m&m's;

Thursday, June 14, 2007

When War meets Video Games

1. Why are war video games so popular now?
War video games are so popular for many reasons. One reason would be that current events are creating interest for the war games. Young adults who read or know about the current events might be more interested to see what would it be like to be in the war and wargames and help create that image. For the younger teens who play war games, war games are interesting to them for the fighthing, the effects, the violence, and such. I hate to admit it but my younger brothers both enjoy playing war games for the violence and the effects that occur when you shoot a person. They get engulfed in the whole great effects part, and as well as the the storylines. Even before the whole fad of video games happened, there were still some really good war games with not-so good effects. The multiplayer choice, the whole being a hero thing. and the action is what makes war video games really popular today.

2. "If it's not realistic, it's not worth playing," is a quote in the article. Do you think realistic war games desensitive people to the horror of war or is it just fun?
I think that it's just fun. People know that the difference between the wars in the game and wars in real life is that real life affects real people. War games are created realisticly for fun. If it is realistic, it makes it much better to play because you can actually feel yourself in the war. If anything, I think some war games may even make people be more sensitive to the war, depending on their maturity of course.

3. What do you personally think of war video games?
I personally think that war games are really fun to play. The whole plot lines and game itself does not amuse me that much, but the multiplayer games are what I really enjoy. The fun of playing with your friends and trying to win against them is what I find best in war games. I don't mind playing the story choice, but I'm not very good at those XD. I guess, if you're really good at these kind of games, story mode is best for you. I don't mind the realisticness of the video games either. The content in what I value most. I probably will be hooked on war games for a while. :)

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Wii: Hype or Revolutionary?

Wii was first available to North America on November 19, 2006. It was a new system from Nintendo with unique attributes. It had a c

ontroller in which you actually control the item you are using. For example, if you are playing baseball, you actually SWING the controller! It was to be known as the revolution of all gaming systems. Do I agree with that? Nope. I believe Wii is just pure good, old hype. I mean, sure, Wii is one of the most, if not, innovative gaming system out there, but, it’s only for now. Technology just continues to bloom. Every single year something new and better comes out and drives everyone crazy. Then all this hype surrounds the system saying it's the beginning of a revolution, but it never is.
Technology finds some way to change all that and the competition between the systems grows fierce. Wii has set a high standard on gaming and has even great games for the station, but the competition grows and soon either x-box or play station or some new brand will come out with something even better. Wii is rather one of the most interesting systems I’ve come upon. I really enjoy the way they set this up and I think it’ll last for long, but still I think it will be forgotten as all others before when technology rises. Wii might have made a large impact on 2006-2007, but in the future there will be far more larger impacts which will eventually, as sad as it sounds, make Wii forgotten.

Monday, June 04, 2007

How Napster Changed the World

After reading the a

rticle by Don Dodge, I have come to the conclusion that Napster did change the world. Not all were changed for the better, but there is a hefty population of those that benefited from this. Those who benefited from this are the ones who are now downloading songs and movies illegally through the underground sharing programs. Those who didn't are obviously the RIAA and the record companies that did not believe Napster when they explained the damage the p2p programs can do. The Napster program opened opportunities and ideas to others, that eventually expanded off this idea, which created both advantages and disadvantages to others.

Napster was the pioneer of download sharing programs. It was first created to allow others to share music and videos to other peers and users. Eventually, it branched off to be bigger than expected, and there were over 50 million loyal users to Napster. They were all sharing new music files and such to other users, and this created some problems with artists. Music artists such as Metallica and Dr. Dre became angered with Napster, both with different reasons. Metallica was furious because of a single off their new album that was released through Napster and eventually through radio, before the actual release date. Dr. Dre had a similar problem and wrote to them asking to take off his music, and was denied. They both filed lawsuits against Napster for the pirating songs that had been circulating Napster. This was the start to the major problems for Napster. After the lawsuit, Napster encountered something bigger than annoyed artists. RAII sued Napster on behalf of all record companies. They felt that Napster was conflicting with the sales that the record companies were obtaining. Napster had lost it's case, but won a "stay" for a limited time. Although they were being sued because of obvious reasons, many felt that Napster actually helped sales. An example of this would be with Radiohead, "Kid A". Their CD's have never made it onto the top 100 Billboard's list but after a few of their singles had gotten on Napster and over 1 million had downloaded their songs, at the realease of their CD, it had won the number one spot on the BillBoard's list. Many believe that this was caused by Napster and actually stimulated CD sales! Still, Napster was not able to defend themselves from this. Napster tried one last time to make a deal with the labels. There was a new underground p2p sharing program called "Gnutella". There was no central server so there was no one to really sue. It had a few people on it but Napster had much more. The deal was that the labels and Napster could work together to put down "Gnutella" since Napster had so much loyal users. The decision made by the labels was the worst decision they could have made. They did not believe Napster and refused their deal and successfully shut down Napster. Now there loads of p2p programs out there and is what most people do to get their songs. The RIAA lost millions in potential revenue all because of the wrong decision.

