Google.
Google is amazing. One stop shopping for your research, entertainment, or educational needs.. and more.
I noticed something there today that I hadn't seen before, Google Scholar. Its a search engine that searches newspaper articles. It could have been there a while, I just never noticed it.
My favorite features, aside from the search, are Earth, Blogger, and Books.
The next time you're on google.com and you've got time, click the 'more' button and check some of those other things out. If you've got even more time, click that link and check out all of THOSE things that google has to offer.
I <3 Google!
Hmm.. never used that text heart thing before.. probably won't again.. :)
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Chapter 5
Save The Internet
This is something interesting going on, a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would stop big providers (Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc) from trying to control the free flow of information on the internet.
In plain english, this bill will stop internet providers from creating "roadblocks" on the information superhighway. It will protect the freedoms that we sometimes take for granted when we go online - mainly that we will be able to look at the websites we want to, say what we want in our blogs (and have others be able to read them!), view streaming video put up by websites that we enjoy visiting, etc. Its like freedom of speech, and of the press, as it relates to the internet.
This reminds me of book banning, those in positions of power taking books away from the public without regard to each person's right to read whatever they want. A current example of an attempt at book banning is happening in Georgia right now, where a parent is attempting to have the Harry Potter books removed from shelves in all libraries (school AND public) because she feels they are anti-god, or anti-religious, or whatever. Its one thing for her to censor her children by not allowing them to read certain books, its a whole other thing for her to think she's got the right to go the great lengths to have those same books removed from public access.
If those who provide the internet access begin to control what information will be available for public view, we run into the same issue. One person, or a group of people, preventing the public to pick and choose which sites they visit based on their personal likes. As with the above example, in each household, if the person who controls the computer (ex. a parent) wants to keep certain people in the household (ex. children) from looking at certain sites that is just fine, and there are many ways to do that. However, I don't want anyone (comcast, verizon, etc) trying to tell me which sites I can access when I go surfing on the web. That is up to me.
This is something interesting going on, a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would stop big providers (Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc) from trying to control the free flow of information on the internet.
In plain english, this bill will stop internet providers from creating "roadblocks" on the information superhighway. It will protect the freedoms that we sometimes take for granted when we go online - mainly that we will be able to look at the websites we want to, say what we want in our blogs (and have others be able to read them!), view streaming video put up by websites that we enjoy visiting, etc. Its like freedom of speech, and of the press, as it relates to the internet.
This reminds me of book banning, those in positions of power taking books away from the public without regard to each person's right to read whatever they want. A current example of an attempt at book banning is happening in Georgia right now, where a parent is attempting to have the Harry Potter books removed from shelves in all libraries (school AND public) because she feels they are anti-god, or anti-religious, or whatever. Its one thing for her to censor her children by not allowing them to read certain books, its a whole other thing for her to think she's got the right to go the great lengths to have those same books removed from public access.
If those who provide the internet access begin to control what information will be available for public view, we run into the same issue. One person, or a group of people, preventing the public to pick and choose which sites they visit based on their personal likes. As with the above example, in each household, if the person who controls the computer (ex. a parent) wants to keep certain people in the household (ex. children) from looking at certain sites that is just fine, and there are many ways to do that. However, I don't want anyone (comcast, verizon, etc) trying to tell me which sites I can access when I go surfing on the web. That is up to me.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Chapter 4
Now that I've talked about some of the technologies I use or have used to connect with others, let me related it all back to the 'enchanted bookshelf' that I call the internet. The vast, never ending, shelf of books and people who enjoy books, available all the time.
I have always enjoyed reading, and maybe had a friend or 2 that read as much as I do. The issue that would come up is that we didn't always read the same books or the same type of books. When I was younger, that wasn't much of an issue, but now it comes up a bit. I have one friend that reads a lot, and she reads a whole lot of different books that I'd never pick up.
This brings me back to the internet. But first, I need to explain something - it was Harry Potter that first lead me to the bookshelf. I hadn't purchased any of the books until after I had seen the first 3 movies. The first 1 had me hooked, but I waited. I hadn't READ any until I moved from philadelphia to harrisburg, by this time I had the first 6 books and plenty of time to read them. So I started with book 1 and read through 3, then I saw movie 4 at the IMAX (so awesome!), and then read books 4 through 6. I was hooked from book 1, paragraph 1. When I was out of books, and after I had talked to a friend of mine about all the books, I went to the internet to search.
