Week 7 - Geospatial Data

WOW!! GOOGLE EARTH



I flew to these 2 places and was emotionally moved by the images. I went up and inside the Statue of Liberty many years ago but couldn't go all the way up because the crown was being reconstructed. The view was incredible. I have always wondered about the other image and what it would be like to really see Christ the Redeemer in Brazil. I find it so fascinating and although I have never been there, I consider this to be one of my favorite places. In Google Earth I also saw images of my home, the schools my children attend and my church, St. John the Evangelist.





This is UMASS with 5 points of on campus interest.


I turned on the different layers of Google Earth and found a few different ways to view the location. The most intriguing layer was 3D. When this layer is clicked or checked all the buildings within your location come to life. They are all visible in a third dimensional format. I checked the 3D buildings layer in Google Earth and flew to Boston. If you are familiar with Boston you should be able to point out the Prudential Building. The images below show the same image with the 3D layer checked on and off.



This is a flight tracking image:

Flight Details
Altitude: 36,000 ft Radio Call: UNITED
Speed: 420 kts Aircraft: B744/Q Boeing 747-400

VFR Information
This flight is currently flying under VFR "flight-following" rules and, as such, departure and destination information is not available.
Departure Information
Departed: SFO SAN FRANCISCO INTL
Departure Time: 11/16/2009 11:36 AM PST (1936Z)
Air Traffic Summary Air Traffic Map Airport Info

Destination Information
Destination: RJAA NEW TOKYO INTL
ETA: 06:08 AM GMT (0608Z) (In 5h 42m)



Here is a vessel tracking image of cuise ships sailing within the Carribean.


Here is weather tracking image around the same area of the sailing cruise ships within the Carribean.

Week 5 - My Little Family & Me

THESE ARE MY CHILDREN.



A SHORT VIDEO INTRODUCTION.







THESE ARE ALL OF MY BOYFRIENDS. ONE IS MISSING..HE WAS WITH HIS WIFE! I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED THESE GUYS. THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK WERE POPULAR WHEN I WAS 16. PEOPLE TEASE ME BECAUSE THEY FEEL THEY ARE "HAS BEENS" BUT I DON'T CARE. WHEN THEY SING,THEY REMIND ME OF HOW HAPPY I WAS AT THAT AGE AND IT'S A GREAT FEELING. I AM A BLOCKHEAD..LOL

Week 3 - Search Engines/Commericalization of Data & Information/The Google Library Project

Google has taken a few search engine rivals such as Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo by storm in their latest attempt to commercialize internet information and search. I find that these three industry competitors will be the major players to fight for this market. Initially, The Google Print Library Project began this venture in an agreement with a few universities and libraries to digitize books by indexing snippets of the material on the World Wide Web. This brought on legal action taken by authors and publishers alleging copyright infringement. Although Google Inc. had already digitized over seven million books, this turmoil caused their project to cease operation.

Not only has this settlement enraged those popular search engine industries but it has also ruffled feathers for major libraries and literary organizations to the point of a new formation called Open Book Alliance. Aside of Google Inc.’s rivals, in the alliance are the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, the New York Library Association, the Small Press Distribution literary arts organization and the Special Libraries Association. I think it would be fair to say that the proposal of this alliance is to amend the settlement so it creates a fair avenue for a more competitive market for books and literature whether old or new.

Currently on this case, the Department of Justice has released a statement regarding the proposed settlement on the grounds of antitrust. Their response to the Google Book Search settlement was that it should not be approved without making some changes because it violates class action and copyright and antitrust laws. In essence, they requested all parties review the provisions for future licensing, resolve possible conflicts among class members, create more protection for unknown copyright holders, incorporate the concerns of foreign authors and publishers, completely disregard the agreement of joint-pricing mechanisms among publishers and authors, and allow book-scanning competitors, like Amazon, to access the books for resale. A New York District Judge Denny Chin shall decide on all of these elements in a proposed settlement hearing soon to be announced.

One cannot ignore the enormous amount of success of the Google Inc. industry. I feel the creation of Google Earth was breathtaking. Now they have launched Google Sidewiki, a browser sidebar which allows you to contribute information next to any webpage. Their technology ideas are growing at a rate that is difficult for others to compete with. Corporate ethics, governance, and citizenship must begin to play a much larger role here. There must be a way to somehow control the open cyberspace world but because of freedom of speech, this task is very difficult to accomplish. I believe capitalism is at odds with information creation and privacy but I have yet to see any major laws preventing the use of the open internet.

I feel Google will win and take over not only the search engine industry but all forms the computer science world.

Week 2 - The Dark Side of the Internet

Facebook and MySpace have become two controversially social networks of which one has significantly exceeded the principles of safety. Although I am on Facebook and do not accept friendships from people I do not know, I foresee the many dangers in using it. Facebook asks your status, so as a member you state “What’s on your mind”. But members are not expressing what they are thinking; they are posting what they are doing. A classic danger would be saying you are not home or are home alone. This could bring on a criminal act like breaking and entering, sexual assault or even murder, the victim being someone who is not careful in accepting friendships. A major attraction to these websites, in particular MySpace, is that it’s easy to network a positive or negative image so that others take interest. You can design your space with graphics, pictures and music. I feel this particular website has been the most dangerous these past years. The abuse of MySpace accounts for endless victims of child pornography, rape and even murder.

