Geek Sins

I came across this article and since we can post whatever we want this week, I thought that I would put this one up for some laughs. Also, one of the "sins" pertains to one of our midterm questions! I thought we could have a friendly argument in regards to if we should change some of these around or add more to the list. So, how many "sins" have you committed??

See the list


here

The End of an Era

February 24th marked beginning of the last space shuttle flight in NASA history. Discovery lifted off for an 11 day mission to the International Space Station and when it lands, Mission STS-133 will be the shuttle fleets' last. I can remember back to when all I wanted to be was an astronaut. I would get my hands on all the books and pictures that I could. When I was in elementary school, we had a question an answer session with astronauts that were aboard Atlantis at the time. They even had it coordinated that astronaut ice cream and food was brought in for us to taste. I still eat the ice cream today!!! But I have to admit, I don't know how they even had the stomach to eat freeze dried pizza, not the best I've ever tasted! My dad even went to school with an astronaut, Charles Precourt. I got to meet him during on of my dad's high school reunions and I couldn't stop asking him questions! He must have really gotten tired of me that night but he never let it show, he was very friendly and courteous. So, after a little reminiscing, I am going to miss seeing those shuttles take off and land. And to be honest, if I had the money, I would love to take a ride on one into space. Also, I can't wait to see what they come up with next and I'm hope I'm around to see it!

Here is a

link

to some pictures of Shuttle Discovery over the years.

Famous Computers

As I was reading one of my favorite articles, "Geekend" from Tech Republic this week. I thought that this would make for a good and fun conversation. "Geekend" listed famous computers from movies and TV. Some, I agreed with and some I did not. Including Sid 6.7 from the movie Virtuosity being left out! Anyway, I thought this would be a fun argument to post to everyone.

What do you think?

Take a look at the original article
here

Sprucing up my Web Page

Before this class started, I was always wondering how people created web sites... even simple ones. Now, after going through the notes this week and sprucing up my page a little bit. I see that it's not soo bad. Granted that most sites have alot more going on, I was very interested how I could make my site a little more pleasing to the eye. I have to say the I was very pleased with the results and I'm looking forward to what the rest of this class brings and am curious to see what the final product of my page will look like. I changed the background to match every page from a stark white to a more eye-pleasing beige. The headings got a font make-over and I changed the color of the font for each section. All in all, I am very happy with my changes. I can't wait to see what else is in store for the class. Also, I can't believe that we are already half way done!!

Facebook and Employment

I wanted to use my second post this week to get some opinions from everyone. Since we are talking about Facebook and social networking in general, I would like to bring up a very recent court case.

That is the case of the ambulance driver in Connecticut that posted remarks about her boss and was fired. The National Labor Relations Board ruled that a company cannot fire an employee that complains on Facebook. Also according to the article, " The issue at hand was that the company’s Internet posting policy was too broad. Legal experts are recommending that companies who don’t want to be in this same boat should have wording that specifies disciplinary action if the postings related to the company are discriminatory, abusive, insulting, or false."

I think that we will see these cases more and more in the futture and I just wanted to see what people thought about it.

