Favorite Web Pages

I have browsed through all of my classmates web pages and selected three of my favorite ones:

1. Monica Graham's web page: https://files.nyu.edu/adn236/public/

I liked Monica's page right away because it had a nice background color and nice welcoming "homy" picture on the main page. The text was simple but interesting. I did not have to get prescription glasses to read what it says there. The only minus on the first page is that i could not find Monica's last name. Monica's appealing use of tables in her consequent pages make the website coherent and easy to navigate. Her consistency, use of gray color, and use of tables really appealed to me as I was browsing her website.

2. Norah Turnham's web page: https://files.nyu.edu/nt599/public/

I enjoyed looking through Norah's web page because it kind of had a relaxing effect on me. The use of colors and organization made the web page very clean. Norah was as well consistent with her background color and this added a nice quality to the website. I knew that it was one website and not many websites.

3. Allison Notter's web page: https://files.nyu.edu/adn236/public/

I really really liked Allison's first page. It is like a Haiku poem. Nice, short, and sweet. I also liked her background color which was soothing and also consistent throughout the whole website.

So i guess the biggest features that spoke to me on websites were:
1. consistency of background
2. simplicity
3. nice soothing colors

NYU Blackboard

What follows is the critique of NYU Blackboard.
To tell you the real naked truth - i like blackboard, I think that it is a great tool for students and teachers. First of all it is very convenient for students because they can just download course documents onto their computer and keep them there forever until the end of the course. While in the course window,teacher-student communication is enhanced through various options: Announcements, Course Information, Course Documents, Assignments, External Links, Discussion Board, Library Research.
The most precious pages are the course documents page and the discussion board page. All the important documents are uploaded to course documents page and students can access them free of charge. The discussion board is another great page. Discussion board allows students to engage in constructive dialogue through posting their views, reviews, responses, thoughts, etc.
Although i really like the blackboard, i think it can be a little bit more interactive. Considering the fact that NYU is extremely expensive and is a quiet wealthy university, the blackboard is a little bit poor. I mean why does it not how live chatting or live group discussions with video and other fancy things? I mean NYU has the resources for it. So why not make it the best blackboard site out there?
So although i really like the blackboard and i use it very often, i think it can be much more than it is right now in every way: design, style, amount of information, and its interactivity. Blackboard should be the place to be and the place to have discussions and should be very easily navigated.

WHICH BROWSER TO USE?

There are so many browsers out there that it is difficult to know which one to use and why. Some of the most popular browsers are Firefox, Explorer, Netscape, Chrome, Flock, Opera, Safari, and Mozilla, to name a few.
Personally i like to use Firefox because it is fast and convenient. Firefox uses very little memory and thus wins over the other browsers.
Flock is a browser that is equally good. Reviews recommend Flock 2 for people who "live on the Web" because it has all the speed, security and options of Firefox 3 but builds in a blog editor, photo-uploader and big sidebar to keep current with social networking friends and RSS feeds. A horizontal photo bar shows thumbnails from photo-sharing sites. For those who love multitasking, this is a great browser choice, but for Windows users who just want fast, simple browsing, reviews recommend the minimalist Google Chrome.
The Google Chrome browser takes a minimalist approach, stripping down to basic browsing with an ultra-simple, intuitive interface. It very fast, with superb search features, private browsing and the best crash protection available. It also makes it possible to use Google desktop applications offline, and users can search the text of pages in the browser's history. The main drawbacks are fairly primitive bookmarking plus the lack of customization.
Another browser that i like stylistically is Opera. It is very simple and stylish. Despite its small size, Opera beats the other browsers in compliance with web standards, and it builds in loads of convenient features. Opera runs on more operating systems than most browsers, and it excels in synchronization.
Personally i do not like using Explorer because it is too busy with things. I found it also slower than other browsers. I do not know why exactly, but i feel a sense of repulsion towards this choice.
I would suggest sticking to Firefox or Chrome cause its just better. You know that feeling when someone is doing their job so well that you do not even know that they are there? Well, let me introduce - Firefox.

E-books?

