The Internet and Its Sense of Humor

If there's one thing the internet has improved, it's definitely comedy, or at least everyone's sense of humor.  From all the diverse things to see out there, and the even wider range of opinions surrounding them, a user has to know how take things and comments with a grain of salt.

But from that come some of the most elaborate April Fools' Day jokes ever, because they can reach so many people.  My favorite this year was Youtube's own Youtube Collection, though the Assassin's Creed on Kinect video was also extremely creative.

Though not exactly April Fools, this was also amazing

A Truly Mass Effect

I love video games and so do most of my friends.  So I have heard nothing but hype for the recently released Mass Effect 3, the conclusion to what is now heralded as "gaming's first true epic."  Contrary to popular belief, I was not excited.  I had never enjoyed the first game and so felt no reason to play the second or prepare for the third.  And suddenly, as the launch date loomed, more and more problems arose - from launch day DLC which cost an extra $20 and contained some important story elements, to leaked pieces which looked nowhere near finished.

And now that the game is out and has been conquered by many gamers, everyone is disappointed.  The endings, of which there were several (all equally disappointing to the public), are believed by many to be dream sequences of a sort (known as "indoctrination", beware of spoilers).  Now there are movements to change the ending, and groups are reaching out to the company, Bioware, to respond to their disappointment.

Check out the article here which explains the flooding of the forums and the brief company response, as well as the "Retake Mass Effect" movement and their raising money for the Child's Play charity.

Internet Education

While perusing some of the other student blogs for the course, I came across a few posts about technology, specifically computing technology, and its applications in education.  I have always found this to be an interesting topic as I went to Appleby College for high school, where they herald themselves as one of the first truly "e-schools".  To this end, each student and teacher was equipped with a laptop and they were used in virtually every class, even math where the recent trend with the school has been to adopt tablet laptops so that the writing functions can be used instead of attempting to simulate equations with shortcuts and what not.  This is all a huge advantage to both faculty and students as ease and speed of communication and obtaining information have been greatly increased.  This also all facilitates the inherent idea in networking, of collaboration.

Of course, there is always a down side.  The amount of information and activities available to a student with a laptop is virtually infinite.  Therefore, so are the distractions.  From Facebook to Youtube to Counter-strike 1.6, there was always a way to avoid paying attention in class.  The sheer expanse of ways also thwarted the many attempts by faculty to contain these errors in attention.  Various solutions to these problems have been attempted, from locking computers out from the internet temporarily while at school (usually reserved as a punishment for misuse of a computer), to software which allows a teacher to view the screens of their students remotely while in class.

But, in true internet style, any patch to a breach was immediately followed by a new way of getting around the defenses.  One of the more "techie" ways of avoiding the limits placed on our internet usage was perfected, of course, by the gamers.  When we couldn't play WoW at school, in class or in our rooms (it's a boarding school too) due to internet firewalls and such, we got creative and started experimenting with ways to bypass these blockades, eventually settling down and becoming comfortable with the combination of OpenVPN and YourFreedom software (see links below).

As a more personal anecdote, I personally remember having a test in music class one day, where I attempted for two years to play the trumpet (with little to no success).  The lesson continued in the classroom while small groups of students were sent into practice rooms to play the test piece, record it on the computer, and email it in to the teacher.  I took some extra time and utilized the recording program, Audacity, to its fullest by playing my piece extremely slow and later editing out all the breaks and incorrect notes.  Best mark in music to date...

http://www.your-freedom.net/
http://openvpn.net/

Privacy On The Go

Ads on YouTube have to be one of the most annoying new additions to the internet, but once in a while something interesting pops up.  I thought it was even more appropriate as we were doing so much discussion on privacy in class.

The company 3M has begun distributing their own brand of "privacy filters".  Really nothing more than a thin film which can be applied to the screens of your laptops, monitors, or even smart phones.  Not only will this protect your screen from a variety of exterior damages, but these filters are designed to obscure the screen so that it cannot be read from an improper angle.  This helps to eliminate the age old problem of "shoulder-surfing", a flaw in security which no programmer could fix.  Take a look for a bit more info, or to buy one for yourself.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/SDP/Privacy_Filters/Solutions/One/