I really liked the presentation about downloading music. In retrospect, I think I would have liked to research and present more about the ethical issues involved in sharing files. It is such an interesting topic with soooo many different sides of the story. It really got me thinking.

I thought it was really funny that one kid in the group had found a torrent for the book so that it wasn't necessary for him to purchase it. I liked that their presentation was brief and to-the-point. They talked about downloading vs copying cds, and the chances of getting caught. They also talked about itunes, one song sales, and store exclusive cd releases.

I don't know how I feel about downloading music illegally. I do think that the internet has made it much easier for artists to get their work seen (Lily Allen was discovered on Myspace!!!)- this is a good thing. I don't really use limewire or anything, but I am a frequent customer of itunes. I love being able to make single song purchases, and I don't really believe that they hurt the music industry. Physical cds are expensive (last time I bought a new release at Fred Meyer I think it was $16.99!) compared to itunes, and I have more control over what I buy. I think that if the RIAA or artists are mad, they need to do like the newspapers and evolve to make a product that is successful.

I also think it is ridiculous that the RIAA (I think it's them!) want to stop Pandora or make them pay royalties. I understand that they feel they are losing money, but I think that free services like Pandora help the RIAA and artists, because they introduce the public to new artists. Since David and I discovered Pandora, we've bought soooooo much music we've heard on there. If you haven't used Pandora, I suggest you check it out. You put in an artist or song you like, and it chooses songs that are musically similar. It creates a sort of radio station, based on your votes (yay or nay) on the songs. It gives you lots of new music to listen to and vote on. You can also create all kinds of radio stations, and I believe they only ask for your email address to register. Plus, it's free!

The bottom line is that I don't think anyone will ever be able to stop illegal downloads without grossly invading peoples' privacy (which I hope doesn't happen). It's also an issue that DRM (think that Sims game, Spore) really frustrates honest consumers. The music industry must do like the newspapers, and find a way to make their product better, more accessible, or whatever they need to do to make money. I talk a lot, however I have no idea as to how they should do this.

So, as part of our blogging assignment, I'm supposed to blog about the group presentations I saw. I am going to reflect on my own group's presentation, as it didn't go exactly the way I'd imagined. A forewarning: I am a control freak about this kind of thing, and honestly prefer working on my own, because I can get it just how I want it without anyone messing it up.

I think it was a mistake to try to have seven people. The presentation was really long, and I think it would have been better to break it into two presentations or something. I also think that when you get a group that big, it gets hard for anyone's idea to come through loud and clear. It's also hard to organize/gather that many people to work on the presentation.

I put together our powerpoint, and I felt like everyone's piece of the presentation was so different. I tried to edit them so that everyone's was approximately the same length and they seemed more cohesive. I must admit that the book seemed awfully complicated, and like a lot to take on.

I wish I had convinced the rest of my group to just read the Kevin Mitnick book, The Art Of Deception, like I did. However, I did feel like my part of the presentation added an important cap to the end of our group presentation.

I really think that one of the most important parts of controlling/using new technology is the human aspect. Mitnick makes some very serious, scary points, that are important to note. His book opened my eyes, and made me curious about all the times the "yellow pages" called to "confirm" my company's information. Before I was hesitant to help them, and now I refuse to even speak to them. I consider myself to be pretty internet savvy, and I still could have fallen for some of Mitnick's schemes. I like to be helpful at work, and it (customer service) is part of my job. I think it's clever (and scary) to take advantage of traits like this.

I can really see it happening at a place like Microsoft, and it makes me wonder what kind of security expectations/training they have (should ask the dad!). I could totally see a helpful temp admin faxing information or giving it up because they didn't realize this seemingly innocuous information was actually important.

The book was interesting for the most part, and I recommend it. I wish the author had talked more about his own exploits, but he probably didn't want to get himself into trouble (again). I was curious to hear more about things that really happened, and a little disappointed that he didn't share more. I think it's awesome he wrote the book though. Better that someone who is very clever and curious (but not devious) show people these sorts of security holes, than for someone to exploit them.

I saw this article on consumerist.com and it instantly made me think of my TINST207 class. The story is that a dissatisfied patient left a negative review on yelp.com after he had a bad experience with a chiropractor. The article quotes the information left on yelp, and I don't think any of it was slanderous. It was pretty much "I had a bad experience, I had billing problems, the Dr. was hard to deal with, etc."

The chiropractor claims damage to reputation, business, etc AND "mortification and hurt feelings." Regardless of what you think about chiropractic treatments, I think this whole lawsuit, and especially the above quote, make the chiropractor seem rather scummy. I think that this sort of thing is better resolved between the parties involved. Also, way to streisand yourself, dude. You just got your face allllllll over the internets and this just cost you way more than the yelp comment ever could have.

I believe that these review websites are good for everyone. They give consumers valuable information, as well as possibly act as a deterrent for unscrupulous business practices. These sites encourage businesses to resolve complaints. However, a commenter on consumerist.com did bring up a very interesting thing. They said that the same sort of thing had happened in her town. A man who was running for public office in the city had a wife who was a vet. In order to try to keep him from winning the election, some people slandered his wife's vet practice on every site they could find. One woman even accused the vet of killing her cat, even though she had never stepped foot in the office. The vet had a terrible time getting the reviews removed, and it could have ruined her practice.