On Saturday September 19, 2009 a 20 year old man by the name of Richard McCroskey, of Castro Valley, CA. was arrested and is being charged in the slaying of 4 people. He was arrested sleeping at the airport while waiting to take a flight back to California. Not all of the victim’s names have been released but one was definitely identified as Mark Niederbrock, a pastor at a Presbyterian church in central Virginia. He was one of four people found dead at the home of a college professor in Farmville, about 50 miles west of Richmond. Reports claim that on Thursday September 17, 2009 a West Virginia woman called to say that it had been days since she heard from her teen daughter. She stated she thought her daughter could be staying with a friend by the name of Emma Niederbrock. Investigators went to the home, where a man matching Richard’s description told them the girls had gone to the movies. On Friday when the mother still didn't hear from her daughter, police went back to the home to discover the bodies.

Investigators found that on Richard’s MySpace page, someone who goes by Ragdoll, which was Emma Niederbrock, wrote several messages to Richard. On Sept. 7, she made reference to her excitement on his visit to her house. The post states "The next time you check your MySpace, YOU’LL BE AT MY HOUSE!" They became friends because of their attraction to Horrorcore music. Such music sets violent lyrics to hip-hop beats. He had been a fan of Horrorcore genre for many years and on his MySpace web page he recorded songs of death, murder and mutilation as a rapper called “Syko Sam”. His lyrics described him to possess an ax-wielding alter ego fueled with gruesome violence. In the song “My Dark Side”, he raps words like "You're not the first, just to let you know. I've killed many people and I kill them real slow. It's the best feeling, watching their last breath. Stabbing and stabbing till there's nothing left." He was asked how he did it and his reply was that Jesus told him to do it.

Now this really burns me up. Time and time again, I hear of killings with alibi’s that Jesus or God told them to do it, but reflecting on this statement would be another blog for another day. Aside of that, I tried to find him on MySpace but it said the account was deleted. I was successful in finding one of his video’s on YouTube but after I posted this it was deleted as well.

It really is sad that someone could start a website with such good intentions but then it is ruined because society takes it to another level, a destructive one.

Week 1 - The Internet and Politics

Twitter is the newest and fastest form of social networking of which will not only change the dynamics of local, state and federal political campaigns; but will have a major affect on the upcoming 2010 elections. I remember, John McCain tweeted his choice for running mate Sara Palin before the media took over. Twitter allows its members to search the hottest topics simply by entering the name of their inquiry. Today there was a tweet which connected to a website on a look back of September 15, 2008 (a year ago today) of the week that doomed John McCain. The report stated that on that particular day he declared that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. Not soon after, the Dow Jones plummeted by 504 points. The Lehman Brothers also filed for the biggest bankruptcy in history triggering an implosion of Wall Street. It also quoted that McCain possessed five stages of grief over the economy of which were denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Imagine that! A twitter member recapped a political day that took place one year ago regarding a presidential candidate of which does not sit in the oval office TODAY! Twitter has massive capabilities as does YouTube. It allows immediately received postings of pictures, websites, and now what are called “bubble tweets” (live video) which enhances its widespread use by many.

On another note, I did a little Google bombing research and found something that might interest you. I googled “political liars” and my search came across what is called politicalliars.com which contained a photo gallery of many popular political leaders or should I say liars. #1 on the list was Bill Clinton. Should that surprise you? I believe he was the second president tried to be impeached but my curiosity was more about others that are presently in the media but don’t get this kind of negative limelight. Hilary Clinton made the list too. She actually recently snapped at someone for inquiring about her husband with a response of “Bill Clinton isn’t the Secretary of State, I AM!” Still no surprise! Joe Biden and Michael Moore were also members of the gallery.

I feel the most surprising name was Ted Kennedy. Although I have not always closely followed his leadership, I don’t see him as a liar. His recent death has taken the government in the state of Massachusetts by storm. He just passed away and already there is enormous media and social networking frenzy on his replacement. Also posted on twitter today, was a tweet of a link of a website called the “Red Mass Group” and it reported that Steven Lynch has officially dropped out of the race for the open senate seat, due to non support of unions. Again, imagine the impact such vital information will have on who will actually fill that seat. A Democrat or Republican that contemplated entering the race will now be more opt to make that decision, whether the result is positive or negative in nature. And that important piece of vital information was announced within a moment’s time. I feel time is of the essence and it holds the key of replacement for most prior political procedures and that Internet use for campaigning and elections would be a major cost cutting measure.

New Blogger

Hello everyone. I decided to take this course to not only learn more about the Internet but to test my knowledge on the rising of the computer industry. I failed the first test. What is a blog?

I know now for sure that I NEED to take this class! Good Luck to everyone this semester.

Annette