Never new a website could look so bad...

The first web site that I feel has pretty good design is Mozilla.com. When you first go to this site it welcomes you with a very happy, energetic feel. The front page is a rather simplistic design. You know pretty much instantly what Mozilla is offering you and where to find it. I think the thing I like the most about it is that everything that you would need to click on is on the visible page. You don’t have to scroll down to find what you are looking for. That’s one of my biggest pet peeves. The colors are friendly to the eyes. They are not harsh or too washed out. The black text comes through great. And probably my favorite thing is the text. I absolutely cannot stand font that has hanging lines (Like times new roman) I feel like it is way too awkward to look at and I don’t like when websites use that.

                The next site I am choosing as a well designed website would have to be corkd.com. I feel that the website is a really nice design, and most of it is based on its color. I like that the background isn’t the same old boring white, it’s a rather enjoyable beige to pinkish color. A white background is actually really harsh to the eyes to look at for a lengthy time. It’s very easy on the eyes, great to look at, and it’s pretty. The header on the website is a color that compliments the background color phenomenally. Again the font is a good choice for the background, the black works well. I believe that this layout works for the type of website it is. Normally I am not a fan of websites where you have to scroll to see all the information, but I think that this website is good because it is kind of a blogging style website. So the newest information and posts are always going to be visible on top. If this website is viewed regularly it’s the perfect set up and design.

                I looked around and saw some pretty darn bad websites. I chose my worst website not only because it was bad, but because it’s a website for Yale University School of Art. Really Yale? Art.Yale.edu is an absolutely horribly designed website. First and foremost, the background is hideous. Using a tiled picture as a background has never ever been a good idea. It’s so sloppy and messy and this one really just messes with your eyes. The blocks of color they are trying to use as borders for font look awful and completely juvenile. The school’s address disappears in the background so you really have to search for the name of the school and the address. I just don’t know what to say knowing whose website it is. I thought they would be better.

                My website that I want to create is an online portfolio and resume website. I want the website to be able to list not only my resume, but a place for me to be able to post some of the video and audio projects I’ve done, somewhere that I can list some scripts that I have written, and even to have a spot that I can go more in depth in the skills that I know and have learned. I think that the website will be something that will benefit me, because I can list the website on my resume that I will send out to employers, and it will give them an opportunity to look deeper into the things I can do and what I can offer them. The color choices that I want to focus on are all going to be very soft colors, so they are comforting. My favorite color is green so it will definitely be represented. I also want to include brown and pink because the three colors work really well together and I like the way they look. My lines would all be very clean and simple. The font would look nice and not be too over the top. Overall I want this website to look very professional to best represent me.

Twitter

Microblogging is something that varies from regular blogging. One of the biggest differences is that microblogging is done in very short blurbs. Each time a journalist post something it is usually under 140 characters. This is much different than posting a 1,000 word article about a subject. Another major difference between regular blogging and microblogging is that when a journalist microbloggs it is almost always an instantaneous posting. A journalist can be much more in demand with their writing. They are able to give their readers updates as they are happening. In my opinion this is the biggest and greatest difference. In generic blogging the journalist has to wait until they are home in from of a computer to put the story on the internet, but the microblogger would have the story already online in short little blurbs as the event was unfolding.

          Even though microblogging is using the internet and is considered in the same family as social networks like Facebook, it is very different. Facebook is more for keeping in contact with friends, planning events, and connecting with some of your favorite businesses. The biggest difference between the two is the purposes of Facebook and a microblogging site like Twitter. Twitter is best used for following a story, a celebrity, or a business, but not in the way Facebook is used. Twitter helps people read the latest gossip, the latest news story, and the latest update without them being bombarded with all this other information they have no interest in viewing. It helps people focus on just the information they are after. It’s a very useful tool when trying to find out certain information.

          When I used Twitter, which was only for a very short time, I didn’t really use it for too much. I thought that I wanted to use it to keep my friends updated with what I was up to, but instead I just found myself heading back to Facebook over and over to let the same people know the same thing. I wasn’t a celebrity, a News company, or even a business, so the majority of people on Twitter were not looking to my Twitter for find out the latest scoop. I found it pretty useless for personal use, but it’s a great use for professional people.

          I don’t think I will use Twitter after this class again unless I find myself in a business where it is beneficial for me to be getting my viewers or friends immediately updated information. I can’t really say if I will be in a position like that or not, so I can’t really say if I will ever actually use Twitter again. Maybe I will find some reason for it even when I am not in a professional setting. I’m sure that Twitter will be changing in the future and it might become friendlier to users like me.

          I will say that looking at Twitter; it is a phenomenal thing for business people, journalists, and even for politicians. It gets the message out to people instantly, and they are not bothered with events, pictures, games, applications, and other things that might hinder the message being delivered effectively. It is something that is progressing everyday and I predict that it will soon be the only way some people try to get their message across to everyone, as long as they have a computer.

