22

2011-11-21T11:05:00.002-05:00

No class meeting today. Have a great break!

Morphing

2011-11-17T13:51:00.003-05:00

Singularity

2011-11-15T12:15:00.000-05:00

From Time Magazine.

Money

2011-11-08T09:56:00.003-05:00

From the EFF:

The Stop Online Piracy Act: A Blacklist by Any Other Name Is Still a Blacklist

... First, the new law would allow the Attorney General to cut off sites from the Internet, essentially “blacklisting” companies from doing business on the web. Under section 102, the Attorney General can seek a court order that would force search engines, DNS providers, servers, payment processors, and advertisers to stop doing business with allegedly infringing websites.

Second, the bill encourages private corporations to create a literal target list—a process that is ripe for abuse. Under Section 103 (cleverly entitled the “market based” approach), IP rightsholders can take action by themselves, by sending notices directly to payment processors—like Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal—demanding that they cut off all payments to the website. Once notice is delivered to the payment processor, that processor has only five days to act. The payment processor, and not the rightsholder, is then responsible for notifying the targeted website. So by the time Visa or Mastercard—who will no doubt be receiving many of these notices—processes the notice, informs the website, and the website decides whether to file a counter notice, the five days will almost certainly have elapsed. The website will then be left without a revenue source even if it did nothing wrong.

Third, section 104 of SOPA also allows payment processors to cut websites off voluntarily—even if they haven’t received a notice. Visa and Mastercard cannot be held accountable if they cease processing payments to any site, as long as they have a “reasonable belief” that the website is engaged in copyright violations of any kind. Hmm, wonder how long it will take big media to publicly post a list of allegedly infringing sites, and start pressuring payment processors to cut them off? As long as the payment processors are willing to comply, the rightsholders can essentially censor anyone they see fit. Even well-meaning payment processors might do this to avoid liability down the road. ...

More on the bill here.

------------------

Bitcoin via Motley Fool:

... Bitcoin is essentially a cryptography-based peer-to-peer currency that functions independent of any central bank. The creation of cryptographer Satoshi Nakamoto, and currently administered by Gavin Andresen, the Bitcoin system is designed to function as a genuine alternative to the dollar and other modern-day currencies. ...

When I first wrote about Bitcoin in June, it had recently gone parabolic, first crossing the $1 mark, and then rapidly shooting up to the $9 range (if you don't know a Bitcoin from a Malaysian ringgit, see my previous article). The ascent, however, was still in the middle innings. Not two weeks later, the Bitcoin was trading at more than $30, having appreciated 10,000-fold since dollar-denominated trading began in 2010.

Then, of course, the inevitable occurred. Exuberance gave way to sanity and profit taking, and the Bitcoin first plummeted, then more gradually but steadily slid, eventually finding its way back down to the current trading range of $2-$3

Code Monkey

2011-11-03T08:24:00.000-04:00

Turing Tests

2011-10-27T11:21:00.005-04:00

Eliza.

My Apologies...

2011-10-20T12:07:00.002-04:00

I won't be able to be in class today, Thursday 10/20. We'll see you in class on Tuesday.

How To: Screencast

2011-10-17T09:55:00.006-04:00

Hello. Today we'll be learning about how to screencast. A screencast is simply a digital video capture of your computer screen. We've already seen one example of a very effective screencast this semester: Michael Wesch's The Machine Is Us/ing Us. Now it's your turn to create a screencast version for us of your revised second web writing assignment.

There are many different versions of screencast software available, many of them free, with versions for both PC and Mac. I recommend using QuickTime Player for Mac. It's free and available on every Mac on campus. To use Quicktime to record a screencast, just choose "new screen recording" from under the file menu.

Be creative in thinking about how to use and present selections from your writing in your screencast. Remember, you can use pictures and videos as well as a variety of ways to type, paste, and include words.

After you have your video recorded, you may find it helpful to use a video editor, like iMovie, to edit your screencast and add a soundtrack. If you need help, the Digital Media Studio in Belk Library 355 can help you. They have software, equipment, and a staff to help answer your questions about digital video production.

When your screencast is finished, upload your video to YouTube. You should be able to use your Google account to log in. Then be sure to embed your YouTube video in your blog along with the complete version of your revised essay.

Here's a student screecast from last year...

Fair Use

2011-10-04T13:29:00.002-04:00

Let's Go Crazy

2011-09-26T10:19:00.005-04:00

Lenz v. Universal

more...

Convergence

2011-09-20T11:25:00.002-04:00

Henry Jenkins in Second Life

Here's another recent example of media convergence to consider:

Makes the charts.

And of course these all get posted to youtube and then to this blog and we watch them in a class on internet studies.

And here is Antoine Dodson's web site.

How To: Blog

2011-08-25T11:10:00.001-04:00

You will be creating a blog of your own for this class. I recommend you use Blogger.com, but you're welcome to use Tumblr or some other site to create your blog if you prefer as long it provides an RSS feed. If you are new to blogging, I recommend you use Blogger.com since I'll be able to best help you with questions about that site. If you have questions about your blog, try consulting Blogger Help first. You will be using your blogs to post various web writing assignments as well as other homework, comments, news, links, and discussion.

Give you blog a creative title related to the topic for this class. Post a brief "Hello" for us as a first post on your new blog. Remember that your blog will be publicly available on the internet, so please don't post revealing personal information about yourself. We'll be working on helping you customize and tweak your blog during the semester, so don't worry too much about the fine points of its appearance right now.

When your blog is ready, leave the address of your new blog as a comment below on this post.

You should have your blog created and the link posted by midnight Sunday, 8/28.

Welcome!

2011-08-22T12:35:00.005-04:00

This semester we're going to explore how and why we went from this...

to this

and from here... to here.

Welcome Summer 2011

2011-05-23T08:55:00.006-04:00

Welcome to our Summer 2011 version of Internet Studies. This course provides an introduction to the culture, politics, and history of digital media and the internet. The course will look at some of the history of digital media through an interdisciplinary investigation of some of the social, political, cultural, psychological, economic, and legal implications of the internet. It will also provide an opportunity for you to hone your critical reading skills in the context of the Internet as well as learn some of the technical and editorial skills needed to publish online. This class fulfills requirements for the IDS Internet Studies major concentration and minor. There are no prerequisites.

Texts
Lessig, Lawrence. Remix. New York: Penguin, 2008
Lanier, Jaron. You Are Not a Gadget. New York: Vintage, 2011.

The formal grading requirements are as follows:
    Class Participation and Blog 25%
    Two Web Writing Assignments 25% each
    Final Web Project and Presentation 25%

More information on these assignments will be posted as we go.

You should also be aware of these other ASU policies.

Your first assignment for this class is to create a Blog. Give it a creative title. Make it look however you like. And leave a comment below with a link to your new blog. Do this by 10:00 am tomorrow, T 5/24.

