" On Chatroulette, a new and controversial Web site, every click lands you in a face-to-face video conversation with a random stranger.
The setup is simple: Activate your webcam and click "play." Then, as people from all over the world pop up one at a time in a box on your screen, you decide whether or not to chat with them. If you don't like the looks of things, click "next" and the site shuffles you to someone new.
The people you meet could be friendly. During a recent CNN test of the site, a man from France popped up on the screen wearing a jester's hat and telling jokes in French. Two men dressed as skeletons were having a dance party to techno music and flashing lights. A slouched-over man in Tunisia said he was tired because he'd been on the site for four hours.
But the stranger Chatroulette sends you could just as easily be naked -- or even masturbating in front of the camera, which is the case rather frequently..."
Wow... Just wow... why would you subject yourself to something that invasive ... Penny Arcade even touched on it with this comic and related story. Personally I think it's scary.
So we're doing a project in class this week on social bookmarking. I have to say I was very wary going into this project, the idea of sharing your bookmarks (or favorites if you are using IE or whatever you mac people have) scared me. It's not that I don't have anything to hide, but it's the idea that there is no privacy the bothers me. So anxiously as instructed I created a delicious account. To use delicious you have to sign up for yahoo. Be wary I warn you... yahoo likes to install all kinds of extra features and sign you up for every mailer they have ... hey they gotta make money, I understand, I just don't really like Yahoo! that much. So back to social bookmarking. Once I got through the challenges of creating an account I found that during the process it offers to install add-ons for most web browsers including the one I use Firefox. So I installed the add-on. *If you're using firefox and the addon I found it much easier to use when i switched it to the "classic view" (Top of your tool bar, look for the "delicious" button, click then down towards the bottom you'll see the option.) What this does is separate your bookmarks from delicious bookmarks. Which comforted me in knowing I was still able to maintain privacy.
The whole idea behind social bookmarking is that you can 1) access your resources (web links) from anywhere, 2) Tag the marked page making it easier for you to find what your looking for as well as allow you to add notes to the content beyond just the URL, and 3) it connects your publicly marked bookmarks with everyone else using the system. Allowing you to search tags and find what other people are using are resources and then adding it to your collection if it turns out it's useful to you. Beyond the privacy issues I was first concerned with this seems like a great idea. Once I added a few of the pages I had bookmarked on my own for class research, I added them to delicious, gave them some notes and some tags. It exploded from there, I just did a brief search of some commonly used tags and instantly found several resources that are excellent. You can view my bookmarks at: http://delicious.com/billinghamiv
Okay I've had enough of it. Time to stop and move on to spring. Wouldn't that be a hoot. But no gotta wait another 30 odd some days more for the first day of spring... and not to mention the fact that here in Indiana that doesn't mean Jack. It'll probably still be colder than a well diggers behind until mid to late April. Seriously? Seriously. I've lived here 99% of my life, the only time I've lived outside Indiana is when I was in the military and at Ft. Benning, GA. And that was in the winter too... and let me clue you folks in on something... In the middle of winter, it's still cold as crap in Georgia. I'm talking wearing sweatpants on under my regular pants to stay warm enough. But enough about Georgia.
So basically I'm an Indiana boy so I should be used to this right? I mean I grew up in the north part of the state and we had lake effect snow on top of the regular stuff. I remember 1 year where a snow plow slid off the road we lived on so the school bus driver just stopped coming down our road for a few days until it was safe again. THAT was snow. What we have here in the middle regions is just that pathetic miserable snow. And the cold. Over rated. For all that's in me I can't think of why I didn't go running to Hawaii or Cali. Or heck! Anywhere near the equator... The whole "changing of the seasons" is nice and all, but cold is over rated and there's a lot of it going on now.
Now I know I'm just ranting to myself mostly. But to be honest, I'm happy with that. Because if I get a big following I will have fully become a Blogger, something I've been trying to put off as long as possible...
Being that today is Valentines Day, I can't help but think it's the most ridiculous holiday ever. Stupid Hallmark... Ooooh we need to boost early spring sales, we're dipping between Xmas and Easter ... lets invit a day where the soul purpose is to buy our junky cards and candy, then market it as "a day of love." Now it's almost a prerequisite that if you're married or dated you're spending about $150 for the sake of this day. Call me scrooge ... but I think it's crazy it's called a 'holiday.'
