Technology-ology

<--Image borrowed from the Onion's website.

Back again to round out a few more thoughts on technology. I think I've done Twitter justice, but there are a few more thoughts I want to begin with there.

In regards to Ashton Kutcher (who won in a race with CNN on Twitter to see who would get to 1 million followers first) and his declarations that we are revolutionizing media - in addition to my own comments in my last post that Twitter and other social networks are becoming our sources of news, I want to comment and amend these thoughts.

In my own world view, there will always be journalism. We will always need a network of news agencies to get interviews, crack stories, report, investigate, film, photograph, and write about. Now, I think the purpose of the news agencies and manner with which they communicate with the mass population IS changing. These agencies will no longer be responsible for breaking the news - I think the rush to get the "true story" FIRST is long past. Twitter and Facebook and the internet in general continues to make this side of journalism obsolete. However, this can only extend so far. Journalists are the one who can get inside the true story - to score key interviews, photograph events, investigate deeper with a multitude of resources. Just because microwavable frozen dinners made it quick and easy to eat at home, that doesn't mean that chefs and restaurants went out of business. These are two sides of the same coin.

Okay, so, that said, I wanted to move on to a couple other social networks/technologies and just discuss them a bit more...

My latest toy has been a fun and slightly silly site called DailyBooth. (The picture on the left side of my blog page will take you to my DailyBooth account). Basically, Dailybooth is like twitter except instead of using 140 characters, you use photos. The idea is that you take photos of yourself with your webcam (or upload them from elsewhere) and thus show people little bits and pieces of your life. Part of what I find fun about this site is that it makes you more accustomed to cameras. Let me explain... while I've never been the kind of person who feels extremely awkward in front of cameras (or who can't smile in front of them - *cough*Dad*cough*), I still freeze up a bit when someone whips out a camera and say "Say cheese!" For the most part, at family gatherings and such, I'm usually the one holding the camera, so I have managed to avoid this in the past. But, what with a family wedding and, erm, COLLEGE coming up next year, I want to get over thus. Voila - DailyBooth.

As you can tell, I've linked my account to my blog for one (it lightens up the page a bit) - but if you click on the photo on the left, you'll see all the photos I've taken, their captions (which are really important to understanding random images), how to join DailyBooth if you're interested, where to comment on my photos (which you can do with text or a photo of your own). You only really need a webcam, but if you put in the patience, I think you could upload photos from a regular camera as well.

Next up, I want to talk about a site that you probably haven't heard about, but that I really think is very cool. It's called Sazze (and don't ask me how to pronounce it, cause I have no idea). Sazze, found here, is a website of Consumer reviews. Everyday people like you and me can sit down and do one of two things - review something you've bought and know something about; or read reviews of something you're considering buying. Now, the coolest part about it, in my opinion, is that it's not limited to just media, like Amazon, or to any other kind of product - it's a mix of EVERYTHING... technology, media, food, household items, clothes, makeup. You name it, you can either find a review or review it yourself. The site also has a community feature - with a chat and polls and such and this can be fun as well, but as for it's main use, I think it's very revolutionary, useful, and all around very cool. If you have a iPhone or smartphone of any type, Sazze also has a mobile version so you can look up reviews while you're in a store!

I have to, of course, mention Leaky in the course of all of this. But, I could never do it justice in such a short space, so I'll have to save it for another time and post. Let me just say that the Leaky Cauldron and the Leaky Lounge are some of the coolest places online.

Now, I don't know what planet you'd have to be living on, but perhaps you haven't heard of one of the coolest sites around right now, Hulu. Hulu, started by NBC and Fox, is a TV watching site. It streams videos with limited commercials, in high quality, and with an extremely user-friendly interface... and the best part is that it combines all your favorite channels in one (Well, except CBS and ABC, though that might change soon). You can go from watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central) to 30 Rock (NBC) to 24 (FOX)... all within a few clicks. Plus, with the recent rumors of an iPhone/iTouch version of Hulu, this site is one to watch, and one to use regularly.

Hmm, what next? Let me tackle YouTube. I know, I know - everyone knows about that viral website, but aside from being able to watch babies chortle and squirrels acting weird, there's a lot more going on there than you might know. Starting (I think) with the VlogBrothers (John and Hank Green), YouTube grew into a community. Now, the number of people vlogging, discussing life, creating collab channels, and supporting each other is phenomenal! One of my favorite YouTube people right now is a guy by the name of Alex Day, aka Nerimon. Alex is participating in VEDA (Vlog Every Day April) and so has been putting up videos quite frequently. He has a light touch at conversation, is quite funny, and is also a brilliant songwriter and musician. (See here for an example). Imagine my surprise when I find out Alex is coming to LeakyCon? Turns out this community - made up of groups like the fiveawesomeguys, fiveawesomegirls, and such, not only overlaps with the vlogbrothers, but also with the HP fandom! Small technological world!

Now, the YouTube community has been a-buzz with what they're calling the "hulufication of YouTube." Basically, YouTube has a very difficult time supporting itself. It takes a lot of infrastructure to allow 25 million people to watch Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent (amazing, by the way), and, as John Green has been showing us, it's pretty difficult to sell Lucky Charms on YouTube (see here if you want to know what the heck I'm talking about). Well, basically, YouTube reorganized so that user-based content is only a fraction of the site. Honestly, in my humble, limited-user opinion... this isn't that big a deal. All these people who are worried about the "little guy" who made YouTube what it is being ignored? They can spare the worry. I, for one, will continue watching their videos.

Okay, this is getting long, but I have three more things to talk about. The first, and last obvious one, is Facebook. Now, Facebook is insanely popular, and equal parts awesome and annoying. It's become the source of a lot of disgruntlement (is that a word?) on the part of its users due to a recent redesign, which people are saying has made it extremely "stalker friendly." I, for one, still don't like it - I wish they'd bring the live feed back and get rid of all the Quizzes and such in the main feed, but I've kind of resigned myself to them not changing it. People are still using it, and will keep on doing so until something better and more popular comes along.

Second to last is the phenomenon of captioning photos, as seen on ICanHasCheezburger, Failblog, and others. These sites are HILARIOUS. Some of my favorites. I have RSS feed subscriptions to a lot of them - including also PunditKitchen, TotallyLooksLike, and Celebrity Captions. Basically, the main premise of these sites is to put funny captions on funny pictures. Things like this or this. I really recommend checking these sites regularly, because they keep me constantly laughing and never fail to lighten up my day.

Okay, last, this is not really a site, but a collection of sites. From someone's tweet recently (don't recall whose it was), I found this list... it's a list of the 99 Things You Should Have Already Seen On The Internet. Basically, it's a collection of really funny videos and links that have been highly viral. Some are weird, like the Numa Numa video, or the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment, but for whatever reason, they're all really popular. I haven't seen or known about everything on the list, but I've been going through it bit by bit. I recently came across one of the coolest things ever...

It's called George Lucas in Love and it is a professionally made short film that combines Star Wars and Shakespeare in Love. It's brilliant and just plain hilarious - I've seen it almost five times now and can't stop laughing at it. So, if you take one thing away from this crazy long encyclopedia of my favorite internet sites, it should be this video. I've embedded it below for easy viewing - so watch, and enjoy!




Well, that's it from me, for now. Last night my family watched The Day The Earth Stood Still (the recent remake) and I think I'll review it - probably tomorrow.

Cheers! <3