Facebook

This facebook project to me was pretty interesting. I create events all the time, so that's what I chose. I was going for a real Social Networking test here. I wanted to see just how many people I could get invited to this event.

At first, I created this event and only invited 250 people. The next thing I knew, there were 100 people already RSVPed, but 300 that were still invited. Before I knew it, everyone that Invited was inviting more people to this fake event. It was spectacular. I watched the numbers rise every day! Before I knew it, there were 500 people invited, 700 people invited, and this morning, there are 500 people that have clicked Attending, and still 1,500 that are waiting on replies!!

It's an awesome thing if you think about the powers that this really shows. If you think about how I only invited 250 people last tuesday, there are almost 600 attending, and 1500 more I am waiting on hearing from. Just goes to show you how much people really are connected.

For me, Facebook used to always be about connecting with my friends. I was always checking up to see what everyone was up to, and where they were. Many of my friends are in some branch of the military, so it really is the easiest way for me to know where they are, and especially where they are being stationed and to make sure nothing happens to them. But then I started using Facebook for work. When I became a supervisor it was an easy way to get one message out to everybody at once, and to quickly ask someone a question about work.

Facebook is a great business tool. It allows businesses to reach a wide audience for free! I know there are some businesses that give out Facebook coupons. It also gives businesses opportunities for customers to leave feedback in their own ways.

I think it was totally fine for a professor to ask for you to friend them. There has to be an understanding though. A professor cannot ask to be your friend on Facebook and then try and judge you or even to get you in trouble for something that's on it. It's almost like parents. When my dad friend requested me I told him that if he friended me, he can't say a word about anything he finds on my facebook or if he doesn't like anything. If he doesn't like it then he shouldn't be my friend.

Information on facebook is totally public. I don't care what anyone says, even if you make your page "private" it is always public. Everything that goes on Facebook never disappears. People can always seem to find it and bring it back up.

There are some rules I think, but I don't think everyone follows them. Like I said, Facebook is totally public. So if someone was to say something nasty about someone else, even if they were not friends, it would get to them. Look at how my project has reached over 2000 people in less than a week. Stuff travels fast, and bad stuff travels faster than good stuff for sure. But something good about Facebook is that it really is open to everything. People can post what they like, creat what groups they like, and have what pictures they like. If people don't like it, they can just turn the other direction. Its a really good open concept type of program.

I don't think that I have ever really had something awkward arise because of something I posted, but I think it would be awkward if the peole figured out the random status updates were about them. That would be hard to explain and keep my cool.

With the readings, I found out that what they talked about is pretty much what I was talking about. Many of the comments and opinions were similar to those I made, esecially about how professors should use Facebook as a communication tool, not as a way to get information or anything like that. I'm happy to see that my opinions are pretty consise and along the lines with others.

UPDATE: As of 10-31 there were currently 3,008 people invited!

UPDATE UPDATE: As on Nov 1st, there were 3,113 people invited! And I've almost reached
1000 in attendance!

As of 2:07, there are 3,574 people invited!


This was a comment I recieved from this project. Some people just have to ruin it for the others.

"my clicking "attending" has no relevance to you and is an inappropriate way to determine credit in a class. This seems to be an assignment devoid of any value and if anything has a negative impact due to energy consumption and wasted processing power and storage space, all of which has actual cost.

I'd recommended a pea...ceful rebellion of your class against such an assignment. You deserve to have your grade determined by your actions, that's why plagiarism is such a concern in academics and this is nothing more than the promotion of such principles - the only difference being that while in plagiarism you get credit for the work of someone else by pretending its your own, here you get credit by the actions of others without even the presence of conscious to pretend that you are getting credit for your own actions.

Your teacher should be ashamed!
(this is not an attack against you, but a defense of your right to a real education)"

Wow dude. Just wow

On Nov. 8th, there are 5,147 people invited to this event!! This event has grown more than 25 times what it started at with 200 people!

The video Project

Clearly my Video project isn't done. I've been running into a lot of problems with it. First of all, my interviewee wasn't available until the friday and saturday of this weekend, so I definately wasn't able to get it posted by 5pm on Friday.

Secondly, the worker in the equipment studio never gave me a mic cord, which I know is my fault for not checking before I left. I tried to use my own mic cord at home that had an adapter. Aparently it did not like it because everytime I recorded something the playback was just solid static. So I had to improvise and do it without an external mic.

And THEN! I uploaded everything to my computer and was going to use Windows Movie Maker. Well when checking which files I wanted to upload, there was no problem. The clips were playing fine. But when I imported them to Windows Movie Maker, and tried to drag them down to the timeline, aparently Windows Movie Maker only thought the clips were audio files. So on my computer, I could not edit these at all!

