Discussion Post: Week 6
As we wrap up this week of portfolio work, how is yours coming along thus far? Do you feel like you’re taking strides toward building a powerful professional presence for yourself? What issues have you encountered thus far (including any difficulties setting up the site and your domain itself, as many of us encountered), and what do you think you’ll need to do from this point forward to develop a strong site? Do you think you’ll need to take some additional time in the labs on these projects, or will you be just as effective working from home now?
Let’s hop right into a major story this week: Anwar al-Awlaki, a top al-Qaeda figure who was born in America and has been linked to several successful and attempted attacks on the U.S., was killed during a CIA operation in Yemen. The drone strike, characterized as a joint U.S.-Yemeni effort, served to substantially damage the terrorist group, particularly given al-Awlaki’s unique skills as a native English speaker. President Obama has hailed the success as a “a major blow to al-Qaeda’s most active operational affiliate,” although the counterterrorism campaign is certainly far from over. It should be noted that al-Awlaki has been reportedly killed twice in the past, but if today’s reports are to be believed, his efforts have finally come to an end. However, the U.S. State Department is concerned about possible retaliation, and on Saturday issued a worldwide travel warning in case of anti-American attacks in the near future.
Looking to the domestic front, President Barack Obama has been campaigning for Congress to support a new $447 billion jobs program which would focus on national infrastructure and would provide corporate and employee tax breaks. This comes in the wake of falling wages which also put a damper on consumer spending in August. However, Obama’s initiative is not without controversy, despite his calls for Republicans to explain “what exactly they are against.”
On the campaign trail, Texas Governor Brad Perry is going on the offensive against fellow Republican primary candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, challenging environmental regulation during his tenure as governor. Others, however, are focusing on Perry’s own legislative compromises, most notably a Texas law passed in 2001 that granted in-state tuition to illegal immigrants; some in Texas are actively working to repeal the law, although previous efforts have accomplished little. Romney vetoed a similar bill in Massachusetts and has used that fact to portray Perry as “softer” on illegal immigration. In the meantime, several candidates are rising to challenge the two leading Republican contenders: Herman Cain surged to a surprisingly strong upset victory in last weekend’s Florida straw poll, while political advisors for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are considering whether a late move into the race is feasible given growing voter dissatisfaction with both Obama and the current Republican field. And, in a real surprise, some Democrats are considering a primary challenge to the incumbent Obama. It’s unclear how serious such a challenge might ultimately be, but Ralph Nader and Cornell West have proposed that six candidates each challenge Obama on a key issue where he has previously been weak, potentially to allow him to directly address such criticisms and restore his base’s faith. In the meantime, Florida’s Republican leaders have riled others in their party by deciding to hold the state’s presidential primary on Jan. 31, ignoring party rules and pressuring traditional early primary states to change their calendars, as well, in order to remain first. The state did the same thing four years ago, but the major Democratic candidates boycotted Florida because its early primary violated party rules.
Let’s close with a somewhat lighter note — at least, if you’re not a Boston Red Sox or Atlanta Braves fan. If you haven’t been watching baseball this month, you probably didn’t realize that the Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals pulled off two of the biggest comebacks in history to win their league Wild Cards and make the playoffs — the Cardinals trailed the Braves by 10½ games on August 25, but charged in the last month and passed the Braves on Wednesday, the last day of the season, while the Rays trailed the Red Sox by nine games on Sept. 3 but mirrored the Cardinals’ surge and won the American League Wild Card. (The Rays’ final game, in which they negated a 7-0 eighth inning deficit, was so improbable that some fans believe Tampa Bay owed their fortune to manager Joe Maddon’s wife, Jaye, and her mystical bottle of heart chakra oil.) The comebacks were incredible, but so were the Red Sox and Braves disasters — so much so, in fact, that Boston manager Terry Francona, who led the Red Sox to the team’s first World Series title in 86 years during his first season with the team in 2004 and who repeated the feat in 2007, was released after Boston completed its collapse.
Following those epic comebacks, the Major League Baseball playoffs began on Friday, with the Tampa Bay Rays blowing out the Texas Rangers 9-0. The New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers saw their first game suspended by rain with the score 1-1 in the second inning; at the time of this writing, that game is slated to conclude Saturday night, although the forecast calls for more rain this evening. In the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers shut down the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-1, while the upstart St. Louis Cardinals currently trail the winningest 2011 team, the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-3 in the eighth inning.
That should be more than enough for this week’s discussion. Have at it!
