A great innovation

Although I have yet to see one in person, the Samsung K5 is a great innovation in the world of digital media players. The concept of being able to play music through mini speakers is nothing new, but Samsung has combined this feature into the digital media player itself, rather than users having to rely on external speakers that the digital player connects to via the headphone jack. I tink that this innovation will spark similar features from the leading companies in the digital entertainment world.

Photo Day

Once a year, members of every athletic team at Stanford get to participate in their own Sports Illustrated cover shoot. Photo day is always fun for everyone, partly because the picture taken go on the website, poster, and media guide, and also partly because it is fun to show off for the camera. I personally like photo day because I like seeing myself in action on the tennis court, I think most people do. Here are some of my favorites:

We also get to take team photos, which is also fun. One becomes the standard image for our team, where professionalism is stressed. However, we also get to take a "Jimmy V's" photo, which is meant to be silly. Every Stanford team gets to do this, and the photos go up in the popular Jimmy V's Sports Cafe for everyone to see. Lots of thought goes into this photo, and how each person is going to pose. Personally, I stuck with the same pose this year that I did last year.

I am really looking forward to this season, I think our team is very capable of accomplishing the goals we have set for ourselves. It is going to take grit, determination, passion, and focus, and there will be obstacles for us along the way, but in the end it is a journey that is well worth all of the sacrifices. My teammates are some of my best friends, and I can't wait to go to battle with them when we get back to school.

Possible iPods

Final Reflection

--Coming into eRhetoric, I would have stated that I was a very technology aware individual—my major area of interest is consumer electronics. However, I quickly realized that I knew very little about what defines eRhetoric. It was kind of fun to go back and look at my first blog response: “Monday night, just finished first day of sophomore year. I have been up since 6am, since we had morning running. This is my first official assignment, creating a blog, which is kind of fun. To think that this summer I didn't even know what a blog was!” This is not the only example; until about a third of the way through the quarter I did not understand the principle behind a “wiki,” and did not know that Wikipedia was an editable database of information. It was not until we watched the video of the Wikipedia article transformation that I really understood the principle behind the wiki. I quickly found out that my knowledge of new written technology was much more limited than I initially thought.

--However, this has all changed throughout the course of PWR II, as I now have a greater understanding and appreciation for everything that eRhetoric encompasses. As such, this knowledge helped me grow as a writer, because I became more aware of different writing styles and tones for different situations. I was able to see situations where I felt the author did a poor job of this, such as in the Cripps article. I felt that the format of the web page did not match the academic tone that Cripps was employing in his writing. All of the elements have to work together to make a successful piece of writing; if one detracts from the other, it detracts from the whole article.

--In particular, I very much enjoyed our study of Power Point presentations. Ian Parker’s article “Absolute Power Point” was a great read. I did not use Power Point extensively in high school, but I used it enough to be proficient, so I could relate to the material that Parker was referring to. I think it is very important to know how to give an effective presentation, especially because I can foresee myself giving a lot of these types of presentations in the future. Through watching many of my classmates’ presentations, I became very skilled at picking up the rhetorical appeals of logos, pathos, ethos, and kairos. This was something we didn’t really cover in-depth in my PWR I class, so I had a lot to learn. From the presentations I was able to see instances where students were quite successful at this, such as when Nate gave his proposal presentation with no technology and a very informal tone because he was talking about the ways that things like instant messaging were changing modern English. We looked at other successful versus unsuccessful speeches when we examined the contrast between Steve Jobs’ speeches at the Stanford Commencement and the MacWorld convention. These videos showed me the power of ethos, because Jobs had a much different ethos at the Stanford Commencement, where he seemed intimidated and out of place, as opposed to at the Macworld convention, where he was very comfortable and casual talking about Apple’s latest and greatest products.

--I can confidently state that I met all three of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the quarter. Not only did I learn how to keep a blog and improve my knowledge of internet writing, but more importantly I became comfortable working in groups. Looking back, I can now see that the first two of these three goals were very basic—things that would be met just by taking the course. To revise these goals for my future work in writing and presentations, I would add: 1) I would like to become more comfortable giving a Power Point style presentation without having to rely on my speech notes (I would like to be able to have a general idea of what I am going to say and then be able to adapt from there) and 2) I would like to improve my concrete language in my academic papers. These are the two areas I discovered in eRhetoric that I could use the most work on, and I think improving in these areas will benefit me greatly in the business world. Overall my experience in eRhetoric was very worthwhile and enriching, and I am very glad that I was able to take this course.

Presentation response

So far I have thoroughly enjoyed the academic presentations. I have seen great improvement since the proposal presentations in all areas--confidence, material, eye contact, body language, enthusiasm, etc. It has been fun to see how projects have evolved from where students first thought their research would go. I also have enjoyed watching these because they offer a glimpse into the passions of the people presenting--I feel that everyone has chosen a topic that they are interested in, so through the presentations I have been able to learn a little about each. I enjoyed BJs presentation, because we are doing the same topic, so it was fun to see the differences between the two. He went about things in an entirely different way, and had interesting ways to look at the issue of file sharing. I am looking forward to the final round of presentations tomorrow; I think there are some very strong and interesting topics to still be presented.

