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This article explains about the benefits and disadvantages of building and buying your own personal computer (PC). All computers that are sold are made up of parts that have been put together, whether by factory or by a specialist. The parts inside help us to tell apart other computers and their parts. The article goes into detail that building your own computer allows you to pick the parts that you want, such as the motherboard, processor, or hard drive, whereas, if you buy a pre-made computer, the parts inside are picked by the manufacturer and it will take you a long time to find the perfect package at the right price. Lastly, the article teaches you how to build your own computer, so that if you choose that path, you will see the difficulty of it and see if you have the know-how to do it. In my opinion, I would build my own computer, even if it costs more money, because I want to install the parts that I think are right for me based on what I use my computer for (eg. gaming, video editing, etc).

Wemo Media has partnered with top animators from Avatar and Tron, the director of MIT's Media Lab and other high profile activists for an ambitious, underwater animation project called theBlu. TheBlu is a project to replicate the entire ocean system, from North America to Asia. It is part social network, part educational tool and part art project. The program will also have a feature where newly designed aquatic creatures can be bought and sold at theBlu's marketplace, which will feature common fish, user creations and exotic or rare animals tied to "philanthropic missions." Currently theBlu is in a closed beta.

Social media has exploded over the years and become a huge part of all of our lives. From facebook to twitter, from instagram to tumblr, everywhere we look there's some kind of social media being thrust in front of us. It has appeared so often that we have grown used to it. It's not unusual when someone stops to update their twitter or upload a picture of their lunch to instagram. There's that sense of excitement when your phone buzzes to tell you that you've been retweeted or your post has been liked. Social media has become part of our lifestyle and it's a great benefit to have. It allows you to keep in contact with relatives and friends and stay updated on the lives of those around you, but have we started to become too reliant on this advantage. This article had provided a look at various social media addicts, like 'the liker' and 'the constant checker' and despite the humorous aspect to it, you can still see a slightly more serious question behind it. This article brings to light an issue that we all knew existed, but never really paid much attention to. It had referred to the different types of reliance's on social media as addictions. It's a strong word to describe what most might usually think of as just small habits or pastimes, but maybe addiction is the right word to use. This post not only highlights the different types of social media addicts, but it also tells us the 'symptoms' and downfalls that can come out of each one and it raises some fair points. It draws attention to the fact that the addiction to social media can not only annoy those around us, but also hurt yourself and waste your valuable time. I mean, it becomes very hard to concentrate on the work at hand as soon as your phone or computer buzzes to tell you that someone has mentioned you in their tweet. Social media makes procrastinating so much easier, not that we wouldn't find our ways to without it. This article is just proof that the world around usis growing, especially the cyber world

Since 3D printing is becoming more popular, workers can assemble anything by using it. In this article, this product could be the world's first 3D printed car called "Urbee 2". It is a three-wheeled hybrid assembled with pieces that is printed out from 3D printers. With this model, Urbee looking forward to changing the way we build cars today and in the future. Urbee is the invention of Jim kor and his group(Kor Ecologic) that is dedicated to future 3D vehicle manufacturing. Their goal is to make vehicles energy-efficient and is easy to assemble. The location where this first 3D car is being processed is at RedEye, where the first worlds 3D printed motorcycle was assembled. 3D printing is very helpful to workers that are making anything because instead of producing parts that would be assembled later, the 3D printer can print out a single part that makes manufacturing a lot simpler. Urbee is called for being a race car safety. 3D printing offers many possibilites but it is really expensive. But with it you can manufacture lots of things with it a lot easier and more efficient.

