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Who has Tumblr? i have it and i friggin love it! I love to look at the pictures, videos and statuses people reblog and post. Many people have great blogs and some have just terrible, pointless blogs. Here are some blogs that are just ridiculous... Especially the second picture and the third one. THEY ARE SO BAD THAT I JUST LOVE TO LAUGH AT HOW BAD THEY ARE. Yes this sorta does relate to this course. If you make a tumblr, at least don't make it a pointless one. I MADE MY POINT.

Meet Chime.in, the web's latest social network. It immediately seems appealing to people, but that's probably because it seems familiar. Chime.in combines the sharing quality of Twitter and the blogging of Reddit. It's kind of like a hybrid super-social network. It also has a little bit of Facebook in its parentage too - it has something similar to status updates - "chimes," which are a combination of status updates and blog posts. The character limit? 4000. But the big thing is, users have control over their profiles, including the advertising and sponsors that show up on their pages, while also being able to put up their own ads and keep 100% of the revenue. I personally would like to see how this plays out in our vast and quickly changing world of technology.

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.

Many people, especially children my age are addicted to simple games that are frustratingly amusing which makes them even more determined to play it over and over and over again. For example, Flappy Bird. I see so many people investing x amount of precious time into it, just to get a pixelated bird through the most tubes as possible. This usually results in a) anger and humiliation for not getting pass at least 1 tube b) zero attention payed during important class lectures c) less study time and failing courses. However to at least stop more people from failure, neurologists are trying to develop another addictive game for people to play which secretly builds up your brain via subliminal messaging. By knowing the foundation of the addictive power of a game and manipulating it, researchers aim to keep people interested while subconsciously giving them a stronger and healthier brain. This is something that can be really amazing because the mass majority who wastes time on silly games like Flappy Bird might actually be receivers of benefit - gaining knowledge and useful skills without even realizing it.

*Disclaimer: Article above contains profane/vulgar language This article details the findings of the blog 'Jezebel', who compiled a series of racist, anti-Obama tweets following the U.S election, and 'Floating Sheep' who trended those tweets and imposed them over a map of the United States. Using the knowledge of geo-coded tweets and the Twitter search bar, Floating Sheep was able to trend racist anti-Obama tweets from November 1-7. They used an 'LQ' algorithm which compared a state's ratio of racist to normal tweets to the entire country's ratio of racist to normal tweets. States with an LQ score of 1 were on par with the country, while those 1 had more racist tweets on average. After trending the reassuringly low 395 tweets, the study found (unsurprisingly) that higher LQ scores came from South-Eastern states, with Alabama at 8.1 and Mississipi at 7.4. This relates to Privacy and Security because Floating Sheep used geo-coding to find out where the cruel tweets originated from. This relates to eLifestyle because the internet harbours some of the most ignorant/hateful people who make callous remarks without realizing everything that you do can be and often is tracked. This relates to ICS20 because we promote a positive online environment and we frown upon things like racism and vulgar language; the very opposite of what these people mentioned in the article are portraying. If there is a silver lining to this study, it is that in this technological era, we are able to publicize ignorance and judge/analyze those who advocate awful messages.

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 talks about how people can now talk in conferences using chromebox. This will change how we work in our careers and create different kinds of jobs or make jobs more "smart".

Make sure you lend some opinion and thoughts to your posts for full marks

Brendan Eich, the chief executive of open-source software company that makes the Mozilla Firefox web browser resigned - the reason seemingly to befall on his beliefs of gay marriage. As a company, Mozilla's goal was not to make a ton of money and call for fame. Instead, the Firefox team aimed to be an activist organization in promoting the Internet as a public resource (but who honestly still uses Mozilla???) . When you think about it, how does a man's beliefs on the gay rights affect and even begin to relate to his line of work and leadership in an internet company? Apparently ,because of Eich's opinion towards homosexuality, his affiliates and colleagues were uncomfortable and unsure whether their new boss could lead the company in the right direction as an activist organization when his moral story tells otherwise. Maybe this is karma for being not so accepting and acknowledging equality towards other people.