Your reading assignment for tomorrow is:
Bruce Sterling, "A Short History of the Internet"
Douglas Adams, "Beyond the Brochure"
Andrew Sullivan, "Why I Blog"
And then also browse "Hobbes' Internet Timeline"

The url for this class blog is: http://internetstudiesblog.blogspot.com

Remember!

2010-12-02T13:34:00.003-05:00

Remember that we are meeting in Belk Library today (12/2), near room 355. See you there!

Copyright-Infringing Dude?

2010-11-29T11:18:00.000-05:00

Privilege-Denying Dude removed from Tumblr for copyright violation. Is this fair-use or not?

Blog Homework for Final Projects

2010-11-22T11:21:00.001-05:00

By midnight Sunday 11/28, post to your class blog a brief passage from Lessig's Free Culture that you think might make a good subject for the final group video mashup project.

Blog Homework

2010-11-18T10:54:00.003-05:00

Girl Talk's "All Day"...
By midnight Sunday 11/21, post to you class blog any one of the following:

Find and embed two mashup videos you would like to share with the class.
Post a link and a brief summary of a recent news story dealing with any aspect of current digital copyright law.
Post a link and brief summary of a recent story about Girl Talk, Brett Gaylor, or Lawrence Lessig.

Mashups

2010-11-11T12:03:00.009-05:00

Via:

Social Network Map

2010-11-09T16:18:00.000-05:00

Via xkcd:

Copyright Comedy

2010-11-04T13:56:00.000-04:00

How To: Screencast

2010-10-18T00:45:00.000-04:00

Hello. Today we'll be learning about how to screencast. A screencast is simply a digital video capture of your computer screen. We've already seen one example of a very effective screencast this semester: Michael Wesch's The Machine Is Us/ing Us. Now it's your turn to create a screencast version for us of your revised second web writing assignment.

There are many different versions of screencast software available, many of them free, like Jing, with versions for both PC and Mac. There are also web based versions, like ScreenToaster. I will be using QuickTime Player for this demo. It's free and available on every Mac on campus. To use Quicktime to record a screencast, just choose "new screen recording" from under the file menu.

Be creative in thinking about how to use and present selections from your writing in your screencast. Remember, you can use pictures and videos as well as a variety of ways to type, paste, and include words.

After you have your video recorded, you may find it helpful to use a video editor, like iMovie, to edit your screencast and add a soundtrack. If you need help, the Digital Media Studio in Belk Library 355 can help you. They have software, equipment, and a staff to help answer your questions about digital video production.

When your screencast is finished, upload your video to YouTube. You should be able to use your Google account to log in. Then be sure to embed your YouTube video in your blog along with the complete version of your revised essay.

Bookstore

2010-10-06T13:51:00.002-04:00

"The University Bookstore is beginning to return unsold textbooks to the publishers that were ordered for Fall 2010 semester. Please announce to your students that if they still need to purchase a textbook for your Fall 2010 semester class, they should do so as soon as possible."

That means be sure to buy the Lessig book if you haven't already.

Second Web Writing Assignment

2010-10-06T10:49:00.002-04:00

I've posted your second web writing assignment on our online syllabus now. Read it over, and we'll talk about it in class on Thursday.

Media Convergence Again

2010-10-05T10:34:00.004-04:00

Henry Jenkins in Second Life

Blog Homework & Syllabus Update

2010-10-03T13:40:00.001-04:00

My apologies for missing our class on Thursday. I've updated our online syllabus. Here are the reading assignments for this coming week:

	T 10/5	Henry Jenkins, "Convergence Culture," pp. 1-24.
	TH 10/7	Jean Burgess and Joshua Green, "YouTube's Cultural Politics."

I've cut the Zittrain reading, so there won't be any other changes in the class schedule.

-------------------------------

Below is a blog homework assignment. Post to your class blog on any one of the following by midnight Wednesday, 10/6.

1. If you've seen either Social Network or Catfish, write a brief post for us about your thoughts on either of these films.

2. Write and post about an original example of "media convergence." That is, think creatively about various news, current events, pop culture, and internet memes that might provide another example for us of Jenkins' concept of media convergence.

3. Post a link for us to a recent news story dealing with the Internet. Include a brief quote and/or explanation for us.

4. Find the "Stats" tab on your Blogger account for your class blog, and look at the traffic overview for your blog. Write about and post to your blog one or two interesting factoids you learn about the traffic to your blog, such as: visitors from distant places, unusual searches leading to your blog, numbers of views, etc.

5. Write and post about one of your classmate's blog posts. Be sure your post includes a link to their blog post and shares some of your own thoughts and ideas on the content of their post.

6. Add a "Recent Comments" gadget to your blog.

How To: Design A Web Page

2010-09-21T10:45:00.003-04:00

You may find this Web Style Guide helpful in thinking through the design of your pages. Also, here is a site with some helpful hints on good and bad web design practices. Including:

Text: Background does not interrupt the text; Text is big enough to read, but not too big; The hierarchy of information is perfectly clear; Columns of text are narrower than in a book to make reading easier on the screen
Navigation: Navigation buttons and bars are easy to understand and use; Navigation is consistent throughout web site; Navigation buttons and bars provide the visitor with a clue as to where they are, what page of the site they are currently on; Frames, if used, are not obtrusive; A large site has an index or site map
Links: Link colors coordinate with page colors; Links are underlined so they are instantly clear to the visitor
Graphics: Buttons are not big and dorky; Every graphic has an alt label; Every graphic link has a matching text link; Graphics and backgrounds use browser-safe colors; Animated graphics turn off by themselves
General Design: Pages download quickly; First page and home page fit into 800 x 600 pixel space; All of the other pages have the immediate visual impact within 800 x 600 pixels; Good use of graphic elements (photos, subheads, pull quotes) to break up large areas of text; Every web page in the site looks like it belongs to the same site; there are repetitive elements that carry throughout the pages

How To: Create A Web Page

2010-09-16T10:22:00.010-04:00

Here is some information from our ASU Webmaster on how to publish web pages using your student email account.

Dreamweaver is available on ASU lab computers and will do everything you need and more. If you've used Dreamweaver in the past you may certainly continue using it for this class. However, if you are new to web page authoring, I recommend using Contribute. This program is Dreamweaver-Lite and is less dizzying to use than Dreamweaver.

Contribute can be found on ASU lab computers under the COEducation list of applications.

Open Contribute and do this:

Click the "Website Connection" link in the middle of the window.
Click "Continue" on the welcome screen.
Connect to: Website
URL of Website: http://www.appstate.edu/~yourusername
Click "Continue"
Connect to web server: Secure FTP (SFTP)
Name of SFTP server: www.appstate.edu
SFTP user name: yourusername
SFTP password: yourpassword
Click "Continue"
Type your name and email. Click "Continue"
Role assigned to: Administrator
Click "Continue"
Click "Finish"

You are now ready to start creating, editing, and publishing web pages on the ASU server. If you get a permission denied message, or a 404 not found message, don't panic. This just means you haven't created any pages on your site yet.

