Dot.com BOMB

It took two entire class periods to go over this, but I'll try and condense it as much as I can.  The Dot.com BOMB that we discussed is basically a 5-stage process that greatly affects a certain function of society.  An example of this can be seen in other forms such as the gold rush that led to the creation of large communities such as Seattle.  This is a bit vague, but you'll understand in a minute hopefully. The 5 stages are:  Innocent, Boom, Insanity, Bust, and Recovery.  I'll go over each and what they mean...

1. Innocent - In 1992 users payed a monthly fee, plus a fee per data transfer on the web, but then the World Wide Web came and offered many free functions that users would not need to pay for.
2. Boom - This 'Internet in a Box' that was "so easy your grandma can get on the internet" was the gold rush that made many people abandon previous ways of using the web.
3. Insanity - Because of this, there was a huge increase in new companies that wanted to take part in the new phenomenon.  This caused instabililty in the market due to shares being sold cheaper to investors, while being projected as being more expensive when hitting the market which made many focus more on money, without focusing on reliability of going to market
4. Bust - Since borrowing on the market depends on the value of the company, valuations dropped quickly after many companies tried to keep their stocks while pretending everything was fine.  Behind the scenes though, people were being laid off and cut out.
5. Recovery - After the catastrophe, many were laid off, but people came together to support each other, the job market started to rebound a bit, and things slowly came back together.

Learning all of this was very important to me because in order to function better in society, it is important to know how things work in terms of business and the web, especially now that my generation is so absorbed in new and developing technologies.

Guest Speaker Joel Larson on Databases

We had another guest speaker come in today to talk to us about Databases:  Joel Larson.  After introducing himself, Joel let us know that, while he does teach a class on databases and all of their specifics, he would only be teaching us the basics in order to help us better understand the web and the role that databases play on it.

We started by going over what Joel called the 'Information Continuum', which basically boils down to  the process where data from a database leads to information, which then gives the analyzer knowledge on the information so that wisdom can be gained from it; usually in the form of predictions.

Next we talked about different types of data.  We started with unstructured, which would be flat/random text, images, videos, etc.  Then there's semi-structured data like webpages, headings, sections, etc.  Finally there are structured forms of data, which are things like databases.

This led to our discussion about how databases are used in life, Joel used an example of students and their ID's and roles in school.  Each piece of data was linked in a certain way in a table.  In these data tables that make up a database, the rows are relations, meaning that everything in a row relates to each other.  Everything in the columns are fields, which are descriptors for what kind of data it is, like integers, strings, etc.

We ended the lecture with talk about how retailers used databases to analyze sale info, which changed the basic strategies that were used to increase sales, changing how retail worked forever!

My HTML Website

Getting back into HTML, or just making a simple webpage I guess I should say, was pretty easy once I took a few minutes to remind myself which tags to use in order to get things to work. I decided to create a webpage with a title in the header (what shows up on the browser tab), followed by the body which contained some cheeky text formating changes.  I started with a basic 'Hello World' in h1 format, making it fairly large and at the top of the screen.  I then followed with basic paragraph text, different sized, colored, and font.  Finally, I added a drop down menu with a few options.

Getting back into HTML was pretty fun and brought back memories from my high school class I had on the web.  That class was actually very similar to this one, except we focused more on webpage creation and less on what the actual internet/web is and how it works.  Here is a screenshot of what my code looked like in the program I used called Notepad++:

And here is a screenshot of the finished product:

As you can see, it's not really that much in terms of what we usually see on modern websites, but that's the beauty of HTML.  With HTML anyone can spend a few minutes to make their own simple webpage like this one, but that same person can also spend hours and make a complicated (modern) webpage that we can see anywhere.  All in all, this was fun and nostalgic and I'm glad it was an assignment!

I'm Not Buying It

With the creation and continuing development of the internet, availability of products has leaped great lengths among society. You can buy food, cloths, cars, houses, and  things like prosthetic limbs and even ideas. So with such a broad field of what can be bought, what cant? This is where things get complicated for me. Everything can be bought in some form or another, i.e. stars can be bought and named, someone can be hired to write lyrics, etc., as long as it can be seen, heard, interacted with in some way. So now that the domain is set, what are my top 3 things that I would never buy online?

