So for my blog this week, I decided to write about a new thing AT&T is doing called U-Verse. My brother was telling me about it because he works for the company and so I decided to look it up. It is a pretty cool service, but one that my small town won’t be receiving for a while.
Similar to Comcast, but less expensive, they offer an all-in-one package for TV, telephone, and Internet, however this deal is a little more high tech. It allows one to check your calls from your television and then return the call with a click of the remote, which is called Click to Call. Another cool feature my brother told me about was that, not only does it have DVR recording, but if you forgot to record something you can do it remotely from your cell phone which is somehow linked to your television DVR. They also have voice over Internet Protocol (voIP), which is nice as well.
These seem like great new features and something I would totally go for since right now we have AT&T with a super slow connection speed because of where we live. In California they just finished setting up Santa Rosa and are due to hook up Lake County soon. They only service the areas that have switched over to fiber optic phone lines, so this means they will concentrate on the bigger cities first before coming to the smaller areas.
This is a stretch from what I usually talk about, but it still involves social networking because of its opportunities through communication with others via the television, computer, and/or cell phone service. Anyway, I thought it was interesting, especially since my brother works for the company.
Here is a link so you can check it out if you are interested:
U-Verse
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Second Life Field Assignment
I took a few trips into Second Life. Some I did by myself, but most of them were with friends in the class. My experiences were different each time and depended on when and what time of day it was I went in. It seemed that on weeknights in the evenings a lot of people hung around orientation island public. I went there as I wrote this on Sunday and there was a smaller crowd. Most people were chatting and not talking. This was the most interesting place for me. I loved to just hang out and listen to what others were talking about. I realized on Sunday that many of them are from Europe. They just hang out and talk about things that don’t matter.
One evening my friends and I went to a dance club and learned new dances. This was really fun and I had a great time watching and learning. The music was good and we all had fun. I then transported to Anteater Island where I wouldn’t stop dancing. I had told my avatar to stop before we left the dance club, but to no avail. It was pretty funny. Even after transporting to Virtual Hallucinations I was still dancing. Everyone was cracking up. My avatar on my screen was not dancing, however on other people’s computer I was. Must have been a glitch.
I enjoyed Second Life and everywhere I went. I especially enjoyed anteater island where we played laser tag, I went through a maze, and had the option of going up to a learning center of some sort.
We also went to Virtual Hallucinations. That was a trip! It is a place where you can see what it is like to be schizophrenic. There are voices in there that tell you what a terrible person you are and how you are dying. There was a gun on the table that said to kill all the police. This is supposedly what schizophrenics hear inside their heads. What a drag.
I also went to an amusement park and rode some rides. That was fun but was hoping to get on a roller coaster. I think you might have to pay for that kind of thing.
I could see that this would be really fun for online learning. I was doing a report about nanotechnology and found nanotechnology island on Second Life. I didn’t know how to fly and work my avatar yet, so I didn’t get much out of it, but could totally see the potential for education. What fun this would be to learn from home on Second Life. It is interactive and allows you to do what you want when you want. I love it!
I also noticed that it takes a while to get comfortable moving around, flying and just getting to know how to make your avatar move. By watching what everyone was doing at orientation island public it makes one realize how many ways one can make their avatar gesture or sit. Many sit atop a fence or sign and swing their leg. I don’t know how this is done, but I am sure one day I will learn.
This is one place I probably will revisit when we are done with class. People watching alone is fun. And all the costumes….bizzare!
One evening my friends and I went to a dance club and learned new dances. This was really fun and I had a great time watching and learning. The music was good and we all had fun. I then transported to Anteater Island where I wouldn’t stop dancing. I had told my avatar to stop before we left the dance club, but to no avail. It was pretty funny. Even after transporting to Virtual Hallucinations I was still dancing. Everyone was cracking up. My avatar on my screen was not dancing, however on other people’s computer I was. Must have been a glitch.