Other articles of interest:
Researchers Hack Voting Machine for $26
Plane hits Ferris wheel in Australia; no injuries
Could model airplanes become a terrorist weapon?
Egypt military proposes schedule for leaving power
Doctors in Bahrain jailed for treating patients
Hispanics leave school in face of Alabama’s tough immigration law
Pipeline raises tough choice: Jobs vs. environment
Glimmer of progress in second day of NBA talks
Report: Kobe Bryant agrees to $3M deal
SpaceX to attempt fully reusable orbital booster
Hello! You Are Nobel Prize Winner [Announcement Dates]
Google makes Analytics happen in ‘Real-time’
Microsoft AV Mistakes Google Chrome For a Virus
Twitter used to study happiness patterns
Facebook tracking prompts calls for FTC investigation
Facebook sued over tracking users after logout
ISP Lawsuit: Net Neutrality Rules Aren’t Strong Enough
How Long Does Your Wireless Carrier Retain Texts, Call Logs?
You Love Your iPhone. Literally.
Apple puts an end to iPod click wheel games
Microsoft Is Said to Plan Xbox Live Expansion With Comcast Pay TV Service
Happy 40th Birthday, Disney World!
Tags: al-Qaeda, Anwar al-Awlaki, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Barack Obama, Boston Red Sox, Brad Perry, Chris Christie, CIA, Congress, Cornell West, Democrats, Detroit Tigers, Florida, Herman Cain, jobs plan, Major League Baseball, Massachusetts, Milwaukee Brewers, Mitt Romney, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, playoffs, presidential primaries, Ralph Nader, Republicans, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Terry Francona, Texas, Texas Rangers, U.S., U.S. State Department, web portfolio, Wild Card, Yemen
News with a Spoon 
As a Red Sox fan, this past week has been a complete disaster. I watch the Red Sox at every chance I get, and Wednesday was no exception. Although they weren’t doing well against the Baltimore Orioles, ESPN was constantly updating viewers on the status of the other games. When I had seen that the New York Yankees had a 7-0 lead on the Tampa Bay Rays, I was feeling pretty good about the Red Sox chances of making the playoffs. Apparently, my mistake was turning away from the TV and going to bed. I awoke to the news of both the Rays epic come-from-behind victory and the Red Sox final loss and dagger into their hopes of getting into the playoffs.
Over this past month of games, plus listening and reading all of the sportswriters give explanations to why the Red Sox were falling apart, I never expected Terry Francona to be the one that got the ax. The manager that beat “The Curse”, that had finally won a World Series for Boston, and did it convincingly (by sweeping both the Cardinals and the Rockies), was the one that was getting the blame and walked away from the team.
Personally, I blame the Red Sox collapse on a lack of chemistry. The team had a ton of talent, hell they spent $160 million dollars on the team, so talent shouldn’t have been a problem for that price tag. But as one sportswriter from Boston has said, the Red Sox have become the epitome of what Boston fans seen and loathed in the New York Yankees. Granted, the Red Sox have always had a huge payroll compared to the majority of MLB teams, but this team hasn’t lived up to its payroll like the Yankees ($196 million) and Philadelphia Phillies ($172 million). I believe the difference between the Red Sox and the Yankees and Phillies was the chemistry in the Red Sox dugout. This team didn’t have the continuity that the Yankees and Phillies had, and it showed when the Red Sox didn’t play as a team and blew the 9 game lead they had coming into the final month of the season.
When working on the web portfolio this week in the labs I was able to accomplish setting up the main page and get a better feel of how to use WordPress. The only trouble I am having right now is editing the pages look and finding certain things on the webpage. So I definitely need to look more in depth on how to use WordPress’s website making feature so that I am more familiar with the layout, buttons, etc.
As for the baseball comebacks…..WOW. Yes, both the braves and sox collapse I would say were both equally as embarrassing to see. However, watching the red so collapse in the end and the rays coming back from down 7 in just 2 innings is probably something no one will ever witness again or at least for a very long time. I still can’t believe that happened and occurred the way it did. I’m just glad it wasn’t my cubbies.
Researchers Hack Voting Machines: Oh joy. And people wonder why I’m pessimistic about our voting system. Well, other than the fact that our electoral college system makes it possible that the person who loses the majority vote wins (especially with allegations that some states are redrawing lines and tweaking rules so that a certain party is almost guaranteed to win their electoral votes). Finding out that you can hack and change the votes on a standard government electronic voting machine is as cheap as $26 and an 8th grade education makes me sigh. Come on government! You’re supposed to be a bit like our parents, you know, be smarter than us and “know” what’s best for us, but that also means you have to up on the times! I feel like we’re the teenagers who just figured how to use alt-tab so that you don’t realize we’re playing a game instead of doing our homework. …then again isn’t Congress/our lawmakers basically all old enough to be our grandparents? At least take the article’s advice and invest in a padlock so that we can’t physically break into the machine to plant a device.