1. E-Currency. With the internet, many different types of online-only currency popped up such as Bitcoin. I feel buying Bitcoins, while possibly useful for some people, is too risky in my mind. The idea of having currency that adds another layer to the already complicated system we use just doesn't seem too reliable.
2. Medication. I don't care how 'trusted' some place might be, I wouldn't be able to bring myself to buy any type of drug online. If I can't go to a physical pharmacy, then I guess i'll just have to die.
3. Music. I just use free programs like Spotify and Pandora. I really don't see the appeal in buying music. If it's popular, then i'll hear it on the radio. If it's lesser known, but I like it, then oh well. I'm too broke to worry about wanting music to the point of spending money on it.

Guest Speaker Erik Hanberg

    On Oct. 23rd we had a guest speaker come in and talk to our class about all kinds of stuff relating to 'working in the virtual world.  Hanberg introduced himself as an author, self-publisher, and entrepreneur and he emphasized the World Wide Web's impact on entertainment, advertising, working, etc. He went over the influence this had on him in terms of; selling books with print on demand, online advertisement, and privacy over the web.

    One of the things I found most interesting in Hanberg's discussion with the class was his mention of just how important social media is concerning company endeavors. He talked about the upsides and downsides to people rating products and advertising products, as well as issues a company can encounter regarding bullying, misunderstandings, and privacy, all of which occur because of the internet.

    I think one of the crazies things talked about was Hanberg's 'humble beginning' I guess I could say. Specifically, he mentioned how he was asked to create a website for a university and he accepted the task with no experience creating websites in any way.  It apparently worked out too!

    Also, I had no idea "50 Shades of Grey" was originally just a fan-fiction that escalated into a book and eventually a movie. That's also super crazy to me.

Web Publishing

    When I first heard of people making websites and web pages, such as this blog, I believed that, no matter who was involved with the task, there would be a lot of work involved.  Now that I am actually making blog posts on my blog page, and now that I've taken it upon myself to become a CSS major, I recognize that with the aid of new technology, software, and amazing programming, the necessity of effort from the masses has diminished immensely. I have also dabbled slightly in HTML when I was in a high school web class and, though it was a bit difficult at times, making websites was still quite simple (albeit simple does always correlate to a website being 'well made').

    Something interesting to think about is the development of web publishing over the years and how businesses such as newspaper companies have changed due to this. Many different forms of web publishing is completely free as long as someone has access to the internet and does not always rely on advertising, whereas newspapers require a subscription and rely on advertisements to make money. Newspaper revenue has certainly dropped over the years and is a dying business.  Even with newspaper companies using online publishing as well, physical newspapers are being seen less and less as the years go on.

   

The Evolution of Mail

    As new technologies developed, there was a huge focus on the importance of speedy communication. Communication via mailbox/Post Office became obsolete with the creation of 'e-mail', or electronic mail, which uses the internet to almost instantly send mail.

    E-mail and snail-mail are actually quite similar in that both of them are: Routed through a central server of some kind to reach their destination, returned to the sender if it wasn't able to send correctly, sorted and sent in a similar fashion (i.e. mailbox, inbox, outbox, etc.).

    However, E-mail and snail-mail also differ immensely in some cases.  E-mails that contain the same amount of text as snail-mail can be sent instantly, whereas snail-mail can take days or weeks. E-mails can be efficiently stored in an inbox that takes up little to none of the user's physical space, even with thousands of e-mails, when letters via snail-mail could fill a room.  E-mail can be used to upload or download files or other information, but snail-mail must use physical items, for example; a Polaroid picture in order to send a picture. E-mail can be hacked when snail-mail can only be physically stolen.  Lastly, e-mail can be used to share a single piece of mail to tens, hundreds, thousands, etc. of people quite quickly (within seconds), when the same task would be incredibly painstaking with snail-mail due to needed to write/print multiple letters to send and then send each to the correct addresses.