The Next New Thing

After the price increase for the MTA, I have seen that they have tried to make improvements for the customers. From train statuses on your phone, to how long before the next train or bus comes. I think the next "new media" would have something to do with public transportation and the users as a community. I always had an idea that every user has a RFID tag of some sort embedded in their metrocards and they can set where they get off, get on, etc. So the people standing waiting for seats will know when the people sitting will leave. Of course this may be a security concern so one can opt out of it. It is similar to the location services like foursquare so I do not see that big of a problem with it. You can get different "achievements" as well as you get off and on at different stations. It would bring a interactive experience to the train and bus ride.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

For the class wiki, I have decided to focus my attention on New Media in Music. Music is a big part of our lives and New Media enhances it. Music recognition software like Shazam and Soundhound make it easier for us to identify our favorite songs and share them with others. There are also new ways in which the music industry ties into new media. YouTube is a great start for aspiring artists to show their talents, this was already written in the wiki, but I do appreciate the fact that it is so easy for us to share what we love to do on the internet. Some of the great artists on YouTube I listen to are Kina Grannis, David Choi and TylerWardMusic.

P2P File Sharing

Napster, Kazaa, you probably heard of these two names before. These two services used to be the most used P2P file sharing programs that were used by consumers all around the world. P2P basically stands for Peer to peer sharing. One user uploads a file, for example an MP3, other users looking for the same file, downloads it, and like a pyramid scheme, each user then has the opportunity to share these files with other users that want the same thing. What starts with one user uploading a single file, can end up with an extremely large amount of other users using and sharing the same thing. File sharing is basically the same as P2P but does not necessarily need to involve two different users. One of the more "advanced" P2P techniques is Bittorrent. This alternative compared to the other services such as what used to be Napster and Kazaa, is very effective for all kinds of users with different internet speeds. According to the wired.com article, The Bittorrent Effect, "The problem with P2P file-sharing networks like Kazaa, he reasoned, is that uploading and downloading do not happen at equal speeds". What this means is that your download and upload speed, which are given by your ISP or Internet Service Provider, are not the same speeds. For example, I am using the Verizon Fios plan with 25 mbps download and 15 mbps upload. This means you are transferring data UP TO that speed. However, one of the main concepts of file sharing is uploading and how fast these speeds are from user to user. How bittorrent relieves this problem is with multiple uploaders at the same time or "seeds". A good torrent file with many seeds will give you the maximum download speed possible since there are many users uploading data to you. This means that users with slower internet speeds will be able to achieve decent download speeds because of the many seeds available. This is why bittorrent is starting to become a very popular alternative for people to use nowadays, and especially since Napster went legit and Kazaa basically stopped providing services.

Privacy & Confidentiality

With social networks being so popular in these times, almost everybody you know has one. From your friends to your bosses, it is very common to be able to find their profiles on these networks such as Facebook. Though this may seem pretty "cool" and convenient at first, is it really? Are we losing our privacy by putting up profiles of ourselves on the internet and update our lives so everybody can see? Many people have no problem with that, they like to keep their friends and family updated with their lives, but some others think the opposite. In my opinion, even though you made profiles in these social networks, there is still privacy. It is just up to you to keep it. Of course if you update your status every two minutes about "what is happening", and checking in to all the places you go on foursquare, the privacy you have is very low. However, if you limit those kinds of posts and set your privacy settings, I do not see the problem with social networks and privacy. Yes, the privacy issue is very important, you may lose many things because of it. For example, you can lose your job, a friend, a significant other, and many more. However in the end it is all up to the user, no one is making you post the things you put online, only yourself.

Advice to Baruch College

In Baruch, one of the main problems I see is the lack of available computers during busy hours. I think making a Twitter account that updates what is going on, which labs are open and closed, at what times, makes it a little easier and more organized for students to find available computers more efficiently. The twitter can be updated by the lab monitors that are working for that hour.

There also seems to lack community within students in the school. Even though the school layout was apparently built for the purpose of the increased interactions of the students, I really do not see it working. Maybe use those televisions around the school to put a "cloud" like twitter updates from different users. Students can use a hash tag such as for example #baruchcloud in their tweets. Students should also be allowed to voice their opinions on different things in the school using this. 

About My Term Research Paper

The topic that I chose to do for my term research paper is Social Networking: A purposeful loss of privacy. Most of the research I did was through Google Scholars, I also used some news articles via MSNBC and other sources I got from regular Google. In the research, I learned that the issue of privacy is not only other people looking through your content but it also contains the problems of viruses and worms as well. Almost like the email problem where you can download a viruses without even knowing it by just opening a mail. I chose this topic because I thought privacy is a very important issue that everyone should know about. Especially now that almost everybody has a profile in at least one of the social networking websites such as Facebook, we need to be aware of the issues at hand. After writing the paper, it seems that there are many different ways in which the privacy issue can affect all of us. From losing your job or even scholarships to losing your data on your computer, it should be part of our everyday life to be aware of these problems. My paper helps contribute to the field of "new media" by bringing awareness to people and how "safe" or "private" their profile actually is.

Creativity and New Media

Back when I was in high school, online gaming was what I did everyday. Probably not the best idea, but once I get home from school, on turns my computer, on turns the game, and I play until I really need to do something else, like homework. One of the main games that we used to play was Counter-Strike. This game, very popular, was a first person shooter. A couple of my friends and I created a "clan" and played in online leagues. We met some cool people online while some not too cool, just hiding behind their computer screens and smack talking. However, it did give us a sense of community among gamers around the world.

I did make a video of some gameplay of Counter-Strike, however I did not get to finish the video as, well, we were actually not that good, and the clan disbanded soon after the video was attempted. But here is a "semi-finished" video of it. There is NO CONTENT after 1:10, unless you just want to listen to the song.

Another game that took over a big chunk of my high school career was the MMORPG Ragnarok. This game basically lets you create your own character. There are two levels that you need to level up, base level and job level. You start off as a Novice, once you reach a job level of 10, you are then allowed to chose your first "class". These classes range from a acolyte, thief, swordsman, archer, and much more. Depending on the server you play on, there can be a job changer NPC(Non playable character) that you can just talk to and you will be able to change your class or job instantly. Or in some servers, you have to do several quests in order to obtain that job change.

Every single "person" you see in this screenshot is actually controlled by a real person over the internet. It does get pretty crowded depending on the server you play on. I did however make a couple of friends in this game and we are still Facebook friends until this day. 

I also made for fun a stop motion video with two of my Gundam action figures. I took around 150 separate shots, each moving the figure a little. This was created using Windows Movie Maker.

 

I think the way games bring together the world is a pretty cool concept. There is a lot of negative opinions over these online games, like people getting so addicted to it that it is literally their life. But if you know how to balance real life and virtual life, I think there are many positive results that can be created.