week 13 muddiest point

This may be more of a rant than a muddy point, but it still makes me think. It’s kind of spooky to think about all of the different ways that the government, companies and almost anyone else can know what you are doing at any moment of the day. I don’t really have a stand on this, but I do have to wonder a few things. How much is too much? When is enough really enough? I understand that some stores and stuff need to have surveillance cameras and such so that if there is something that happened there, they have the cameras to look back at, but what about other places? For example, my daughter and I were at the public library a few days ago and they had surveillance cameras. I mean really? When was the last time you heard about an armed robbery at the library? Is that going a bit overboard?

comments for week 12

comments on jacqui’s blog: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2005895256228614061&postID=4380822365563709540&page=1

comments on valerie’s blog: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5522596475792783454&postID=8247158666001690514&page=1

muddiest point week 12

Okay. This may be my own fault being that I am a little behind in watching my videos, but do we only need 10 entries to get full credit for posting? There are 14 weeks, so I figured we need 14 thoughts, muddiest points, and comments. However, if I am incorrect, and we only need 10, I might be okay since I thought I was in all kinds of trouble at the beginning of the semester when I was unaware we had to post muddiest points. Well, kudos if we only have to do 10!

thoughts on week 12

Finally, an article that I knew all about the topic at hand. It was interesting to read about the history of a blog. I thought it was a little newer than it was, but then again, there are many things that surprise me. The popularity of a blog is definitely coming around. I had heard of them before this class, but had never used one. Since the beginning of class, I have had the experience of working with three now. They are a little easier to manage than email, but sometimes I forget to check them, whereas I check my email daily, if not several times a day. Then again, perhaps it is just a habit that I got into and could do so with a blog.

Wikis, on the other hand, I have not had the privilege of using. I mean, I have read information on wikipedia and stuff, but have never added any information to one. The thought is good, but it seems to me that it is very similar to a blog.

Folksonomy. Fun word.

Tagging is a good idea and I like that it would be saved on the Internet. I just had a similar problem at work. Not worrying about where I had saved something from, but I had all my favorites saved on my work computer and then the server crashed and I lost everything. I had to go back and try to remember what I had on there. It would have been much easier to have gone online to locate them.

It was interesting to hear the video on Wikipedia. I had always liked to use Wikipedia, but I wasn’t sure of the authenticity. I mean, if everyone has access to edit it at any time, couldn’t I get on and put some type of nonsense answer under a topic? I liked that they could see what was changed when questioning a change on the page. Especially when someone edits anonymously.

comments for week 11

Comments on rachel’s blog: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4331968769876525173&postID=8782575807241715339&page=1

Comments on valerie’s blog:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5522596475792783454&postID=3159920468327507072&page=1

muddiest point week 11

This may not be a muddiest point, per se, but it humors me anyway. I know I discussed this in my thoughts on the articles, but I still have to laugh when averages are given for things in decimals. I get that when you take a group of numbers and find the average that there is the possibility of getting a decimal answer. But really, 2.5 kids? 2.3 words? I mean, in that case, shouldn't you just round up or down, depending on the decimal??? Really, what is a half a kid, or what is three-tenths of a word?

thoughts on week 11

I had no idea that so much work went into searching for information. I mean, I knew that it had to be super-tricky because if it weren’t, then I wouldn’t get 8 bazillion results to my searches. But the whole idea of crawlers was kind of interesting. There are so many intricate steps involved in, what seems to us common-folk a split second, searching through the almost infinite amount of work out there. I guess I’ll relax a little more the next time the server crashes at work.

So let me see if this is correct…an indexer is a person who scans documents for keywords? What kind of fun s that? Wait, is an indexer even a person? After reading a little farther, I’m thinking not. And what does eigenvector even mean? Another point I think is funny is that you can have 2.3 words. It’s like the average family has 2.5 kinds. I want to see that half a kid! I like it when search engines sort by relevance. Especially when they give you the percentage that It meets your search. You never think about someone (or something) putting all the information from, like, a Google search, in order of relevance. I’ll add that to the list of jobs I have realized I don’t want since starting this class.

I also liked the sheet music consortium. I think it works well that a small number of libraries take on a particular aspect. Maybe if everything was broken down that way, people wouldn’t get overloaded with crazy work. I also liked that they have a plan for future improvements. If they know what still needs to be done, it’s good to put in the plan. I think many programs wait to see what happens, then when it “breaks” they have to figure out how to fix it. If you know what the expectations are ahead of time, it may turn out not so messy in the end.

The analogy of the ocean was a very good way to describe the Deep Web. I am a visual learner, and to have something to compare a new idea to makes that idea easier for me to understand. The Deep Web makes a lot of sense. If you think about it, when you do a search, you look at the first few responses, maybe even the first few pages. But who really goes through all the results?