UWB

2. What might you do with access to UWB radio transmissions if you had a receiver in a car?

If I had a UWB radio transmission in my car, it would make driving easier and more enjoyable. You could use your gps, charge your phone, play music, and watch a movie in HD all at the same time without any wires. Wires get in the way and can be a hassle for some.

Zeran

1.     What might you have done differently if you were in the position of artist Ken Zeran, mentioned in this chapter?

From what I read about Ken Zeran and the AOL t-shirt hoax, he did the right thing. He called AOL to get them to take down the bulletin about him selling t-shirts. He contacted the radio station that had people call him and explained. I felt although that was the right thing to do but he could have done something simpler like just change his number. That could have settled everything and he wouldn’t have had to waste money attempting to sue people and receive death threatening calls. The chapter says he depended on that number, but he could have sent his new number to the people he was associated with and explain why he had to change his number. That is what I would have done instead of letting the situation escalate into what it did.

drm

What’s the value of a bit? It seems that going after folks who have traded songs or movies online is a huge expenditure of effort and money. Is DRM-protected content the way to go? If you don’t agree, propose another method for the distribution of digital multimedia so that content creators can still be compensated.

Everyone downloads illegal music or movies even though they may not know it. I feel DRM (Digital Rights Management) protected content is a bad way to protect from illegal downloads. It has so many restrictions and is difficult for consumers to download legal music and movies. A way for content creators to be compensated for downloads and for people to stop downloading illegally, they can let consumers pay a one-time fixed rate for unlimited downloads. More accessibility to share and copy music for those in colleges would also be a great option.

Friend of a Friend

2. What professional benefits do you see by investing some time in a FOAF-style network?

With using a FOAF- style network, you can find people that know people by advetising to a certain group of people depending on peoples relationships and interest. This is good for company to advertise to a target audience and get feedback on products such as they do on facebook. They have the ads on the side of the page that are targeted to you. This is a great way for professionals to get something out of FOAF.

Prisoner’s Dilemma

1. Considering the Prisoner’s Dilemma in this chapter, provide your own insight on how sites such as eBay “work” for most participants of this popular online auction site. Do they really work? Or is there too much risk?
eBay is a site where you can buy from people or sell to people. It is sometimes risky, someone can send you a shady item that you did not order or you can recieve a payment and not send the product to the consumer. Those are worst case scenarios. This is not the case as it was in the past. Before this happened often, but now eBay has covered itself and has helped everyone make buying and selling a lot less risky. Now they have the eBay buyer prtection to make sure you can contact the seller and make your purchase legit and not get scammed into buying the wrong thing and most of all getting your money stolen. There is also the Top- rated sellers, so you can buy from the most reliable that have excellent service. You control what you buy and sell by giving the feedback. As long as you tell the truth about the buyer or seller we can keep the frauds out of eBay.

Information Cascade

2. Look deeper into the concept of a “information cascade.” Can you cite an example of where following the actions of others was a sound idea? Where doing so ended up being a poor choice?

In sports, information cascade is the basis of a great team. If you have a leader on a team or multiple if lucky you want to look at what that person does and emulate the things that person does. This is a domino effect where if one follows what that model person is doing then everyone will follow.

Now a poor choice would be falling under peer pressure. Something that all teens do, whether it is drinking or being a delinquent because you are hanging with the wrong crowd of people.

Revolution of Technologies

 1. Based on the quote from this chapter, ““revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technologies--it happens when society adopts new behaviors,” do you agree or disagree? Cite examples to support your position.

I definitely agree with this quote, although the coolest gadgets are great to have and may be able to turn off your lights when your 1000s of miles away, but simple things have moved us forward. For example, the revolution of the World Wide Web, everyone uses it today for everything from shopping and selling things to looking up how to make cupcakes. Wasn’t always like this but as time went on more people started using it and getting comfortable with it. The WWW is a part of our daily lives tremendously.

Mental Transaction Cost

Explain and give an example of a mental transaction cost.