Click the "New" button at the top left.
Select "Blank Web Page"
Page title: "w00t"
Click "OK"
Type w00t on your blank page. (Play with font sizes and colors if you like).
Click the "Publish" button at the top left of the window.
Click yes on the warning box asking if you want to publish it without any links.
Filename: w00t.html
Click "Publish"
Now open FireFox and browse this web page: www.appstate.edu/~yourusername/w00t.html

Congratulations! You have now published your own web page and you are now live on teh interwebs. w00t!

The next time you open Contribute, you may need to go through the set up procedure again. Also, the next time you use Contribute, the button at the top left may say "Connect." Click it. You can navigate around your site until you reach a page you want to work on, then click "Edit Page." Or you can always click on "New" to create a new page on your site. You can have as many pages as you like. Just make sure each page has a unique filename that uses only letters and numbers without any spaces or special characters.

For more information on using Contribute, here is an online tutorial.

Now you just need to practice. For next class, your homework is to create and publish the ugliest web page possible. For inspiration, you can visit the World's Worst Website. Here's an ugly page by a previous student. I think you can do worse though. Appall us.

Post a link on your class blog to your Ugly Website.

Express Yourself

2010-09-14T12:10:00.003-04:00

Go read and comment on at least three of your classmates' blog essays. Try to spread around the comments. If someone already has four or five comments, go look for another essay with fewer. Try to make your comments specific, with an eye towards giving feedback that will help when the author sits down to revise his or her essay. If you like something, tell them what you like about it. If you don't like something, tell them why and try to make specific suggestions on ways to improve it.

Remember, the goal for any piece of writing is to be interesting and informative. There are many ways to accomplish this goal. There are even more ways to miss the mark. Not everything well written says things that are important, and not everything that's important is well written and engaging. Every piece of writing can be improved. Your job is to help that happen. Put time and thought into the feedback you leave.

Read back over the writing advice I posted for you. Think about what the essays you are reading are trying to say. Do they have a point? How well do they succeed at making that point?

Every piece of writing must have a plan, a purpose, and a central point. Before you begin to write, therefore, you should take time to work out the argument of your paper as well as the arrangement of its several parts. You should, in other words, think hard in order to avoid merely collecting sentences that add up to an aimless ramble in the vicinity of an ill-defined idea.

Any piece of writing that begins with “Webster’s Dictionary defines …” or “In this tormented age in which we have the misfortune to live …” is likely to be so boring that the reader will never finish it.

Here are a couple of examples to help get you started thinking about writing. Take a look at these two opening sentences:

Example 1: In my younger years, I was a computer serial killer.

Example 2: The Internet is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “an electronic communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the world”.

Which one makes you want to read further? Which one helps "provoke interest, focus your reader’s attention, and not induce sleep?"

Finally, leave some feedback for yourself. After reading and commenting on your classmates' essays, what ways do you see to change and improve your own writing. Leave a comment for yourself on your own essay.

You should post all of your comments by midnight, Sunday 9/19.

Extra Office Hours

2010-09-13T08:57:00.000-04:00

If you need help with the first writing assignment, I will be holding extra office hours Monday 9/13 from 9:00-11:00 am in the Wired Scholar Coffee shop in Belk Library. Feel free to drop by.

A Letter From Our Provost

2010-09-10T14:48:00.002-04:00

By the end of the semester, we will talking a great deal about the legal issues surrounding copyright and the Internet. In meantime, here's a small taste of how these difficulties are currently making themselves felt. This is an email from the Provost circulated today to all ASU faculty.

Colleagues,

This communication addresses recent misinformation and miscommunication regarding the Red Lambda-Integrity software implementation. The federal Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 outlines what universities must do with regards to combating inappropriate peer-to-peer (p2p) use and potential copyright infringement. Information Technology Services (ITS) and other campus units have been openly working on a response to these requirements over the last two years. Appropriate passages of the federal legislation appear at the end of this message.

Universities are required to take the three-pronged approach to stay in compliance with this legislation which took effect in July 2010:

(1)    Increase our educational efforts with regards to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and copyright issues
(2)    Use a variety of technology deterrents to prevent copyright infringement
(3)    Suggest legal alternatives
ITS has been doing due diligence to address this legislation in all three areas. During 2008-2009, it conducted a software demonstration project and communicated extensively with campus constituencies, including visits to the Faculty Senate, Deans’ Council, Arts & Sciences Council, Student Development, and members of Student Government Association. It then implemented the Red Lambda software this summer in order to have the technological deterrent in place as required by statute.

The Red Lambda-Integrity software was selected as it only looks for known peer-to-peer (p2p) applications like Limewire and Bit Torrent. While there are some legitimate uses for p2p software, these applications are widely used for downloading and sharing music and other media files which are potentially in violation of copyright. This software is not engineered to look at file contents, and Information Technology Services does NOT look at file contents being transmitted. This software has only been used as an educational opportunity to inform our user population of the potential problems with p2p use and copyright issues.

It is important to understand that copyright infringement through illegal downloading can result in substantial fines for individuals. By deterring illegitimate use of p2p software, the University is not only fulfilling its legal obligations, but it is also helping individuals cease questionable activities before such activities result in potentially costly legal action against them.

Furthermore, the reference to Title IV in the legislation implicates the University's eligibility to receive federal financial aid for its students. Loss of federal financial eligibility would be extremely detrimental to our students, parents and the entire institution.

Because concerns have arisen, and because questionable p2p use is overwhelmingly a student computing issue (99%), ITS turned off the Red Lambda software for the faculty/staff computing side of the network on September 3, 2010. It is important to understand what “turning off” Red Lambda means. Red Lambda is NOT a piece of software that resides in individual computers. Red Lambda has NOT been installed on individual computers. It operates by scanning specified ranges of IP addresses. So, turning off Red Lambda for faculty and staff means that IP addresses for faculty/staff computers have been removed from the “list” of IP addresses that Red Lambda is instructed to scan.

Excerpt from the Federal Register:

“The final regulations require an institution, as a condition of participation in a Title IV, HEA program, to agree that it has developed and implemented plans to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material by users of the institution’s network without unduly interfering with the educational and research use of the network.

An institution’s plan must include:
The use of one or more technology-based deterrents
Mechanisms for educating and informing its community about appropriate versus inappropriate use of copyrighted material
Procedures for handling unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including disciplinary procedures
Procedures for periodically reviewing the effectiveness of the plan
The final regulations make clear that no particular technology measures are favored or required for inclusion in an institution’s plans, and each institution retains the authority to determine what its particular plans for compliance will be, including those that prohibit content monitoring. The final regulations require an institution, in consultation with the chief technology officer or other designated officer of the institution, to the extent practicable, offer legal alternatives to illegal downloading or otherwise acquiring copyrighted material, as determined by the institution. The final regulations also require that institutions
(1) periodically review the legal alternatives for downloading or otherwise acquiring copyrighted material and (2) make the results of the review available to their students through a Web site and/or other means.”

