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?