velvet robes go digital

members only! but what does it take to be a member? I was doing some research online about the internet and trying to find a journal article to relate to my final essay and stumbled across one about elite social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook but improved. There is now a digital A-List and your not on it. Some of these sites are: Reuters Space, In Mobile, and Diamond Lounge.I did a little research, and signed in to the Diamond Lounge. This website actually requires credentials. i guess it was only a matter of time before every other person wasn't allowed to talk to those that are important. It must be impossible for celebrities to even be a part of the online social networking scene. These sites however aren't just for the social celebs, they are for networking for actual business purposes. The Diamond Lounge is an invitation-only social and business network which relies on a selection committee to pick and choose its members. "The committee has already chosen 100 members out of more than 7,000 applications that came in before Diamond Lounge [diamondlounge.com] went live" (MacMillan and Lehman). This elite membership doesn't come free either - members are required to pay a monthy fee of $600! Members can also exchange gifts to one another as in Facebook where people can buy gifts like teddy bears, hearts and other strange things, but in the Diamond Lounge members can actually buy real items for people and send them like Gucci bags, or offer admission to different business events.

It will be interesting to see where people will take the velvet-rope next.


Source:
Social Networking with the Elite. By: MacMillan, Douglas, Lehman, Paula, Business Week Online, 00077135, 11/16/2007

web spies.

spokeo... this was a simple typeo from my boyfriend one day, and i didnt know what he was talking about, after 10 curious minutes passed, I Googled the damn word. Interesting enough, Spokeo actually is something, something very interesting indeed. Spokeo is an online spy. The website allows you to enter your email information and any contacts that you have saved in your account, the website finds any website those addresses are signed up to and gives you an update on everything they do! There is no hiding anymore. This technology is oh too dangerous, and I refuse to know everything everyone is doing, the truth is I'm afraid of what I will find out about people. The website advertises this fact: Learn something new about your friends....Guaranteed! The site has links to all of the popular sites: myspace, flickr, hi5, facebook, and any other weird porno site your linked to. It appears that the creators of this site don't seem any harm in this, quotes at the bottom say things like "Spokeo finds information about your friends-long-lost or not." or Newsweeks says: “I could have found this information using a search engine like Google, but I would have had to know what I was looking for, and would probably have had to sift through dozens of Web pages.”Lets not sugar coat things here people...this is spying and there is no way you need that much information about your friends. I'm sorry but if some random from my high school found me through this site, I would be a little concerned to say the least. This website is for crazies and psycho jealous girlfriends or boyfriends (which are crazies). I just hope this stupid fad doesn't catch on or ill be changing all my account emails.

www.spokeo.com (a.k.a. the devil)

Compute this!

I am going to complete these blogs, even though there not as important as my many other things to do... how did things ever get accomplished without computers? Without my computer I would fail, thats a no-brainer. Everything that is required of me, requires me to have access to a computer. This machine has transformed everything, and its hard to believe that in my short life time, they have evolved from nothing! Wikipedia describes computers as "a machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions"... In my previous blog I discussed the programing language that allows us to do the things we do. Getting back to the main point, computers are everywhere. They are in grocery stores, in our cars, airplanes, calculators, digital cameras and even in some children's toys. Its strange to think that the very computer that I am working on to write about computers is capable of computing millions of instructions for anything from word processors to websites. Wikipedia also states that a typical modern computer can execute billions of instructions every second and nearly never make a mistake over years of operation. So why are we all so surprised when our computer freezes or the hard drive crashes. It seems that as dogs have dog years, computers have computer years, and a life span of one computer is at most 8-10 years! In government offices, they incorporate into the budget new computers every 4-5 years. So it seems every human year means 15 computer years...sad really, but how worn would you be with so much use?
The dependence on computers has done nothing but increase over the years since they have been implemented. Computers are where we rent and watch movies, where we stream television shows, were we download (and sometimes buy) our music. We complete homework assignments, and every business is now run by the computer. Our files are now stored electronically, instead of alphabetically in the filing cabinet, mail is almost extinct with the invention of electron mail (e-mail). Pictures are stored within the computer, no one uses real film anymore, and then we post all of our best photos online for the world to see and save until deleted. We used to have to write things by hand! Now, my hand is sore after a long exam. So much has changed, but we are still busy busy. I cant compare really, because I was never in college before computers, but I do see previous posters on display in some spots in the college, obviously people didn't have access to Illustrator, images are literally cut and pasted. The questions then exist, what will we make easier next? and what happens when there is no energy to feed computers, and what happens when Y2K hits?