Microsoft Antivirus Mistakes Google Chrome for a Trojan: I’ll admit that I don’t have a lot to say on this, but it reminded me of a picture I downloaded recently that IE dislikers will probably love. http://i53.tinypic.com/wrdmza.jpg
I think having a class that takes the time to require the student’s to build a web portfolio is a great idea. I have been slightly working on it in the past but actually putting the time into it has been pushed to the backburner so many times due to other responsibilities. I feel that requiring us to do the work for a grade is a great choice and will benefit us in the long run. For me personally, having a web portfolio is a necessity. I will build this portfolio to contain the requirements of the class plus my own personal achievements and skills. The only thing I’m currently having trouble with is showcasing the visuals I want to display. I’ll definitely have to research a little on the html and javascripting to really make the site usable. Other than that, doing the coding at home is do-able but I will most likely get most of the grunt work done in an open lab.
As far as the lab portfolios go I think the lab time recently has been enough to get a great start done on our websites. I think that we can work mostly from home on the rest of the website but I feel one or two more lab days closer towards the due would be helpful for finalizing our web designs and getting opinions from others and being able to ask questions before turning it in.
Now for baseball comebacks, I feel great for the winning teams (Cardinals and Rays) but I really feel for the losing teams (Red Sox and Braves). I myself am a diehard Chicago Cubs fan so I don’t usually watch too much post-season baseball since the Cubs have only been in it in ’03, ’07, and ’08. I loved the excitement of post-season baseball and I can’t wait for the Cubs to be in the race again, but until it’s the Cubs it’s very hard to get excited about championship baseball when it’s not your team. As far as Braves and Red Sox fans go, it’s hard to watch your team fall apart an know there’s nothing you can do but watch in horror as those world series dreams slowly disappear. I of course watched the “Catching Hell” documentary on ESPN about the 2003 NLCS Game 6 (Cubs vs Marlins) and that dredged up some tough memories and made me miss the excitement and passion brought forth during the hunt for October baseball.
Last week was good in terms of building our web portfolios. I felt I managed to get quite a bit done and I was glad we went over some of the tools out there to make a good website. In addition, while I am not a huge baseball fan, I would recommend to anyone that is to go see ‘Moneyball’, it’s a great movie about Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics. http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/moneyball/
I already had the framework of my portfolio ready. I am just working out some of the flaws. There are a few issues with formatting that I have encountered but besides that I should be fine.
The news about Anwar al-Awlaki reminds me of the new tv show from fox called HomeLand. A new series about Carrie Mathison, a CIA operations officer who has come to believe that an American Marine, who was held captive by Al-Qaeda as a prisoner of war, was turned by the enemy and now poses a significant risk to national security. I believe fox is trying to bring up the possibility that good people can be turned bad and that it is very possible to
have American solders turn on the American people
I have enjoyed creating my personal portfolio on the web! I thought at first I wouldn’t enjoy creating it, but wordpress makes it so easy and accessible from my own pc! I am still having trouble actually changing the URL name to get com315 and wordpress out of it, but for some reason everytime I try, it defaults me back to purdue Itap page. With that said, I look forward to working on my site more and collaborating with others to improve certain features. I am really excited about the end product and showcasing my portfolio to future employers! I feel much more marketable by making this portfolio prior to graduating!
I’ve known for years now that making a web portfolio is crucial to my career. I’m glad this class is pushing me to start it, and early enough in the semester so I feel like I don’t have to rush the creative process. I know that, for my field, the quality of personal professional websites creates great competition because it is part of the focus Computer Graphics Technology. Because of this competition, I like to think of my “portfolio” as more of a “personal website,” because the word “porfolio” reminds me of still images whereas I’d like to include motion in the mechanics of my website while showcasing my work in animation.
On the topic of how long your cell phone company keeps your call and text information; I was kind of shocked by some of the numbers. I had already known that they keep track of number of texts and your call log information, but I had no idea that you could look up and read texts online. And that that they kept track of numbers you called and for how long up to almost seven years for some companies. I personally think this is a little creepy and unnecessary. They could save so much hard drive space by deleting this useless information. Seven years is a little over the top, keeping it for one, maybe two years is understandable.