Mental transaction cost is where a consumer thinks about whether to make a purchase or not. For example, people use EBAY and love to buy and buy. We use EBAY because we want things for cheap and the cheaper the better. The less something cost the easier it is to buy and there is little doubt about purchasing that item. Now with EBAYs new protection it has taken some thought processing out of deciding to buy a product because of not receiving your item, liking your item, or satisfaction with your product. Or like others mentioned in their blogs, shipping cost. I know I will find a cheap product and look at the shipping and it is outrageously high. That puts up a flag and doubt about the purchase so I will look for the same product for cheap with zero to little shipping cost.

Zero

Zero is hot because FREE is great. No one wants to pay for anything, and when there is a service or product you can get for free whether the service or product is a copy or similar in some way. People will pass on paying for something that has a few more details for a free service any day, but that goes off of preference of a product. For example, people will pay for Photoshop but free alternatives like Splashup, Picnik and Snipshop are just as good. They are not exactly the same as Photoshop with some of the features but serve the same exact purpose for free.

Power Law Distribution

1.  The “power law distribution” or “long tail” phenomenon, as seen in behavior online on the Wikipedia, suggests that the concept of an average user of wikipedia is meaningless. Support your answer: how do you think a local, “JMU only” version of the Wikipedia would compare to the worldwide version? Would it be very similar? Higher quality? Less quality? Why?


Wikipedia is worldwide and has a wide range of diversity. JMU honestly does not have that. The only similarities is that all of JMU would have their ideas and facts that they want to put on their. Many people would continue to pile on information about a subject or topic. How the two would differ, a JMU only version lacks size in comparison and would not have the same ammount of contribution. There a small age range of contributors unless alumni can be a part of the JMU only version. I think that would help.  There are a lot of intelligent people who know there stuff here at JMU but I think the quality would be lower because who is checking the credibility of what is put on there? and I believe we would be a little biased depending on our views of what we put on our version.

Scratch

2. After reading the article about Scratch and exploring the Scratch website, what are some observable benefits in creating a space to share student work?

I feel that Scratch is amazing. I have never heard of it before reading this article. Scratch is great because you can be creative and create whatever you want from stories to animations. It is good for young children to be expressive and be able to be social with others while learning computer skills. This is a site where you can have fun and learn at the same time. It isn’t like other social networking sites where you upload pictures and videos and comment, you have fun of Scratch playing games and such things being creative. I believe all schools should use Scratch for students to learn more in computers, mathematics, editing, interdependence, creativity and having fun.

Wikis

Some important parts of the presentation is what is a wiki. A Wiki is a page where anyone can edit or create a new page on a wiki website using a blank web browser. They also promote topics and are linked together by people like a very large open blog to the world. There was HyperCard to connect using it for groups of people for meetings and share things which was created by Bill Atkinson for Macs. This was the creation which led to wikis. There is more other wiki sites to use that are free and CAN share and organize for companies. Wikipedia is the largest encyclopedia and is no where near complete.

Patriot Act

Some news reports have suggested that the Bush administration used the USA Patriot Act to look at the e-mails of American citizens without a warrant. What’s your position if this was indeed the case? Should citizens be willing to give up their privacy? Does it bother you to know that your online communications are very potentially semi-private instead of private?

In my opinion the Patriot Act was used irresponsibility and only used in a way to completely diminish the American publics privacy. America is seen as a country where people are free and able to do as they wish as long as they don’t over step the boundary of the law. Unfortunately, this is not the case anymore. The Patriot Act pretty much gives free reign for the Government to invade the privacy of the people they are sworn to protect. They are taking away American freedoms set aside by our forefathers. I don’t believe that we as Americans should give up our privacy for an overzealous expedition by the president of the United States. In the age that we are in now when technology is in everything we do it would be ridiculous for electronic or “online” communication not to be protected. If this law is to continue to be enacted in the manner in which it has been in the past then as an American society we might as well kiss our freedoms goodbye.

Protection

1. If your mother uses wifi at home to send you e-mail, and your home network is not protected by WEP or WPA, what reasons would you suggest to her for enabling one of these two protocols at home if the liability of reading those e-mails still exists once her message leaves your home, on it’s way to school?

Without these two, it leaves the network available and unprotected to other people. Another person  can access to the wifi and be able to connect and access the emails without a firewall to protect your private information. Without these securities you will be prone to sharing all your information you think is private wirelessly.