Source: Federal Register, pp 55925-55926

Blog Highlights

2010-09-10T11:02:00.001-04:00

Here are a few links from last week's blog homework that caught my eye. Check them out. And feel free to add links to other noteworthy blog posts either here as a comment or as a post on your own blogs.

Via Nick:

Infuriating Yosef via Dantz:

Via Stephen:

Extra Office Hours

2010-09-10T09:06:00.002-04:00

I'll be in my office on Friday morning (9/10) from 9:00-11:00 for some extra office hours. Feel free to stop by if have any questions about the writing assignment.

Tweak Your Blog

2010-09-09T12:27:00.002-04:00

By midnight Sunday 9/12, make the following small additions and changes to your class blog:

1. If you haven't already, delete the "Followers" gadget from the sidebar of your blog. Most of us aren't going to have a significant number of followers, so why waste good page space on it.

2. Add a "Link List" gadget to your sidebar with a link back to the Class Blogs section of our online syllabus. the url is:

http://www.appstate.edu/~stanovskydj/internet.html#resources

and your link should look like this:

Class Blogs

Virtual Fire

2010-09-07T11:51:00.001-04:00

A cozy roaring fire?

How To: Write

2010-09-07T10:00:00.003-04:00

Even in this digital age, the venerable Elements of Style (1918) by William Strunk is still your friend. When in doubt, defer to Strunk's judgments on style. It will improve your writing.

Below are some writing tips from a writer’s guide prepared by members of the English faculty at St. Lawrence University. Please work hard at avoiding these common pitfalls. Again, it will improve your writing:

Too many students think of a writing assignment as something to “get out of the way” rather than an opportunity to express their consecutive thoughts about a subject assigned or chosen. They may spend hours assembling material and more hours filling up pages; and, having worked hard, they are understandably disappointed when they learn that their efforts have earned at best a mediocre grade and the comment “So What!”

Every piece of writing must have a plan, a purpose, and a central point. Before you begin to write, therefore, you should take time to work out the argument of your paper as well as the arrangement of its several parts. You should, in other words, think hard in order to avoid merely collecting sentences that add up to an aimless ramble in the vicinity of an ill-defined idea.

In expository or persuasive writing (of the sort most often required) you should be able to state the main idea of your paper in one or two sentences, called the thesis statement. Here are four effective examples, some of them from published essays.
“The distinctive traits associated with the American people today stem at least partly from the frontier experience of our ancestors.” — Ray Allen Billington

The short-sighted self-satisfaction of the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver’s misguided reactions to the noble Captain Pedro de Mendez, and Gulliver’s own unacknowledged pride at the end of his voyages – all suggest that Swift does not share his main character’s admiration of the community of horses.

“The battle between the tarantula spider and its arch-enemy, the digger wasp of the genus Pepsis, is a classic example of what looks like intelligence pitted against instinct – a strange situation in which the victim, though fully able to defend itself, submits unwittingly to its own destruction.” — Alexander Petrunkevitch

“Although peasant societies share many similarities, it is possible to assign such societies to one of three categories based on political and economic variables.” — Hamilton College Guide
Although it is always best to write with a thesis clearly in mind, specific statements of this sort need not always appear verbatim your paper. Indeed in some cases they probably should not, since they can be rather mechanical, an extreme version being, “In this paper I am going to discuss three reasons why General Lee failed at Gettysburg.” A thesis statement, however, will help you to focus your attention on a particular topic, to avoid mere summary, and to clarify the overall organization of your essay. In the samples above, the first writer will probably identify a few uniquely American character traits caused by out frontier experience. The second suggests a division of reasons showing the extent to which Gulliver is an unreliable narrator in Book IV of Gulliver’s Travels. The third will probably illustrate and define modes of intelligent and instinctive animal behavior. And the fourth will classify three similar though different cultures.

Some writers are heavy-handed in organizing their thoughts. They begin by explicitly stating what they are going to say, they then say it (with illustrations along the way), and they conclude by briefly summarizing what they have just said – with a bang on the desk for emphasis. Such writing may have an organization of a sort, with everything laid out – embalmed – in the introduction, but it is often uninteresting to read, anti-climactic, and dull. A better organizational scheme often involves a question that is subsequently answered, or a problem followed by possible solutions and a resolution by the end.

Two suggestions: (1) With your thesis in mind, write the body of your paper first; then go back to the beginning and compose one or two paragraphs that will provoke interest, focus your reader’s attention, and not induce sleep. Any piece of writing that begins with “Webster’s Dictionary defines …” or “In this tormented age in which we have the misfortune to live …” is likely to be so boring that the reader will never finish it. (2) Save the best until last and try to make your conclusion actually conclusive without overstating your case. Some papers merely stop, all fagged out at 2 in the morning; at the other extreme are those ending with “Obviously …” or “Thus it can clearly be seen …” – expressions that often raise doubts in the reader’s mind. Think rather of ending with a final, vivid illustration of your thesis, an example that brings together the several threads of your argument; or restate (do not repeat) your thesis; or while being careful not to introduce completely new material, give your thesis a slightly broader application.

Finally, here are a few gentle reminders on writing mechanics:

1. Avoid mispelling.
2. Also using sentence fragments. And incomplete sentences.
3. A preposition is not a good word to end a sentence with.
4. Try not to unnecessarily split infinitives.
5. One of the mistakes that is frequently made are verb and subject disagreement in number.
6. And do not begin sentences with a conjunction.
7. Don't use contractions in formal writing.
8. Avoid run-on sentences punctuate sentences properly break them up.
9. Use the write word, not just the won your computer says is rite.

Blog Homework

2010-09-02T10:48:00.004-04:00

By midnight Wednesday, 9/8 post any one of the following to your blog:

1. Write a brief post about something related to the Bush or Hawthorne reading.

2. Write a brief post about something related to the Bruce Sterling reading.

3. Write a brief post about something from Hobbes' Internet Timeline.

4. Post a link for us to a recent news story dealing with the Internet. Include a brief quote or explanation for us.

5. Embed a video in a blog post. Find a video on youtube, hulu or some other site that you think might be relevant to the class and embed it in a blog post so that it will play on your blog. Write us a brief description to help explain the relevance of the video.

6. Create and post an original image macro for us (like lolcats or Joseph Ducreux). You can use a picture of your own, or some already well know internet image. There are many sites that can help you create an image macro such as meme generator, big huge labs, or roflbot.

7. Write a possible prompt for a future blog homework assignment. That is, what do you think might make an interesting topic for an Internet Studies blog post?

Origins

2010-08-31T11:39:00.005-04:00

Internet culture? Mosaic.

ASU’s 11th Annual Queer Film Festival

2010-08-30T10:31:00.000-04:00

Here's an upcoming campus event you may be interested in...

Five Mondays starting 9/13.