I have been a pretty big Boston Red Sox fan my entire life. The night of the comebacks is going to be remembered as a one of the most exciting days of baseball in the history of baseball. There are a couple things that I can blame for the Red Sox not making the playoffs. The main reason is themselves…during the last month of baseball, they played horrible. They weren’t playing as a team and there were rumors going around involving the Manager not being suitable for the job. However, I believe that that is completely wrong. Terry Francona did a fabulous job putting Boston back onto the map during his tenure. The Red Sox didn’t win a World Series for 86 years….Terry Francona takes over and wins 2 World Series’ in 8 years.
I think there can be a lot to gain from doing this web portfolio. I know there are a lot of majors in our class that are very computer savvy, unfortunately mine is not one of those. The time in class was beneficial because it gave me a chance to try and get my formatting down and to figure out what program I wanted to use and how to use it. My portfolio won’t be the flashiest but it should get the job done.
Exactly! I find the web portfolio project to be almost required for my career but for people where programming and software isn’t their forte, this could put you ahead of the curve. It demonstrates technical aptitude and gives you a fantastic professional appearance, where candidates may only give a CV/resume. I cannot think of a single field where a web portfolio would not be helpful in some way. It’s easily accessible to employers and gives us a dynamic way to update projects and information instantly.
As a CIT major, I think the web portfolio will be a great asset to me. I’m really glad it is a requirement for this class because I honestly never really considered doing one before. I don’t think the coding aspect is going to be a big deal for me so most of the time I spent in our lab time I focused on how I wanted to do the design.
This past month has been great for the Yankees as well as the Tigers. I am a huge fan of both teams growing up with the Tigers in my backyard and the Yankees being on TV since I was little. I was surprised when Boston didn’t make it, though they have not been playing their best this season. Can’t wait to see the next game of the Tigers and Yankees.
On another note, I have never created a web portfolio so this assignment should be very interesting, as well as become an important asset to my future job search. I know having a web portfolio can sometimes put you ahead of other candidates for a position, as well as someone stumbling upon your site. I think have I have pretty good design for my web portfolio, but as for the information, that will come.
I think having a one or two more lab days to work on our web portfolios would be beneficial. I personally prefer to work from home, but other may still have some questions about how to proceed. Working together in the lab, those of us who know a little more about coding and web design could help those that don’t have as much experience.
Disney World’s 40th Birthday: I am not an amusement park person. I hate having to wait hours in line, rides often make me sick, and I tend to want to get away from crowds of people on vacation, not surround myself with them. But its hard to resist the appeal of Disney World. My husband absolutely loves the place and so he convinced me to go with him last year. (I had been before once when I was 6 and only to the Magic Kingdom). I can only imagine what it takes to run a place like that. The coordination alone of how they manage to never you let you see more than one of same character is amazing. (Yes, they do have more than one of each, but even the park employees will deny it. Unless my very persistent husband wears them down!) The haunted mansion is still one of my favorite rides. I thought it was so cool when I was a kid. My second visit did not disappoint either. I loved how they were still using the same technology that was there when the ride was built. And just read the article that they changed it! I want to dislike the idea, but the fact that the ghosts now interact with the people (like switching their heads) is intriguing. But I’m holding out judgment until we go their again. Which with my husband is pretty much a given. 🙂
This web portfolio is going to be difficult. All the options that we are going to have to design and ensure proper operation is going to consume a lot of time. I will find my self with prolonged visits to labs and I am not looking forward to it. Before employers look at our portfolios, we need to ensure that is comprehensive and appealing enough that they stay there rather than check our Facebook full of potentially questionable behavior. Speaking of questionable material, behavior, what have you, the article about the data retention by cell phone carriers is enlightening. I think it is reasonable to say that everyday Purdue students send texts they would not want the wrong person to see. There is even a sense of invulnerability, however this is obviously not the case. Only Verizon supposedly keeps the actual content, but that is just what they finally released to the public. Before this article and the best of my knowledge, they did not need to disclose this. There needs to be privacy, terrorism or not. Our calls, texts, whereabouts, whatever should be private.
I think I have the basic framework set for my web portfolio and I think the final result will be something that I will find useful. It took me a bit to get used to working in the WordPress site but now that I better know how to use it, I think adding content will be pretty simple. I also have some web design experience so create this portfolio is something that should come pretty easily for me. I had some troubles originally getting some of my changes saved but I discovered it was an issue with Internet Explorer (naturally). Now I’m at the point where I just need to decide exactly what content I wish to add. I think this portfolio will be a valuable asset to me as a CIT student and I’ll be happy when its up and running.
