Scanvenger Hunts Are Sooo Fun... Aren't They?!

Today in class we were able to have fun on the World Wide Web looking for certain things on the list given to us by the brilliant and awesome instructor! I was able to find three different match makeing websites that were www.pof.com and www.okcupid.com and www.match.com and I also found a website with information about the panelists for Digital Hollywood at http://www.digitalhollywood.com/LAWednesdaySixteen.html and I was also able to find a number of houses for sale that were between $200k and $300k with at least 3 bedrooms in the University Place, WA area. I also found other search engines that are not as familiar as google is. they are www.excite.com
www.lycos.com
www.altavista.com
There was plenty of financial information available on RealNetworks website but most of them were in PDF format. Since the scavanger hunt specified it can't be PDF, i did find one that was not PDF at the url http://investor.realnetworks.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=595122

I also found a blog posting http://andrewfry.blogspot.com/ about the scavanger hunt he was doing today in class. The message was posted during the time of 1020am and 11:08am

How hard could it be to compare Email to USPS?

The United States Postal Service is one of the most reliable services our nation has to offer. It's sad to hear of financial trouble they have been getting into but I still can rely at least 6 days a week to have mail in my mailbox. It's amazing to think that I actually have more than one mailbox that I receive notifications at, but its really nice that I don't have to get off the couch to check my email inbox. Unfortunately I'm sure its that same mentality that is why companies change to paperless, online bills which in turn takes away from postage fees that the USPS could have been collecting. For me, the consumer, it's nice to get a free place to receive mail as opposed to having to pay to send things out. It's also alot easier to send notifications to more than one person via email, otherwise for birthday parties I have to send out 20+ letters. Email is the future as more and more places become technological. The outlook for the USPS... not so good. I've read news articles saying that the USPS is looking at possibly reducing the number of days that they will deliver mail to save costs. I hope that things don't get too bad for the USPS, since I do enjoy the exercise once in a while of going out to the mailbox and back.

IPhone 4, is it really worth it?

So I was hanging out in the University District in Seattle and saw this line of people wrapping around the building almost all the way to the back of the building right outside the Apple Store. I couldn't figure out what could be so important to be waiting for. When I got home and watched the news, I saw a news reporter standing outside the same store reporting about the first person in line who had been waiting since 4pm the previous day just to be one of the first people to get this new Iphone4. The news reporter asked what he looked forward to on the new phone, and the guy only said two or three features that didn't make much sense to me. I can't figure out how the guy justified waiting in line all night for this new phone. He then said he had class at 11am so he wasn't even going to have much time to play around on the new phone. I couldn't help but laugh at the whole situation. Obviously he wasn't alone in wanting to be the first to get this new gadget, but how can it really be worth it when most of these same individuals will be waiting in line in a couple of months for the next new gadget to come out.

What can I get from my class?

I am currently pursuing a Bachelor’s in Engineering and Science and took this course to start my knowledge on how some of the basic components of the internet work such as email and webservers. I don’t expect to get too much technical information but more of an overview throughout the quarter. But I plan to use any information from this course to see what areas could be improved and hope to get insight on what areas need refining on the World Wide Web. Last spring I took the course Tinst 100 to get a more basic introduction to computers and our world of technology. I’m hoping to get a little more in-depth this quarter in email services and how they work since it’s always been an area that has been so vague to me. My main goal this quarter is to learn something about the internet that I can use in my future career as a Computer Engineer.

                I have a little bit of back-round with computers but most of it is with computer games. However, I am also taking Java I this quarter. This class is not required for my degree but since my degree has no real elective/fun classes I thought this one might be. J