So needless to say they will definately NOT be done for class today. I'm hoping to get down to the editing rooms tomorrow and try using Final Cut Pro for these. And hopefully by wednesday or so I will be able to have a finished product. And probably not one that I would have been so proud for.

What can I do? The mysteries of technology! Sometimes it just doesn't work!

Well finally I was able to get my videos to appear. Apparently I either needed to use a Mac or just needed to use their software. So instead of using Final Cut Pro I decided to use iMovie. I've used final cut many times but wanted to try something new, so I tried iMovie. And boy let me tell you, it was MUCH easier than final cut. I still think my product came out decent. I would have liked to use a little bit more high end camera for it, but with the equipment and the fact that I didn't even have a mic chord to use, I still think it came out fine.

Thanks to my old roomate Sammie for talking to me about being a Photography Major at Buffalo State. She was really patient throughout the whole thing, thank god. I'm glad that she's always available when I need her for projects, and I'm usually the source for her photo projects as well!

Editing for me was not hard. I planned the video segments so I already knew what was going to be plugged in where, so it was only a matter of rearranging and trimming down some of the clips and i was set. I put in some fade to black transitions just because I've never been a fan of a simple cut. I embedding much of my b-roll as the actual footage and used the audio from my interview to underlay the b-roll. My total video was just over 3 minutes long, which is good because it fits in the time frame that we were supposed to fill, but it also is short enough that it will hold peoples attention.

I uploaded my video on Blip and Youtube. I was going to do Vimeo, but I didn't export the video the right way the first time, and accidentally uploaded it to Vimeo, and it wouldn't let me upload another video today because I didn't pay to use their site, so by default I had to use Youtube and Blip, which I don't mind because I was going to use Youtube anyways.

Uploading for me on Blip was not hard at all. I think it was the easiest. As I am writing this I am impatiently waiting for the video to upload on Youtube. Blip took about 5 minutes to upload. Youtube has already taken 15 and it's only 13% done right now. I hope I am going to be able to upload it because I think there is a class in here in like 30 minutes, not to mention that I have class too, so I might have to come in later and spend an hour or so to get the rest of it to upload. So annoying.

This is my video from Blip


I will edit this post later when the Youtube video finally loads!




So I think that my YouTube video is correctly done, but my Blip one might not have been done right because it takes a very long time to load to view.

My Wiki Experience :)

Well first off, I didn’t have a partner for this assignment. I missed class the day partners were assigned, and go figure I was the only one who missed class that day. So I went about this on my own, which is okay, because I actually like working on assignments alone better. Sometimes when I work with a partner I feel like I can’t quite do something the way I might want it done. So this one is all me, and it is about something that really only I can write about.

This is an Actual Picture of my Town

                I chose to write my Wiki How on how to adjust from living in a small town to a large city like Buffalo. Now I know some of you are going to argue that Buffalo is not a large city, but for me it is. I grew up in a crazy small town. And when I saw small I mean small. Where I grew up is Hamlin New York, most people only know of it by Hamlin Beach State Park as we are right on Lake Ontario. The next thing we are known for is being a short 10-15 minute drive from Brockport NY, where SUNY Brockport is. That’s about all of our highlights.                                                  



This is my Squirrel- His name is Sammy



                Pretty much everyone is town has grown up there their whole lives, and some like me, move away eventually, but most come back. It’s oddly one of those places you come back to after years of being away. We have essentially 1 road that goes through the whole town, and a few very small roads to connect the farms and houses. We also only have 1 stop light in the whole town. That’s not something you get everywhere.



                So I thought that I can’t be the only person in my situation, moving to a larger city from a very very small, country, town. I know for me it was a rather frightening experience, so I thought it had to be for other people, and it would be great if I could possibly help out some people who are attempting to do the same thing. So I decided to write a Wiki How on Adjusting to big city living if you grew up like I did.



                I put down a bunch of “steps”. I put quotations on these because they are not necessarily steps, but they are more like guidelines on making your transition easier. I included things like finding grocery stores that are similar to yours at home, experimenting with public transportation and even things like going out and trying new things.

                I tried to write about things that were important to helping me transition. For instance, the grocery store. As small as it seems, it really is something that can make you more comfortable. I never stepped foot into a Wegman’s until I came to Buffalo. I grew up with Big M and IGA. I grew up knowing everyone who worked in the store, including the Butcher, who also happens to be my father. I could call and order something and never have to give my name, they knew me by voice. I could walk around the store and know everyone who was shopping there. They could be my teachers, my neighbors, and my relatives. I really was a place where you knew everyone.

                Experimenting with Public Transportation was probably the hardest for me. I grew up having a car, or having a four wheeler or snow mobile to get me places. My version of Public Transportation was having my friends pick me up on the way. Getting on a public bus was something that frightened me, but I was glad that I tried it, and even more happy that I had a car.

