Group "Clan Family" Presents:

It is the end of the scool year and we are coming up on our final project (woohoo!). So, a quick insight on what were are going to be discussing:

Titlt/Topic: Online Community in the gaming world

Main Focus: 1. Clans in Real Time Stategy Games (RTS), 2. Clans in First Person Shooter Games (FPS), and finally 3. Guild in WoW and other such Role Playing Games (RPG).

Conclusion: To show that there are good and bad things that you can gain from these communities.

I will also include personal insight and stories from my/our experiences.... Hope you enjoy!

Technology and South Sound Meet

So, I went to the South Sound Tech Conference on the 20th of November and was allowed the chance to hear some of today's leading Tech Entrepenuer's talk about the future. Ofcourse when I say future, I am talking in a specific sense, as in "our" direct future. Technology seems to be grabbing people by the ankles and dangling them upside down for lunch money. It is the new "steam roller" on the block and these conferences are what we can use to monitor and stay up to date with them.

I got to also learn how the area is focusing on a more green way of life and trying to get businesses involved in a BIG way. This is pretty exciting, especially since it is long over due. I was allowed to ask them a few questions and can honestly say I was answered with respect and knowledge. I know I didn't give you much insight on the specific that were covered there, for the main reason that you need to go yourself and generate your own views. I will use what I learned in a day to help guide me through the rest of my tech life..... watch our, for it is here!

Me, Myself, and I

Vanity Search?

What is that?

A search about myself, why would there be anything about me?


These are the questions I had at the beginning, and Mr. Fry answered them with ease. He showed us a search about himself, and in seconds he had all of his info on the screen. It was pretty scary and I only hoped that type of info was not up on myself.

I began my search with a simple first and last name search, and came up empty handed. Then I went into more details and still came up with nothing. I refined my search to first and last name, location/Birthplace, and my current occupation and found nothing. The only info I found were some of sites like Myspace, and facebook from my wife. Maybe it is a good thing that she signs us up for those things.

I feel that the vanity search should be like mine; hard to find! Privacy is slipping away, and I would like to hold on to it...

Erik Hanberg The Man!!

So, on Monday the 23rd we were blessed with a guest speaker named Erik Hanberg. He came in with his stuff in order and ready to talk about the work that you have to put into the "Virtual World" today. He has done many things to include:

Executive of City Club (Non-Profit)
Writing for "Exit 133" in 2006
Graphics for "Mary Holste Design"
Wrote a book called "The Little Book of Gold"

He goes on to tell the class how much effort it is to get out there and that the more you do, the better your odds get. Breaking down work into 3 different types seemed to be the easy venue through the class. These 3 things were hourly, salary, and scalable work. He focused on Scalable work, as it is pretty much what the internet works with. The funny remarks he made was that he had wrote 9 novels and J.K. Rawling wrote 7, but only one of them is a billionaire. Can you guess who?

He was very inspiring and I feel like I have a better grasp of what I want to do for my online business. I appreciated his insight and his visit, and I hope to follow his career.

Scavenger Hunt of Doom!!!

Situation:

Find 18 different items from the internet as a team and turn them in to Mr. Fry.


Mission:

Team of 3: Monday, Finch, and Leech
Find 18 Items in the alloted time (before next class), and email to the instructor.

Execution:

Break the paper down into three parts:
1-5 : Mr. Finch
6-12: Mr. Monday
13 - 18: Mr Leech

Use all resources from the web and what you have learned in class and work as a team to complete this task.



So, this is our class project and we are currently halfway throuhg the task. This is really interesting and I could see people actually benefitting from all of this. Thanks!

Present Findings:
1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, and 15!!!!

What, no Paper Trail?

You can remember in the old times (maybe a few years ago) that people would be able to find out things about you due to a "paper trail" that you left behind. Today there is another view on this paper trail, which is what you do online. This is no small list either, because this list includes things like poems, essays, newspapers, articles, course work, loan documents, emails (email vs mail), and many many more. I can remember when these things were only allowed to be done by hand (person to person), in a physical place. I started seeing this slip away with the fax machine, and finally the digital scanner. Now, you just download something from the internet and sign it. I use to think that sending an email was not the same as sending regular mail. Mainly because you couldn't send a birthday card. Well, you can definitely send a 'E-Card" online now!

Prediction:

By April 2012, We will no longer be doing any physical signing or verifying of documents. Everything will be done digitally and will only take a few minutes.

By February 2014, The Postal Service business will come from 85% of it being packages only.

By 2015, Hallmark will no longer be printing Cards on a mass scale.


The best thing about physical documents, is that you have them and can make copies of them. If you lose your Computer to a virus or a crash, then all your things are gone (given that you didn't back up). I still print things off and back things up, for I do not trust the online document system as of yet. I may be persuaded in the near future with better tech, but we will see!

Mark Briggs.. Genius or Capitalist?

