For no reason at all

Google Print

2005-09-29T11:29:00.000-05:00

Google has launched a project to digitize approximately 20 million books. These books would then be searchable using the Google Print search engine. In response to the project, the Author’s Guild, a group representing about 8,000 authors has sued Google on the grounds of copyright infringement. Google’s argument is that they are only indexing the contents of the books and that the authors of the copyrighted material have the option of opting out. Google’s vice president Susan Wojcicki says that Google “doesn't show even a single page to users who find copyrighted books through this program unless the copyright holder gives us permission to show more”. In response the Author’s Guild says that they should say when and how their material should be copied and that it is not Google right to do so for them. In my opinion Google is doing nothing wrong. Further more I think that they are providing a valuable service which will ultimately help authors more than it will hurt them. Essentially Google is giving a wider audience access to potential sources of interest or sources research. Ultimately I think authors will gain sales from this because the wider audience increases the number of potential buyers.

“You authors are saps to resist Googling”
By: Xeni Jardin
The Site
Posted: September 25, 2005
Accessed 9/28/05

Weblog Ethics

2005-09-29T11:26:00.000-05:00

“News organizations may someday be willing to point to weblogs (or weblog entries) as serious sources, but only if weblogs have, as a whole, demonstrated integrity in their information gathering and dissemination, and consistency in their online conduct.” Rebecca Blood makes this statement in her article Weblog Ethics. The notion that news organizations will ever be willing to use weblogs as serious sources is unrealistic to me. I make this statement because I think that it is unrealistic to expect all people posting weblogs to post information that is well researched, true or consistent for that matter. As she discusses in her article, the average weblogger has no incentive to ensure that their information is accurate. Without incentive, people posting blogs will continue to post information in any matter which they see fit, without verification of that information. I think that if blogs were ever to become a serious source, they will have lost the freedom and diversity of opinions which makes blogs appealing to so many people.

“Weblog Ethics”
The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog
The site
By: Rebecca Blood
Copyright 2002
Accessed on 9/28/05

Diploma mills

2005-09-29T11:25:00.000-05:00

An online database of accredited schools is a useful tool to those who are willing to take the initiative to check the credentials of a school and its website. The problem is the people who are willing to use the database are the people who need it the least. The people who are falling victim to the diploma mills are the people who do not the research and accept the look of the page as proof of its validity. People falling victim to these places are those who are not willing to do the research in the first place. An online database might make it easier to check the validity of the site or school, but that still doesn’t change the fact that you have to check the database. My point is that if people were unwilling to check other resources before, it is unlikely that they will take the time to check this new resource now.

“Database Fights Diploma Mills”
By: Ryan Singel
The Site
Accessed on 9/27/05

Filtering in the Library

2005-09-20T17:00:00.000-05:00

I think that the proposed solution of software that could be switched on and off at the leisure of the user would be a good solution. The only problem I see is that it still does not protect users of the library such as children from accessing material that is not appropriate for their age group. Having the ability to turn on and off the filtering methods would allow any user to access explicit material regardless of their age. If a method such as this is to be implemented, there is a need for additional requirements of who is able to choose what type of content they would like to view. One proposed solution could be to filter all Internet access points in the library by default, and then require a login to access material in an unfiltered manner. This might be accomplished by using information tied to a library card to verify that the person who wanted to access the information is indeed of age and able to make decisions on what material they would like to view.

Searching ... For Myself

2005-09-20T16:56:00.000-05:00

In my search for information on myself I only found two pages. I found our class page which contains my name in the list of our class blogs. I found the previous page using Google and the expression "Heavner" + UMW. The page was the third one on the list. The second page that I found was my homework page that I made for my CPSC 370 class. I found that page using the expression UMW + "Alex Heavner" and Google once again. I also attempted using Yahoo’s search engine, as well as Ask Jeeves to find additional information on myself. Unfortunately neither yielded any more information than the previous had.

Search Engines

2005-09-18T21:28:00.000-05:00

“The general public that is growing increasingly dependent upon search engine technology has relatively low understanding of how the technology works.” This quote was from the article “Do Search Engines Suppress Controversy” by Susan L. Gerhart. People use search engines every day and a lot of people, including myself, do not know how exactly they work. We all type in some words and hit the “magic” button and thousands of pages are available at our fingertips.

From my understanding a search engine just searches the words on the page until it finds the key words contained within the page. Beyond that basic understanding I have no actual idea how it accomplishes its task. In fact it seems somewhat impossible for the search engine to search so many pages in only seconds. I think that a lot of people would benefit from a better understanding of how search engines work. For example, I think that in her article Gerhart’s point that the search engine bring up the most “popular” results and displays them first, is important. It points out the fact that we should be aware that the first thing that is presented to us is not necessarily the entire story.

Tyranny of Copyright

2005-09-12T22:16:00.000-05:00

Robert S. Boynton’s article “The Tyranny of Copyright?” brings to the reader’s attention important issues regarding copyrights. Such issues were copyrights effects on the free flow of ideas and how much control should a copyright grant an artist or company. Personally I feel as though copyrights do not restrict the free flow of ideas, they simply ensure the artist or party responsible for copyrighting the material are given credit, or receive money when their ideas are used by others. My opinion is that an artist is entitled to money for his or her works but if intend on selling them, they cannot complain when people download some of their material. I think that in once an idea becomes a product, the consumer should be entitled to some way of evaluating the product that they are purchasing. The internet now serves as a way in which a consumer can sample material from sources and decide whether or not the artists “ideas” are worthy of monetary compensation or not. I feel for that reason that copyright laws are indeed too strict.