I think this makes all kinds of interesting problems. Should we even have review sites like this? Should there be a way to see who made the review, or maybe a dispute process? Who should manage the reviews? Should a reviewer have to prove that they did business with the person/business being reviewed? Like I said, I love how the internet gives us so much information with which to make decisions, but the vet ended up in a terrible position. I definitely thing that the person who slandered the vet should be punished.

Interesting things to think about for sure. I'm curious to see what happens with the lawsuit...

This summer, during the crazy high gas prices, I felt like every extra bit of money I made went towards gas. I felt like $55 was waaaay too much to be putting into my tiny hatchback. I was working full time cause I was out of school, and by the time I bought gas I felt like I wasn't making any more than during school.

Yesterday, with my tank on empty, I spent $22 to fill up my 13 gal tank. It was like $1.87/gal. The first time I ever pumped my own gas, when I was learning to drive, it cost $1.88/gal. Amazing. Never thought I'd see that again.

The low, low price of gas does make me a little suspicious, but happy nonetheless.

So, I found out towards the end of the week that things at work were worse than they seemed. My office manager was really upset and told me that in the first of second week of December we were going to run out of work. She said that if no jobs came in the time between, pretty much the entire company would be laid off.

What a blow.... Christmas time. Finals time.

I had already been looking for another job and hadn't had any luck. There aren't a lot of people hiring, even for temporary holiday positions. I would prefer to get another office sort of job that is permanent, cause I don't wanna be in the same situation when everyone gets laid off after the holidays.

It's so disappointing because I love the family I work for, and we had been doing so well. The entire time I've worked there they haven't even needed to lay people off during the winter. We had sort of a bad winter last year, when we didn't get paid for a job. Work was already slow because of the season, and the $20,000 we were owed really messed things up. Since then, we had a couple other liens we had to file, and even with those we had gotten out of the "hole" the winter had gotten us into.

I feel really stressed because the job search hasn't been going well so far. I am excited because I have an interview (next week probably) with some people I'm already kind of connected to, so hopefully that will go well. The job is in Tacoma, which would be fabulous cause I wouldn't have to drive much. Anyways, wish me luck (and let me know if you know someone who's hiring!)!

I feel especially bad for the office manager and her dad (the owner). She has pretty much taken care of the books and financial stuff for the company for the past five years, and since it is a family business she is really entwined with it. She is looking for another job too. The owner of the business has talked about being in charge of supporting his employees (and their families, by extension) and how stressful that is. I'm sure he feels terrible about this whole situation.

I'm just trying to think good thoughts for our economy and be thankful for the love and support of my awesome family.

So, basically I'm blogging to avoid doing my (very tedious) philosophy paper. Anyways, I was thinking about it some more, and I was thinking about how you can be anyone you want to be online. You can choose what parts of yourself to show or not show, and you can downright lie. Take Myspace Angles, for example. Watch this video. I assure you, it is worth your time (NSFW). It's says ten minutes, but you only need to watch part one.
Anyways, I guess the idea is to take anything someone says online with a grain of salt. I know someone who moved here from almost the east coast to be with a guy she met online. They met online, and then in person on xmas eve, and she moved all her stuff over on New Year's Day. Guess how that turned out? Yeah, not good (note to self: don't tell her about your blog). Like with crazy fights and cops and a broken lease bad. Both of these people were sort of odd (I seem to attract the crazies!). Anyways, I'm not saying that online dating is impossible or bad, I'm just saying people should beware (and drop everything to move across the country to be with someone they've only known in person for two days).
Maybe all of this is why I prefer the real world to online? I hate myspace and never check mine (same with facebook). I only made one so I could look at someone's pictures. I think the technology is cool (how else could I look up my best friend from 1st grade who moved away?), but people are WAAAAAAAAY too into it, and I am not. I did Running Start in high school, and I never hung out with people my age (always had older friends) and I think I just kind of missed my myspace crazy when it swept over the high schools. Same with texting... I use it, but not much.

Since the economy has been bad, the new buzzword sort of thing is to have a staycation. It reminded me of the whole talk we had it TINST207 about online community. I think a staycation can be a vacation. You can get away, relax, and have a good time while staying at home or close to home. However, I don't like the idea of an online vacation.
I've never played a MMOG, but my boyfriend David has, and my 14 year old brother is way into gaming as well. I've seen how obsessive they get about games. At one point David was staying up like all night playing Star Wars Galaxies. He totally had friends, and they would all get online at the same time and do missions and stuff. Right now, as I type, he's playing like his 3rd hour of Fable2 (this is the second time he's played it through). For him, it goes in waves. Anyways, I understand that for him, these games are a way to relax. For me, video games are frustrating, and I think vacations are for relaxing.
David and I have both a Wii and an XBOX360, and when I get into video games, I am guilty of getting a little obsessive. It goes in waves for me to- I will play for a couple hours each day, and then not. I don't think I've played Wii for a month.
While online worlds are real, and they exist, they're just no substitute for for real life friends and family. That's why I'm gonna go visit my sister and her husband tonight :D