                Overall, writing this Wiki How was actually a really great thing. I was able to really put my heart into to try and make someone else’s life a bit easier. I am glad that I was able to write it, because I want people to know what it’s like living in such a small town! I didn’t have any bad experiences writing it, just was a little bit more work because I was by myself. I didn’t get locked out of mine like a few other people did, which is great. I really had fun writing it. I hope that people will read my Wiki How and they will take something away from it. Maybe it will make them more comfortable about their own transition into city living. And I even hope that some people who read it will miss their home, and maybe want to go back, even if it is just for a visit. I love when I go home, it really makes me happy, and makes me miss the simple style of living where you could strike up a conversation with someone walking on the street and it would be ok because you knew them, and would probably see them again later anyways.

                I think the whole Wiki process is a brilliant thing. Being able to post your own stuff on the web, that can potentially really benefit other people is awesome. It's so simple, yet so technically advanced. It allows for a very easy editing program so that virtually anyone can make their own sites with no knowledge of html or editing at all. It creates a user friendly type of system. It gets people involved in different ways, whether you are writing, editing, or just browsing. I feel that the whole Wiki process was created by something with the intention of bringing people from different backgrounds, educations, religions, ethnicities, and internet knowledge together to form one collective database.

                I hope everyone can experience this type of living once in their life time, where you can actually relax, and enjoy the company of friends, and you won’t be bothered by traffic, by phone calls, or by rude people. You can sit out by a campfire with just two friends, and an hour later there is thirty of you there all laughing and having a great time. It’s something I will always cherish and hope that I can hold with me for the rest of my life, and I secretly wish to move back there when I am done with college, but I don’t think my boyfriend will like that very much.

Web 2.0

          "Web 2.0 is all about openness and freedom," says Kris Lamb, director of the IBM Internet Security Systems division's X-Force security research organization. "You're really tearing down the traditional barriers that have kept companies safe."

This quote I think sets the pace to how I feel about web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a rather scary thing to me at times. To read stories and find out that people can create a social networking page that is just filled with Malicious codes to set viruses into peoples computers is horrible. The fact that one myspace page infected over 1 million users is rediculous. Who knows, I could have been affected. I know I was subject to some nasty viruses from AIM years back that I ended up having to proctically wipe my computer. I can't imagine the types of hard core viruses that there are out right now.

One thing that struck my attention from the readings was that at the beginning, Web 2.0 really didn't mean anything. It was meerly a name given to it to try and spark interest in it again, and frankly, I think it worked. The 2.0 in the web actually meant things that were going to be coming, and they were right, there was a lot of new things that were coming. The biggest thing according to those involved in web 2.0 was "ajax" which to them basically meant that Javascript now worked. Which as I'm sure we are all aware of, really sucked before that. This in it of itself caused a whole new wave of programs to be createdto utilize ajax. There hasnt been a wave of applications like this since microcomputers first appeared.

Web 2.0 means using the web the way it was meant to be. So the new trends that are popping up everywhere are the result of the web being used in the correct way. This is a reason why google is so popular and seems to be ahead of the curve. They are using web 2.0 the way it was meant to be used. They don't sit there and try to force things to happen, they take a more proactive approach and try to figure things out before they happen. Some examples of these is in the way Google has utlized Ajax in Google Maps, Gmail, and some of their other web based programs. They certainly have been successful at doing it right.

First time using the Internet...

I'm sure that I used the internet before this time, but this is the time where I remember using the Internet the most. I was pretty young, probably in 5th or 6th grade, and we just got or first computer at home. It was one of those massive computers. The monitor was huge, and the fan was loud. We only had one computer in the house, and we all had to share, and there was six of us sharing

I think what I remember the most was the slow dial up AOL. The horrible noise it made when you were signing on to the internet, and the 10 years it seemed to take to get there. I think what my parents remembered most was how we always tied up the phone line when we were on the computer, which they were never very happy about.

My sister and I shared a Screen Name on AOL instant messenger; they said I was too young for my own. So we shared Sync5 (We were N'Sync fanatics!) and we each had our own little section of Buddy Lists. It actually used to get pretty annoying because it never seemed to be the right person when someone would IM you. They were always looking for my sister when I was online, and vice versa.

I'm pretty sure that most of the time I was just online looking at N'Sync and Backstreet Boys websites, being the crazy fan I was, and the other time was usually spend playing games at Games.com, when it was still free. Looking back now, it was the coolest thing ever... and I never really did anything.

My least favorite memory of the early internet was only having so many hours of AOL to use a month, and my parents making us have a log so they knew who was on the internet the most and when it was going to run out. But not worries, we always just went and got one of those CD's that AOL gave out with so many free hours on them. I was so happy the day we went to internet that didn't need the phone line.