I would integrate those to words together and call him a geniulist! The most important part of inventing something is to find a need. Mark took that to the internet and saw what was happening all around us, and made a "new" product/idea. If I were to invest in someone's thought, I would have to imagine it would be someone like Mark. He gave us a nice 3 minute speech of what his company did and why, and I feel he got everything delivered. There is no doubt in my mind that News Papers will never be the same as they once were, and the internet is going to be here forever (opinion). So, what Mark is doing is playing the middle field with both of these things. He is not pushing the paper to the dirt, nor is he standing firmly behind his "internet news". I can see how this would give him plenty of room to expand and take his company to the "common" world. He has actually inspired me to start my own business and i look forward to incorporating some of his small techniques he talked about. Watch out world... there is a new thinker in town!

I would rather learn the French Language!

Can you think back about the first time you even saw HTML or another form of web design coding? It is like another language that only a small percentage of the world can understand. My first look at HTML, I didn't even know where to start. Unlike most, I hit the ground running and had to learn really fast. I created a website using "Invisionfree" forum hosting, and other forms of web hosting. I opened the "Admin" area and went to the "Style sheet" and BAM, there was this new language.

I went to the store immediately after this and bought HTML FOR DUMMIES, so I could get a better understanding of what was needed. After reading a few chapters of the book, I soon realised there was a pattern. I took what I knew and went to altering the coding. When I hit refresh, nothing but CHAOS was on my screen. Everything was gone, misplaced, or just odd. I could not get it back to the way it was originally and I did not save the first code (a mistake I never made again).

So, here I am years later with way more knowledge than I thought I would eve have on this subject. I can open most coding and know exactly how the page is suppose to look. There are some things I still have to look up or ask help on, but nothing like day one. The stress and chaos from that first web page are gone and now I can look at these things with confidence.

I have a few questions for you:

1. How was your first experience with this type of scenario?
2. Did you learn from your mistakes or give up?
3. Is it necc. to continue updating yourself on new coding?

This is just me being curious and ofcourse I would love to read stories about you pulling your head out, due to a notepad document gone wrong. Have a good day!

Extra Extra, Read all about it!

I can still remember the day when a paper showed up on my parents door every morning and my mom was eager to see what had happened over night. Now it seems that the news comes at us to fast. It is no surprise that there is little to no papers circulating in my area, especially with the rise of Internet Media. I was walking around at a festival one day and someone was trying to get people to subscribe to the local paper. Normally I would have just walked on without a thought about this sort of thing, but something stuck with me. What will happen to news papers if we stop buying them?

- Will there be no reporters?
- Will the popular news paper companies close?
- Will things cease to be personal?
- Will the news be reliable?

These are the questions I asked myself as I continued to walk around the festival. After that I began to look at the news papers and try and see what i could tell about their futures. All I saw were coupons, ads, and other useless junk at the beginning. The headlines were still there, but man were they trying to sell me some things! I remember when it was strictly news and important sporting info. I would gather that they had to try and change it up to get a new audience, but I am afraid they are fighting a losing battle. Once something even better comes along, I fear the end of news papers as we know it today.

Can you remember what it was like 15 years ago, when a paper boy came barreling down the side walk to throw you a paper for his 15 cents a paper? What are your views of today's "News Paper" issues and how can they be resolved?

Email -vs- Regular Mail

In today's society you see all types of different electronics and I can imagine that you probably do not spend one second wondering what is the result of the new technology. I am just old enough to know how different it was to only be able to write personal letters and have them sent from one house to another. This process would take days and even a week or so on rare occasions. When I first got wind of this "email" concept, i was truly blown away. All of a sudden I had something in my "inbox" from 4 states away! At that moment I did not ask myself the question, what will happen to regular mail? Now that technology is spinning out of control, I wonder each day what we will lose to this.

Email is indeed the better way to go, and this is for a number of reasons. Some examples are:
- Faster
- Can send to more than one person at a time
- Cheaper
- Can save the copy of the letter you wrote for later on

But, do these all come with their own price?

Regular mail is dying each year that Email gets more proficient and faster. There are a few things that Regular mail will always be able to hold on to. For example:
- Personal (someone has to sit down and write it by hand and there is only one)
- Goes directly to the house without having to worry on spelling name right (address first)
- Paper copy is sometimes better than digital copy (can't crash)
- Can send objects (limited to regular mail, for now.)

These are just a few things that separate EMAIL from REGULAR MAIL, but what is similar?

Well for starters, the concept of Email is based off of Regular Mail. It is designed to get information of a statement from one place to another without anyone else reading it along the way. Email has a "mailbox" and so does regular mail. These things are obvious, but did you know that there is a distribution center for EMAIL, just as there is for Regular Mail. Do not get wrapped up in email too much, as Regular mail is very important in our everyday life.

Email came from some place, so I urge you to try and keep some things "personal" between humans.

Have a Good day and may the battle continue!