I guess I’ll step up and talk about the plane hitting the Ferris wheel in Australia. With all the mishaps at airshows, the aviation industry needs a little break. According to the article, a light plane hit a Ferris wheel with many small children on the ride. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The pilot and passenger were able to walk away and the two children trapped from the plane being lodged in the wheel were able to be rescued. The cause of the accident is unknown. The article states that the plane took off from an airstrip located nearby which means that a mechanical failure is most plausible. Guess we will find out soon enough.
I read this article the day after it happened – I was surprised at the time that the ferris wheel was not knocked over. Even a plane as small as that one has a lot of momentum when it gets going. Maybe good engineering is to blame for a change!
I read the article about Facebook being investigated by the FTC for tracking user’s web surfing habits after they logged off. I think this is beyond an invasion of privacy. Once I log close my facebook tab in my browser, I expect to be done with it and that they are no longer aware of what I am doing on my computer. Until recently (and who knows how long ago this began) Facebook has been tracking my internet usage behind my back?! Are you kidding me? And they have the nerve to say it was a “bug” and that they never intended to track our internet usage — I don’t believe that for a second. Facebook is evil, I’ll be the first to agree…but I still use it.
Honestly, unless they are making my information available to people that I don’t want to see it and who I haven’t authorized to see it, I don’t care what they know. It’s all used for advertising and target marketing and I would much rather get ads that are pertinent and interesting to me rather than pointless ones that I have no interest in at all. If I have to see the ads, they might as well be geared towards me. As long as I have control of my information and it’s not being shared with unauthorized people, go ahead, Facebook, do your thang.
In regards to the Facebook scandal and FTC inspection I am very disappointed but not surprised in any way. I feel that it is an invasion of privacy and crosses the line a little in facebook monitoring all of their users internet usage in order to gain an advantage in finding more about their users. When a user of facebook signs out of facebook all of facebooks rights should be taken away from finding out more about the users. I feel the only information available to facebook should be the information the users input in facebook and not what ever information they have gone through on their computers. This recent investigation will maybe make people realize how insecure the information on peoples computers can be and just how easily it is for other people to find. This recent article makes me look at facebook a little more negatively, but i do not think it will have much of an impact on facebook unless further information is found in the investigation.
My web portfolio is coming along really well. It’s almost embarrassing to think I havent tried to put something like this together before now. Being a technology major, I feel like a potential employer would really read into the fact I have an online presence. I plan on putting alot of work into this and using it professionally from here on out.
So far I have only set down most of my layout and added very little content. But the content will be the easy part, coding the portfolio in HTML is what will take the most time. But I am not worried, I have taken an HTML class and all of what I learned is quickly resurfacing.
This web portfolio will definitely help me with future job opportunities and resumes. It’s definitely a great way to show off many talents and piece it all together in a very professional manner, and I like that it is a requirement for this class so I actually sit down and make one. I don’t think it will be too hard of a project, as I have had to make numerous websites before through classes for my CIT major, so it should be a fun project.
On the topic of the facebook controversy, I do not know how deep the issue may go, but it is not unusual for a website to use your browser’s “cookies” (saved information from every website you go to). Many advertising companies use similar tactics when it comes to matching you to the advertisements you are most likely to affiliate with. For example, if you frequently visit Soccer websites, then it is likely for a FIFA ad to pop up on a website. I’m sure many people notice that advertisements are tailored to their tastes, and even though it uses a similar technology, I don’t feel this is any sort of invasion of privacy.
Reading the article on how long cell phone carriers keep information about your account opened my eyes about just how much information is out there about me. In the modern world of technology you can never be too careful on what you text, post, or tweet because it can always come back and bite you.
I am going to talk about the researchers hack a voting machine for $26 article. It’s interesting how the government can protect critical information about stuff such as money, war, etc. but they allow civilians to overtake the machine that is responsible for the election of the person in charge of the critical things.
I’m planning on pursuing a degree in cyber forensics which would have me working on projects to protect against such things. And i find it hard to imagine that the country with the biggest security agency in the world cannot protect the democracy of the nation.
Just my .02
While many find politics and political campaigns to be distasteful, they represent the foundation of our American democracy, and presidential election campaigns are the ultimate display of our political process in action. Following national politics more closely in recent years, I am enjoying the Republican Party’s primary presidential campaign and have been surprised by several things. First, I was amazed at how long many candidates waited before entering the race, and I cannot believe that some continue to consider a campaign with just three short months before the first primary election. Second, I am pleasantly surprised to see how many candidates have remained in this national contest because it provides for a more thorough sharing of ideas by the candidates and a more comprehensive analysis of the contenders by the electorate. Finally, despite a sizeable and diverse field of nominee-seekers, it amazes me that a clear front-runner and party unifier has not emerged. With the field remaining open and more surprises still to come, I am looking forward to the coming primary and general election campaign seasons.