All films will be shown at 7:30 pm in Room 114 in Belk Library and
Information Commons. Screenings are free and open to the public.
Discussion will follow the film.

Monday 9/13. 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION (2010. USA. 80 minutes).
“Equality for Some.” This documentary provides a searing indictment
of the Mormon Church's historic involvement in the promotion and
passage of, California’s anti-same sex-marriage legislation,
Proposition 8, and the Mormon religion’s secretive, decades-long
campaign against gay rights from Hawaii to New York. Narrated by
Dustin Lance Black, Academy Award winning screenwriter of MILK.

Monday 9/20. GEN SILENT (2010, USA. 63 minutes.) An award-winning
film documenting elderly LGBT people who go back into the closet to
survive in the healthcare system. Here we see meet six LGBT elders and
a wide range of paid caregivers: From those who are specifically
trained to make LGBT seniors feel safe, to the other end of the
spectrum, where LGBT elders face discrimination, neglect or abuse. As
we journey through the challenges that these men and women face, we
also see reasons for hope as each subject crosses paths with a small
but growing group of impassioned professionals trying to wake up the
long-term and healthcare industries to their plight.

Monday 9/27. WERE THE WORLD MINE (2008, USA. 95 minutes.) If you had a
love-potion, who would you make fall madly in love with you? Timothy,
prone to escaping his dismal high school reality through dazzling
musical daydreams, finds out. After his eccentric teacher casts him
as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he stumbles upon a recipe to
create the play's magical, purple love-pansy. Armed with the magic
flower, Timothy's fading spirit soars as he puckishly imposes a new
reality by turning much of his narrow-minded town gay, beginning with
the rugby-jock of his dreams. Ensnaring family, friends and enemies,
Timothy forces them to walk a mile in his musical shoes. As
Shakespeare writes, “The course of true love never did run smooth.”

Monday 10/4. UNDERTOW (CONTRACORRIENTE). (2009, Peru. In Spanish with
English subtitles. 100 minutes.) An unusual ghost story set on the
Peruvian seaside; a married fisherman struggles to reconcile his
devotion to his male lover within his town's rigid traditions.

Monday 10/11. THE OWLS (Older, Wiser, Lesbians) (2010, USA. 66
minutes.) Four older lesbians kill a younger one and try to get away
with it in director Cheryl Dunye’s newest work, a funny, mysterious
and humane generational anthem starring some of the most popular
underground artists in Lesbian Cinema. Made for $22,000, THE OWLS is
a collective act, re-thinking how to make films that matter outside
the system. “We created our own system, peopled by lesbians, queers
and people of color, film professionals all raising themes about aging
as well as inter-generational dialogue; loneliness and community;
dreams raised and deferred; butch/trans anxiety; cross-racial and
inter-racial desire and strain; and the history of lesbian cinema and
self-representation.”

How To: Blog

2010-08-24T10:49:00.003-04:00

You will be creating a blog of your own on Blogger.com. We'll go through it step by step in class. You are going to use your blogs to post your first web writing assignment as well as other homework, comments, news, links, and discussion.

If you have questions about your blog, try consulting Blogger Help. Should you decide you would like a few tips on editing html code, one place to visit is the Bare Bones Guide to HTML. We'll be working on helping you customize and tweak your blog during the semester, so don't worry too much about the fine points of its appearance right now.

When your blog is ready, email me the address of your blog at stanovskydj@appstate.edu

As a first post to your new blog, please share with us one or more links to your favorite odd website or sites. Here's a link to help get you started, here are 99 Things and 99 More Things you should have seen online. You might also want to browse Know Your Meme for more inspiration. What else do you think we should have seen? Share your favorite links with us along with your editorial comments on your blog.

You should have your blog created and email me the link by Monday, 8/30.

Welcome To Our Class

2010-08-20T10:53:00.006-04:00

This semester we're going to explore how (and why) we got from this...

to this

and from here... to here.

Hitler and Fair Use

2010-04-24T15:33:00.002-04:00

Musical Chat Roulette

2010-04-14T12:51:00.000-04:00

A New Platform for Cute Cats

2010-04-14T12:49:00.000-04:00

A Michael Gregory Blurb

2010-04-12T15:17:00.001-04:00

Michael Gregory of the Gregory Brothers: From Jimmy Smith Park to Auto-Tune the News.
Wednesday April 21, Room 421 Belk Library, 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Michael Gregory is an extraordinarily successful viral video artists whose work with the Gregory Brothers and Auto-Tune the News has been seen by millions on YouTube, written about in Time Magazine and winner of three 2010 streamy awards.

A recent student at Appalachian State, Michael Gregory will be presenting a retrospective of his work, beginning with his early videos including Jimmy Smith Park filmed here in Boone while a student, as well as his more recent and more widely viewed Auto-Tune the News videos featuring current events and media pundits set to music. He will also be answering questions about the vagaries of the business of viral videos.

This presentation is sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Studies Program and Internet Studies at Appalachian State. The event is free and open to the public.

On C-Span

2010-04-12T13:19:00.001-04:00

2010 Streamy Awards

2010-04-12T13:07:00.000-04:00

Award Winning:

Best Original Music in a Web Series
Auto-Tune the News (Evan Gregory, Andrew Gregory, Michael Gregory, Sarah Gregory)
Best Experimental Web Series
Auto-Tune the News

A New Auto-Tune

2010-04-12T11:18:00.001-04:00

Rewrites

2010-03-24T12:47:00.001-04:00

If you wish, you may rewrite your second web writing assignment to improve your grade. Here is what you need to do:

Take your original paper and the paper assignment with you to the University Writing Center for feedback and suggestions on ways to improve your writing.
Substantially revise and rewrite your paper.
Substantially revise and repost your essay as new web page.
Hand in a printed copy of your revised paper to me along with the original graded paper and the written form you received from the Writing Center.
Post a link on you blog to your revised web page along with a link to the original web page.

You are also encouraged to come talk with me during my office hours about any aspect of the paper, readings, or web page you may have questions about.

Your revised paper is due in my mailbox (LLA 111) by noon on Friday 4/2. No late papers will be accepted. Good luck!

Rip On Hulu

2010-03-22T12:28:00.002-04:00

Girl Talk

2010-03-22T12:23:00.000-04:00

Copyright

2010-03-17T11:01:00.001-04:00

Remix

2010-03-15T12:57:00.001-04:00

No Class Wednesday 2/10

2010-02-10T07:50:00.000-05:00

No class today. I'm snowed in. We'll discuss the Jenkins article on Monday. Be safe today.

My Apologies

2010-02-02T09:29:00.000-05:00

I'm very sorry you were all left hanging on Monday. I had arranged to have someone meet you to collect your papers since I wasn't going to be able to make it to class, but evidently that didn't happen. Please come to class on Wednesday and turn in your papers then and we'll take it from there. See you soon!

Did You Know 4.0

2010-01-27T13:48:00.002-05:00

Please Come!