I was not new to the internet, not by any means. But what I found 'out there' when I googled "Harry Potter" kind of floored me. As you may guess, I found A LOT! I looked through A LOT! Some was good, some not so much, books, movies, actors, directors, theories, etc, the list goes on, EVERYTHING related came up. (Google is a discussion for another time).
I have 2 main harry potter bookmarks, sites I go to at least 3 times a week. mugglenet.com and The Leaky Cauldron. These sites have news sections, image galleries, discussion boards, link library, downloads like wallpaper or buddy icons, just LOTS of stuff all in one place. They are both amazing sites with amazing webmasters.
These sites have affiliated podcasts (kinda like radio talk shows that you download). These are the greatest things EVER. People who record a show talking about Harry Potter - the books, the movies, prior to book 7 theories, news in the harry potter 'fandom', respond to listener email or voice mail, and lots of other stuff. They even went on tour and did live podcasts during the months just before the book 7 release. Both have extremely talented casts.
The idea of fandom isn't new to me, but just how vast Harry Potter's fandom is was just shocking. Its like Star Wars and Star Trek (I guess, i'm not into star wars or star trek). Conventions, fan sites, fan gatherings, etc.. its amazing. The internet makes this SO much easier! You can join a forum and discuss the books with people from other countries, or people right down the street. My next search, maybe for my next post, is to have some HP blogs to link to. I'm sure they are out there.
But its not just Harry Potter and fan sites. Libraries are making their catalogs available online, as well as a way to reserve or renew items. Library systems allow users to reserve a book from on branch and pick it up at another. PSU's University Library system makes the affiliated databases available as well as a catalog.
Sites like Amazon, and store chains that have websites, make purchasing books as easy as clicking.
Some books are available to read online.
Books are more available now than they have ever been before. As well as a meeting ground for people to talk about them.
I have always enjoyed reading, and maybe had a friend or 2 that read as much as I do. The issue that would come up is that we didn't always read the same books or the same type of books. When I was younger, that wasn't much of an issue, but now it comes up a bit. I have one friend that reads a lot, and she reads a whole lot of different books that I'd never pick up.
This brings me back to the internet. But first, I need to explain something - it was Harry Potter that first lead me to the bookshelf. I hadn't purchased any of the books until after I had seen the first 3 movies. The first 1 had me hooked, but I waited. I hadn't READ any until I moved from philadelphia to harrisburg, by this time I had the first 6 books and plenty of time to read them. So I started with book 1 and read through 3, then I saw movie 4 at the IMAX (so awesome!), and then read books 4 through 6. I was hooked from book 1, paragraph 1. When I was out of books, and after I had talked to a friend of mine about all the books, I went to the internet to search.
I was not new to the internet, not by any means. But what I found 'out there' when I googled "Harry Potter" kind of floored me. As you may guess, I found A LOT! I looked through A LOT! Some was good, some not so much, books, movies, actors, directors, theories, etc, the list goes on, EVERYTHING related came up. (Google is a discussion for another time).
I have 2 main harry potter bookmarks, sites I go to at least 3 times a week. mugglenet.com and The Leaky Cauldron. These sites have news sections, image galleries, discussion boards, link library, downloads like wallpaper or buddy icons, just LOTS of stuff all in one place. They are both amazing sites with amazing webmasters.
These sites have affiliated podcasts (kinda like radio talk shows that you download). These are the greatest things EVER. People who record a show talking about Harry Potter - the books, the movies, prior to book 7 theories, news in the harry potter 'fandom', respond to listener email or voice mail, and lots of other stuff. They even went on tour and did live podcasts during the months just before the book 7 release. Both have extremely talented casts.
The idea of fandom isn't new to me, but just how vast Harry Potter's fandom is was just shocking. Its like Star Wars and Star Trek (I guess, i'm not into star wars or star trek). Conventions, fan sites, fan gatherings, etc.. its amazing. The internet makes this SO much easier! You can join a forum and discuss the books with people from other countries, or people right down the street. My next search, maybe for my next post, is to have some HP blogs to link to. I'm sure they are out there.
But its not just Harry Potter and fan sites. Libraries are making their catalogs available online, as well as a way to reserve or renew items. Library systems allow users to reserve a book from on branch and pick it up at another. PSU's University Library system makes the affiliated databases available as well as a catalog.
Sites like Amazon, and store chains that have websites, make purchasing books as easy as clicking.
Some books are available to read online.
Books are more available now than they have ever been before. As well as a meeting ground for people to talk about them.
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