The future seems promising, but who knows what giant bug lurks on the next hyper link, ready to destroy your life in a fancy 1000 dollar box of wires and microprocessors. Because, thats what it is, your life, your taxes, music, movies, assignments, data...Where would you be without it?

me dot close

I hate programing, and here is why:

Dim outPixelType As rstPixelType
Select Case pInRasProps.PixelType
Case PT_CHAR
outPixelType = PT_LONG
Case PT_COMPLEX
MsgBox "Operation not supported on complex data", vbOKOnly, "Neighborhood Notation"
Exit Sub

All these things mean something, Im just not sure what. Programing has been described as its own language many times and thats because thats what it is. In order to understand this code above you must know the terms and the understand the program that is being coded. There are actually people who can jump into a code fix it, rework it, or break it. We have spent over 4 courses trying to learn the language and its like french to me, i kind of get it. I just feel bad for those people who code all the time. Programming can be one of the most frustrating jobs out there! Such a simple mistake like spelling a code name wrong can screw it up and cause errors. Some of these codes are hundreds of pages long, image something going wrong there.

do you have a second piece?

your identity can be stolen, and its a scary violating thing. The fact that someone is pretending to be you to do something that they dont want to do themselves, is not something Im comfortable with. So how do you loose your identity and can it be lost forever?
The most popular way people go about identity theft is by stealing your credit card information. With just that information, someone could put you in debt and as much as you limit lets them. In most cases these things are traceable and credit card companies have ways to protect their customers from getting screwed over in this case. Aside from getting your credit cards stolen, there are many other important documents that prove you are you. I have never gotten my wallet stolen (knock on wood) but, i do understand it is quite a pain to get all your information back, especially if you have no more to prove you are you. What is the point that you can not prove your identity? We have enough technological advancements that if need we could prove ourselves Im sure we could. Even if we do have identification, it is still not good enough. Bars often ask for more then one piece of ID and airports and other countries expect you to prove you identity with a passport. Even with this information some people are still questioned, its still all up to the person who is in charge, if they don't think you are you, then you will have some serious problems and might miss your flight or have your vehicle searched at a border crossing.
So who are you with out proof?

Google: me

I just "googled" myself just like celebrities do, and i gotta say, I wasn't sure what I would find...
The most surprising thing was that I actually found something! Not much was related to me, a few things about some Amber Paxton on the deans list at the University of Florida and one in Phoenix who had their resume online. I however found something good, something from 2005! I was in a High class Art Exhibition in grade 12 and the pamphlet they gave out with my name on it came out... I tried googling my email address as well, and found a few more cases of what i have done. In way i feel like big brother is watching, but its really just the world wide web. We have lost any privacy we once had and anything can be posted online! With more and more blogs people are writing, you could be a topic and anything someone else says can in most cases not be censored because you dont like it. Has it just not clicked in with us that someday ALL of this stuff will be viewed and will not easily go away? Possible sex tapes and incriminating pictures(100s them) on Facebook, blog posts...where does it end? My next question is about when will it go? How long after Facebook is old will it take for the website to start deleting you crap?If someday the world has a major devastating thing happen to it, will there still be a facebook, what needs to remain the intact in order for websites to still work? I just confused myself...

Im completing a "googling" experiment and seeing what i can dig up...
I found out that Nick Hill is a furniture designer, very interesting indeed.
Nothing on my parents or brother, which isnt surprising because none of them use the internet...
i found brittany's webpage thing from myspace tv... I can also see her list of friends.
Blair spitters from london has an id number of 793 on a website called grenade army list?
Rudy once purchased a Mr. Sandbag Footbag and commented on how fast it got to him.
Martin Healy is well exactly what he is a GIS specialist..boring
Ron Koudys our millionare professor, has a lot to look at (journals, projects completed etc.)