From the time social networking rose sharply in popularity, everyone has been sharing their lives to the Internet through pictures and statuses. Since then, users' news feed has been filled with things they really don't care about. Whether it be someone telling the world what kind of cereal they are eating or posting a celebrity's quote even though they have no idea what the quote means. Facebook's co-founder Mark Zuckerberg says that the amount of pointless garbage we see now will increase 1000 times more in the next 10 years. Yes that's right, more pictures of people making duck faces and statuses giving every detail of someone's life. This ties in with eLifestyle because even if we don't want to admit it, logging on to social networking sites to see what pointless information people are posting is a part of most of our daily lives. This daily ritual is good for giving us something to do to pass the time. However, our constant obsession is sometime placed before our education by people spending too much time checking on what their friends are doing therefore depriving them of the time to finish homework. I think Mark Zuckerberg's claim that the rate of sharing will increase dramatically is highly unlikely because once the amount of sharing reaches a certain point, social networking users might be fed up and quit using it because any posts that actually seem intelligent will be drowned out by other more dull posts. I personally don't like meaningless statuses like how someone just bought an apple at No Frills, which is part of the reason why I lost interest in social networking sites.

This article talks about different ports on T.V. There are various types of ports on T.v. such as cables, USB, composites, VGA and DVI and Optical Audio / Digital Audio / TOSLINK. However not many people knows the purpose for each of them and end up not using them. If you are part of those people, you should read this article because this describe the purposes of many kinds of ports and what you can do with them as well as what kind of uses there are. Almost everyone owns a T.V. at home but not many of them know how to use their ports so this article could be very helpful to them. This relates to our course because we just learned about various types of USB which is part of T.V. ports. We can use this article to know more about those kinds of USB and their uses and purposes. 

This article explains how the successful and profitable Samsung company has decided to open various electronic retail stores in Canada to compete with well-known rivals Sony Corp. and Apple Inc. For Samsung, the retail push is the company's latest move to establish itself as a premium electronics brand, an evolution due to Samsung's success in the smartphone and tablet markets. Another reason for Samsung to have an interest in opening stores, is part of a global movement by the company to expand it's presence with consumers. Samsung, being a major technology company, believes these retail outlets will help showcase their products in a way so  consumers can experience the brand and everything Samsung has to offer like never before. This is a smart strategy for Samsung to take part in because this opens up opportunities for consumers to purchase and learn about new and popular Samsung products in a way that was never offered or accessible to them before. A variety of Samsung stores will give this company a huge advantage on the market and this will ultimately set themselves up for bigger and better success in the years to come. 

This article would be very interesting for people who has weak wi-fi at their home because their house is too big. This article talks about this magical box that can transform your electrical outlets into internet connections. There are some parts in your house where wi-fi connection is weaker than other parts of your house. This magical box can bring wireless connection to any where if there is an electrical outlet around. I think this is very helpful because i experience same problem at my house and this magical box would fix my problem. I think this shows how much people are affected by the technology because now they created this magical box so they can have better wi-fi connections. People now need wireless connections everywhere around their house since they use technology everywhere everytime. 

Social media is used in everyone's daily lives. Whether it be sending a tweet, posting something on Facebook, blogging on tumblr, or posting a picture on instagram, we are all involved in social media in someway. This article is about how the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has declared war on Ukraine and has sent thousands of Russian troops to invade parts of Ukraine. President Obama spoke with Vladimir Putin, and made in clear that what he is doing is violating Ukraine's sovereignty and that this would have a negative impact on Russia. . On the weekend, Russian troops surrounded the borders of Crimea because the President of Russia said that he wants to protect the Russian citizens that live there. I think that what Vladimir Putin is doing isn't good at all because it could lead to a second cold war. Social media has played a big role in this war crisis because all over the internet there are tweets about whats happening, pictures of people getting hurt, videos of the Russians surrounding Crimea and other parts of Ukraine, and different Facebook groups that support the Russians and the Ukrainians. I think that social media helps a lot in situations like this because it makes the world aware of whats happening and that something should be done to stop this.

I find this article very interesting. This article explains the possible use of biotechnology to transform punishment. Philosopher Rebecca Roache and her team have spoken about the use of a drug that could make a 10 year sentence seem like 1000. The drug disorients the persons perception of time. Although many parts of this punishment seem unethical Roache make some valid points stating "Is it really OK to lock someone up for the best part of the only life they will ever have, or might it be more humane to tinker with their brains and set them free? - the goal is to look at today's punishments through the lens of the future." I find this a very interesting point and in some ways i agree with it I think in some cases it can work but I have mixed feelings. Although it seems like a good idea I feel it is a huge invasion to tinker with someones brain without consent and I really don't think anyone would consent to this.