My web portfolio is not coming along as well as I had anticipated. The in class lab time has proven to be very valuable. I initially had issues with not having a “www” folder in my H drive, but it has since be corrected with webfix. My next goal is find a theme that is simple yet professional looking. The web examples have been helpful from a design perspective. I have a hard time working from home because my senior design project is time consuming as well as the focal point in my graduating process. Hopefully this October break proves to be beneficial.
My portfolio is coming along well. I took a cgt class last semester that was a programming class focusing around php so I was able to use what I learned to make my portfolio even better. I need to fix some pages and make some changes on my main portfolio page (that includes my work from my classes and other major projects). Since I plan on using this portfolio site outside of class as well, I made it more professional like. Some difficulties I encountered is my comments page. I wanted to add a form on there that allows the user to email me or leave a comment (programmed it using php so far) but there are some stuff not working so I have to go back in and fix that. I need to update some information as well. I think I can work effectively in either lab or at home.
So far I feel as though I am truly gaining a lot
of momentum in building my professional profile. I feel as though I enjoy a lot of recreational things that are also involved in aviation. So far in my portfolio, I am having a lot of fun bringing this side to my professionalism. I also have pulled some ideas from my first presentation into my portfolio.
Overall, I would say I am slowly learning how to create this portfolio. Using my wordpress seemed to be my only option because I have had no experience in creating my own website. However I am finding wordpress pretty simple to use. Hopefully things will continue to run smoothly on my portfolio.
The article about model airplanes being used as terrorist weapons is a little far-fetched. I’m impressed at the amount of work that’s involved in keeping our country safe, but model airplanes would be a silly item to fuss over when it comes to threatening weapons. As the article said, the aircrafts are too small to hold large amounts of weapons and are too tricky to fly. They could carry a maximum of two pounds, whose weight doesn’t include a GPS either. As for as terrorist ideas go, it’s an interesting idea but not realistic.
I’d like to bring up a topic that is irrelevant to the post but incredibly relevant to the course, Steve Job’s death. It makes you wonder, did Job’s step down because of this possibility? Although Apple probably had precautions in place in case of his death, stepping down would probably allow for a smoother transition. It seems like a morbid thought, but I bet that huge companies have to function that way.
In addition, this is also startling because most people assumed that Jobs would still influence Apple heavily no matter where he went. This is most certainly not the case anymore… I wonder how Apple will do without Job’s influence?
My web portfolio is slowly coming along. I know exactly what I want information I want to put and where it’s going to go and feel that I can kick it all out in one very productive day. The days in the lab helped me get accustomed to WordPress and build the basic structure of my portfolio.The only downside for me is that I am very picky when it comes to the appearance of my site. I have already gone through numerous themes and have yet to find one that I am satisfied with. I will probably go though at least a dozen more before finding one that is just right for me.
My web portfolio is coming along pretty well by design is pretty well set in stone all I need to do is add in the content. I already have decided what all will be going into the my site, like I said it’s just a matter of adding it in.
My web portfolio is coming along pretty well my design is just about finished and all that needs to be accomplished is adding in the content. I already have decided what all will be going into the my site, like I said it’s just a matter of adding it in.
As a Facebook user, I totally agree that privacy with this site is a big problem. So many people do not even know that once they sign up for FB mobile that everyone in their friends will have access to their personal numbers. I’ve informed several friends that had no clue about their number being accessible by anyone. I do feel that Facebook needs really pay attention to the privacy concerns because there is a lot of spam/ hacking on FB. Tracking people can lead to a even bigger problems for FB users.
Regarding the voting machine hacks, I very much doubt the validity of the statement saying that you only need “$26 and an 8th-grade science education” to do this. 8th-grade science has nothing to do with building a circuit involving microprocessors and integrating that circuit onto the correct spot on a motherboard in order to remotely control the input of the machine. Yet another reason why I don’t particularly like Fox News. I also feel like it would be hard, especially for the machine in the picture, to take off the cover and attach this device without anyone knowing. That being said, it is a concern that should be noted, as voting is something that is taken very seriously, whether it is on a national level or just on a local level.
