My blog for my Internet class

Google Print

2005-09-29T13:02:00.000-04:00

Google Print was started in October 2004 with the intent of allowing people to search for the content of books online as well which also makes it easier for them to find relevant books. The Authors Guild has filed a lawsuit which would force Google Print to stop scanning and uploading book content. Their lawsuit contends Google Print is breaking copyright laws and takes the decision away from authors about who can access their works. Google Print replies that no material under copyright is available to searchers unless the author has given permission while also saying nothing more than short phrases can be found anyway. It is not possible for someone to download an entire page, nor can they copy or print it.
It seems to me that The Authors Guild is acting a bit hastily. Initially it seems as if they have a good case, but as long as Google Print sticks to only showing small parts of books and does not allow for viewing, copying, or printing of whole pages as well as only making available content with the author's permission, then they are not doing anything detrimental to the authors. In fact, I would say they are helping authors by helping to spread their name and titles of their works. This is a good service as long as it continues to be strictly monitored and adheres to its current guidelines.

Ethics in Weblogs

2005-09-29T12:50:00.000-04:00

Weblogs possess a weakness in their greatest strengths. They are, "their ability to filter and disseminate information to a widely dispersed audience, and their position outside the mainstream of mass media." (http://www.rebeccablood.net/handbook/excerpts/weblogs_ethics.html). These strengths also prevent the general public from taking webloggers seriously and having trust in what is posted. Weblogs have gained a reputation of often being too opinionated to be trusted as credible sources of information. I agree with these points made in the article. In order for weblogs to gain credibility changes have to be made to increase reliability and to show proof of credible sources and facts. The six step plan proposed by the author seems like a great place to start and would correct many of the problems existent in trusting weblogs. The part I especially found interesting was not to delete incorrect information or entries, but simply to correct them. This does allow for a true, accurate history of what has taken place.

Diploma Mills

2005-09-29T12:41:00.000-04:00

Before reading this article I did not know a database existed to help clarify the difference between accredited schools and diploma mills. I agree this databse could be a useful tool, especially to prospective college students. However, I also see where it could also have drawbacks. Some students will use only this database to gather information on possible colleges instead of using it as a starting point to gather more information. From the article my evaluation would be the database is a good start, but for it to be more efficient it needs to be expanded to include more detailed information on the schools it lists.

2005-09-19T14:12:00.000-04:00

This post deals with my search for information on myself on the Internet. My first search for myself was done using the Yahoo search engine. I typed in Toby Reifsnyder in the search and was given 269 results. The first was was actually about me as I was interviewed briefly by the local paper on the opening of the Extranet Cafe when I was a sophomore at this school, then known as Mary Washington College. The rest of the returns either included my first or last name, but not my full name together and not in relation to me. I did a second search using Google and was given 892 results, far more than Yahoo gave. However, this time I did not appear to find anything specifically on me. All of the ones I looked at contained either my first or last name, but I did not see the article on me that I found with Yahoo this time. Trying a different tactic, I put my name in " " this time and came up with the same article I found on Yahoo about the Extranet Cafe. This was the only result about me in particular that it gave me. Doing the same thing on Yahoo produced the same results. A search in " " using my full name of Tobias Reifsnyder produced a family tree from the UK that had a Tobias Reifsnyder married to an Elizabeth Schwenk Walt.

2005-09-19T14:04:00.000-04:00

This post relates to the section on Filtering and Blocking Devices found on page 75 of the text. Filters or blocking devices are useful tools in monitoring the Internet. Many families have younger children who do not need to have access to certain materials that could be found on the Internet, the most obvious being pornography. More recently, there has also arisen a problem with older men making use of the Internet to lure young children into bad relationships and situations. Filters could help block child access to some of these chat rooms, hopefully decreasing the encounters of this sort. It is hard to use filters in libraries because it does restrict access to useful information because of certain keywords such as sex. Libraries do lie in the gray area because on the other side it is too difficult to only limit certain sites as there are numerous different inappropriate sites. I agree with the conclusion reached in the text on the best way to cope with this this problem.

2005-09-19T13:57:00.000-04:00

The PEW survey found that in general, men will use one search engine while women will use a variety of engines. From my experiences, this appears to hold true. My dad, brother, two of my three old roommates, and I generally use one search engine. All of my three old roommates are males, making it five of six that follow the trend. My mom and two friends of mine who are female regularly will look something up with more than one search engine. According to the survey, younger people use search engines with more regularity than older people. I and my friends around my age all use search engines far more often than my parents do while my one surviving grandparent does not even know how to use the Internet at all. None of my other three grandparents knew how to use it either.

2005-09-13T06:49:00.000-04:00

The article I chose deals with internet piracy and the resulting slump in CD sales in Australia and is titled "CD Sales Reflect Global Decline" written by Iain Shedden. It can be found at http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16583957%255E16947,00.html. The article shows that Australia experienced a 7.5% drop in sales of music DVDs and CDs as compared to the figures from a year ago. The recent ruling against Kazaa was supposed to boost legal music purchase on the internet, but instead there has been little increase in the sale of music legally on the internet. They believe part of this is due to iTunes not yet beginning sale in Australia. Contributing to the slump is the decline in music DVD sales in general.

2005-09-13T06:43:00.000-04:00

While this event may not be a major computer security problem, nor did it happen to me, I believe it can still fall under the category of computer security. A few years ago living in Bushnell Hall, one of my suitemates got drunk, got on his computer, and began to mess around with some of our other friends. For one friend, he knew his password for instant messenger and signed him on, only to change the password and by the time the morning came around, had completely forgotten what he did, let alone the new password. Another friend was signed up for a magazine subscription that began to be mailed to him without his notice. This guy typically would mess with other people and their computers, albeit in good fun.

2005-09-13T06:34:00.000-04:00

I agree with many of the points made in the copyright article. There is an ever increasing amount of information being disseminated into the world, particularly across the internet. A good point was made stating that of recent years, the amount of information released into the public domain has slowed to a trickle where in the past it was a constant flow. I agree that the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act could have a negative impact on the futute by hindering experimentation and new variations on ideas. Fisher's idea is a good one, but I agree that it would be very hard to implement such an idea in a country that already has a system in place and that the best place to try it is in an upcoming country.