I didn’t find this article on the suggested news sites. Online friends posted this in a chat channel.

AT&T users are going to attempt to cripple the network this coming Friday in an attempt to get the company to fix the network problems. The outcry is on several tech websites and blogs. It has even been given a Facebook group.

So the questions are as follows:

1. Is this an ethically acceptable protest considering that not all iPhone / AT&T users are necessarily upset with the network? But if the network is crippled, it will affect them regardless.
2. Even if the disruption does happen, will AT&T “get the point”? They know about the impending  attempt, but they are dismissing it. They don’t think the attempt will be successful.

If you are an AT&T customer, good luck this Friday.

I’m an anthropology major with a concentration on new technology and how it is changing our cultures.

This contest was specifically designed to test social networking. But social networking being what it is, it was up to the contestant teams to decide how to use this technology.

According to the rules, the weather balloons would be out for locating from the first day (originally Saturday, December 5th) until December 14th. Due to weather, the balloons were not put out until December 7th.

All ten balloons were found before 9 hours had passed.

MIT was the winning team. They had set up their own social network and offered their participants a cut of the prize money.

DARPA, the organizers of the contest had allotted 9 days for all 10 balloons to be found and the task was completed in only 9 hours.

Contest Rules

CNN news story

I am also taking IMS356 Flash Animation this semester. So my page was built with Flash. We learned how to incorporate a pre-loader and I’m grateful for it. My page is a family tree / scrap book of sorts, so it is picture heavy and will take a little time to load.

So the general audience would be my family and friends. The intention is that I could expand on any of the family members and put up more information when I have the free time. Since it is a family tree, I imported a jpeg from wikimedia of an Old Oak Tree in Florham, NJ. I then used some photoshop to slightly stylize it. I’ve used a light yellow (such as old paper) for the boxes behind my text. I used green for the text and for the buttons.

Sound was a requirement for the IMS356 project and I had a little fun with sound on my buttons. My son will be thrilled when he uses his button. The motion tween in the pre-loader was fun to create as well. I stepped away from the tree background for my daughter’s artwork so that it would not detract from the art pieces. I squeezed a lot on that page, but I think it is okay and not too busy.

I still think that this page would have been fun to create in Dreamweaver, but I still have the video project to finish and Spanish to study. My IMS356 only required the one page, and it just made sense to complete my IMS201 project in Flash.

My biggest challenge was the buttons. I would place a button on the stage and name it specifically. The action script used for each button seemed to be in order. But my buttons were broken. The instructor looked it over and was not certain why the buttons were not working correctly. I thought about it a few days (more like fretted). I ended up wondering how Flash was keeping all the buttons straight. My eventual fix was this:

In the library, I would duplicate the generic button and name it specifically. I then would name the instance of that button when I dragged it onto the stage. So I ended up with a folder full of buttons in my library. But that fixed the problem. I was ecstatic that I was able to fix the problem myself.

The article goes in to detail about how retailers are using social networking as a new connection with customers. Facebook and Twitter users were privy to special deals and last minute information on Black Friday. Some shoppers were even able to receive tech help via twitter.

Some retailers may have some of their IT or marketing departments working on this new venue, but the article did state that some of the sales staff at Best Buy were sending tweets while working the sales floor.

Granted the skill is not as complex as Dreamweaver, Flash or Excel spreadsheets, but could a good grasp of social networking become a job skill in the future?

Our project is a 3 minute Flash “movie” on just about any subject. On my project, I had a good majority of my work done when I went in for the lab hours Sunday night. I got some things cleared up and the basics of my project done. Organization is the big key for me. Writing out a list of all my potential items was a big help. I named all my layers and kept all my graphics / symbols organized on the proper layers.

I’ve gotten better about using keyframes within my motion tweens and there are a few things I hope to clean up before I turn in the project.

I chose to do a very simple project since I’m not that confident in my skills. So my project will only have sound affects and music if I can manage to get that added in correctly tonight. But I wanted to share with you the resource that was pointed out to me if you are still looking for just the right sound. And since we have a 3 minute movie to do of our own I know that this may be a great help to your team as well.

http://www.soundsnap.com/

They have a free membership that allows 5 free downloads within 30 days. So if you might need some sound files before the end of the semester, be careful that you only download what you need. So 4 team members with 5 free downloads each, that’s 20 possible files!!  Happy Hunting!!!

I was directed to this site by my IMS201 instructor John Millard. (Thanks John!!)

Windows 7 Upgrade Paralyzes Some PCs With Endless Reboots

This article was not a surprise to me at all. So my advice to everyone out there is wait a few months for the bugs and problems to be worked out. And just as a little light hearted trivia, here’s a link to a video.

A lot of people either don’t understand or don’t care that their information can be seen by anyone if they haven’t taken precautions. In today’s tech savvy world plenty of people will research someone online. It could be an employer searching a potential employee or someone researching a potential mate. And in most cases they won’t bother to ask you to explain your past if there is another candidate with nothing to question.

The article explains plainly how your privacy is at risk and how you can change your account settings. If you follow these steps, you may also find a few more things that would help to protect your privacy.

If an employer can legally check your credit score to see if you are a stable person, why wouldn’t they search for any other free information that you put out for the world to see?

5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook

Disney is hoping to get children interested in reading again. This option makes for an interactive environment that kids are learning about at such a young age. They are also hoping to corner the market by making their entire library available. Other products, such as Leap Frog, don’t come close to the magnatude that Disney will encompass.

The article also claims that this would not replace traditional “snuggle time reading”. But I feel that is entirely up to the parents.

The subscription fee is $80 per year to access the entire Disney library. That is a great price. But I personally would want a few hardback copies on my shelf. As always it comes down to user preference.

I have not been able to embed the video. I tried using what CNN gave me and I tried using the WordPress format.

Well, on to the blog post.

The video shows some new search tools that are being developed. Bing.com now has an image search. For those people that are more visual, this may be a useful tool. It could also be more helpful for searches for the unknown. It is still new so it will still have its problems. As with all searches, some of the images may be related to the search, but not as specific as you would like.

Not to be left behind, apparently Google is developing a new search browser that uses the “flip” or “drag” motions. The host in the video suggests that the new generation of iPhone users may be more comfortable with this tool. While he may be right, has he forgotten microfiche? There are several generations out there that have been scanning objects left and right for decades. But this method also gives you a lot more of the object to scan rather than the usual 2 or 3 lines on a regular search listing.

I do think these are very interesting search tools. They do help in different ways, but the general search is still not a simple process.

I found an article titled “Facebook fights Virginia’s demand for user data, photos” on CNet News. Facebook was subpoenaed to turn over records regarding a user and pictures posted by the user. It was hoped that this would be evidence of fraudulent insurance claims on the part of the Facebook user.

I know there is a fine line here, but the people of Virginia are paying into the Worker’s Compensation system. And it is alleged that this Facebook user is collecting Worker’s Compensation benefits fraudulently.

If Facebook had simply turned over the information, would users in countries with political upheaval have to worry about their freedom due to a post made months ago? If Facebook had turned over the records, where would it have stopped? Would the courts be after your records? Mine?

What happened to the good old private investigator following and taking pictures?

CNet.com

McCullagh, Declan. “Facebook fights Virginia’s demand for user data, photos.” CNet News 14 Sep 2009: n. pag. Web. 14 Sep 2009. <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10352587-38.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1>.