Thanksgiving 2010. on the Web.

It is Thanksgiving week and that does not mean the web is going to get a break – they are going to get overcrowded, abused, and afterward experience that terrible bruises and sores just like many many stores that are going to have a huge sale day(s).  But one good thing:  the web does not have to be cleaned up, reorganized, and recover physically like the stores do. 

Now the web is filled with more and more ads about the deals and discounts throughout this week and for this weekend after Thanksgiving Day.  Not just on full sites on web, but I also have found an iPhone/iPod Touch app that is called “Black Friday” that updates newly available, great deals on it constantly before it is updated on websites.  Also, the shopping can easily be done a company’s own website such as Target, Best Buy, and Walmart, while they are also available on websites such as Yahoo!, MSN, and Amazon, etc.  If you shop online, it is quicker, easier, and more convenient although you will have to wait over the delivery time which is still worth it - especially at a time like this when the holidays are coming and it is way too crowded, time-consuming, and exhausting to shop at actual stores.   

It is a pretty smart idea to consider getting your shopping done online this year and avoid the terrifying overeager crowds, aisles and aisles of products at those scary big stores, and long, never-ending checkout lines at registers.  At least YOU won’t be the cause of that poor little frown on that clerk/employee’s face who has to work over Thanksgiving weekend.

Black Friday 2010

Target
Best Buy

Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your turkey! :)

DN... and AP.. what? - welcome to the world of DNS, API, WikiScan and many more fun things :)

DNS (domain name servers) are used everyday.  It is fascinating how things taken for granted has so much steps, little details, and information hidden behind.
API (application programming interface) is useful for platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Wikipedia Scanner is really interesting because we can enter organization name or domain name, look up their edits and rate up or down on their fishiness.
There are also Facebook and Twitter platforms that integrate DNS and API for our everyday use.
They are all useful, fun, and forever-growing although it is not definite whether they will keep up what they have achieved so far.

In the "Cloud"

The “Cloud” is where you can store/access data, software, and other things that do not need to use up your own hardware and memory.  Many different companies such as Google, Amazon, and Flickr offer this service.  Some other great examples are "Google Docs" and "Dropbox." It is pretty neat because that means businesses have advantages of having this virtual space along with other benefits as their asset and even individual users don’t have to fret and panic in case something happens to their computers (lost, stolen, broken, etc) and there is a way to get back the data and files they’ve lost.  There are, however, some disadvantages such as:  a) whatever company that provides “cloud” space to the user has the control over the data that he/she stores; the user could be locked out of their own stuff / their accounts are exposed to the chance of being deleted at the "cloud"-providing company's discretion; and b) when there is no access to the “cloud”/internet, the user cannot get to the data/files that belongs to them.

If I don’t have access to my everyday, main laptop/computer for 2 weeks because it was damaged, I would seek access to another computer first; then, I would check if it has some of the software that I usually use; internet access/checking emails, etc will be easier because they can be accessed anywhere as long as there is internet connection; however, I will encounter problems because whatever computer I am temporarily using would not have any of my old files to refer to just in case.  I would probably try to find these items in my email inboxes because I might have attached them and sent them to myself from a school computer in classes,etc.  Also, software such as word processing, digital image editing, or presentation organization/preparation programs will be quite easy to find in other computers as well.  As long as I have access to another computer, I would be able to survive those couple of weeks without my old laptop/computer although encountering some inconvenience would still be inevitable.  However, a lot of these issues have possibility of being remedied if I remember the risk, be smart, and carefully take advantage of “cloud” services.

More on "Cloud":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_46/b4009001.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/29/cloud.computing.richard.stallman

Searching online part II. plus - cool sites.

   The search box is probably the first thing that we use when we go to websites such as Yahoo or Google. It is an addiction to be online in the world we live today and also it is inevitable and so natural to use search all the time.  What if we couldn't use search?...

   That is what I (supposedly the whole class) did.  Trying to use websites, find things that we are looking for and continue browsing, BUT- do not use search box; actively avoid using it until it is impossible to do that but to use the search box eventually.

  It was not that bad actually personally because without a topic or purpose that was so specific and/or urgent, it was not too hard to just browse around and click text or picture with hyperlink or watch videos.  But when I picked a specific word to look up, it got a bit tricky to dodge around the search to be honest.

  While looking around with several different purposes/goals in mind, I found a website called "thinkgeek."  It sells/shows different items that are literally "geeky."  Not just the content but the design/setting of the website is also eye-catching and helpful at navigating through.  The search box is right on the top under the website name, where it is so obvious to find.  The text is very clear, the site is consistent, and has good line spacing.  Go visit and check it out if it sounds interesting enough.

http://www.thinkgeek.com