For the longest time we have all felt very safe while on the internet. Even with feeling this security, we should be more cautious with what we put out on the internet because there has been a bug lurking around in the most important security measures for years. Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) has been keeping your browing page secure and safe for numerous years and is a huge part of the internet and thankfully it is still working as it should. The problem that we have been experiencing is a software library called OpenSSL has a hole in it that has been there for years called "HeartBleed". OpenSSL allows people to get the protection from TLS/SSL easy and fast and has worked fine just like TLS/SSL but because there has been a minor coding error, malicious people can abuse different versions of OpenSSL and grab information that should originally be secured by TLS/SSL. The main problem that everyone can understand is that all of your personal information is being opened up and placed into the hands of someone who should not have the information. The other problem that this "HeartBleed" has is that the attackers will also get to see how the site that is taking your data indentifies. Not only can they see recent transactions but they can look back at old transactions that have already happened. The worst part about all of this is that none of the attackers leave a trace.Since they leave no trace, it is hard to tell how many websites and people have already been effected by the "HeartBleed". While sites try to fix up the problems it is recommended to change all of your passwords and to keep a close eye on your credit card statement. This bug is a huge problem for our society because absolutely no one is safe because there is no way to know if you've been attacked. The article says that Google, Amazon, and Microsoft hasn't been infected yet so that is at least good. I think that everyone should always be careful with their personal information

This article is about a new concept developed by Berkeley that allows users to emit their password through their thoughts. This concept uses a technology known as Neurosky, and the actual headsets that use this technology look like cat ears. This device is still in testing, but for those eager people who want their thoughts converted into Passthoughts, they can get their hands on the device for a very pricey $199. I don't believe that this invention will "take off" because it doesn't seem very practical in real world situations when typing in a password can be as quick as 2 seconds. However this is a very imaginative invention and will most likely inspire people to create products just like this one. I chose the eLifestyle tag for this post because it may become a fashion trend in some part of the world, (Asia maybe) and people will truly enjoy using this product. I think it is safe to say though that I will not be walking into school wearing cat ears in the future!    

Social media has been playing a huge role in our everyday live so its no surprise that it also plays a big part in campaigning. I read this article about the importance of social media in political campaigns I now understand the impact. In the article Patricia Misutka was saying that it is very difficult to win a campaign without social media. The social media tool is very important because it allows you to reach out to the people and get immediate responses. Now rather than going from house to house and calling and polling people you can see responses to things like platform and policy ideas much quicker and with more accuracy. Another very important reason for campaigning with social media is important for reaching younger people who may not watch the news or read newspapers. Social media is a necessary tool in campaigning but it is not sufficient and will never replace face-to-face interactions with voters.

This article is about how social media has become a very big part of our lives and how it is important for government candidates to have social media because so many people are already on it. The article uses Edmonton as example. The most famous candidates in Edmonton has social media accounts but the least famous ones don't. The article talks about how candidates need social media accounts and you need to be constantly updating since so many people have it. Having social media even when you are in politics are very important. Many people can connect with you if you are on social media. They would know you better and become more well know if you are on social media. Election campaigns are more effective if you have a social media account because people who followed you would constantly get campaign updates and would re-tweet it. That means more people would know you and you would have a higher chance of winning the election.

With each new generation of smartphones, dropped calls and battery life issues are still an issue, the reason is partly because antenna technology has not changed very much. Scottish scientists have changed this. They spent 7 years to create a cellphone antenna quite smaller than a coin. The Sofant Technologies team claims that this new antenna is more efficient, finding signals faster and using up less battery life. The smaller something is in technology the less it has to travel therefore speeding the device up. The antenna also takes advantage of the full potential of LTE and 4G connectivity. Sofant plans on licensing its designs to smartphone manufacturers all over the world.  I chose the tag of portable computing because this article is about antennas, a vital part of a cellphone. This new antenna will affect people who use cellphones, which is a large amount of people in North America. In my opinion I think this new antenna is long overdue. The fact that antenna technology hasn't changed much over the years is pretty surprising. This new antenna is a step in the right direction for smartphones. 