There I had my rant. And my just desserts... tomorrow instead of today at least.
Well now with this new Google "Buzz" feature in gmail and dozens of other applications they own I think it can be safe to say we may very well be looking for the first time since the 1980's that we may have a choice in computers again. I know what most of you will say... but there's Mac ... well, apart from making phones and an OS that's designed to work on videos/photos, it's not really that much better than a PC and not as compatible with namely video games. In addition in order to use their software, it has to be on their hardware. Where with PCs you can switch, swap, integrate, upgrade, and everything else. Their two different species. The only real other competition to M$ are the various Linux platforms. They make up a small majority, but the ideas behind a Linx is that it allows for fine tuning... it's a hobbyist platform, it's not for the masses. A Google operating system could bridge that gap. I'm not saying that it will be good or bad, I have no idea. I'm just excited at the prospect to try something new. M$ has had it's grip on the mass users for so long they forget they used to have choices. And maybe Google will be powerful enough to make that happen. Like I said... "just what's on my mind."
For my first emergent technology project I choose to explore Vodcasting, or video-casting. A Vodcast is similar to a podcast, only you get both video and audio, with a podcast you only get audio. A Vodcast is a technology that allows you to record a video clip, created by you, and then share it online. I will be sharing my video on my blog. The first real challange is to find a place to "host" or upload your video to I choose to use YouTube because I already had storage there.
I can see lots of positive applications for this type of technology, my biggest vision is for this type of technology to be used a classroom environment, which would be to record classroom lessons and then upload them so that students who are unsure about something from the class can review the lecture. In addition it can allow students who are unable to be in the classroom (due to illness or emergency) to still be able to get the same class lessons even though they can't be there. If someone is sick they should not be forced to watch the video, but it does give them the opportunity to review what they missed. I think this would be a great way to give all students an equal chance in doing well with the class they are taking.
The biggest downside to vodcasting is that it requires a fast internet connection, which is why I want to briefly mention podcasting. A podcast is simply an audio recording that you can upload to the internet, your website, or blog. While you don't get to see the action happening, with a podcast you still get to hear the lesson, so I think it is important to consider your target audience first before deciding what to implement in the classroom. People with slower internet connections will find a Podcast is more efficient than a Vodcast.
The biggest snag I ran into when trying to setup a Vodcast was that the majority of the resources require you to pay for service for uploading and sharing your videos. I guess the old adage is true "Nothing's free in life." Since I already have storage on YouTube, to host my videos, I chose that as my host. To do this you open your video on YouTube, and then choose the "embed" option, down at the bottom right. (note in the picture)
Copy the embedded text field from YouTube, and if you are using Blogger as your choice of Blog, click the tab in the top left of your New Post that says "Edit Html." Then paste in the text you copied from YouTube where you want it to show up. Here is an example video I created.
As you can tell I switched from Hipcast to YouTube once I found out about the purchase requirements. I found YouTube to be much simpler for setting up a Vodcast.
Two angels are plucked from the heavenly sky In an instant they're gone In the blink of an eye If you listen close you'll here cherubs cry Ohhh..look away My head is heavy Their bodies bruised Our spirits shattered when we heard the news The chorus is singin its final tune Ooooh...look away We ran to the mountains We shouted on high We pled to the gods and an answer replied What was once is now lost yet could never die Ooooh...look away Look away Whoa oh oh look away Look awayeyay
So I have to admit, I've been working with computer, in IT jobs for the last 10 years and I've refused to join any type of internet "trend". I don't have a facebook/myspace, I've never had a blog until now. I always thought it as a self centered idea, the concept of telling people what your doing up to the minute. Maybe it's just a weird pet-peeve of mine. But as you can tell from my page I've dove into the rabbit hole, and while I'm getting into this more than I would have thought and dirtied my little white fluffy tail a little, I have emerged none the less more enlightened. I can see practical applications as my class instructor pointed out you can have your student's parents subscribe to your blog (assuming you don't work in the inner city where the families are poor enough not to have computers) and then you can instantly update the parent on homework changes or assignments, so that the parent can help the child complete his/her assignments on time and correctly. And that's just one of the examples of good things this can be used for, so I have widened my gaze. The process of setting up the blog wasn't too terrible, I love Google, so I was already familiar with some of the menu settings and how to get to places. Being able to edit and move the "modules" around was another setting a I really like, it makes it easy to arrange the site to fit you better. I also now use Picasa to host my picture gallery and found it was very easy to add a slide show from my account as a module. So I admit, biased as I was coming into this project I've got a new perspective on it and have to say I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
For those of you who are truly into blogging and have a smart phone, you can blog from the go. I have an iPhone and have just installed "BlogPressLite(free)" it's the free version of "BlogPress ($2.99)." with this application you can make posts from virtually anywhere and it gives you the ability to import pictures from various sources (Picasa of course being one of them). It's interface is smooth and easy and I'd highly recommend it. Here's there website if you want to read more about the app or you can go to the iTunes store and check it out there.
