it took me a while to realize that there were similarities between the blogs i'm following and the NYTimes. the reason is that they are fundamentally different, one is a blog, the other a newspaper. Because of this it was hard for me to find similarities between them. but once i found a few it made it a lot easier.

since one of my blogs was all about technology i tried to find similarities between the different stories it and the NYTimes had. one thing i found was that there are a lot of stories on google. there's a new one everyday if not just every week.

one story in particular i want to mention (story about Google in case this next part doesn't give it away) is about china being upset about Google books for some scans of Chinese books. china claims that the scans are in violation of international copyright standards. sometime after i read this story on the NYTimes i found another story on ArsTechnica. this one was about Google books and how it has been battling the publishing industry since it started. at one point it was accused of copyright infringement because it was scanning copyrighted books and putting them online for anyone to view for free. and now Google has a hearing with the European union.

at first glance these stories might not seem to be connected but in fact they are. not only are they both about Google but they also deal with Google books and copyright infringement. the first deals specifically with a case of china objecting to scans made by Google for Google docs. the other is about problems Google has and is having with copyright infringement.

it just goes to show that even though stories might seem not to have a connection that doesn't mean that they don't. in fact you could probably take any two stories and find some kind of connection between them, even if it's just a random comment.

the blog fractal

it speaks for itself. too bad all of it doesn't fit.

so far reading the nytimes has been amazing. i never could have imagined that news would be so. . . interesting. unfortunately at other times it can be creepy like when i read the story about photos on the internet being used to create false profiles. the story is posted here. in this case nothing really bad happened but it could have been much worse. someone could have used photos like that to create a fake Facebook page which could damage your reputation when you try to apply for a job.anyway back on the subject of the nytimes there are tons of things on there that i had absolutely no idea that they even existed. sure there are new stories about things i know, but to find stories on subjects i didn't even know of, wow. i don't even know where to begin. should i look at this one or should i save it for later while i look at that one. there's just too much, its overwhelming.

just a few days ago i was reading a very interesting story about the large Hadron collider. i didn't understand some of what they were talking about but what i can guess what they are saying. apparently some physicists proposed the idea that the higgs bosen (particle they are trying to create in the super collider) might be so contrary to nature that it would ripple backward in time to prevent it's creation. sounds a little crazy to me but, hey, it could be possible.

now back on what i'm supposed to be talking about. I've mostly looked at stories on technology and science because those interest me but if i happen to see an interesting story on a different story i will read it. of course this means that i'm missing out on a lot of the other subjects so i need to balance it out some. i have not noticed a change in any of my other habits, readings, writing, work, thoughts, attitudes, or interactions.

Blogs i'm following

the two blogs i have chosen to follow are Andrew Sullivan's blog, Daily Dish and the second is ars technica (latin for art of technology).

it seems that a lot of people wanted to follow the Daily Dish because i have already seen 3 or 4 people who have it listed as one of their blog choices. the reason i chose it was because i dont really know much about politics and don't want to so i wanted to pick a blog that sounded interesting yet one which had little to do with actual politics.

Ars technica is a blog on technology and mostly posts stories about new technology including new software like windows 7. ars technica is a blog for those who are interested in technology and want to keep up with new things in the world of technology.

news, news, where's the news

my post probably won't have anything to do with my title.

first off i'm glad that i'm not the only one who doesn't go and look for news. second after reading the New York times o the internet i've found that i really like learning more about what's going on, especially when it deals with technology. there are a lot of different ways people get news, some do so passively and others actively. a lot of the time people passively get news from websites like facebook, from tv or from random radio stations. activelly people get news from news sites, from news channels, from radio news stations, and from newspapers. but the source from which everyone receives information is from other people.

i was exploring the internet to find a blog to follow for class when i found an interesting website called ars technica and when looking at the website i found an interesting post about Microsoft demoing 5 new multi-touch mice (the kind you use with a computer not the kind that are alive). i thought it was interesting so im posting a link to it here. I particularly liked the orb mouse because it would be very useful in video games. you should definitely watch the video even if you don't follow the link so i'm putting that here too.

Microsoft Research unveils five mice prototypes from Ars Technica on Vimeo.

what's going on?

Sorry but i don't really have an answer to this question because I've never really wanted to know before. I've never read a newspaper, haven't really sat in front of a TV for at least 4, maybe five, years, except to play video games. if you all remember i got a 0 of 4 on the pop culture section of the "pop"quiz.

Now i'm not a total loss i do know somethings . . . let me think . . . oh, politics. my dad is really interested in politics so i know a few things about whats going on, although i mostly ignored him when he starts talking about it, still, the occasional fact does get through.

Next I don't and probably never will actually listen to radio. if someone turns the radio on in the car they have to capture my attention and then point me toward what is being said or played on the radio for me to hear or remember what it is 10 seconds later, literally 10 seconds is all it takes for me to forget it.

I mentioned TV before so now i move to print. now print could be a number of things from books to advertising on cereal boxes. so for now i'm going to stick to books, magazines, and articles. first books. i read a lot of books when i get the time to but most if not all of them are fiction and i would be very surprised if i learned any up to date information from those. then articles, I've actually read a few recently due to homework assignments for a grand total of five, the first four about nanotechnology for my thesis, and the last on literacy for this English class. and magazines i actually have 2 subscriptions, although they haven't bothered to sent me any for a while now. one is popular science so i know a little of whats going on in the world of technology and the other is Nintendo power so i also know about new video games.

And last but definitely not least, the internet. i could say i don't get any information from the internet but i could say its almost all worthless after a minute. all those Facebook updates could count as news but a lot of them stop being up to date about five seconds after being written, for others maybe a minute, and for the select few that manage to endure a week at most if not just a day.

my essay on literacy

Here is where i will keep my final copy of my essay. this may change many times but it will be the most up to date copy of my essay.