Poll: IMs Help Teens Avoid Embarrassment

Teens hiding behind their words (literally). It was shown in an online survey conducted by Knowledge Networks consisting of 410 teens and 836 adults that teenagers use the IM ( instant message) method far more than adults. Some adults say they may sign on to speak to others maybe once a day while for their teenagers that is just an understatement. They are signing on maybe 10 times a day speaking to maybe 10 buddies at a time. It was also found that these teenagers while they are speaking to friends, relatives and boyfriends and girlfriends they may use the IM as a form of canceling dates maybe even breaking up. How convenient
is this break up with your boring boyfriend over the computer and you do not have to see his sad facial expression?

Dooce and Pepy's Diary a form of Digital Publication?

I do believe both blogs Dooce and Pepys were similar yet different in many ways but for the most part they did in fact display a form of digital publication. What better way to digitally display anything then on the Internet. The Internet has been the new wave of the future leading to many questions and a variety of answers. Dooce's blog by Heather B. Armstrong does seem a little more comfortable to read especially for the female crowd but also because it uses simple modern day language. Pepys blog although it's setting is during the 1600's his language also seems very simple however for me I found it boring. His layout is pretty straight forward and his diary is just, I woke up. I went to church etc..... I do like the fact that he does not have any advertisements though it doesn't distract you to look at anything else. Although he probably wanted it that way so that you could continue to read about his very boring life and not an advertisement about photos or something. Another reason why I liked Dooce's blog better is because she used very descriptive words and made sure you actually saw what was going on and her blog form of writing about these things gave the reader a feeling that they could actually respond to her postings, maybe even relate.

NYtimes Article:Dead Student Had Infection, Officials Say

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/nyregion/26infect.html?ref=health

This is getting a little scary, another student was found dead because of a bacterial infection like Staph (Staphylococcus aureus). This time the child was only in seventh grade attending a middle school in Brooklyn. The first time I became aware of this infection was about three weeks ago with a high school student who was from the mid-west, now these infections are spreading faster than you think. In this article the author mentions that do to the quick spread of the bacteria many schools were urged to report any children diagnosed and suprisingly enough the number of students in each school were not any where near just one or two students. Scary right. What makes it even more scarier is that in every article concerning this infection it is shown that more die from something like this than the H.I.V. or A.I.D.S virus. How can we stop this horrible infection?

Blog Review of Cory's Blog Review/ The Daily Dish

Cory chose to review Andrew Sullivan's political blog,"The Daily Dish"a very simple yet popular blogging site. His description of the Sullivan's identity is without a doubt clear to the reader. Cory gave just about all the background information on the author from when and where Sullivan was born to even his sexual preference of today. However I did find it interesting as Cory notes that although Sullivan has the AIDS virus and is gay he is still known among the political spectrum indicating, that this guy may in fact know what he is talking about. I also agree with Cory that Sullivan's website is rather plain, a couple of pictures maybe even some short video clips for certain issues may in fact spice up the page a bit. Now, honestly I am not a avid blog reader but just by the positive feedback from Cory I may in fact consider saving "The Daily Dish" to my favorites.

Three Changes We'd Make as Sprint's New CEO/ Wired

http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/10/three-changes-w.html

Sprint/Nextel going down down down, besides its ousted CEO, its loss of 337,000 customers , or even its stock downfall. It is very clear that this company has an urge to be one of the top selling cellphone companies, however they are with out doubt lacking somethings. From a personal experience I agreed with the article about Sprint's horrible customer service. There were a number of times that I have called and didn't even speak to someone in this country let alone get any answers to the questions that I had prior to calling.

When a company like Sprint merges with another company yes your bound to have complications in the beginning but come on this has been in affect for over a year now.

Gunman Opens Fire at Cleveland High School /NY Times Article

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/us/10cnd-shooting.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

A 14 year old student who had been suspended earlier this week returned with weapons. It was said that this 14 year old gunman opened fire in a Cleveland High school earlier today shooting and wounding several people. So far those injured were two adults and two teenage adolescents. The gunman while running from and hiding from the police within the five floor school building shot and killed himself to end his misery. It was said that he screamed out "Shut up. Shut up. I hate this school".
The question is how could a 14 year old hate a place like school so much that he would want to hurt and possibly kill those who attended? What was really bothering him? Is this another copy cat Columbine high school shooting?

Jury Leaning Against Thomas and Garden

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-BKN-Knicks-Thomas-Harassment-Suit.html?hp

It has been announced that some jurors may in fact find the New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden guilty of sexual haressment towards a former team executive Anucha Browne Sanders.
It is not clear as to what was actually said or done by the coach towards Mrs. Sanders but it was enough to leave her fighting for $10million dollars. What I don't understand is why she waited until she was fired from her $260,000 a year salary to announce this horrific event.

Nintendo President Promises Plenty of Wiis for Christmas/Wired

9/17/07 Nintendo will plenty of Wii's to go around or will they?

President Reggie Fils-Aime actually did promise North America a great abundance of Nintendo systems upcoming Holiday, however with the great demand for such a system he still suggests that if you are to purchase one stay in contact with your local Toys R Us, Target and Walmart's because this item is going quickly.

I know personally my little sister wanted this game system for about 6 months and we finally got it this weekend and the only reason we were able to get it is because we did exaclty what Mr. Aime suggested, constantly calling and going by our local stores, especially on Saturday mornings which is usually a big shipment day for those kind of stores.

BLOG REVIEW ASSIGNMENT: ABC'S BLOG BLOTTER ON CYBERSQUATTING

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/09/cybersquatting-.html

There has to be over a million blogging websites, some of which may seem a little truer to the story then others. As I browsed through websites on http://www.technorati.com/ the blog that I found most comfortable was THE BLOTTER. What could be safer than a blog designed by ABC news, I mean just from the color scheme alone would put you right at home. There may be a little more advertising links that reference links but the blog serves its main purpose.

Cybersquatting: The New Gateway Scam to Identity Theft?

Reported by Krista Kjellman on 9/17/07

"Cybersquatters are getting more sophisticated as they are trying to take advantage of consumers," Alan Drewsen, executive director of the International Trademark Association (INTA), told ABCNews.com.

Well to start you may be wondering what exactly are "Cybersquatters". Kjellman's description was simply and individual or company who designs a web address very similar to a major companies address. These addresses are so similar that they may only change one letter in the whole address. The whole purpose is the obvious. They want the consumers who sometimes may make a simple error typing an address to feed into their fake websites and pay them instead. Now what makes it easier is now many of the companies websites set their payments up with your "typical pay per click", no words said 1, 2, 3 your money is out of your bank account and into their pockets.

Some of these "Cybersquatters" have figured out a way to look like bank websites where now your consumer is doing something a whole lot worse than giving a couple dollars for a product you are now revealing private information (social security, birth date, first and last name etc.).

"In 2006, 3.5 million adults admitted to revealing sensitive personal or financial information to a phisher, according to market analyst Gartner Inc. Of those, 2.3 million lost money, with each victim losing an average of $1,244."

Leaving that scare for all our big Internet shoppers the blog ends with possible ways of avoiding becoming a victim to one of these fake companies.

1.Use search engines like Google or yahoo.

2.Save frequently visited sites

3. Beware of emails that ask to update account info and password

Lastly,should you ever become suspicious of any unusual Internet activity the blotter also provides the consumer with a website for Internet complaints.

http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/

WELCOME!!

THIS IS MY FIRST BLOG POST. I WOULD JUST LIKE TO WELCOME ALL TO MY BLOGGER. BLOG BLOG BLOG AWAY.........