This article touches on a very important topic about whether technology is helping the economy and job markets more or if it is in fact hurting it. The answer is they do both. The New York Times among others write that tech companies have created relatively few jobs compared to industries such as GM. However TechCrunch argues that technology has created a lot more indirect jobs due to technology. There are in fact new jobs created such as social media marketers online. Most of these jobs are part-time because they are online and connect employers and workers with no hassle. Their conclusion is that there are millions of jobs created with a high demand but an unprepared workforce. The jobs that are needed now are more technology based than ever before and our economy is moving so fast in that direction that some skills that were needed in the past are no longer needed now. Therefore people are losing jobs not because there are not enough jobs produced but because our job market is drastically changing.  Some companies are allowing people to step into job positions with just a bit of online training or courses. Startups like General assembly are creating programs that are accessible to everyone and helps address the needs of the labor market. The final verdict is we need better training tools to quickly acquire high demanded skills and help workers adapt to the change that technology brings to the labour market. This article relates to economics and eLifestyle mostly because it has to do with how our economy is growing from the jobs created by technology but also how our workers have to respond to this change. This article deals with the changes that the labour market is going through now and how the increase in technology is now changing our lives. Some of our old jobs are being replaced by new jobs that not enough people are qualified for, so certain careers are feeling a job decline making it seem like technology is replacing workers. But in fact these new tools a

The above article (by Cyrus Favriar) details various interesting facts about the concentration of cellphone subscriptions on the planet - over 6 billion. At first the idea of 85% of the global population having access to a mobile phone seems outrageous, but 6 billion subscriptions does not necessarily mean 6 billion individual mobile phone owners. Many people living in third world countries will have multiple phones in order to take advantage of cheap calls within the carrier to and from a specific other party. Another interesting fact detailed in the article is that over 1/3 of the world's cellphone subscriptions is attributed to China and India, with over 2 billion subscriptions combined. A study from Gartner predicts that 1 billion smartphones will ship worldwide in 2014, and data from Canalys showed that more smartphones were sold in 2011 than personal computers. Between July 2011 and June 2012, Americans used 1.1 billion GB (> 10 000 TB) of mobile data, and over the last year Americans collectively spent 2.321 trillion minutes on the phone and have sent 2.273 trillion text messages. So, why should we be interested in all of these arbitrary facts? We understand that as smartphone prices become exponentially less expensive and other parts of the world gain access to data services, mobile broadband continues to grow at a rapid pace. There is a global trend from fixed-broadband to mobile-broadband subscriptions, simply because it is more cost-effective. As global bandwidth increases we can supposedly pump an infinite amount of data to billions of customers around the world. This relates to eLifestyle because it shows that although we talk about poverty and oppression around the world, one thing unites us: technology. This relates to Economics because of the decreasing cost of smartphones and the accessibility of cheap subscriptions becoming more prominent. This relates to the ICS20 class because as most of us own mobile phones and have mobile plans with various car