Well Ive never thought about it before but most of us can be found, so just try and hide.

i am so smrt

when i was four years old the most complicated thing that i did was zipping up my own coat. I am so surprise at what kids are capable of these days... my boyfriends niece who just turned four knows how to spell some words like mom and cat, knows how to count to at least 30, ties her own shoes and plays on the computer. This past Christmas she got a computer of her own to hook up to the television, which she does on her own! In the past 15 years, child development has advanced an enormous amount. Spelling, math and other languages are being taught earlier and earlier every year. After nine years of French class my neighbors five year old girl can speak fluently and he parents are English! This little girl also received a guitar for Christmas, and is probably better then me at that too, she has my old piano and I know shes better then I am at that. Another family friend has a four year old boy who has his own four wheeler and can play Playstation like a pro...Another way pop culture is letting us know exactly how stupid we are is with Are You Smarter Then a Fifth Grader? By the way, not many people win this game.
I wonder if kids are getting smarter, we were dumb, or is it because the infinite possibilities children have for development now? I think its somewhere in between. So my next question is why were we so stupid and what is changing? well the reality is that school curriculums are becoming harder and harder and teachers have greater expectations then before. I did a little research into some current curriculums in Ontario schools, and what I found is quite interesting indeed.
Kindergarten:

• Supporting English Language Learners in Kindergarten: A practical guide for Ontario educators, 2007
• Boys' Literacy
• Early Reading Strategy, The Report of the Expert Panel on Early Reading in Ontario, 2003
• Early Math Strategy, The Report of the Expert Panel on Early Math in Ontario, 2003

Since when did we have expectations in KINDERGARTEN and learn math strategies?
Aside from increased demand in the school curriculums, children have been given many more opportunities to learn then generations before them. Thinking as far back to when my parents grew up in the 60s, the only learning tools they had we trolls, Candy Lane and Dominoes. Please tell me how any child can learn from trolls. The 70s had etch-a-sketch and hotwheels and nothing much to stimulate the mind other then the smell of glue and markers. Going back to my childhood Polly Pocket and Barbie taught me nothing other then how to pretend to be a good wife i guess, and I once had laptop that allowed me to type in words and do simple math...very high tech, must of cast a fortune at the time. And now, we have anything your little angel might need, including baby's first video on how to pronounce dada and moma. Im interested to see what happens next, the next thing a four year old will correct me on.

..

Is it just me, or have we just evolved past the fact that sex is not for children? Everywhere I look this week I see something about STIs, condoms and sexual conversations. Much Music literally has girls searching through a bin of whipped cream with their mouths to find a condom to win some other sex related prize. I know that I was probably as young as 11 when I started watching Much Music and MTV and I wonder what my 11 year old self would have thought about what I was seeing. Is this whole spring break stereotype week actually needed? And by the way, the only people who have their spring breaks this week are small community colleges, high schools and elementary schools, so please tell me who the target market is? I know, as mean as it would be, I would telling my kids not to watch this crap. I understand sexual education is important because some kids have no where to turn to with sexual concerns and questions, but is it really necessary to go into details about ones sexual partners and activities on a widely watched television channel at 5 p.m.? Where are the lines people? Sex is always in the media and displayed right in front of our faces, I just wonder how old you have to be to understand these topics?

fashion dos and donts?

Old is the new, new. Neon, flat top hair dos and spandex are all examples of spring 2008 fashion revival. Its quite fascinating how fashion has its way of reworking old into new, and constantly testing new waters. Fashion is the wearable art and a first glance into ones personality. The only downfall of this theory is that good clothes cost money and fashion sense isn't something everyone is blessed with. We all however have the ability to care or not care, and generally those people who don't care don't keep up with trends. These people usually include your parents, or grandparents, and other people who have just grown out of the popularity fashion show

that runs some of our lives. But, getting back to fashion in society, I think its quite interesting how ideas are borrowed and reworked into our ever changing wardrobes. I was gone to Europe for 38 days and when i returned the new cutting edge fashions that i had seen in Berlin, Amsterdam and Rome have injected their ways into Canadian fashion culture and soon i wasn't so unique. This made me think about our influences and what they might be, and how we find them. Firstly, television is our main influence these days, as well as the always ahead of the trends vogue magazines. Pick one of these babys off the shelves and within weeks, watch the magazine "predict" the future of fashion. Is this simply a prediction, or forced image we are all to follow, and who are the key players in our fashion decisions. I would like to think that I don't necessarily follow those images in high fashion magazines but I'm not going to go fashion anarchy. Fashion sets rules that you have to follow, or you aren't going to have any. I shouldn't really complain, I am dressed after all.