I was interested to read peoples responses and see that only 1 person commented on “the big story this week.” Anwar al Awlaki was the head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP, a group that is responsible for acts of terrorism not only in Yemen, Saudi and Oman, but that also most likely funds Al Shabab in Africa. Al Awlaki was an interesting man on several accounts. He was as fully educated as you and I, having received a BS in Civil Engineering from Colorado State. This guy wasn’t just some no name, uneducated, backwards qat chewing schmuck who liked to blow stuff up. Al Awlaki was also a US citizen who had the honor of being on the list of Americas most wanted. What most people don’t know is that we have tried to kill Al Awlaki before this and failed. 2 years ago a UAV blew up a vehicle in the Hadramaut area in Yemen killing the wrong people. The wiki leaks revealed that the Yemeni government had a deal with America to claim drone attacks as their own in order to allow the attacks to continue.
Al Awlaki posed almost as much threat to America as Bin Laden did because of his ability to attract an educated audience. Look at his videos on youtube and you will find a much less crazy man than you would have originally thought. Doesn’t a man who incites terrorism and suicide bombers have to be crazy, live in a cave and constantly preach about jihad? Apparently not.
What we fail to understand in America is that terrorism is not primarily a weapon that is used against civilized nations. Terrorism is felt daily by people in Yemen, which I can tell you for a fact because I lived there for several years. Depending on the political situation bombs would go off on a weekly basis in the capitol city. When we think of terrorism we think of 9/11, if we keep up on world news, maybe we think of the underwear bomber, or the printer bombs (both courtesy of Al Awlaki) but we never think about the lives that are lost in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or any of the other Arab or Muslim nations.
In my opinion, we do not need any additional lab days to work on the portfolio. What everybody has not done should be the content. I think most people in this class were from somewhat of a engineering or technology background, so most of us at least have a enough understanding of website designing to complete this project. I am now working on the layout and should be done much earlier than the due day.
I just wanted to comment briefly on the Red Sox collapse that happened a couple of weeks ago. Having been born and raised in Boston, I know that baseball is all most people talk about back home. This is going to be the topic among Red Sox fans for years to come. What could have been a phenomenal postseason for this team, turned into a mess for the ages. The starting pitching was miserable during the latter part of the season and as a previous individual commented above, there was simply no chemistry with this team. Francona could have done a much better job motivating his team, but instead focused on irrelevant points.
I would love to comment on that baseball portion of the blog topics. Despite that magnificent comebacks of both leagues wildcard teams, I am just glad that the Red Sox and that Braves were the once who collapsed causing the Rays and Cardinals to punch their tickets into the playoffs. I actually don’t dislike the Braves as much as the Red Sox, but that has to do with the fact that there really isn’t a team in the National League that I dislike. I hate Boston sports teams. They are Arrogant, selfish and cocky (referring mostly to the fans). All they care about is competing with New York, and always come up short. As Colin cowherd -ESPN radio as host of SportsNation program on EPSN – once said about Boston and New York’s relationship “New York sports teams have the goal to dominant and beat any team they face, Boston’s goal is to just beat New York as if somehow that would make any difference” (He also said at a different time “People that live in Boston are just not good looking, there might be couple hot girls walking around but that’s about it. I was watching the Lakers/Celtics game last night and the people in the stands were just ugly. Plain ugly. It’s just an unattractive city.” But that’s beside the point, just a rip on Boston.) The Braves collapse was a little more drastic than the red sox. The Braves were up like 10 games or something with a month to go, before they fell, and eventually gave up their playoff spot. I am a Cubs fan, so I’m not super enthused that the Cardinals reaped the benefits of the Braves fall, but I am glad that it was the Rays that took the spot of the AL wildcard. One thing is for sure. These comeback wildcard teams have a ton of momentum going into the playoffs and will be ready to compete. This will be a very interesting and enthusiastic postseason. I can’t wait.
The lengths that terrorists go through to try to instill fear in their enemies is bewildering, and thankfully in the case of the model airplanes, impractical. I’m glad that our government functioned in this instance and stopped the plot, yet at the same time this story makes me wonder again what balance of freedoms we are willing to sacrifice for the promise of “security.” I’ll be curious to see if our nation brushes this scare off and moves on, or if we will feel compelled out of fear to bring new burdensome regulations over a tiny threat possibility. Time will tell.
