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Home/ WHS_JuniorCP_2010-11/ Contents contributed and discussions participated by Robert Porter

Contents contributed and discussions participated by Robert Porter

Robert Porter

'Like' it or not, online ads are getting personal - CNN.com - 1 views

  • industry speak for ads that target users through the use of cookies that can track your internet browsing and shopping history, among other activities.
    • Robert Porter
       
      Some people might view this as an invasion of privacy. The use of cookies by the industry to 'track' the users activities sure does point out a valid point. Most consumers would see advertisers as using 'personal' information to target what the users might have more interest in. In the eyes of the consumers this is seen as generally bad, in the eyes of the advertisers this type of advertising would not only keep away the advertisements that people don't want to see for products they don't need, but for advertisements for products they might want and need as the user travels to different sites. Cookies enable for this to happen, and although there is work on the web-browsers to keep advertisers away from information "internet browsing and shopping history". A question is asked though, how much personal information have people been giving away unknowingly?
  • "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
    • Robert Porter
       
      -Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Schmidt has a valid point that what people do on the internet shouldn't be something people want to conceal. Yet there should be limits that advertisers and any site that uses peoples information on. People don't want to know the fact that everything they do and click on in a site will be recorded down as activity and then process to be put into a category. Just like in Feed, where Titus and his friends go to the mall the Feed immediately advertises cloths that they would want, or cloths that the feed thinks they want. Even with no alert the feed does this to Titus throughout the book, even when he is just laying there or sleeping the Feed advertises things that he would want and that he should by those things based on his shopping history and habits, just like these advertisements are foreseen to be becoming.
    • Robert Porter
       
      Because information is vital, people view information (that is helpful) as valid sources of income. Sites that take your information for something can in all their rights, sell it to another advertising company. Hence the source of spam emails. So giving away personal information is a bad idea for you and the site that is distributing your information should not have that right.
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    The Article By CNN states an uncomfortable outlook onto what might be a more personal advertising than ever before. Big sites such as Facebook and Twitter are mentioned in this article about tracking your 'likes' onto post, businesses, products and similar things among them. Both Google and Mozilla have recognized this as a slight problem as they both are working on a choice to block out cookies (For anyone who doesn't know what cookies are, they are what track your every move on the internet and any site you go to can have access to them, within limits of course). Questions are raised about this though, by both my Anderson and I. If this persist and evolves, would this type of advertising become as radical as it is seen in Feed? Would the advertising for this become more personal? In what limits are these ads allowed to do this within the law? Who would pay nearly 100,000 dollars to advertise in an social site? How far would advertisers go to make more money by 'invading' someones privacy or monitoring someones online activity? All are valid concerns raised from this article, and should be considered as time goes on.
Robert Porter

Amazon sales pop as Kindle e-books overtake paperbacks - Jan. 27, 2011 - 0 views

  • OK, bookworms, now you can declare Armageddon: Kindle e-books have overtaken paperback books as the bestselling type of content in Amazon's bookstore.
    • Robert Porter
       
      "Ok, bookworms, now you can declare Armageddon"... This alarming yet realizing statement states that there is a potential danger of the extinction of paperback books. Yes, that is an exaggeration for just one yearly report, yet if this yearly report is the same annually, then that could actually mean the extinction of books, hard copies that is. The kindle has many great aspects to it, it can hold dozens of books in its small case, the books are fairly cheaper, and the portability of it lets users carry around more information in a less encumbering way. Yet as stated in the description box of this article there is certainly many possible negatives to the kindle. Yet as said before this isn't much to worry, yet as technology replaces many things withing life, books just really aren't meant to be replaced, although that doesn't mean that the kindle has to disappear for that to happen. 
  • In fact, for every 100 paperback books sold, Amazon has sold 115 Kindle books since the beginning of the year, the company said.
    • Robert Porter
       
