Adult Proof Ring Tones?

It's true. Many students across the world are downloading and using a new ring tone that is so high - pitched that most adults can't hear it. Apparently I can't even hear it. I tried. It's pretty weird to think that there is something out there that only a portion of us can hear. The article I read about this new technology said that as people age they lose the ability to hear certain frequencies.

I think that this will just bring problems, as students are using it to hide the cell phone calls and text messages in classrooms. If you're interested at all check out this news story

A New Ringtone Teachers Can't Hear


It's pretty amazing to me.

Viacom .vs. Google - The Easy Explanation

So apparently Viacom (among others) are suing Google and Youtube for the copyrighted videos that have appeared on the site. Here's a video from the Daily Show where a pretty funny guy, Demetri Martin.....explains the case.





I found that video to be funny...dunno if anyone else did. It's dumb to sue Google/Youtube for the copyrighted videos in my opinion. Youtube has complied by taking off any copyrighted material when there is a complaint....it's just that more and more people post up the videos so it's hard to keep track of it all. The companies should embrace youtube and the technology and work with it. NBC.com streams their t.v. shows and offers special clips and previews on Youtube. It seems like Viacom is just looking to cash in on Google's income. I mean....how much money do they lose when a t.v. show is aired online?

Wikipedia in Trouble

I found this article kind of funny. It just goes to show that Wikipedia really shouldn't be a trusted source for information. Sure, a good amount of the facts are credited legitimately....but according to this news article one of the top Wikipedia contributors who was believed to be a college professor turned out to be a 24 year old college dropout.

You can read the article here.

I love how he got this far without being found out. I know I won't be using Wikipedia for papers anytime soon.

The Deliverator and The Pizza Mafia

Getting through the book "Snow Crash" is turning out to be a lot easier than I had anticipated. After the first few pages it gets a lot easier to understand and has turned out to be really interesting. I wonder if life will eventually be like the author describes. The "Metaverse" sounds really interesting and the way that we are advancing I can definitely see something similar to it being created. It's just like the internet but actually being able to walk around in it. That kind of reminds me of an episode of Futurama where the internet is very much like the Metaverse. People can walk around and actually visit a bunch of different places. Instead of writing the codes themselves, however, it's all there ready to be viewed.



That's for all you people who don't know what i'm talking about. Anyway the book is getting interesting and i'm wondering what's going to happen with Y.T. in the book. She's in jail the last time I read about her.

Facespace

Myspace and Facebook are creating a whole new generation of computer users. These networking sites have already made a whole online community full of people that can stay in contact or just make friends over the internet. Personally I never got into the whole Myspace craze. Plenty of my friends have got accounts and are on it everyday, but I never really saw the point. I did sign up on facebook as a freshman because it was a good way to get to know people or just find out information about events, but that was back when facebook was only for college students. They've since opened the doors to the public so now it's just another peer network that anyone can join.
There are positives and negatives of this transition. On one hand, they are probably trying to be more like Myspace because of the popularity that has grown out of the site. The creators of myspace recently sold the rights for a butt-load of cash and I can understand that Facebook creators might want to get in on that action. When you get to thinking about the potential dangers of allowing anyone and everyone to have contact with young adults and teenagers then you start to see a negative aspect of these online communities.Anyway, i'll be doing a NeoVox article on these sites in the near future and i'll try to cover most of the issues.

Crashing in the Snow

What an appropriate time to begin reading the book Snow Crash. I'm glad we got the day off from school (SUNY Cortland finally canceled classes!) so I could get a jump start on the reading. Like i've heard from some people...it was a little confusing at first but I enjoyed it. It's pretty cool reading about "The Deliverator" and all his tools and environments. They also make some pretty cool notes about life in America in the future. I'm still trying to get a hold of it all....there were so many things being introduced like the mafia. I really thought it was clever to have the mafia using all different types of technology in this representation of the future. It seems to make sense to me.

I'm really looking forward to getting further in....it seems interesting so far. Hopefully it gets a little easier to understand as I go.

The End of Smart Mobs

No....I'm not talking about smart mobs ceasing to exist. Instead i'm referring to finishing the book "Smart Mobs" by Howard Rheingold. It turned out to be very interesting and i'm surprised how easy the reading went. It was cool to learn all about the different types of technology and how close we are to some really revolutionary stuff. Innovations that stick out in my mind are the attentive billboards and e-squirting devices that were discussed in one of the chapters.

The idea of a billboard knowing who is next in line and getting an item or type or merchandise that they'd possibly interested in ready to advertise is amazing. I've been thinking a lot about that....just how close we are to the future. It's like something out of the movie Minority Report. Anyway the whole digital culture could really benefit from things like e-squirting. Just imagine when whole cities are digital and you can connect with anything in the area. It boggles my mind.

That said.....i'm really looking forward to our next book. It should be a nice change of pace reading a science fiction book. As much as I enjoyed Smart Mobs.....I think i'll like Snow Crash. It sounds pretty interesting from what i've read about it. Better get started on that.