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This year is going to be one of the NBA's most anticipated seasons of all time. Watching last year in only a 66 game season you could see how much more entertaining the NBA is getting. Now with the moves the Los Angeles Lakers have made by adding Dwight Howard and Canada's own Steve Nash to the lineup could make for a very entertaining season along with the Miami Heat that are coming off champions from last season and one of the greatest seasons ever done by Lebron James. The Heat and Lakers could both make the finals which will provide the first ever Lebron vs. Kobe Finals which would settle the debate on who would be better. Overall this season is just looking better and better the closer we get to it starting.

This article tells us about how riding a bike in the city will soon be easier than ever courtesy of two wheels and AT&T's wireless network for many big cities across the US. The bicycles will have built-in GPS using AT&T's wireless network to make the basic part of public bicycle renting possible-making sure they don't get stolen or abandoned in some unknown place. Also, smartphone users will be able to use an app to locate Social Bicycle racks nearby, as well as reserve bikes and unlock them from racks. Riders will then be capable to bike around the city and return the Social Bicycle at any rack located in the city. You can also rent a bicycle by using the smartphone app to reserve one. The app will automatically send your personalized pin to the rack, which will unlock the bicycle, checking out the bicycle in your name. It also has a cool feature where you can use the app to track stats like calories burned, emissions reduced, and dollars saved. There isn't any information yet on how much the bike rentals will cost. Social Bicycles will hit more cities at the beginning of 2013.

Texting is one of the most popular ways of communicating with other people. However, do we really benefit from it? One could argue that it is convenient, but others believe that the language people, especially the youth, use in texts affect their grammar. Some might even say that sometimes they include abbreviations and slang such as b/c, r, and u, in their English assignment without even noticing the problem, I know I have.  In 2011, an estimate of eight trillion text messages were sent, and those between the ages of 18 and 29 make up 95% of the texting population. Many are concerned about the future of the English language since so many people are fond of texting. There was even a National Texting Championship in 2012 that was won by 17-year-old Austin Wierschke who was able to text 149 words in 39 seconds. It seems that texting have become an important part of many lives. Some abbreviations have become so popular that even the Oxford English Dictionary has including them into their dictionaries making abbreviations such as LOL, OMG, FYI, TMI, and BFF, official to the English language. In my opinion, texting is not a crime. It is a convenient and effective way of communicating with other people. I believe that there is nothing wrong with using abbreviations in texts as long as it does not affect the way I write. 

While the tablet was originally supposed to be out in May, the date has been pushed back until July. Reasons being: they hope to make it more cheaper than what it was originally supposed to cost ($250). This is also because they are in competition with the Kindle Fire only costing $200. I think that this was a bold move for Google because it it makes sense that they would've seen a flop with their product because theirs would've been more expensive. While lowering the price would be beneficial for us, no one really knows if it'll be a success for them like the Kindle Fire was for Amazon.

Deciding what to make for dinner has always been hard because most people want to make new things and not just the same old recipes.Well now it's easier, when you use Allrecipies' updated Dinner Spinner app. This app allows you to keep track of what food items you have at home in a virtual pantry, and scan items at the grocery store with your smartphone to find recipes to make with that item. This could come in handy for many people and it makes life more exciting. You could try new foods everyday, or even add some extra fun into your old recipe.

Facebook is a website that is used by many users around the world. It is used to see others profiles and keep in touch with all your friends. Facebook usually has many games you can play with your friends like battleship and farmville. But now Facebook is thinking of having full games on the website. They want games to be easily accessible to buy. They want to start with games like Magicka, Dead Rising2, Saints Row3, etc. I think it is a great idea for Facebook because they can make a lot of money if they put popular games on the web. I personally would not buy them off Facebook because I prefer video games on a ps3 or xbox. It relates to the course because you need to program these games on the web for people to buy. As well, its on a social networking site which makes the games get purchased more often. 