TEXT 8686 for a blog!

I'm really genuinely annoyed with all of these commercials that want me to text 8987986 or 278432 for a chance to win seasons of south park and a Ipod, or get a new ring tone every week. The best and most hilarious of these would be the one advertising pickup line to your cell everyday. The list is endless and more annoying everyday. If i wanted my horoscope i would read the paper! I know of one person with enough sense to order their horoscope and he hasnt been able to get rid of the damn text for a year! Other then my senseless friend i dont know who would actually throw their money away like that. Word to the wise: if you want a pain in the ass everyday at 2 text msg then go for it.

facebook is the devil!

whether or not you have a snoopy spouse or parent, facebook can and will come back to haunt you! You may be posed in a picture where it "appears" you are kissing someone other then your boyfriend slash girlfriend, or your mom decides she wants facebook and she see a picture of you smoking something in particular... any way you look at it, youll probably be screwed at one point or another. your facebook page will be on the internet for you entire life! (or until facebook goes under), so this means destroy all evidence of bad calls. I have heard that employers will check you myspace, as that is an open page for anyone to see, even without signing up, so make sure in that case your email address and name DON'T match the one you give out on your resume. Luckily, facebook isnt quite this public and you can restrict what people see on your site. For instance, my mother, parents friends, and young cousins cannot view photo albums from parties and such trip destinations like Amsterdam. I am interested to see what the next trend is for personal pages, something with the best of both words with the music and individual look from myspace to the privacy of facebook.

first impressions

Within the first three seconds of a new encounter, you are evaluated… even if it is just a glance. Once we had showed ourselves, we have been judged. This may not be a concern for some people, but for others the first impression is always a difficult one. This holds true for those of us with piercings, tattoos and wild styles that would include clothing and hairdos. I have a few friends, my boyfriend for one, that has always been judged for his long hair and for 2 years was unable to be employed and he also was judged by any other person that was around. Basically, if you didn't know him personally you probably where wondering "who the hell is this guy?". Finally, his hair was cut, my parents were happier, he got a job and got into university! Tada, first impressions improved! These things probably wouldn't have happened if he had long hair.
Even if you don't have these particular problems we seem to get ourselves wrongly judged on numerous occasions. My first impression ideal would just to seem fun outgoing and stylish....yea on a good day. Its aways interesting to hear how people think about you. Often these impressions are no fault of your own and are simply the result of the other person's predisposition. They may have meant someone like you before and they relate you to them. This could hold true for first dates, job interview, impressions of teachers, bands and so much more.
Bands are a good example of impressions. Bands have target audiences and if your not in one of those targets you might just not like them. They usually have under 5 minutes to get your attention and keep long enough so you might go buy a CD-which doesn't happen anymore anyways...
So can you judge a book by its cover, or is that terribly unfair? I think that you generally know the image you are portraying whether you agree with it or not. If you have a tattoo on your face, i'm gunna say you want to be like mike tyson, if you come up to me at a bar wearing a shirt with your collar popped- i'm over it and moving on.
First impressions are not just about looks. The situations you are in and also what you are conversing about is how we make the next decision about a person. If i see you walking out of the local crack house, you are not someone that i would even talk to at a future party. It all seems so judgmental but we all do it, and its unavoidable.

So its now all come out... my beloved Heath Ledger's cause of death is confirmed. This isn't usually something that I would write about but there are links to his and my late friends death. One of my good friends Charles Hunter died July 15th 2007, and his death still rattles the small town where he was born and where he died at a young age of 18. When they say the good die young, this is especially true for Chucky. Never have i seen such a beautiful smile on someone, every girl wanted Charles, and he had just one love since he was 13. They however ended their relationship earlier that summer, and the night he died was when they finally talked and reconnected. Like Ledger's death, Charles' was too soon and devastatingly shocking. His passing shook the small town of Blenheim which is where he grew up and touched everyone he knew. This was the hardest month of any teenager in Blenheim's life. Through all the drama, the connection of grief brought together so many people in such an amazing way. The loss of a friend is so overpowering from anything else in your life. The fact that someone can just be gone is still to this day, a little unbelievable.
Ledger's recent death reminded me of Charles for numerous reasons. One ironic thing was that they both had fathers named Kim, which is not a usual name for a man. The most related thing was that their deaths seemed a mystery, and probably drug related. This unknown cause of death was by far the hardest part to deal with, we all wanted the question answered about whether or not he suffered. Still after all of the tests done regarding Charles' death most are in more of the dark then others, however it seems inconclusive and likely due to a combination of drugs in system from that day. Death is a strange thing, and the fact that it can completely change anything in your life forever is unreal.

i ne comprend pas

Ciao!