I enjoyed Second Life and everywhere I went. I especially enjoyed anteater island where we played laser tag, I went through a maze, and had the option of going up to a learning center of some sort.
We also went to Virtual Hallucinations. That was a trip! It is a place where you can see what it is like to be schizophrenic. There are voices in there that tell you what a terrible person you are and how you are dying. There was a gun on the table that said to kill all the police. This is supposedly what schizophrenics hear inside their heads. What a drag.
I also went to an amusement park and rode some rides. That was fun but was hoping to get on a roller coaster. I think you might have to pay for that kind of thing.
I could see that this would be really fun for online learning. I was doing a report about nanotechnology and found nanotechnology island on Second Life. I didn’t know how to fly and work my avatar yet, so I didn’t get much out of it, but could totally see the potential for education. What fun this would be to learn from home on Second Life. It is interactive and allows you to do what you want when you want. I love it!
I also noticed that it takes a while to get comfortable moving around, flying and just getting to know how to make your avatar move. By watching what everyone was doing at orientation island public it makes one realize how many ways one can make their avatar gesture or sit. Many sit atop a fence or sign and swing their leg. I don’t know how this is done, but I am sure one day I will learn.
This is one place I probably will revisit when we are done with class. People watching alone is fun. And all the costumes….bizzare!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Genome and Social Networking
So for this blog I decided to look for something new in social networking. What I found was a company from Mountain View, Ca called 23andMe that offers people comparisons of their DNA to others. They call it a personal genomics service.
This goes a little beyond social networking, but is kinda cool. You could compare your DNA with, say, your best friends’ or even someone famous. You could potentially find relatives out there you never knew existed. A member of 23andMe’s scientific advisory board, George Church, says “The idea has precedence in PatientsLikeMe, people who have been enabled to find one another by their disease. Here, people can find each other by their alleles (or genetic variations)(Singer).”
I didn’t realize it before, but I guess there are several other sites out there already that offer this service. This is just a new one coming out soon.
So the idea is you can pay $999 for a kit, send in a sample of your spit, and then receive around “600,000 genetic variations linked to disease and other factors, such as ancestry, height, and color (Singer).”
The main purpose of the site is to eventually get enough people to create a database that is big enough to “reveal scientifically and medically relevant information about its users (Singer).”
This is way out of my league money wise, but I could see the benefits of the site and their potential. It would be easier than doing genealogy that takes forever and a day on some ancestors. It would be especially handy when your gene line breaks and you can’t trace your family back any longer, which happened to my grandmother when she did ours. Also, it might be beneficial for the entire family if they all threw in some money so one person didn’t have to foot the bill, but then who’s spit would be turned in?
Kinda cool. Here’s the link if you want to check it out and read more about the idea:
Social Networking hits the Genome
This goes a little beyond social networking, but is kinda cool. You could compare your DNA with, say, your best friends’ or even someone famous. You could potentially find relatives out there you never knew existed. A member of 23andMe’s scientific advisory board, George Church, says “The idea has precedence in PatientsLikeMe, people who have been enabled to find one another by their disease. Here, people can find each other by their alleles (or genetic variations)(Singer).”
I didn’t realize it before, but I guess there are several other sites out there already that offer this service. This is just a new one coming out soon.
So the idea is you can pay $999 for a kit, send in a sample of your spit, and then receive around “600,000 genetic variations linked to disease and other factors, such as ancestry, height, and color (Singer).”
The main purpose of the site is to eventually get enough people to create a database that is big enough to “reveal scientifically and medically relevant information about its users (Singer).”
This is way out of my league money wise, but I could see the benefits of the site and their potential. It would be easier than doing genealogy that takes forever and a day on some ancestors. It would be especially handy when your gene line breaks and you can’t trace your family back any longer, which happened to my grandmother when she did ours. Also, it might be beneficial for the entire family if they all threw in some money so one person didn’t have to foot the bill, but then who’s spit would be turned in?
Kinda cool. Here’s the link if you want to check it out and read more about the idea:
Social Networking hits the Genome
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