It's been less than 200 years since the birth of photography and in those years it has evolved a lot from the first camera to the smart phones that we so often use to take pictures today. This article maps out the evolution of photography throughout the years, and what it has come to be today. Cameras and photos have come a long way from what they first were. Even the digital camera, has become a smaller part of our lives as the phones with built in cameras had been introduced to our society. In fact, about 741 million mobile phones worldwide now have some photo capability. We no longer look to digital cameras or computers to edit and share our photos. All of those capabilities have been added to our smart phones. It has now become very easy to simply snap a photo and share it on a social networking site like instagram or facebook. In fact, Facebook has 10, 000 times more photos than the Library of Congress. Many of us have lost the need for digital cameras. Mobile photography is the latest evolution and many are experiencing the shift. Our phones are always with us and it provides us with the perfect camera when a picture perfect opportunity is right in front of us. 91% of smartphone owners take a picture at least once a month while only 73% of digital camera owners do the same. Personally, I've also experienced this shift. I used to have a digital camera and would bring it with me on field trips and special occasions. It was great to have, but now that I think about it before I had my smartphone and only used the camera I missed out on all the photo opportunities that I had in my day to day life. I only captured the big events and even when I took those photos, I always got a little lazy when it came to transferring them to my computer and sharing them with friends and family. It usually sat on my camera for a while before I finally got around to doing it. With my smart phone, I am simply able to snap a photo and share it without losing a mome

nt. I find it very convenient. Our lifestyle with technology has made our day to day life easier for us and now it is making it possible to capture our day to day life, wherever we are. To me, this move to mobile photography hasn't killed photography, but transformed it.

Previously, Twitter, Apple, and Facebook have been on the list of tech companies hacked within the last couple of weeks. As of March 2nd, 2013, Evernote also joins this list when their network is breached by an attempt to access secure areas of the Evernote Service. Evernote has notified users via  e-mail, blogs, and social media to change passwords so that users personal information can remain safe on the Evernote network. The hackers had successfully accessed usernames, e-mail adresses and encrypted passwords, however, they were stopped before any damage could be done. This relates to the "Privacy & Security" category because users data and personal information is being accessed without authorization. Obviously, this can cause many problems for users especially because their work and information can be stolen or deleted. Evernote encourages creating a strong password to ensure that an account remains secure, however, this is a questionable matter because the website should also consider upgrading their system in order to keep users safe. As part of the eLifestyle, many users rely on cloud storage to store information, especially on Evernote. The recent hacking just proves how reliable cloud storage really is. When saving data, it is important to consider the possibility of it being stolen or deleted. With this in mind, one shouldn't depend on cloud storage for saving all of their work or important material as it hasn't proven to be very reliable. And if you are using cloud storage, it would be smart to backup important files on a USB or Computer.

 This article is about a new 3-wheeled car about to go into production. But this car is not like any other car in production. Instead of picturing large robot arms shooting sparks to make a heavy car this one is 3-d printed,strong as steel, and half the weight. This car is only 1,200 pounds. Although part of the car(named Urbee) is printed plastic, the engine and the rest of the chassis is made of metal. Despite people thinking it is not as safe as cars on the road right now, the makers of the Urbee are claiming to be as safe as those in races. Personally I believe this will be the future of car production and 3d printed cars can a lot better for society.

Early in the afternoon today, a clever developer managed to sneak a Game Boy Advance emulator into an innocent looking app named "Awesome Baby Names". The secret emulator is activated by a series of taps on the touchscreen inside of the app. Once it is activated you can play your classic gba games just like you did in 2005. Apple was quick to catch this security breach as it was only in the App Store for twenty something minutes, but in that time many people including myself managed to download the app. This kind of sneaky activity from developers happens very seldom, but when something is smuggled into the App Store, it is usually very important. As stated in the article, it is a very easy process to unlock the emulator from the app, but getting the games and the BIOS onto the iPhone is the hard part. You must first download a program that lets you access the phone's file directory, then you must find the app's directory and drop the relevant BIOS and game files there. I chose the portable computing tag for this article because it deals with mobile technology and exploiting it to run handheld gaming software. This idea is not knew and has been around for a long time, but the idea of hiding the identity of apps and smuggling them into the App Store is a new idea. Apple is updating their security daily, but clearly couldn't spot this "child naming app" and make it out for the emulator that it was. I chose the privacy and security tag because Apple has a high priority for the security of their ecosystem and operating system, but clever people can still find ways to bypass this and get unidentified files into the operating system. I believe that Apple must keep a close eye on how they approve future apps into the app store because one day we may see cydia disguised as a senseless app make its way into the app store. If this happens, Apple with really have some explaining to do!