With the emergence of e-books and e-material, we are entering a new capitalist heaven. E-books are electronic books that can be purchased or downloaded from the web. There are also e-book reader devices which are directly linked to some publishing company such as Barnes and Nobles for example. These devices offer easy download-able books from any choice of Barnes and Nobles' collection for a fee. One can also store 1500 books on that device. It is basically a computer for reading; which is another great marketing strategy for selling those things. But we are coming to an age where we must pay for the pure electronic information which costs virtually nothing to produce. It is like air. So the question is not how everybody can profit from it, but how fast can few capitalists gain control of this resource and abuse it. A lot of e-stuff that is sold has an expiration date built into it. It means that after a certain date it deletes itself. It is a great method for making money because the file cannot be passed on onto friends or students studying the same subject in the following semester. But the profits are just crazy: 100% pure profit over and over again. Will there be e-book libraries? I mean that is absurd of course, because that would totally destroy the business of huge companies. Going "E" I think is great. It saves so much of the world resources and waste, especially trees. In the beginning it will be tough and absurd with paying money for virtually self destructive information, but if helps the planet a little bit, then let's go for it. And try to get into the driver's seat while you can, that way at least you will be making money.

The First Computer Ever

What, when, where, and how big was the first ever computer on the planet? The first computers as we know them today were developed somewhere around 1940-1945. But the term computer refers to a calculating device and so it is hard to say when the first computer ever was established. For example, as early as 100BC the abacus, which is a counting frame, can also be called a computer, because it helped to compute certain quantities. All the way up to the middle of the 20th Century, the computers were somehow partly dependent on mechanics. George Stibitz is internationally recognized as a father of the modern digital computer. It is amazing how far the digital technology has come in just half a century. From the first computers in 1940's to virtually everybody in the first and second world owning a computer. This is a huge step and an extremely rapid development. This makes me wonder what will happen in another fifty years or so?

Rewriting the language through Technology

It is very astounding how such internet giants as Google are redefining the existence and lifestyle of a whole new generation. Google Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising and other diverse programs. As of March 31, 2009, the company has 19,786 full-time employees. The company is running thousands of servers worldwide, which process millions of search requests each day and about 1 petabyte of user-generated data every hour. Google right now is the most popular search engine as well as the most popular email service provider as in Gmail. In 2006, it has also bought another giant: YouTube. YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. YouTube was created in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for 1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google. These two corporations now under one roof alone shape the daily lives of millions of people worldwide. Such expressions as, "i am going to Google you", or "YouTube it", are now part of the daily language of the younger generation. After every new encounter with a strange or unknown person, what we all do is we go home and Google them in the google search engine. It is surprising how much information is out there about each and every one of us. Actually it is quiet scary. So much for privacy. And YouTube has become the ultimate video sharing tool for millions. Virtually everything is on YouTube. From concert performances of legendary singers to Australian Aborigine dances. From John Doe's birthday party to Mariah Carey's interview with Jay Leno. Actually as I was typing this I was not sure whether Mariah Carey ever was on Jay Leno's show, so I went on YouTube and guess what...I found the interview which I did not know existed. So it is mind boggling and scary how much Google has shaped our everyday lives and our use of language.

Things are Getting Interesting Analysis

After seeing this advertisement on the subway, i got to thinking as to message it sends and also how and why should one react to it. The commercial is provided on the left. The Remy Martin is a Champagne Cognac, meaning that the eaux-de-vie selected come from the two best growth areas of the Cognac region, the Grande Champagne and the Petite Champagne (the word "Champagne" defines a type of soil that is extremely chalky). Anyways, it is supposed to be a good Cognac. So what does the commercial imply? There are three people from three different ethnic backgrounds: Latin-American, African-American, and Asian. So the idea is: your life is pretty boring until you try Remy Martin Cognac. Once you start drinking it, the "things will start getting interesting", meaning, the socio-cultural boundaries and rules will start to dissolve, and the threesome, that is very slightly implied by the advertisement, can proceed. I just love that the threesome covers three nationalities. That is just great how diverse and tolerant we all are. There is, however, another slogan on the bottom of the page that is not seen on this shot. It says: "stay interesting", which implies that you should keep drinking if you want to be interesting and others to like you. That is just great of course. So after analyzing the commercial, it seems to send quiet disturbing messages. But why is it quiet disturbing? Is it disturbing because we are taught through a religious lens that one man should be with one woman? Who introduced this idea in the first place? Is our notion of love dictated by religion? So the advertisement is introducing an idea of a threesome through inebriation, which sounds very shocking, but at the same time sounds very dangerous. And human beings are attracted by dangerous and seductive situations. It is just very interesting how one simple alcohol advertisement can bring up so so many different questions about socially accepted norms, religion, love, boundaries, and many other interesting topics.