Mike Hass

Mike Hass, stop looking at my blog. Get a life.

Blog 20: MCS 370 Overall

Last blog...finally. Anyway, coming to the end of the semester, I wanted to blog a little about what I thought of MCS 370 as a whole. At first, I was a little skeptical about taking the class at night because I did not know if I would be able to sit in a classroom for two and a half hours. I thought the class would consist mainly of topics concerning facebook. I was surprised when we started learning about other technologies and found myself more and more interested with the course texts. I had never thought about half the stuff we learned about until this class. For instance, I had never wondered how powerful a crowd could be or actually how much we are under surveillance in our every day routines. I thought our teacher was a huge help in making the classes go by faster. She could draw our attention and get us on interesting topics we were willing to discuss. Watching Charlie Wilson’s War was a bonus. I had not seen the entire movie from start to finish until the class. I had never had a course that I was required to have a facebook account. It was interesting how our teacher communicated through messages on facebook, as well as Blackboard. The class challenged us to compare and contrast the differences in the media from the past and present. It is impossible to dictate where technology will go in the future, but I found it an interesting topic to discuss. I would definitely recommend MCS 370 to students at UMBC.

Blog 19: Online Shopping/Ebay

Ebay was a website that started out small and eventually took off. This goes to show how far we’ve come with safety and satisfaction on the Internet. I remember my first purchase off Ebay. I was skeptical at first because I did not want to get scammed and send money to a stranger receiving nothing back. I also did not want to purchase something and have the sender send me something in poor condition. Now, I am not afraid to purchase something on Ebay because the websites have added applications to make the buyer more confident in their buy. We can now rate the people we buy or sell to and they receive a score for their exchange. I am surprised how fast the online shopping has become today. I rarely leave my house to go shopping because it’s just as easy to do it online. We can now get the same stuff in stores, sent to us in the mail. We may have to pay a shipping and handling fee but if we drove to the mall, we’d be paying for gas money anyway. I usually don’t like giving my credit card information to strangers but feel that most sites are reliable. I have yet to have someone take my money without sending me my purchase in return (knock on wood). It would just be a hassle to track someone down on the Internet to get your money back. Unlike malls, online shopping never has a line. Most of the time, we can find what we’re looking for the same price or even cheaper than it is in stores. Online shopping is one of the best technologies I use regularly.

Blog 18: Ipods in Cars

Ipods are one of the most popular technologies in our society today. Not only do the younger generations have them, but our parents as well. I bought my mom an Ipod for her last birthday and she won’t stop asking me to put new songs on it for her. One of the problems with the Ipod is that Apple now makes devices for the car. We can now listen to our Ipods while driving. Although Ipods have playlists and other hands free accessories, many of us today do not use them. Personally, I had to stop listening to my Ipod in my car because I could not keep my hands off it while driving. I would hear a song and want to change it, forcing me to look down at my Ipod. I was in a lot of close call accidents because of this. I now only use CD’s in my car and control other driver’s Ipod’s while they drive. Also, I have seen many people with Ipod headphones in while driving. Is this really a good idea? I think it may even be against the law but I saw at least two people today with them in while driving. What if the driver has the music on so loud he or she cannot hear an ambulance trying to pass? I think Ipods are dangerous in cars and we should not be allowed to play with them while driving.

Blog 17: Texting/AIM Problems

Cell phones are now more popular than ever. Everyone has one, from children to grandparents. This technology has grown so fast that we are no longer able to function without one. Personally, I know whenever I leave my cell phone behind I feel like I am naked. I’ve become so used to texting my friends that I can now do it without looking. The problem with cell phone texting is that many of the words are misspelled. Children are loosing their vocabulary and spelling techniques. I believe a lot of it has to do with our new technologies like cell phones and AIM. I can remember growing up and abbreviating every word I typed online. The numbers even show SAT scores going down and students no longer writing legibly. This is a major problem that we tend to overlook because of how advanced our technologies are. We have become so accustomed to the devices we use daily that we now do things without thinking. The majority of us can now type on the computer much faster than writing with a pen and paper. I think this is an interesting problem we are facing because it won’t be good when the young generations can now longer spell words with spellcheck.

Blog 16: YouTube

What we fail to look at pertaining websites like YouTube are the dangers these sites create. Anyone can create a fake account and post whatever they feel like. On the other hand, anyone can also create an account to view videos they should not be watching. In other words, would you want your ten-year-old child looking at street fights or videos of girls dancing? Although there are parental ways of canceling the account, it is just as easy to jump on a friend’s computer to watch them. I am not saying YouTube is a bad thing because I understand it is a way for people to express themselves to the public. Like many technologies we have in the world today, we often fail to look at the negatives sides and only focus on the good that comes out of them. Most children are more advanced with computer than their parents. What does this say about parental control that cannot even be used by many adults? We have to be more safe on the computer and make sure young children are not viewing things they shouldn’t be. The Internet is not the safest place and I think parents allow their children way too much freedom surfing the web.

Blog 15: Facebook

What is the purpose of Facebook now? It started as a means of connecting people outside their social groups. We could now be in contact with people we would have never seen again before the website. Personally, I did not have a Facebook site until college and only joined because of peer pressure. Now, I find myself on it at least once a day. But what is the market doing with sites like Facebook and MySpace pages? Companies no longer have to step outside their office to figure out the interests of their intended audience. These sites contain so much personal information that the media can now maximize their time attracting specific people interested in their products. Companies have jumped on the chance to market their products and cut out wasted time bothering people who are uninterested in their sales. All age groups and generations have personal sites like these and are still growing in population each day. We now see different tools and advertisements on the side when logging into our accounts. It is important to be careful of what information we are putting out on the Internet because it can be easily accessed by anyone.