      Adding on to the previous sticky note, this divide between books and Kindles doesn't seem really much of a huge difference at a 100 to 1155 book, on paper that is. Yet for every Kindle (Lets say the Version 2 of it) can hold over 1,000 books. So say (not practical numbers but to support the argument) 500-100 books are downloaded onto the kindle, so that would be around 5,075 to 111,500, while the paperbacks still remain at 100. The amount here is greatly different, as books are now becoming E-Books, it could set a expatriation date on when the last hard copy of a book is printed. 
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    This article states that the sales in amazon's ( which is one of the biggest online retailers) 'Kindle' have oversold the sales of paperback books. Although it's not necessarily alarming, it is something to think about, as actual copies of books are being replaced by a single piece of technology. As it's assumed in M.T. Andersons book 'Feed', the thought of reading books in an actual hard copy seems to be looked at as embarrassing as writing is now look at to be embarrassing in the scene where Violet and Titus are talking. Questions are raised about this particular subject; although there is always a positive to certain things, there is undoubtedly a negative; what is that certain negative? Is it, if there is some certain situation where technology is somewhat not excess able (aka, world war 3, some variation of the Bubonic Plague, or something where technology and humanity are separated as it couldn't be maintained) and 500 years later, most of the recent copies of book or even 1000 year old books are on electronic copies only, and for those generations of people not being able to read from the? Would'nt reading from the screen become tiring, and enables a more subtle way to skip some of the reading? Some things really just seem to be left alone as is; maybe this is one? Cushing Academy, transformed their whole library to an E-Book library, what is this saying about educated the youth, and what precedent does this set for the future? As changing things to suit our technological needs seems great. it has a very subtle uneasy feeling to it.
Robert Porter

Japanese Fashion: LED. Lights for Your Teeth - NYTimes.com - 3 views

  • Method Man might have helped make gold fronts famous, but it looks like Japanese schoolgirls could be the driving force behind a new era of fashionable accessories for your teeth.
    • Robert Porter
       
      As technology is applied to the LED lights for the teeth, it proves that technology is being used more and more for useless reasons other than for it to look "cool" or good. The trends are obviously started by celebrities for the most part, as the book Feed states by M.T. Anderson the trends of the culture are immediately displayed upon the feeds and the girls such as calista go in the bathroom to change her look completely. Although no one knows wether this trend of LED lights in the mouth will catch on or not, its the use of LED technology in the mouth points out the fallacious use of it. There is no reasonable point to this 'fashion' trend, it looks silly, preposterous, ugly, and illogical to waste money on such a thing
  • The video below, which was created by the designers and titled “party in your mouth,” shows a curated group of Japanese schoolgirls wandering the street wearing the glowing lights.
    • Robert Porter
       
      To start off, the title of the video promoting this device is called "party in your mouth" is just incongruous, considering it includes the stereotypical 'Japanese school girls' (i hope i dont have to elaborate on that one), subtly it promotes this product with sex, of course, yet it also targets the teen demographic as it is the biggest demographic out there currently. Throughout the video the girls are just walking around all smiling, its supposed to somehow attract customers and other teens to think that the LED in your mouth 'grillz' are the new thing and according to this article on the nytimes site, its working. As pointed out multiple times over and over again in the book Feed, Anderson points out the useless adaptions we made for technology and how we are beginning to use it.
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    This article is about a new Japanese fashion trend, LED (Light emitting diode) lights in the teeth. Two Japanese designers came up with the idea after seeing some sort of "LED Throwies" which are LED lights that are attached to a magnet that can be thrown at metal surfaces. The designers hope that the teens of Japan will catch on soon, as the demmand for the LED 'smiles' rieses. Questions are being raised about this; is it safe to have a LED light in ones mouth? If it cost a large amount of money why spend money on something like this, if the money can be spent on  more beneficial items? If there is a large crowd of people in the streets of Japan with the glowing LED lights in there mouth, would it cause hazards to drivers? The lights seem to completely ridiculous why have something such as that become the 'sought after accessory'? Is there anything significantly beneficial to this product that will prove worthy to the user?
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