Napster was bought by Roxio and they changed their name to Napster and now sell online music as Napster first planned to do.

Friday, May 25, 2007

cyberbullying.
how great is this?

So, if going to school and getting bullied wasn't great enough, you can know get bullied at your very own home! Yes, it's true! How you may ask? Through the wonderful world of technology! People can cyberbully you through MSN, through hotmail, through text, through the phone and through many more wonderful, and helpful technology

creations. How enthusiastic are you?

Cyberbullying can be defined many ways to others. The gist of cyberbullying is bullying someone through some technological way. It can be threatening someone through e-mails or talking about someone through a "I Hate ____" club through Facebook. Yeah, it's very convenient to cyberbully. You can just sit there, typing harsh and horrible things to someone and be hidden too. My enthusiasm is just bursting! No, not really.
Leave it to some jerk to turn such wonderful technology into something horrible.

On Wednesday, May 23rd 2007, we had a guest speaker come to our school to talk to us about this cyberbullying. At first, I was completely distraught about having to go to some assembly about something that I already knew about. Or so I thought. So there I am, sitting and completely bored while listening to some laws and school codes. I'm not worried at all for this because, hey, I don't cyberbully anyone so I'm good. Right? Well, I thought that cyberbullying was just threatening someone through MSN and it's not like I've ever done that, but as the speaker spoke, I found out that I was a victim and producer of cyberbullying! Me! I listened to what he said and how cyberbullying can just be saying bad stuff about the other person through any technology creations. At that instant, I remembered when I had constantly said rude stuff about this boy through e-mails as he did the same to me. I did this for about a month, and even though it was never me who wrote him first, I was still involving myself in this. I felt so guilty! I could of just ignored his e-mails! I could not believe how easy it was to involve yourself with cyberbullying, no matter how big or small the situation! The speaker then started giving examples and how students killed themselves over this, how teachers went partially mental and how a student sued the school for lack of safety. I could not believe this at all! I couldn't believe that someone can cyberbully another that much and create such a huge problem! I thought that my doings were horrible! So here I am, completely distraught at the idea of cyberbullying and disgusted at myself for doing the same. I was a cyberbullying jerk and I turned the internet into a weapon! I listened to the rest of the speech, with about thousand thoughts racing through my head.
After school, I went home in a rush to blow off some steam from the speech. I went on my computer and sat there racing my fingers on the keyboard. I was angry and put a lot of emotion in what I was writing; I had something big to say. Finally I was done, and saved it in drafts. I wrote a sorry e-mail (because I'm too scared to do it in real life) to the boy I had cyberbullied. It was pretty hard to write since he hurt me too with the insults he sent to me, but I still was glad I wrote it. Isn't that super? Okay, maybe I'm not all that super because I have not sent him the e-mail yet. It's kind of hard because a.) I'm scared of what he will say and b.) I'm a big wimp. I'm hoping to send it soon, but at least I took a step right?
After the whole cyberbully speech, I've really been careful about what I say and write to others. It's really making me a better person.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Classroom in an Ipod

1. The article suggests that iPod video lectures are effective for '"kinesthetic learners", who tend to be hands-on, active, and require frequent breaks." Do you think that you would learn well using an iPod? Why or why not?

