it ain't so bad

As the school year comes to an end and I’m finishing up all my final projects and writing my final essays, I’m wondering if this will be not only my last blog for the school year, but maybe my last blog ever? Most likely it will be my last blog I ever write. I’ve never been a journal/write my thoughts down kind of person, so writing these blogs were sometimes a struggle for me. However, I am glad that we had to do it. It opened my eyes to the blogging world on the internet. I’ve always known that people wrote blogs, but I had no idea the extent was so grand. It’s neat to read other peoples thoughts, and the number of topics that you can find is unlimited. Writing blogs forced me to search around for topics to write on, and in the process I’ve become pretty keen with the one website our teacher suggested to look at - wired.com. It’s pretty much blogs about all the cool stuff that’s currently going on in the world. The one section is great, Gadget Lab they call it. So although at times I wished we never had to write blogs, overall it turned out for the good!

i heart google

I came across this article on wired.com - Google Hits It Out of the Ballpark: Q1 Profit up 30 Percen. Google is amazing, how come I couldn’t think of it first, and why did Google do so well over the other search engines? I don’t really know but part of the reason must have been its simplicity and maybe its quirky name? The creators are smart people who make smart software. I’ve used a ton of Google’s products such as: images, maps, gmail, video, sketchup, toolbar and many others. I don’t believe they come up with the ideas for the products, but they do it up right. I love the simplicity of their products and I believe all software should be as simple as the Google products.

It is incredible how far Google has come. Just think if you invested...Oh my. Google has grown so large that everyone (except my grandparents) now acknowledges that “google” is real word, and people use it as an everyday common word - “Oh just google it!” As the company is still doing well, I look forward to seeing what they come out with next.

BOOM!

German Company Resurrects Self-Destructing DVDs

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/german-company.html

A DVD that begins to self-destruct once the vacuum seal is broken. Well that’s one way to help stop pirating...or is it? That’s what I first thought when I saw this article, but once I thought it through, this wouldn’t really stop anyone from burning the DVD within the 48 hours that the disk lasts. Although, it does seem like a legitimate idea that could replace renting movies. This would make returning movies, and late-fees might I add, a thing of the past. Once you watch it, just toss it! But what a waste. Not a great thing when our society is trying to move away from waste and promote sustainability. Still a cool idea though. the talk about selling them in gas stations and variety stores for 5 or 6 bucks, but I really don’t see this catching on, especially since you can still go home and click your way to a movie for free.

teevee

I always loved watching TV. Not too many people would say different. It’s a great way to relax, and set your brain at ease. I’m not sure why but when I’m in school it seems I watch a lot more TV. Maybe it’s because I do a lot more thinking while in school, or maybe it’s just the atmosphere, or I dunno. But I do know that since watching the amount of TV that I have, I’ve become somewhat reliant on it to fall asleep. Having a TV in my bedroom, I always watch a little before I go to sleep, but recently I’ve noticed that some nights I can’t fall asleep unless it’s on. I don’t like it one bit. When I leave school and go back home there’s no TV in my bedroom and sleeping might be troublesome. It will be interesting to see if the different atmosphere at home will change my dependence on TV.

There was once a time where we had no cable at home. This was like four years ago and I was still in highshool. At first it sucked. I found myself bored and with nothing to do. But after not even a week I found myself doing a whole lot more than usual. Getting my normal stuff done, doing something extra and fun, going different places, and still having some extra free time. I became liking the fact we didn’t have cable, because if we did, I know I’d sit myself down and end up watching the tube for hours at a time. It is a real time-burgar. We never got cable back. Instead we got satellite, which is worse (but better) than cable. Now at school I’m back to cable and rely on it to get to sleep at night.

what doesn't rely on it?

So I was searching around for blog topics and came across an article titled: “Modern theatre relies too much on technology”. I did not read the article but the title got me thinking - what doesn’t rely on technology. I sat in my room and looked around, thought of what I did today... and came to the conclusion that everything relies on technology. Everything but the simple things. The simple things in life I would say are things like walking your dog or playing catch with your friends. While the basis of these activities don’t so much rely on technology, technology has snuck its way in. Not in a bad way, but it is still present - the retractable dog leash or the pooper scooper - or balls that you can throw 150% farther or balls that light up or make sound when you throw them. Technology is increasing at a rapid pace and I’m convinced that before too long EVERYTHING will rely on it.

media hounds

You don't have to be considered a media addict to see that media habits are changing. Digital technologies, from Tivo to the IPod to internet connections that are constantly on, these are causing a sea of changes in the way we use media. We're consuming more media than ever and we're doing it all on our own terms; when, where and how we want. We read the newspapers online, read our friends' blogs, download episodes of Family Guy, and download unlimited amounts of music. We take pictures on our cell phones and post them on Facebook. We Tivo our favourite soap operas, and devour entire seasons of Arrested Development on DVD.

I don’t think that this is really that new of a trend though. Those of us who are a little more computer savvy have been on the doing this for years, but it is only recently that pretty much everyone has caught on. This has made it that much easier for us media hounds. Supposedly a new blog is created every second.

This matters not only to technologists, publishers and film and movie producers, but also to the average person in general. As media habits change, so do us as people. And these days, the changes come fast and furious. Just how far will our media habits take us?

digital cameras

Since I just finished a project relating to digital cameras, I thought I’d blog about them. I kind of dislike how popular digital cameras have become. It seems like everyone has one, and yes I do as well. So pretty much at any event (not even necessarily an event), someone is there snapping 200 hundred pictures of the occasion. I find it so uncalled for as looking at pictures becomes kind of blah. That’s even if you get a chance to see the pictures, as many people are reluctant to go and pay to get their pictures printed. Now with applications like facebook, it’s a lot easier to have your pictures viewed, but in the long run many of those will be deleted or lost. We need to print our pictures! Because we can take so many pictures, some good shots come out of it, and the digital camera can be thanked for those. Also, since most cell phones are equipped with cameras, pretty much everyone has a digital camera on them at all times. Over I dislike the idea, but having a camera everywhere does come in handy. Many of the hilarious pictures and videos on sites such as break.com and youtube.com are made possible by people having a handy cell phone camera in their pocket. What would we do without these types of websites?? Get back to paying attention in class? Get back to work? Naaaaahhhh. Muahahahahahaaaaaa.