You can read the orginal article from Tech Republic
here



There is also an update of the case being settled and that can be found
here

Internet and Communication

The Internet has definitely brought us closer together. We can now stay in contact with family or friends that are located pretty much anywhere in the world. Everyone is pretty much a text, email, tweet or post away. Skype has also allowed us to not only speak with anyone but to see them as well, as long as you have a webcam. But, I also think that friendship is not what it once was. I think today that it doesn’t mean as much since we can be “friends” with hundreds or thousands of people through Facebook or MySpace. Because of the Internet and the social networks, I think we are getting a lot more impersonal and taking the “easy way” out of sending an email or text to a person instead of calling them or showing up for a visit. I think the emotion has been taken out of communication. You used to be able to hear the tone of a person’s voice and know that they were upset or happy and you would react to that. Now, a person expresses their feelings using emoticons such as =) or = ( or use shorthand like “GR8” or “BRB.” I may be a little old fashioned when it comes to this but I think it has to do with the fact that I grew up before cell phones and before computers were in almost every home. I would write letters or cards and send them to my family and they would respond with a letter back or a phone call to the house and you would visit as many people as you could when you had the chance. I’m also a person that doesn’t feel the need to tweet or update my status constantly on Twitter or Facebook. To me, it just doesn’t make sense to let everyone on my list know what I’m doing every 5 minutes. Again, call me old fashioned but I would rather talk to someone face to face and let them know how I’m doing instead of doing so electronically. I would rather go on vacation and shut my phone off… and I usually do! I tell my coworkers, in a nice way, that when I’m on vacation I’m not answering my phone or emails. If they leave a voice mail, I’ll listen to it and respond if necessary. I don’t mean to sound like a jerk it’s just that I remember before all of this stuff was introduced it was different. We went outside and played with our friends instead of playing multiplayer games online through XBOX Live or the Playstation network. I may seem a little cynical but I don’t want to come across that way. I do embrace the Internet and Technology, I’m in the IT field!, but I just wish that we could get some of that face-to face communication back. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is the way we are going.
I think that we are empowered by the anonymity of e-mail as well. I know I’ve sent emails in the past that I’ve regretted and I can’t count how many times that I’ve forwarded the wrong email to the wrong people. However, I think that many people don’t see it as a big deal anymore. You cannot always tell the tone of an email and it leaves you to wonder what a person’s intent is and simply send back an email without a second thought. I know I’m guilty of it. I also think that we will continue to see the impact these social networks will have on political and social unrest. The most recent example would be Egypt. People were trying to get their opinions out and heard by people all over the world, they were doing that and the Egyptian government found out; they simply shut off Internet access to their country to try and make a point. There was such uproar about it that the government restored access the next day. The social networks give people an outlet for their feelings and opinions even when it is illegal to do so in their respective countries. The social networks and the Internet have made the world smaller than ever before.

VM Blog

As a VMware Certified Professional that uses VMware on a constant basis in work. I am constantly looking at the newest trends, products and troubleshooting articles. Aside from using VMware's website and tech blog. I find this one very helpful. vmblog.com is a great source for information that I cannot always find using a simple Bing or Google search. I also find that some of the posts are more in-depth and descriptive then some of the articles posted on VMware's own site. So, if you want to stay current with the latest new, products and issues that face virtualization or you just want to learn a little more about virtualization in general, I would recommend vmblog.com

Embedding images in my blog

Here is a picture of my favorite guitar: An ESP Ken Lawrence Custom Explorer

Embedding Videos In My Blog

Mr.T - I'm the T in IT

A little cheesy but it should give the IT people in the group a little chuckle!

Internet and the Media

The Internet has affected media outlets such as TV and the movie industry.  We can access any TV station or show from anywhere in the world.  All we need is an Internet connection and that connection can be provided by a PC, Smartphone or iPad/tablet.  The movie industry, more precisely, movie rentals have seen a dramatic shift in sales.  As soon as Netflix came out, rental stores, such as Blockbuster, began to feel the pressure as more and more people decided to get a Netflix account and stop paying late fees.  Now you are seeing competition between Netflix and Redbox.  Blockbuster has a subscription service of their own to battle Netflix but Blockbuster only joined in on the tail end of the craze and still filed for bankruptcy because they could not keep up with Netflix.  But what has also made Netflix even more accessible is the fact that Netflix is now available directly through cable boxes and video game systems.  I remember a time, before DVDs, when all you could do to watch a movie that you missed in the theater was to go to a rent it and that was one VHS tape!!  The Internet has made movies and TV way more accessible than it used to be.  However, we still face piracy of movies.  People can illegally download pirated movies online as well.  So, the Internet has broadened the reach of TV and movies but we still have to deal with the reality of illegal downloads and piracy.  Today, the Internet has us constantly connected to almost every facet of media and society.