Olanzapine

The official website for the drug Olanzapine probably didn’t mention the fact it might cause diabetic symptoms in patients. Another website obviously did. Commercials on TV now are required to mention possible side effects. Should drug companies be required to come clean about situations like the one with Eli Lilly’s Olanzapine in their commercial websites? Why or why not?

I believe drug companies should inform the general public of potential side effects. I believe the small print on the bottom of a commercial should be enough information for consumers. The real side effect information should be discussed by the patient's physician. Commercials are there to generally inform potential patients on their options for their drug of choice, but in order for the proper drug to be used, a doctor should decide based on patient history, general wellness and severity of disease. Doctors should be aware of well documented studies from the drug companies and make the best decision on a case-by-case basis no matter what the medication. Ultimately, it is the power of the physician to prescribe the correct drug; commercials and advertising are not to blame.

EBAY

2. Have you used a website like Craigslist or EBay to buy or sell something? What was the experience like? Would you use such a service again? If you haven’t, detail how you have sold or bought something outside the environment of a retailer.

I use ebay almost everyday. I have the app on my phone and am watching items, and bidding on items all the time. It is soo easy to use and best of all, you can buy things for cheap. Ebay is soo simple with pictures of the items being sold, descriptions. It is tough sometime to win an item because of snipers. Snipers are people who bid on an item as soon as the bidding time is almost up. That is why they have Buy Now and some sellers have multiple items to sell. For everybody who is buying and selling there is feedback you give for that person. Feedback is used to to see if the sender is shipping fast, and the buyer pays in a timely fashion. I have never had any problems with Ebay so far.

Personal Question

1. You have an important personal question you’d like answered. Explain the procedure for getting your question answered and why this method appeals to you (you don’t need to get specific, but let’s assume the answer does not require specific expert knowledge, as from a doctor).
Not just personal, but any question I have had since I can remember having a computer I have asked the great "GOOGLE". It has all the answers to everything. I dont think I ask people anymore. Google has substitute all things for news to references. If google cant answer my question, then it gives me links to where I might find the most accurate answer. I dont have to ever need to worry about how I can get to a certain place, whats best with rice, what is the best movie out. All I have to do is use my phone or computer and "Google It"

Villages and Sharing

1. If managers aren’t important anymore towards the formation or control of groups using online tools, what do you consider the main role websites such as Meetup.com, Facebook, or MySpace have provided newly emerging groups?
The main role for these websites is to provide an easier form of communication via the internet and at the same time incorporating social networking to the new groups.

2. Describe a group you are a member of (online community, church, job, etc.) and how it is organized. Is there management? How is information distributed within the group?

I am a member of the online community group of Twitter. It is a social networking website where users "tweet" their thoughts, share ideas, and can view what people in the spotlight are up to. Also, businesses can market their business to consumers. It is organized with a live feed and where users' posts refresh constantly. Twitter is managed by developers and upper level management.

Censorship in China and Discount Cards

-Google and Yahoo I dont believe can control what they censor and not censor in China. Their laws are different form ours here in the U.S. The chinese goverment doesnt want things shown there that we see, because of the exposure to most things that happen. In readings in the past few months I have read that there was a hacking in the US tech companies and cannot censor searches in China. I am not sold on this but it could be the reason or who knows, maybe it is a money issue.
"I Pledge" EW

-I am a huge fan of the grocery loyalty cards. I have one for every supermarket I go to. As a college student, I need all the discounts I can get. To get the card they ask for your name, phone number or just your drivers license. I never really pay it any mind that they are taking my information and putting it in a computer. I dont have a big problem with it because of privacy policies that the stores have. I know that my info will not be used or given away. The way money is right now, I dont mind a little of personal information for a discount.
"I Pledge" EW

Educ150(Earl)

My name is Earl Watford. I play Offensive Guard here at JMU. I am a Communication Sciences and Disorders major with a double minor in Human Resources and Educational Media. My goal is to make it to the NFL but you always have to have a more realistic plan in life. My career plan is to be a Speech Pathologist. In taking this class I want to learn all of the objectives that are layed out in the course syllabus. It will not only help with my minor but in major and daily life. I use the internet everyday and I collect data, and share data everyday all day with people. I would like to be abe to be aware of how information all over can affect lives.