Drunk Eyes? Please Google regulate us. October 20, 2008

Do you ever come home after a good long night of fun and have the sudden urge to sit on your computer to send friendly messages? I know I have.  Luckily for all of us, Google has created something to stop us from doing so.  They have devised something called ‘Mail Goggles’ (playing off of Beer Goggles).  The Mail Goggles is something you can download where you can set up a certain time of night, usually between 10pm and 4am, where Google will not let you send any e-mails from your account until you answer five simple math questions within 60 seconds.  If you do not get them right in the time frame allotted, you are not allowed to send your e-mail.

I think that this app is hilarious and very practical.  I wish they would create one for facebook….

HP Going Green? October 20, 2008

HP has released two new computers following the ‘Going Green’ trend.  They’re both energy efficient and Energy Star qualified.  The two computers go for $579, and $659; one version sold exclusively at Best Buy, and one version sold exclusively at Circuit City.

The two computers come in recycable packaging that is completely green-friendly with various power settings.  I believe that this is a very good thing to start going towards.  Our planet is weakening quickly and we need to move all of our efforts into going green in as many ways as possible.  If there are laptops available that are towards going green in the future when I need a new replacement, I will definitely look into buying one.

Google making their own phone? October 20, 2008

Google is releasing their own version of the iPhone on October 22nd.  However, it’s not a ‘Google’ phone. The software is made by Google, for the browsing and organization, looking like a desktop.  HTC is making the actual tangible phone, and TMobile is providing the service.  While it is not supposed to be as fancy as the iPhone, it is supposed to be very similar and trying to take some of their market share.  It has been said that many other versions will quickly follow.

I currently have an iPhone and I do not believe that anything can compare.  I am a firm believer in Apple and I just look at all of the others as imposters that are just trying to live up to Apple’s success.

Why can’t Miami do this? October 20, 2008

At Abilene Christian University they decided to give away either an iTouch or an iPhone to every one of their students to be able to get onto wireless access anywhere on campus.  They had the choice of either as long as they paid for their phone service charges.  The school required one of them as clickers in some classes as well.  Now I understand that Miami is a medium-sized school, however, why don’t we take some of our money to do that for our students? With the amount of money circulating through our school, I strongly believe that we can afford to do something like this.  Instead of spending our millions of dollars on muohio.edu e-mail addresses, save the money and give us free google accounts and give us each something like this.

Martin Luther King Jr. October 6, 2008

On the first website (martinlutherking.org), the purpose is a ‘true historical examination’ of his life. However, there are numerous different tangents that don’t apply directly to the advancement of knowledge of Martin Luther King Jr.. On the homepage, there are rap lyrics, videos, Martin Luther King Jr. pop quizzes, Kwanzaa, etc. This website is clearly not intended to educate people about his life. The makers of the first site are ‘StormFront’, but list no copyright information, contact information, etc. It says nowhere on the website dates that the information was presented on, or anything beneficial for learning something about his life. The topics are too broad and scattered and do not directly pertain to his life. We do not believe that this information given is accurate or credible by any means.

On the second website (thekingcenter.org), the purpose is to share information about the actual life of Martin Luther King Jr.. The homepage is clearly labeled and divided into specific sections of different aspects of his life. For example, some of the different tabs are: the King Program, the King Center, Programs and Services, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and etc. This website has more credible information present because there are copyright dates (2004) on there at the bottom and hosted by the King Center. There are no grammatical errors or spelling errors presented on the website, which also makes the credibility stronger. The most recent spout of information dates back to 2004, which would weaken credibility, however, there are legitimate news stories linked to the page and other information about the King Center. Each page on the website looks consistent and we believe that this Martin Luther King Jr. website is more credible and accurate to obtain information from.

Grow up BLondIEguRL October 6, 2008

(No, this isn’t my screen name)

I had recently read an article on The Wired Campus called, Dear Students With Unprofessional E-Mail Handles: Your Professors Notice, about how professors are now getting fed up with students using unprofessional e-mail addresses when asking them a question or sending in homework and not even opening them.  Professors are trying to encourage their students to send them e-mails from their school addresses or at least a more professional screen name.  If they see HotStuff01 or BigMuscles, they’ll immediately just delete it.  They are also saying that they find it extremely disrespectful when students send them an e-mail with improper grammar usage, words misspelled, words all in lower case letters, etc.

School is practice for the real world so we should be following these leads so it’s not a complete shock when we actually do get out into the real world.  Things can’t just change over night, especially when all of your e-mails consist in informal tones and misspellings.  Also, teachers are offended because we should be addressing them in a formal manner, instead of talking to them as if they were our peers.

I think this is very important because you can easily slip up on these practices and could potentially make a very bad mistake and ruin a job potential or relationships or whatnot.

Where the Hell is Matt? October 6, 2008

Last week, I was shown a website called, ‘Where the Hell Is Matt?‘.  It is a website made by this young man that decided to quit his job and travel around the world dancing in front of famous monuments to make YouTube videos.  His home made videos became so popular that Stride found them and paired with him to make a promotional website for their gum.  Stride funded Matt and helped him to make two more additional videos which looked much more professional with better quality music as well.  Matt is a millionaire now all from Web 2.0.  He is my idol, I would love to have the opportunity to travel to all of the places he has and I am currently trying to figure out a creative way to do this as well. Wish me luck. HA.