2010-01-26T10:21:00.003-05:00

The 26^th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration at Appalachian State University features noted writer and activist Nikki Giovanni in a 7 p.m. talk Jan. 28 in Farthing Auditorium. The program is sponsored by Appalachian’s Office of Multicultural Student Development. Admission is free.

A reception and book signing will precede Giovanni’s talk from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Farthing Auditorium lobby.

Giovanni is a world-renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator. A widely read American poet, she prides herself on being “a Black American, a daughter, a mother, a professor of English.”

A Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech, Giovanni is committed to the fight for civil rights and equality with a focus on the individual, specifically on the power one has to make a difference in oneself, and thus, in the lives of others.

You Are Invited

2010-01-24T09:34:00.000-05:00

Dr. Gregory Cajete, Director of the Native American Studies Program at The University of New Mexico, will speak on “Teaching Indigenous Ways of Knowing – Practice and Experience” at 6:30 on Monday, January 25th, in the Great Hall at the Living Learning Center. This presentation and subsequent conversation are open to the public.

Digital Humanities Remix

2010-01-23T10:16:00.000-05:00

How To: Blog

2010-01-20T11:48:00.000-05:00

You will be creating a blog of your own on Blogger.com. We'll go through it step by step in class. You are going to use your blogs to post your first online writing assignment.

If you have questions, try consulting Blogger Help

Should you decide you would like a few tips on editing html code, one place to visit is the Bare Bones Guide to HTML

You should include the following links on your blog to our class syllabus and class blog:

Internet Studies Syllabus http://www.appstate.edu/~stanovskydj/internet.html
Student Blogs http://www.netvibes.com/stanovsky#Student_Blogs

When your blog is ready, email me the address of your blog at stanovskydj@appstate.edu

As a first post to your new blog, please share with us one or more links to your favorite odd website or sites. Here's a link to help get you started: 99 Things. What else do you think we should have seen? Share it with us on your blog.

What is the Internet?

2010-01-11T10:59:00.002-05:00

URGENT!!

2010-01-11T10:53:00.002-05:00

Important Link!

finally done

2008-12-15T13:55:00.001-05:00

here is the link for my last two papers and my webpage.

2008-12-15T13:52:00.000-05:00

here are my last two papers and the link to my webpage

Website

2008-12-15T12:43:00.002-05:00

http://www.appstate.edu/~jf69460/Homepage.htm

Above is the link for group 5- Lindsey Harkins, John Edwards, Christine Baratta and myself. Thanks again for extending to us grace! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
-Jonathan

link to my webpage w/project 3

2008-12-15T12:16:00.005-05:00

www.amandahighsmith.weebly.com

link to my webpage

2008-12-15T11:55:00.000-05:00

Group #3

2008-12-15T08:55:00.002-05:00

http://newarbys.googlepages.com

Rio, Scott, Paul, Stewart

2008-12-15T08:44:00.003-05:00

Peer to Peer open source file sharing... Piracy? ... Perhaps, in a progressive sense of the word. Excessive and extensive copyrights on essentially all forms of generated media exceedingly inhibits the potential for collective creativity. In the age of the internet, and other unprecedented technologies, we must examine the existing political discourse that allows absurdly restrictive copyrights, which continually result in exorbitant fines on regular people that happen to use a file sharing network, or mix&create on existing music... and reevaluate a copyright system that is more equitable to those entitled, and less regulative of creativity...

Our Group Project

2008-12-15T08:21:00.005-05:00

The link is in the title

Our Group Project

2008-12-15T07:58:00.002-05:00

Here is the web address where you can find our group project.

www.theprinceproblem.weebly.com

Our Group Project

2008-12-15T03:38:00.002-05:00

Here is the link to our group project. Hope this works well.

Chris

Website Creating Tool

2008-12-15T00:51:00.001-05:00

I know its a bit late, but for future stuff. I came across this website that lets you build your own interactive website and its pretty cool and got lots of options. Its also really easy to use. Might help people in the future.

Internet Biggies

2008-12-04T11:19:00.000-05:00

I even found it with stumbleupon.

http://www.skidzopedia.com/2008/11/21/17-people-who-enhanced-the-web/

Things for you to use...

2008-12-03T12:15:00.003-05:00

As you work on your group projects, here are some tools and resources you may find helpful. Feel free to post others for us too.

Digital Medio Studio: Located in room 355 of the Belk Library the Digital Medio Studio has digital cameras, video cameras, and video editing software for you to use, and a staff to help you use them.

EFF: A good site to check for news about digital copyright issues.

WetPaint: An easy to use group web-site/wiki platform. Some groups may find this an easy site to use for hosting your online, group collaborations.

YouMashTube: An online, one-stop video editing site for making your own mashups.

StripGenerator: drag and drop 3-panel comic strips made easy.

You also may want to think about ways you can use Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, Flickr, YahooPipes and/or Google Sites in your projects.

Have fun. Be creative. Stretch yourselves.

Random House pushing more e-Books?

2008-12-03T08:37:00.002-05:00

In an interesting move especially in light of Google having pretty much already done this, Random House is going to digitize some 8,000 books of their collection. The big difference between this and Google is that Random House intends to sell the e-Books whereas Google allows us all to look at the portions of the books, that they can provide, for free.

Just another link to the Article!!

xkcd comic...

2008-12-03T00:49:00.000-05:00

http://www.xkcd.com/511/

references 'Free Culture'...enjoy.

No Class, Monday 11/24

2008-11-24T10:30:00.001-05:00

You may use the class time to meet with your groups though. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Final Group Projects

2008-11-19T12:21:00.010-05:00

Final Web Project and Symposium (1000-2000 words): Due Monday, 12/15, 9:00-11:30 AM.

Your final group project will be on a topic chosen by your group relating to the issues raised in Lessig's Free Culture and will be presented to the class during our regularly scheduled final exam period.

Each group will focus on one specific web site that deals with copyrighted digital content such as YouTube, Pandora, Flickr, LastFM, GarageBand, iTunes, MySpace, GoogleBooks, MarvelDigitalComics, NetFlix, or any of the many, many other sites you may find. Making explicit and substantive use of Lessig, you will examine the ways in which current copyright laws are impacting these sites and the services they offer and suggest specific policy changes that might better serve the various interests involved.

Your group will publish online and then present to the class for discussion your particular case study, arguments, conclusions, and recommendations using an online medium or combination of mediums: blog posts, web pages, youtube video, podcast, twitter, myspace page, flickr, or any other online form/s. Be clear, creative, specific, focused, and complete in your exposition.

Your grade will be based on both what you say, and how you say it using your chosen online tools, as well as on your in-class presentation and exposition.

Post the address of your group project to your individual class blogs.