After reading the article on the iPod video lectures, I feel that it would be an actual great way to learn and I think I would learn w

ell with this program. These video lectures give a chance for people who do not pay much attention to seminars, to still learn on their own time whenever they wish to. I am one of those people who tend to miss a part of a seminar every now and then or actually not attend a seminar because of other needed purposes. This new program with the iPod can give me the seminar or class needed in the palm of my hands and make it possible to still "make" the seminar with such a busy schedule. As well, I am one of the "few" people who cannot hear the teacher at times and miss an important point, but with the seminar with a volume button, each word can be heard clearly as needed. Another point that can help me learn better using iPod video lectures would be that I can rewind and fast forward when needed, and talk to other students about the seminar itself. Rewinding and fast forwarding can help me get to points I do not understand and with no teacher in sight, I can ask other students to help understand certain points within the seminar. This creates a better insight and knowledge of the seminar and helps me, as a student, to learn more from the seminar than I can usually obtain. A disadvantage of this would be that we, as young students, may take our time to watch this seminar while as while watching television or on the computer. This would make us not get the whole seminar meaning, and cause us to become lazy and sloppy in this way.

2. An advocate for "v-casting" through the iPod says that: "It's more interactive and more self-directed." Do you think that Mary Ward, with its commitment to self-directed learning, should embrace such technology for education? What are some advantages or disadvantages?

I feel that Mary Ward should embrace this technology for education, because it can help the students become self-directed for several reasons but with these advantages, also comes negatives of course. One reason it would help our self-directed school, as noted before, would be that it helps the students, most with such busy schedules, have a way to never miss one seminar. It would help them to be able to go to each seminar and understand each surface of the topic, instead of missing out and doing not-to-good on their unit. This can also create some disadvantages though. One would be that the students may miss the whole seminar altogether and the teachers may have no idea of this. Another disadvantage would be we would not be able to participate with the seminar and not be able to receive handouts with problems to help us understand how to solve them. These are things to ensure we understand, and this leaves us only to use our imagination. Another reason that the iPod technology can help us as a self-directed school would be that it teaches us how to use our time outside and inside school. With seminars all in a handy dandy iPod that could be taken anywhere, it causes us to be able to use our time at home to be at a seminar or in a class. This would help our time management and us to be more self-directed because of how we sort our own time for each seminar. These are just a few examples of how this technology can help us as a self-directed school, even with the disadvantages that follow.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

With the GOOD, comes the BAD should be around 300 words long

Journal entry #1:
In our era, there are many electronic advancements that help boost up the benefits of communicating within technology. Of course, with the benifits, there are also possible ways to create these positive effects into negative. An example of this would be the cell phone. It was created for our enjoyment to talk to fellow family, friends and others with the pressing of buttons. The positive effects would be that we no longer must have to walk to whomever to give the message, now your voice travels instead of your feet. Cell phones created more time for other things and made our life much easier. As well, if in danger outside the home, cellphones can be used to call right at the moment, making help arrive much quicker. Cellphones have saved many lives with its portable calling. The negatives to the cellphone would be that many teenagers now use up their time talking to their friends, leaving their homework or chores to be left to do last minute or not at all. As well, many cellphones are now targets for other people and many are stolen and leaving the owners very disapointed. This creates much of a problem in ones life. Another example of benefits and negatives to the advancement of communication technology would be Microsoft Network messenger also known was MSN messager. The postive to this advancement would be that you can talk to your friends and family through the computer with a couple of clicking of the keyboard. You can talk to others without being shy and send emoticons to show your feelings. You can as well have webcam sessions with others or have voice conversations through a microphone. All these things are all located in the handy dandy MSN messenger. But as much as it is handy dandy, it is also a creator of many negative problems. MSN messenger is a very useful tool for people, but some use it for wrong reasons. MSN messenger can create many security problems and endanger someones life. You can never know for sure who you are talking to on MSN, and many can aduct ones innocence through this. Many things have been said to prevent this such as "don't talk to anyone you dont know", or "never meet someone you have met through MSN" but still, many of these things happen everyday. As well, the advancements that come with MSN, such as the webcam, can leave youth, young teens and adults to share more than needed through the cam. This can creates many worries for the parents, or many worries for themselves.
In conclusion, it is easy to see that, as the title states, with the good, comes the bad. Communication has brought many advancements for our lives, but you can only obtain the postitives, if you use it the wisely and the right way.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Hello =D.
My name is Jethro for all you
who do not know me.
I think I'm suppose to talk about
myself. So I'll guess I'll
say that I love rock and
oldies kind-of-music.
I have no idea what else to write.
So..
anyways, the page is under construction
Toodles.