Digital Piracy

2005-09-12T22:00:00.000-05:00

I read an article from the Monday 8/29/2005 issue of the New York Times. The article was entitled “To Hollywood’s dismay, digital piracy is the big ape in film” by Timothy L. O’Brien. The article discusses the increasing losses that Hollywood has incurred due to pirating and the increase in Home Theater technology. The main issue of the article is piracy. The article says that Hollywood made about 84 billion dollars in world wide sales in 2004. The article points out that due to leaks of feature films the industry lost an estimated 3 billion dollars. It goes on to say that that 3 billion dollars does not account for the ever growing number of movies which are being distributed via Internet sources. The article then describes the process that bootleggers use to film the movies in the theaters. To read about this process and the rest of the article, visit the International Herald Tribute website.

Firefox Security Patch

2005-09-12T21:50:00.000-05:00

I read the article from VNUNet.com called “Security Vulnerabilities threatens Firefox Users”. The article was written by Tom Sanders and was published on 9/12/2005. The article is about a security patch that users of Mozilla Firefox should download. The patch fixes a flaw in the browser which “allows an attacker to remotely execute code on a compromised system through a buffer overflow attack.” The flaw was discovered by Tom Farris. Apparently he reported it on September the 4^th but encountered problems with Mozilla when he reported it and went public with the flaw himself. Mozilla now has published the patch to fix the problem and instructions for installing it which you can find here.

Kanye West

2005-09-05T22:29:00.000-05:00

Apparently on Friday afternoon there was a concert on television to raise money for the victims of hurricane Katrina. Kanye West was one of the guest stars on the television program and deviated from the script and made some radical comments. West made the statement “George Bush doesn't care about black people”. West also made another comment about the unfair portrayal of African Americans in the news, to read exactly what he said go to the Washington Post's website. I also recommend watching the video of the telecast which can be found at the ifilm website.

West’s comments upset a lot of people and will probably have an adverse effect on his career. My opinion on the matter is that he has the right to express his opinion. Although I feel as though he had the right to say what he did, I do not think that he did it in the most appropriate of manners. His statement was very blunt and somewhat closed minded. I am no expert in politics nor am I completely aware of exactly what it is that the government is doing to help the citizens of Louisiana. I can say that I am sure that the efforts that are being made are not entirely the work of President Bush but instead a product of a lot of legislation. I think that since the president is the most public part of our legislative system, he often times is blamed when things do not go the way people feel they should and this is one of those situations.

If you watch the video you can see that West seems very nervous. My impression from the video is that he was in some way prompted to make the statements that he did. It seems as though either he did not really want to say what he did, or that he knew that he was making statements which would have negative repercussions. His body language and manner of speaking leads me to believe that either he was very passionate about the topic, or that he was very nervous about what he was saying. Either way his statements roused my interest and left me curious to know exactly why he said what he did. I will be looking forward to a further explanation of his actions. Watch the video and tell me what you think.

The Internet, a reliable source of information or load of ... well you know

2005-09-04T22:46:00.000-05:00

With the widespread experience with the Internet that we receive in school it is hard to believe that “many students have difficulty recognizing trustworthy sources … “. Ever since high school teachers have drilled into our heads that we can not depend on the Internet as a reliable source for research. They always told us that we could use the Internet as a source of information, but that we should be weary of the reliability of the information. We were always required to supplement Internet resources with sources from books or periodicals. In addition, I would also like to point out that the Internet is a valuable resource for finding sources of information which are creditable in a timelier manner. Sites on the internet such as our library’s website are quick and effective ways of finding creditable information. For example contained in the website is a database of full text articles some of which are clearly marked as being peer reviewed, ensuring that they are indeed creditable sources.

Parking Decals, Cruel and Unusual?

2005-09-02T15:38:00.000-05:00

Deciding to add insult to injury, UMW raised the price of parking decals to $150, and in the process found a way to make purchasing one a terrible experience. My experience started last Friday when I decided that I would get ahead of the game and purchase my sticker early in order to beat the lines and the chaos that was sure to ensue. Upon arriving at the cashier’s office I am informed that I will have to wait until Monday and purchase my sticker from the Underground.
Accepting defeat I come up with the brilliant plan of arriving early on Monday and being one of the first people in line. The only problem was that about forty other people had come up with the same plan rendering my once brilliant plan useless. Once again, I accept defeat and return at 10 am after my first class, this is where the fun begins. The 100 people in line combined with the lack of air conditioning had made the conditions sauna like. To make matters worse they had only one person issuing decals so the line was moving at a snail-like pace. So, after waiting in line for just shy of two hours and sweating enough to fill a small tub, I finally received the decal. As I began celebrating my moment of victory the guy at the table informs me that the decal does not guarantee me a parking spot at all. So, all that is left to say is that some means of automation or organization needs to be incorporated into this process because the current system is ridiculous.

Adding a Picture

2005-08-31T13:14:00.000-05:00

I forget exactly what this place is called, but it is one of the places that I visited while I was in Cancun in August. Apparently the Myans used to make sacrafices here because they believed it was an opening to the underworld, so the entire bottom of this well is covered in gold and such. I thought it was pretty cool, plus it looks amazing. The lines that you see are roots that grow down into the well from the forest above which was spectacular in itself. Plus on top of all of that you were able to go swimming in the well if you chose too. Anyways I recommend visiting it, it was pretty cheap they stopped here on the way to the Myan Pyramids, the whole tour thing only cost me like $56 and that included a buffet for lunch too, so it was well worth the money.

Testing it out

2005-08-30T08:03:00.000-05:00

Lets see if this thing works