Reflection for week 11

I watched an interesting television program last night on the Discovery Channel entitled “Rise of the Video Game” (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/video-game/video-game.html). This was the second in a series of five episodes which chronicles the history and future of video games and the overall industry. It’s funny to reflect on when the Nintendo Entertainment System, for in-home use, came out in the 80s. I remember the parents of one of my friends said that for Christmas they were getting one of the systems. We went insane! I think for weeks, or maybe it was months, all we wanted to do was play Super Mario Brothers. Thinking back, I cannot explain why we were so enthralled with the Nintendo ES. The only explanation I can come to is that it brought the video arcade into our homes. Whereas before the only time we were able to play video games was when we went out to a restaurant that had them and we had to beg our parents for a few quarters. It’s amazing to see what a huge part video games, whether they are pc or home gaming systems or just games on cell phones or PDAs, have become of our lives, which will most likely continue into the future.

Reflection for week 10

I found a news clip online entitled, “Facebook Gets Boy In Worcester Busted By Boss” http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/247.1/popup/index.php?cl=5001441, on Yahoo News. It talks about a young man who told his boss that he couldn’t work a particular night for various reasons, but posted some photos of himself on Facebook at a party during the night he said he couldn’t work. His boss found the photos online and confronted the man. I’m dumbfounded that many "young" people do not think of possible consequences, present day or future, of what they post online—blogs, video, photos. It’s like they think only other “young” people post information and look at those sites. I think we definitely need to step up the issue of “virtual” appropriateness and inappropriateness and get them to understand that what they post online today, may well still be online twenty years from now.

Reflection for Week 9

I reviewed a number of the top 100 Web 2.0 websites and realized that I currently use some of them, but never knew they were “Web 2.0.” One particular website is http://www.kayak.com/, which provides a search of numerous travel sites. I think this website is very helpful because I enter my departure city, arrival city, and dates/times I want to travel and it searches other travel websites, such as http://www.orbitz.com/, http://www.expedia.com/, and http://www.cheaptickets.com/, for best available rates. I can then select the travel website through which I want to purchase airfare, hotel, car rental, etc. http://www.kayak.com/ saves me from having to go to various individual travel websites to search for the best deal. It’s a one-stop-shop!