This article is very interesting and informative to people who has mac. Many students bring mac to school for projects and homework and it is embarrassing for many students for their laptop to make sound in the middle of class. Many of them find it difficult to silence up because of its long, drawn out process but with this program called start ninja, it becomes very easy to silence up the mac with just one click. I think this is very helpful because i have this problem too and i bring my laptop often to the library and it is very embarrassing for my laptop to make sound in the middle of silence and it must be very annoying for other people around me too.   This program is free for any people who has mac and this is great for many people who can't afford to buy program.

There are many toy helicopters that you can buy, but what makes this toy different than the rest is that you can move the helicopter with your hand. You basically wear this glove with a joystick and you are able to make the helicopter move through the air just by waving your hands. This toy relates to this course because you have to be able to program this device to do all the movements that the glove is doing. As well, the software on this device is incredible and its a gaming device for all to have fun.  

This study is about how facebook can change you emotions. It says if you see positive posts you are more likely to be happy and make more positive posts. But if you see more negative words and see that your friends are sad, you will more likely to be in an upset mood. This article relates to this course because it is all about social networking and how your friends can make a social impact in your life just by posting a status on the internet. I support this article because I think its true. If I were to see my friends were happy, I would be in a better mood.

This book mark is about an Android app called "Handy Scanner". This is an amazing app that allows you to take a picture of a piece of paper and make it more legible by zooming it more, cropping out anything in the background, making the picture gray scale etc. This is related to the course because this is a form of new technology. This is interesting and helpful because I always try to take pictures of notes with my blackberry, but the picture always comes out bad so I think this will help me very much. 

This article informs the world of a computer program created by researchers from North Carolina State University, that allows a computer to have the tools to help, guide, and take control of a unpleasant driving experience. A computer with this program installed can understand what a camera is looking at and makes decisions based on what it sees. The program is highly intelligent because it can sort visual data and make decisions related to finding the lanes on a road, detecting how those lanes change as a car is moving, and controlling the car to stay in the correct lane. I find this program extremely fascinating and more importantly is also useful for lazy or bad drivers because if it just so happens you fall asleep at the wheel, this program acts as a lifesaver to prevent you and others from severe harm while you can trust you will be safe and secure with your computer taking over. This computer is essentially driving your car and is designed to notice a pedestrian or a stop sign and is assigned the appropriate action to complete. This could be the start in advances in technology where more computer programs can allow assistance and advisement when someone is struggling or in need of help. Something like this can definitively be cool and if it works effectively at all times, I believe this will be a huge invention that we all look back on one day. 

What is Microsoft thinking!? You can't release a major version of an OS that is used by about 90% of the market and just remove something everyone has been using for the past decade. I tried the Windows 8 Developer Preview and Metro is OK, but it's not something you seriously want to use with a mouse, which is a problem for business that don't spend money on touch screens, mainly because their employees don't need them. But now they go ahead and remove the start button completely, making it a hot corner instead, which can be really hard to use at times. When I'm at my computer, I want to be productive, and the standard start menu is the way to do that. I like pretty interfaces, but I also like things that just work, and that's what the start menu is to me. Long story short, if you have an OS as big as Windows, don't make big UI changes like this, because it can really turn out bad and confusing.

This article is about a device that can humidify your home during the winter days. With just a half a liter of water, you can be able to say good bye to cracked lips and dry skin for a day. For me, I think this is a useful device at home because sometimes, and I know most people do, forget to put on lotions and other stuff that prevents your skin or your lips from drying. We all know how painful and inconvenient it is to have cracked lips. Besides from getting shots of pain when trying to speak, it can also make it difficult to eat. So for me, this gadget is worth buying for.