Below are the groups for your final projects:

Group 1:
Jordan McCarthy
David Gill
Chris Spender
William Lehman

Group 2:
Scott Walker
Rio Tazewell
Paul Butler
Stewart Cox

Group 3:
Lauren Franklin
Dane Mann
Christina Fisher
Nathan Walker
Margaret Patterson

Group 4:
Amanda Highsmith
Jeff Worley
Caleb Humphries
Carrie McKeee
Chase Gibson

Group 5:
Christine Baratta
John Edwards
Lindsey Harkins
Jonathan Fawcett

The Break Down

2008-11-19T00:51:00.001-05:00

This is a post of wired magazine's article deciphering all the different artists' clips that comprise one of the songs on mashup artist, Girl Talk's new album.

Here is the link again:
http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2008/pl_music_1609

Harvard Law Professor Defends Song Swapping

2008-11-18T09:40:00.002-05:00

Ironically after our talk yesterday, I found this article on a website that I read everyday. Its a really short article about a Harvard Law Professor defending a Boston University graduate on the basis that the Copyright Act of 1999 is unconstitutional. Should be interesting to follow.

Another Link to Article!!

I just had to share

2008-11-14T22:52:00.004-05:00

(Click title for article)

I came across this article just now and had to share it with the class. Apparently, there is a real life couple who met in the virtual world of Second Life. It's not completely out of the ordinary until the man started cheating on his new wife with someone else in the same virtual world. She got so mad that she broke up with him!

It's just weird to think about, that's all. Does this really happen? What did this 28 year old woman see in this 40 year old bald guy? Or, better yet, what did she see in this man's "avatar?"

Fair(y) Use

2008-11-12T12:37:00.001-05:00

What are we Thinking?

2008-11-06T11:45:00.001-05:00

My web assignment 3 after I have FINALLY found Contribute!!!

2008-11-05T10:31:00.001-05:00

No Class Monday, November 3

2008-10-29T15:33:00.002-04:00

Good work today in our virtual class. Sorry for those of you who had technical difficulties. Don't worry -- there are no penalties attached for missing the class.

No class on Monday, 1/3.

But finish reading Turkle and we'll wrap up our discussion of the book next Wednesday.

See you then.

Dr. D

2008-10-29T14:39:00.001-04:00

I made it to the CMC hall, but couldn't find "Dr. D" or anything else that looked like a responding human. Did anyone else get this figured out?

Stewart Cox

virtual class

2008-10-29T12:08:00.002-04:00

I may be a few minutes late for virtual class today, but i will be there.
-Stewart Cox

Virtual Class Today

2008-10-29T08:47:00.002-04:00

Don't forget we will be having a virtual, online class today to discuss Sherry Turkle's Life on the Screen, Chapters 7-8, pp. 177-232.

Instead of meeting in our regular classroom, find yourself a computer and login as a guest to English MOO at Texas Tech. Before class, browse this MOO Guide. Practice before class and when you first login, type: help manners.

From the "Main Entrance," go to the "Research Facilities," and then the "CMC Hall." Look for "Dr. D" and come say hello. "See" you there!

If it tells you that all guests accounts are in use, don't believe it. Just keep trying. After you log in, you can click on "Options" in the toolbar and it will ask you to enter the name you wish to use for that session (instead of the default guest names).

stewart cox

2008-10-28T19:05:00.001-04:00

www.appstate.edu/~coxsb

Web Assingment #3

2008-10-28T13:35:00.003-04:00

So my idea was to create a sort of propaganda campaign for the apocalypse being the coming of age and rising up of artificial intelligence as depicted in the film series "The Terminator." I might have run a little shy on time to really drive home the point, but I feel like the general gist is present and tangible. Enjoy!

www.appstate.edu/~jm66147/Jordan.html

What you thinkin about?

2008-10-27T13:51:00.001-04:00

Here it is Web Assignment #3

2008-10-27T13:47:00.001-04:00

www.appstate.edu/~je48142

Present day “Hackers” and Bladerunner

2008-10-27T13:32:00.000-04:00

Stewart Cox

Dr. Derek Stanovsky

Internet Studies

October 27, 2008

Present day “Hackers” and Bladerunner

In the world today, more specifically in the Internet world, there are hackers. In common usage, hacker is generic term for a computer criminal, often with a specific specialty in computer intrusion. Hackers are often attempted to be tracked, or followed buy our government today. I will be comparing the online criminal or “hacker” with the movie Bladerunner, which came out in 1982.
A “Bladerunners” job is to hunt down replicants and manufacture humans you can’t tell from the real thing, which can sometimes mean looking for a small group within the entire world. The government, or a specific department of our government is dedicated to tracking these so called online criminals. A report written near the start of the information age warned that America's computers were at risk from hackers. It said that computers that "control our power delivery, communications, aviation and financial services and store vital information, from medical records to business plans, to criminal records," were vulnerable from many sources, including deliberate attack. "The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun. Tomorrow's terrorist may be able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb." (National Research Council, "Computers at Risk," 1991. http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/usamay2001_2.htm) I tend to think of our government as the “Bladerunner” in the situation and the online criminals or “hackers” as the replicants. There are many small so called recreational hackers in the world but the groups of large, serious hackers are numbered, but they definitely still exist very similar to the replicants in Bladerunner.
Referring to the small group of hackers, anyone who has ever looked around mistakenly or purposely on a computer that wasn’t theirs or downloaded music or any other type of file could be labeled as a hacker. But the “real hackers” or large goups are the very reason the access is available to anyone that is willing in the world today. Hackers who find exploits on these websites may use them to do more than just deface webpages. Novices, sometimes referred to in hacker circles as "script-kiddies," who download hacker scripts may gain "root" access to a computer system, giving them the same power over a computer system as a trusted systems manager such as the power to create or delete files and e- mails and to modify security features. Hackers who gain such unauthorized root access sometimes speak of this as "owning" the system they hack. If they want to cause damage they may do so immediately, or they may plant viruses or time bombs in a system. Sometimes they configure the system to work for them in later "denial of services" attacks on other computers. Some websites that post hacker tools also post known fixes, or patches. They advise systems administrators and network operators to download and install these patches so their systems will no longer be vulnerable to the listed attacks. But hackers know that, with persistence and help from other readily available computer programs, they can find computer systems vulnerable to the listed exploits. Hackers frequently launch their attacks against these unprotected systems. http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/usamay2001_2.htm
There is a rivalry between the hackers today and the government, very similar to the “Bladerunner” and the replicants. Over the past years, its has become very popular to join file sharing web sites or groups that have easier access to music, movies, games, etc. Nearly anyone can join free of charge, sometimes with only an invitation from a recommending friend. With these sights comes the issue of copyright infringement, and in many cases the server is raided, and many people are charged with various criminal charges. Recently, the website of the Swedish police was forced to go offline after a DOS attack. They weren’t sure who initiated the attacks, but the link between this incident and the raid on The Pirate Bay, which is a large, free of charge files sharing site, seems obvious. The DOS attacks that took down the website of the Swedish police are likely to be the work of Piratebay sympathizers. A DOS attack (denial-of-service attack) is an attack on a computer system or network that causes a loss of service to users, typically the loss of network connectivity and services by consuming the bandwidth of the victim network or overloading the computational resources of the victim system. http://torrentfreak.com/hackers-attack-swedish-police/
Very similar instances have occurred like the previous, though they are mostly outside of the United States of America. When things like this occur it becomes noticed worldwide within the hacking community, in a way it is their way of getting back at the government for various reasons or just standing up to “the man”. Since this problem has become international, it has become much tougher to catch and punish the one responsible. This is somewhat due to the lack of international governments working together, which we all know is an issue regularly no mater what the situation.
In many of these cases when large databases are shut down or encounter problems from an outsider it is sometimes difficult for the government to discover the identity of a hacker. A hacker might hide or "spoof" his Internet Protocol address, or might intentionally bounce his communications through many intermediate computers scattered throughout the world before arriving at a target computer. Some victims don't keep logs or don't discover a hacker's activities until it is too late to obtain records from the hacker's Internet Service Provider (ISP). A victim who has no record of the IP address of the computer from which unauthorized access was gained limits law enforcement officers to traditional investigative techniques, which alone may be inadequate to identify the hacker.
Hackers are often attempted to be tracked, or followed buy our government today, which is very similar to the catching of the replicants that Bladerunner was needing to find and “take care of” The comparison of the two could be a stretch at times, but when being compared to a similar topic years later the idea seems to be very similar in the computer world. It appears to be a game for some and a life for others, but in the end no one will win unless both sides somehow agree or if both sides are terminated.

