Alvarado Blog Post #11

Personal/Online privacy has always been an issue when it comes to the internet. I can’t really say I have a definition for it because the truth is it’s impossible to keep the information you have put up on the web private. In actuality, the only privacy you have over the internet is the information you haven’t put up on in the internet, and even then it’s still possible for that information to end up on the web anyways.  I have no problem in sharing the information that I have put on the web with other people, that’s why it’s there. For me, there isn’t anyone that I don’t want to share my information with because I have nothing to hide or have someone stalking me. I can understand how this can be a problem for people that have done something embarrassing, or even being followed by bad people, therefore they really have to be careful with the stuff they post online. But even if I don’t mind sharing stuff on the web, that doesn’t mean that I’ll do it every chance I get. For instance, I don’t accept friend requests on Facebook from people I don’t know, because you can never truly know who they are.

Nothing comes up about me when I Google my name (even with a characteristic). I used my high school as my characteristic and when I did my name came up with someone that went to that school, but apparently it was someone from the class of 2007 which isn’t me. I doubt there was another Erwin Alvarado at my high school, so this really makes me wonder about whether this is fake or not. The information on spokeo.com doesn’t surprise me at all, because all they have is my address and a few details about myself like me being Hispanic. A lot of information is wrong, therefore it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that the few things they got right were from guessing. Even the phone number was wrong, so looking at this just assures me that I haven’t given out too much information over the internet.

Alvarado Creative Proposal

My group presentation topic is communications.  Communications has already advanced so much thanks to the use of technology. Even so, in the future it’s possible for it to advance even further.  We’ll probably be talking to each other by using virtual technology that is incorporated in a watch or something of that sort. So basically, I want to show that how much communications will advance in the future. This will take some imagination and that is what I will use to create some sort of video, slideshow, etc. of how people will communicate in the future. To complete this project I don’t think I’ll need any physical supplies, but I’ll definitely need to go to the Innovation Space to use the technology at hand or use some of the suggested sites to create the project.  The first step in the plan in my plan is to visit the Innovation Space Center and see if there is anything there that would help me do my project. If not then I’ll have to find something online to do it or will have to change up my ideas a bit. After accomplishing this I can start setting other goals as in how often I’ll work on it and when I plan on finishing it.

Alvarado In Class Writing #8

The Lion King. Dir. Rob Minkoff, Roger Allers. Perf. James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Walt Disney Pictures, 1994. DVD.

Toy Story. Dir. John Lasseter. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles. Disney Pixar, 1995. VHS.

Talladega Nights. Dir Adam McKay. Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen. Sony Pictures, 2006. DVD.

Bambi. Dir James Algar, Samuel Armstrong. Hardie Albright, Stan Alexander, Bobette Audrey. Walt Disney Productions, 1942. VHS.

Avatar. Dir James Cameron. Sam Worthington. Zoe Saldana. Sigourney Weaver. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 2009. DVD.

The reason the first four movies made it into the list is because they are all classic movies that should’ve been seen at some time during your childhood. Then, Avatar was chosen because this movie showed how advanced technology has become and what it is capable of doing.

Alvarado In Class Writing #7

           The video just shown was about Name, a conservative, talking about the terrible things about video games. He says that games like grand theft auto are training our society to be killers. Also that it’s not just video games destroying our society, but everything put together like television, radio, video games, etc..  It takes a lot of money to train soldiers to be able to kill without hesitation. He says that it’s now possible for anyone to get that same training for only $60.

In the beginning before he starts to talk he says “Oh no it’s another conservative rambling on about the wrongs of video games, but I’m going to do it.” He does this in order to make it seem like he’s actually going to say something new that someone hasn’t said about video games already, but in reality he says the exact same things. It’s always annoying when someone tries to put the blame of people’s actions on video games. He says that games like grand theft auto are teaching people how to kill, but one has to remember that in the end it’s just a game. If a person takes a game too seriously, then the person shouldn’t even be playing video games like that in the first place. It’s not the game’s fault because people need to realize that it’s just something to have and play to kill time and also for entertainment.

Alvarado In Class Writing #6

Music Piracy has become a huge problem for the music industries. Music piracy is when people are downloading illegal copies of songs from artists without paying anything. There are basically 2 sides to this problem. One side knows that this is wrong and needs to be dealt with because artists are losing a lot of money when people download music illegally. Then there are the people who thing music piracy is a good thing and should be legal just because they are too cheap to pay for music. This problem definitely needs to be fixed, which is why there are now websites that lets you download unlimited music for a monthly fee.

I read the article about “How to save the music business” by Paul McGuiness. In this article the author talks about the occurring problem about music piracy and that it needs to be stopped. He states the problem and claims that he has found a solution for it. He provides facts about how much money record companies and artists are losing when people download music illegally. He comes up with the idea that ISP providers should include a fee in the monthly bill to let people download music and depending on how much they pay also the speed of it as well. This would definitely help solve the problem because then mostly everyone will be paying for the music they download.

Alvarado In Class Writing #5

                Her Facebook profile tells me that she is a republican, likes to play/watch sports, listen to music, and watch TV shows.  You can’t really say that there’s a self that she’s trying to sell here because these are some of the most common things that a person says about themselves on Facebook, or even in a general conversation.  The content posted by other people is mostly about what the plans are for the weekend and other things like that. Even though the content does not fit into the “image” it doesn’t mean it’s fake because again these are typical things on her profile and you’re not going to see someone ask something like “What TV shows do you like to watch?”

                For the ads, there was one about VA Tech, which is obviously relevant since we go to Tech, but then there was an ad about NFL Jerseys. The jerseys were at a discount price, the ad shows a picture of some jerseys, and the target audiences were NFL fans. This ad was not relevant at all to her because she said she has never looked up any kind of jerseys on Facebook or the internet, but still the ad was doing a good job of catching the reader’s attention by showing that they were only $18. There is also a chance that most of her friends are big football fans and show it on Facebook, therefore that’s why she got that ad.