This is a new type of light. Instead of cool LED lights, now there are OLED lights. These lights are much more light, light up faster, let out very little heat and you can keep them running for thousands of hours. They appear way better LED lights which were already quite amazing.  These lights will be used on Audis in the future and it can make them look a lot more stylish and it can be used to turn left and right. This relates to the course because now you can use this amazing light on the hardware rather than the LED lights. As well, this can make "us" more excited for future cars and it shows how technology is really advancing. I am personally really excited for these cars because they are going to be very nice and it will encourage me to get a great job so I can afford them one day :) 

This article explains how there is a lack of innovation in the world of computers particularly in the internet world. The articles describes how although several creative and interesting sites and tools have been created there are little advancements in useful tools and programs. I think the ideas suggested in this article would definitely benefit all, such as a program that will take information from emails and such and make calendar events from it. Everyone will benefit from these programs and it will make the internet and computers in general much more efficient for all.

Phones are a very big thing in today's society.  A phone is almost similar to a computer, except that it fits into your pockets.  Phones can almost do anything, from calling, to social networking, to playing games, and watching movies.   Every phone user knows how precious their phone is to them, especially when it's the highly priced iPhone 5.  There are some negatives to phones however.  Of course, phones will need to be repaired every once in a while.  Unfortunately, the front glass, digitizer and LCD are all one component, which makes repair more expensive and harder.  However, there are some upsides!  A shattered screen is a very common problem for all Apple users, which is a really big positive.   This article proves that an iPhone 5 can be really financially beneficial for many consumers, because since it's easy to repair the screen, it makes it easier,  At the same time, it can be pretty costly, since everything else other (such as the LCD) than screen is still just as hard to replace.

This article gives the real reason why the very popular app "Flappy Bird" was taken down. The creator of the game, Dong Nguyen, took down the game because of its addictiveness. For this reason, he was convinced to remove it. This app is not coming back. Dong's intention was to make this game for playing when you are relaxed. Unfortunately, this game turned out making everybody angry and caused many people to scream their heads off. Also, he received treats from Nintendo, because of the use of Nintendo's pipes and character. Dong said in an interview "my life is not as comfortable as before". Also, the app caused sleep deprivation for him. Many people still have the game on their smartphone and play the very addictive rage inducing game.

There are two kinds of computer animation. There is computer-assisted and computer-generated animation. Computer-assisted animation is 2-D and can be done my hand. Computer-generated animation is 3D and cannot be done my hand. Using mathematical algorithms to make objects follow physical laws like gravity. Computer animation began in the 1960s and improved greatly from there. Examples of early computer animated movie would be Westworld(1973) And Tron(1982). I find this field very interesting and is something I would be interested in studying.Computer animators are the ones who use computer animation and put all the things together to make something very special. Computer animation is something we are looking at constantly in the movies, shows and video games we see everyday. 

Yota Devices is a smart phone phone company, based in Russia that is making waves in the cell phone community with their innovations in smart phone hardware. The yotaphone was released last year in asia and europe and quickly made a name for itself by offering not only staple specs we have come to expect, but also innovation for the screen. Its front screen operates as anyone would guess, so the real area the phone stands out in is shown when flipped over. The back screen is a low-power e-ink display that in the phones first incarnation was mainly used for display and lacked touchscreen capabilities. Now, however, in the yotaphones upcoming successor: the screen has made the jump to a full touch panel, allowing it be used to answer calls, receive and dismiss notifications and be used to play games that don't require the flashy capabilities of the front screen. This kind of innovation in cellphone technology is of paramount importance and the biggest step forward since the original iphone. The potential is amazing, allowing for new software to utilize the second screen, and making cellphones even more accessible and useful to the smartphone community.

DayZ is a revolutionary game which started as an idea from lead designer Dean Hall. Dean Hall was inspired to make DayZ after a near death experience. DayZ started off as a mod for Arma 2 which was out for three years sold 1 million copies after the DayZ mod was released they sold 1 million copies in a few months. After Bohemia (the company that makes ARMA games) gave Dean Hall a standalone DayZ project which has passed 1.5 million copies sold and is still in pre-alpha. All in all DayZ is a game that tests your humanity, fear, compassion and everything in between.