Bibliography

-http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/usamay2001_2.htm US Attorney’s Bulletin: Tracking a Computer Hacker, Daniel A. Morris, 2008
-http://torrentfreak.com/hackers-attack-swedish-police/ Torrent Freak, Hackers Attack Swedish Police, 2008
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(computer_security) Hacker (computer security) 26 October 2008

Amanda's Website

2008-10-27T13:11:00.006-04:00

http://www.appstate.edu/~ah75659/afhighsmith.html

A Computerized World

2008-10-27T12:54:00.001-04:00

Dane Mann
Dr. Stanovsky
Internet Studies 3250
October 26, 2008
“A Computerized World”
It seems like now everywhere you look these days computers are all over the place. There are so many different decisions to think about when buying a new laptop or pc. There are many brands, different models, a variety of options and many sizes to choose from to fit every consumers need. There is fierce competition within all computer companies in the advertising world why their computer is better than the next. One of my favorite commercial feuds would have to be pc versus the Mac. This is a very clever idea that I believe Mac originally started a year or so ago. The commercial is very simple. It just shows two guys standing in front of an all white background. One man introduces himself as a Mac and the other guy a pc. The guy playing “the Mac” spouts out a long list of things the Mac features and asked the pc or windows vista could do all of that stuff? The pc looks very sad and responds with the pathetic “no.”
After Mac got a couple of good hits out on windows vista it was time to come back with a good ad of their own. The first commercial was made to bring back a positive note on windows vista. At first vista was supposed to be this new program that was going to have everything you need and really easy to navigate. The public did not respond to this vista program as originally intended. In this new commercial it shows groups of different people that are in a room and are asked to test out this new program that has not been released yet. They tell the people that it is a new program called “Mojave.” They go through the whole test, get to do some easy programs, surf the internet and other tasks on the computer. After some time on using the new system they are asked what they thought of it. Many people were very impressed and pleased with the program. Then they were told in fact it was not “Mojave” but it was indeed Windows Vista they were using the whole time. They were all surprised and had a new mind set of what they thought of the program and how easy it was. The next commercial they came out with was a very good idea that I like better than the first one. This commercial is titled “I’m a pc.” It shows all kinds of different people; students, parents, famous celebrities, and even professional athletes all in their natural surroundings saying “I’m a pc.” This is to show how many different target audiences and range of consumers use this product. It shows doctors and even a moto cross bike rider flying fifty feet in the air screaming he is also a pc.
I think computers have become a huge part of almost every person’s life. Most people cannot even go more than a day without being in front of that warm glowing screen. It is a necessity for some people in order to make a live now. People can even work from the convenience of their own home. You may be able to say that we use computers so much we are making them more and more human like all the time. This is similar to the Harrison Ford movie Blade Runner. In this movie the computers are so human like you can even tell the difference between a human and computer unless you were trained and gave the “person” a lengthy test asking them random questions. This is seen on a much smaller scale you can say in many busy business people. Now you can have a computer in your pocket and never have to be without email, the internet or your phone. It used to be that you would have room in your house with a big desk that you would have to wait your turn to use. Now they are in at least one or two things that we carry on us all the time. We are becoming used to having at least a cell phone on us at all times and if we miss place it our world goes upside down and we can’t call anyone because the phone remembered the number you want to call. We may not be a computer per say but we have come to really love and depend on them. They are part of our life, lifestyle and being used on more and more things every day. In the end of the movie Harrison Ford who is one of the testers of seeing whether or not you are a computer or human turns out to be a computer the whole time.
This reminds of the Turing test. This was created by a man named Allen Turing. He devised sets of questions to test a person. The test was to see through these series of questions if you could identify the person answering the questions was a man or women. Turing was convinced that computers could think. There is two programs that if you really have no one to talk to will be more than happy to listen to your problems. The first program is ELIZA. This was created in 1999 as a therapy tool. You are supposed to be able to tell ELIZA your problems and it is supposed to answer you back with advice. It is not very accurate and will keep asking you “what do you mean” if the question is too complex for the system. The next program is Alice. This program is more “life like” than ELIZA. The answers responded for this program is more detailed and sound more human like that ELIZA. There are also more answers and they make more sense.
In Turkel’s “Life on Screen” she is also looking at the different ways that people have made computers a major part of their daily routine. They first started out as a military tool, to a business tool, now they are even for entertainment as well. She studies the way people interact in different role-playing games. Players are in their “virtual world” and they type dialogue to other players of what they are doing. For the most part, she says, computer users who have achieved this new way of knowing "suspend disbelief and become absorbed in what is happening on the screen." They are happy "to take the program at interface value (Turkle 103)."

Jacked In

2008-10-27T12:52:00.003-04:00

Here is the link to my third web assignment which has been posted on my website.

my webpage

2008-10-27T12:25:00.003-04:00

hope it works! http://www.appstate.edu/~fishercm/spacey.htm

Class Wednesday

2008-10-21T14:21:00.002-04:00

Sorry for missing class on Monday. I'll be there on Wednesday. We'll talk about the readings from Monday on artificial intelligence:

Read Alan Turing, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." Browse the Alan Turing Scrapbook, a chronology, a biography, and an encyclopedia article. Read John Searle, "Minds, Brains, and Programs." Browse John Searle's home page.

Your third web writing assignment is still due next Monday, although we also discuss chapters 5 and 6 from Turkle.

See you then.