After exploring bits of our fine earth, I feel that I can strongly form an opinion about certain languages. I have been neck deep in Italian, German, Dutch, French and Spanish. I find it so interesting how we can all relate to at least one language no matter how difficult it may be. This I know because English is apparently one of the hardest to learn. Why is it that we begin to understand what is spoken around us as a child. I wonder how confused mine little one will be when I speak in as many different languages as possible. I think I would have been thankful if my parents had screwed me up a bit like that. I now would embrace learning a new language, instead of rejecting it, as I did with French growing up. French was my worst subject, but now I can relate and understand what is going on with the language and follow its influences in Italian and Spanish. When we went from Berlin to Amsterdam the dialects began to seem very similar, but I found reading German was a lot easier and dutch was all over the place. For the time being, I shall focus on my English, after 20 years of fluent speaking, I still don't know all the rules! Yeah English!

I read that once a language stops evolving it begins to die. Which will be the next language to die? Perhaps Klingon?

Some examples of languages that this particular Wikipedia site can be translated in:

• Alemannisch
• العربية
• Aragonés
• Arpetan
• Asturianu
• Avañe'ẽ
• Aymar
• Azərbaycan
• Bamanankan
• Bân-lâm-gú
• Basa Banyumasan
• Башҡорт
• Беларуская
• Беларуская (тарашкевіца)
• Boarisch
• Bosanski
• Brezhoneg
• Български
• Català
• Чăвашла
• Cebuano
• Česky
• Cymraeg
• Dansk
• Deitsch
• Deutsch
• ދިވެހިބަސް
• Eesti
• Ελληνικά
• Español
• Esperanto
• Euskara
• فارسی
• Français
• Frysk
• Furlan
• Gaeilge
• Gàidhlig
• Galego
• ગુજરાતી
• हिन्दी
• Hrvatski
• Ido
• Ilokano
• Bahasa Indonesia
• Interlingua
• isiXhosa
• Íslenska
• Italiano
• עברית
• Basa Jawa
• Kernewek
• Кыргызча
• Kiswahili
• Kongo
• Kreyòl ayisyen
• Kurdî / كوردی
• Latviešu
• Lëtzebuergesch
• Lietuvių
• Limburgs
• Lingála
• Lojban
• Magyar
• Македонски
• Malagasy
• മലയാളം
• मराठी
• مَزِروني
• Bahasa Melayu
• Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄
• Nederlands
• ‪Norsk (bokmål)‬
• ‪Norsk (nynorsk)‬
• Nouormand
• Occitan
• پښتو
• Polski
• Português
• Ripoarisch
• Română
• Romani
• Runa Simi
• Русский
• Sámegiella
• Sardu
• Scots
• Sicilianu
• Simple English
• Slovenčina
• Српски / Srpski
• Seeltersk
• Suomi
• Svenska
• Tagalog
• தமிழ்
• ไทย
• Tiếng Việt
• Тоҷикӣ
• Türkçe
• Türkmen
• Українська
• Volapük
• Võro
• Walon
• ייִדיש
• Zazaki
• Žemaitėšk

BLOGS! all i wanna do is BLOG!

blogging...
well i really tried to not blog ever, but its now a requirement in my life...as school is important.
I really don't understand the whole blogging world. I mean, i really doubt anyone but my professor will read this blog, and i don't care if no one else is interested. The whole concept that people care about other people's opinions is so delusional, but i could be wrong. I think people are more into posting things to have people praise them on their "original" thoughts and content...hmm and are sort of like those people who love to hear themselves talk, speaking of which, my grandpa should get a blog. So, what I'm really trying to say is thoughts should be your own and you probably shouldn't look to a blog for any sort of decision making of your own. The key here people is to get off the computer and actually have these conversations with real people. Unless your rich and famous nobody probably cares. :)

Sorry if i have offended, but i probably didnt cause no one will read this.