I really enjoy photography, it's a big hobby of mine. I've been all over from Alaska to Holland, these are my photo's since I've gone digital. I would consider myself more of a natural or landscape photographer than a person photographer. The host I used to have my pictures shared has been up and down over the last 2 years, so I've decided to move them to a new Host. So I'll be trying out Picasa now, I was some was upset about the installation forcing the program to search for photos when installing, but that's probably more of a personal preference. So... without further adieu I present Bob's Photo Gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/weeezel
Here was my PowerPoint Project. It gave me a new perspective towards video games and violence, and I'm an avid computer gamer who would claim "that the violence in the games has no affect on me at all." So check it out and get the whole story.
Ok seriously... The myth is that if the fat furry little rodent crawls out of it's burrow and see's it's shadow we will have 6 more weeks of winter, if he doesn't then it's meant that spring will come early. First off... why the woodchuck? That poor dumb rodent has been underground the last 5 months... how could it possibly have any clue what the weather is going to be like 6 weeks from now... it can because IT'S BEEN UNDERGROUND. geesh
Secondly.... isn't it awfully convenient that Groundhog Day is February 2nd? Which happens to be EXACTLY 6 weeks away from the "Official first day of spring" typically between March 20th and 22nd. It's a guarantee that whatever the groundhog decides that spring will be 6 weeks away. What a hoax.
Third... where did this crazy myth come from? I mean was there a woodchuck cult or something that came up with this idea? Of course it came from America. Pennsylvania to be exact. According to my research a group of would be badger lovers came to America decided to use the ground hog, probably because badgers are mean coots and someone would have probably lost a hand by now, and started the tradition of dragging a poor giant rat out of a hole and then "speaking with it" to decide if there would be spring soon or not. For a state known for it's anti witchcraft policy back in the 1800s this sounds an a lot like hocus-pocus to me.
Oh, by the way this year's forecast: 6 more weeks of winter. Well no duh, the spring equinox is March 20th this year. Way to go...
So I'm an avid gamer, Check out my handle below for more information on games.
I'd really like to be Knighted one day so I can go by the official title of "Sir".
Right now I'm back at school, IUPUI that is. The goal is to become a history teacher. Seems fitting eh? I'm married to the most wonderful woman ever, her name is Julie. We've been married just over a year, (Married Dec. 20, 2008). We both love animals very much: we have 2 dogs (Cooper - Maltese/Shitzu 3yrs old and Ellie - Doberman/Border Collie 1 year old), 2 cats (Rikki-Tikki (aka big Mr Kitty) - 5yrs old black and white and Zoey (aka Mittens) - 2yrs old, smokey-grey with all 4 white paws. My wife has also been gracious enough to let me indulged and I have an aquarium, a non-aggressive tropical community 30 gallon fresh water. I'd like to get a 75 gallon some day.
Look for me gaming online. Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, CSS. I've had my handle before Harry Potter made it popular and and am some what miffed by that. I got my handle from the legendary beast the basilisk, which in greek means, King of all Lizards. In mythology it was thought the serpents gaze could turn you to stone and was terrible poisonous. In real life, they are very small lizards who are non poisonous, they are commonly known as the "Jesus Christ Lizard" for it's ability to move so quickly it can literally run across water with out sinking.
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