I can not count how many times already that I have had something spoiled for me, be it a television series I have yet to watch, a book I have yet to buy and read, a movie still left to watch, or even a new music video for a certain Korean boy band that I follow and cry over. And all of these disgusting spoilers, that ruin my entertainment, come from the single source that is the Internet. I can't even innocently scroll through my dashboard on Tumblr to update my blog anymore without discovering five plot twists in which I have not yet been pleasantly surprised in, a death scene I least expected before it was my time to watch it, and maybe even a leaked practice video to a supposedly secret EXO comeback. Not only does this infuriate me to no end, but it also fuels the fires of my happiness in that someone created the "Spoiler Shield" app - a way to specifically block all of the spoilers you will find while going through your social media sites. Just simply input the subject you would not like to previously see before you invest the time to actually watch it, and the app will block all spoilers relating to it in real time so that going on your social media daily will never be a problem again. At last, I have found an app that will keep my eyes innocent to .gifs from Game of Thrones Season 4 so that I can now watch the show without it being ruined. The idea that this app will prevent me from stumbling over random spoilers greatly pleases me.

Sony is suffering from yet another hack attempt on its networks. But this time, the company seems to be better prepared, and apparently all credit card information is safe. Philip Reitinger, Sony's Chief Information Security Officer, has posted an article on the official PlayStation blog explaining the incident.

brandon copied me

DON'T LISTEN TO CODRIN HE COPIED ME!

Another day, another iPhone rumor.  This one, however, comes from the a highly trusted source of a well-known blog, and not just some analyst trying to fill their quota of predictions before leaving for the weekend.  According to Boy Genius Report, Apple is preparing both a low-cost prepaid handset as well as the next iteration in the family of smartphones. also, lets not forget about the long expected iPhone 5 release

Following the September launch of Twitter ads in the U.K., Twitter is now bringing its advertising products known as "Promoted Tweets," "Promoted Trends" and "Promoted Accounts" to its Japanese version of the service Twitter.jp. According to a post on the official Twitter Japan blog, the rollout began earlier this month.

A WARNING TO ALL TWITTER USERS! A Twitter phishing scam is spreading via direct messages. The DM will say "There is a rumor/blog going around about you (LINK) might want to read it." Do NOT click on this link. If you do, every single one of your followers will be spammed with the same message, and your account WILL be compromised, and you WILL be hacked. If you click on this link, whether by accident or because you don't listen, change your password immediately and often. Delete messages you never sent, and look out for links like the one you were spammed with. Revoke access to any suspicious applications. Follow the step-by-step guide provided by Twitter on what to do if you click on it. DON'T CLICK ON THIS MESSAGE!

The future of gaming is set and Sony has clearly decided to be apart of it. At a recent conference, the company displayed a sleek prototype of a headset that will give players a high definition, panoramic view of the game as if they were present in the server, all in 3D. Sony has already sold thousands of headsets to developers and is inspired and encouraged to make their own virtual reality game and are looking forward to working with new technology. I think that this new format of gaming would be really interesting and futuristic. Certainly, the game play would be more realistic as I don't think there would be as much restrictions to pressing a sequence of buttons, when technically using the headset would allow you to act out exactly what you want to happen. Although I am aware of the dangers of virtual reality due to a specific anime, the fact that technology has made it so far is purely amazing.

This post is about a new app made by McAfee which is meant to be an extra security for people's photos on Facebook. We know that even if we put our privacy settings on "only friends" there are ways through comments, likes and mutual friends that people you do not know can come across your pictures and download, print or upload them on a different site. This app helps protect by asking users to list who will get to view their photos. Only those people on the list will get to see the photo no matter who is friends with who, or who likes or comments on it. People not on the exact list will only see the photo blurry and barely visible. In addition to that nobody will be able to grab, print or download the photos even if they are on the list of people who can see the photos. This app is only in its development or "beta" phase, but it is already free to download and use on Internet Explorer and Firefox. The company is still working on versions for Chrome and mobile devices. Before concluding they did mention that there are still ways to photograph the photo with your phone, if you have a clear picture. I believe this app is a big step to having online security. This app can help stop the spread of your photos before it starts. People may not think about their internet security very often but it is important to know that once it's on the internet it's on there forever. With internet popularity growing and growing we must also know the dangers of posting photos and protect ourselves. Facebook allows so much public information to be revealed this app can ensure you have a more private account. In my opinion this is a great app and considering that it is free while it is being developed I think people should try it out. Although it's only available on Firefox and Internet Explorer it is already a leap in the right direction. However, as it was mentioned earlier you can still have people take photos from their phones. Nevertheless, if you chose the correct people on your list