I read “Microsoft Is Said to Add Comcast, Verizon Pay TV to Xbox Live”, and I just want to say how much I despise Comcast. As if it’s not bad enough that it is the only choice I have for television in my apartment, now they want to take more of my money so I can watch television on my Xbox, no thanks. I wouldn’t be so annoyed with Comcast if they didn’t just plain screw you out of money just because they no they’re you only option. I personally forced to choose Comcast because our apartment complex does not allow satellite dishes mounted on balconies, and even if they did, we’re facing the wrong direction. So once their nice introductory rates are over, you’re stuck paying triple what you were before. I feel like they shouldn’t be advertising as “Comcast” on the Xbox, because I’m sure I’m not the only person that really can’t stand Comcast. If I didn’t know that Comcast was the company that was providing the content I would more than likely pay for it. Also, I have a Vizio television with applications on it already that allow me to watch television programs, movies, and access Netflix; in that case, why would I need to even use my Xbox for anything other than playing video games? All in all, that’s my personal opinion, and I’m sure what they’re offering has its perks; I’m just not willing to pay for it.
I wanted to briefly mention the article about facebook being sued. In light of the new addition of facebook and other social networking advertisement popularity, I find it interesting to learn more about the limits of social networking on personal privacy. The article is about an Australian blogger revealing that facebook places tracking cookies that track various information about the user even after they log out of facebook. I find the need for new legislature and laws requiring internet security and privacy fascinating as the world of social networking continues to evolve.
These situations are tough to distinguish where a line should be drawn, of course we all feel our right to privacy is important, but from a business standpoint, the more you know about your target customers, the more likely you are to be an effective advertiser. The question is when does business advancement end, and personal privacy become infrindged upon? This will surely be a question being discussed more and more as the tracking capabilities of data tracking becomes more advanced, and i’m excited to see where the situation will go next.
The baseball comebacks have been absolutely incredible to watch. I absolutely can’t stand the cardinals, but it was fun to watch them come back into contention with an absolutely terrible final month for the Atlanta Braves. During the final week I was rooting for the braves because I thought the cardinals didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs, but they proved me wrong and got there. Now for the AL, the rays impressed me so much. For a team that has a very low payroll, a small market and an absolutely terrible fan base, they proved everyone wrong by playing fantastic baseball the whole year. They are in the hardest division in the AL and they beat out the Red Sox for the wild card spot. Of the two comeback teams I was most impressed with the Rays. They finished their season by defeating the Yankees for their playoff spot while the cardinals played the leagues worst team the Houston Astros, to get into the playoffs. Overall I am excited for the playoffs and can’t wait to see who plays the best baseball in October.
My portfolio is coming along okay, I am still working on getting use to wordpress as with any new user of a program. I particularly like this project, I believe it is going to give me that extra something that I need to stand out from the many in my major. I believe I am on my way to creating a good professional web portfolio. Some difficulties I have encountered are just getting things organized. It has been a little difficult for me to edit things on my page, like if i change a heading or text on my page, its doesn’t show up. It just gets hard to distinguish the different blogs and which I’m updating at that moment. At this point to produce a strong site I plan to basically keep “playing around” with it and also communicate about the project on the here(blog), with my peers, and of course Becky. I think for me, personally, I will probably need some more time in the lab just to get more user friendly, but all in all I should be fine.
I have a love hate relationship when it comes to our web portfolio. I know that in order to get it exactly how I want it I will need to invest a great amount of time, but since this will have my name on it I want nothing but the best. I love coding, but at times it can be a pain. I think this is really beneficial and another resume’ builder. I am glad we do have an opportunity to design a web portfolio because this will give me an opportunity to have an advantage in other classes. I believe that this won’t be the last web portfolio we have to design seeing as though we are technology students. I will take advantage of this and make it become my own.
So far, so good on my web portfolio. Mainly, I am happy to have found I could use the software that came with my laptops, as it works very well and is simple. I have never been a programmer or someone that really understood HTML, so having a simple yet effective program is great. I really love the theme, and prefer it to Word Press given that it does not require comments or turning them off.
As far as baseball goes, I have never been a fan. The Indianapolis Colts are the only pro sports team I follow, and they have done terrible this year. Goes to show, without Manning we start 0-5. Probably just going to continue…
I have somewhat trouble with the web portfolio.
To gain a new set of skills, I decided to make my web portfolio using the Adobe Dreamweaver. I have somewhat experience of using web-developing kit, but Adobe Dreamweaver is somewhat different from program I used in Korea. I forgot all the web-codes(HTML) used in designing, so I feel like I am starting all over again. Despite some difficulties, I think I am on a right track with my web portfolio. I have a theme created for my blog, and I’m using the theme to make my portfolio better. I want to make the be portfolio perfect, so I can utilize it in the job market.