This article is about how graphene, a material made up of only carbon, could revolutionize smartphones and other other portable devices. Graphene is 100 times stronger than steel and can be made so thin, an ounce of it could cover 28 football fields. Touch screens made with this material would be very strong, light, flexible ,and  and as thin as a piece of paper. A device could be able to fold and fit easily into a pocket. Other possible uses for graphene are thin solar panels, and bionic implants in humans. Once scientists are able to produce large amounts of graphene economically all these products could exist. I chose the tag "portable computing" because this article focuses mostly on the use of graphene for portable smartphones and devices. This material could completely change the portable computing industry.  In my opinion I think graphene has a large potential and scientists should work to make products made with this available as soon as possible. 

This article mentions the fact that Twitter now plans to update its mobile applications to introduce filters for photos allowing people to share altered images without having to use another source such as Instagram. Since most phones come with high-resolution cameras and many of the Twitter users use their phones this will be an easy way for people to edit and upload their photos. Especially with people or famous celebrities that use Instagram then share them on Twitter where more people follow them it will be easier and faster to just use Twitter for it all. This new idea has been hastened when Facebook bought Instagram. Twitter was thinking of buying a different photo service or application but when weighing out the cost they decided to just build their own filters. Twitter is also exploring the ability to upload and edit videos without using a third-party application like YouTube. This article has a lot to do with economics and the battle between two companies trying to get people to use their site and apps and not the other. In this case Twitter is really trying to become the most popular and important social networking site where people will be able to do anything on and it will be instant. They are changing what they once were to try to morph into Facebook because of the increasing popularity of Instagram and the fact that Facebook bought it.  I think personally that Twitter is making a good decision about the filter but i don't think twitter should add their own video player because it would change twitter and its purpose of being instant statements and pictures. YouTube is good at what they do and twitter should stay out of it. However with the whole idea of adding filters to Twitter you get the benefits of Instagram with the benefits of Twitter which might just keep them on top of Instagram.

Following Facebook's purchase of Instagram for almost $1 Billion in April 2012, it seems appropriate that Twitter would integrate something similar into their users' experience. 'Inside sources' say that Twitter is working on a photo-filter system that will be integrated directly in the site and mobile apps that hopes to bypass third-party services (such as Instagram.) While Instagram is a social network that focuses on social images with limited text, Twitter is renowned for its 140 character text-based updates with occasional images. An advantage of Twitter's supposed photo filtering system would be that there would most likely be a website equivalent to the mobile app, a problem that has plagued Instagram users who want a PC experience. As of now, there have been no official confirmations by Twitter, but the idea of a Twitter-exclusive photo sharing system seems interesting; although the market is currently saturated by Instagram, which can export images to other social networks, including Twitter. Legally, Facebook and Instagram may be able to take action against Twitter, depending on how similar their filtering system will be. This relates to eLifestyle and ICS20 because as social network users, we are always searching for ways to monetize our networks to one cohesive experience; another photo-sharing application seems arbitrary when there is already a capable system (Instagram.)

I guess in the future, wars won't be called "bloody" anymore because these guys, namely DARPA, are creating robots that would take the place of human soldiers. With the use of complicated interfaces and algorithms, they are aiming to enable these robotic avatars to effectively partner with their respective human soldiers. Amazing but at the same time scary because the more technological advances in weaponry means the more destructive the war will be. Another thing is they are trying to make these soldiers indestructible as possible. What if those robots start a rebellion or something? Just saying.

this amazing app allows you to actual do a google search with a picture!  This can be used in dozens of situations of the top of my head, such as at a museum a tour or even just something cool you saw on the ride to school.  This allows us to see the world in a different way allowing us to appreciate the history and culture behind things we would ignore on a daily basis