My friend Sandra...

So I have been promising my friend Sandra that I would write about her in my blog ALL quarter--ever since she broke my heart and transferred out of eRhetoric. Now that the quarter is drawing near to a close, I figured it would be a good time. Plus, I saw her tonight at Pi Phi and she threatened to not be friends with me anymore if I didn't write about her!!! So, I just wanted to take a brief moment and talk about how AWESOME she is, she basically rocks my world. She is smart and funny and nice and beautiful, and I won't even hold it against her that she left the best PWR II in the world. :-) So, Sandra, I hope that we can still be friends...haha.

Wiki article response

I completely agree with both articles regarding the validity of Wikipedia as a source for academic information. I did not hear about Wikipedia until I got to Stanford in the fall of last year, and did not really understand what it was until the fall of this year. Until this quarter, I did not know that it was an "encyclopedia" that could be edited by whomever. This fact alone made me skeptical. However, I have fallen into the "trap" of using Wikipedia as a reliable academic source. On more recent topics, there seems to be little published informaiton, simply because publishing materials is a long and arduous process. So, it is tempting to use the information in Wilipedia as fact, since there is an article concerning just about every topic out there, as well as relevant links. I was tempted to use it as a main source for my project right now, but was warned otherwise by Christine. I have, however, found it useful to utilize the links to other articles, as these can be taken more reliably as "fact." I was astonished to learn about the character defamation in the second article, that kind of thing makes me even more skeptical about the whole process. Not that this information couldn't have been put on the internet already, but the fact that it is on Wikipedia makes the "intent" of the article to be fact based. I enjoyed reading the articles, and was even inspired enough to try my own hand at article editing (although just a simple grammatical error).

Cripps article response

The main element of the Cripps article that I noticed was the language--the diction of the Theory section was very academic, which makes sense given the purpose of the writing. However, it was odd to me to see this type of academic writing in the hypertext context. Meaning: most hypertext writing is more informal, and the diction is much less sophisticated. If there is an academic piece if literature online, it is usually its own page, and is most likely a new window of black text on a white background. This piece, however, is black text with the blue background, and various hyperlinks at the top of the page. There is an artistic design outside of the writing itself, which is uncommon for academic pieces if writing. The writing was a little less formal in the sense that Cripps used parantheses quite often. This is a practice that would be frowned upon in a strictly academic setting; however, since it is on a website, which has a more casual feel, it is ok for the extensive use of parantheses.

PWROYOD

So today I transitioned from my research phase to my interview phase. I located Stanford students and professors that would be helpful to my research, and emailed them to see if they would be willing to help with my project. When I hear back from them, I plan on setting up interview times for early next week, and hopefully meeting with them.

Article Response

I thought that Ian Parker's article "Absolute Power Point" was very informative, yet highly entertaining. I learned a lot about the roots of PowerPoint, and how it all got started, as well as its evolution. I also enjoyed the numerous antecdotes about its use in the home, office, church, even laudrymat. The tone of the article was academic enough for its purpose, yet light and entertaining enough to make it fun to read. I completely agree with Parker's position on the spread of PowerPoint--although highly useful at conveying information, it has caused users to think less. Rather, information is merely summarized; there is no improvisation. I also though it was interesting how many Stanford connections there were in the article, it was fun to read about Stanfor students and professors, and their opinions about PowerPoint. Overall, a highly entertaining article to read; very well written.

Presentation Impressions

This week, I was VERY impressed with the presentations that I saw in class. I came in thinking that it might be a little weak, assuming Stanford students were only good at book smarts, not people skills. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the ease with which my classmates presented their topics, and the borad range of topics that I saw. I was particularly impressed today with Mike's presentation, and the way that he integrated technolgoy into his presentation, which is about sophisticated technology. I was also impressed with the way that Nate connected with the audience; his lack of technology and smooth, relaxed speech made him very easy to connect to. I also thought that Lauren's attire was very appropriate for the type of presentation--it is true that looking sharp can add to a presentation. I liked how Greg incorporated a topic that is particularly relevant to college students, and was able to apply it even further to Stanford. Overall, the passion with which my peers conveyed their topics was impressive to me; it is enjoyable to listen to someone speak when you know that they love what they are talking about. I am excited to see the final projects.

In-class writing

For many people, blogging is similar to a personal diary. People are able to express their thoughts and feelings in a manner that is similar to creating a diary entry. These entries can be fact or feeling based, but the point is that they are a personal expression of one’s own thoughts. In response to the two articles assigned for today, this holds true. In the blog about a journalist’s trip to Iraq, he was able to write in a voice that suited him, not some editor that he was trying to impress. While this may have made his journalism more biased than it would have been otherwise, his readers were able to appreciate the honesty and personal nature of the blog. In the other article, the blog was much more of a personal based one than the fact based writing of the journalist on Iraq. Her blog was “intended” to be much more private, even anonymous. However, it seems to me that the blog was far too obvious for such a high powered individual to be kept a secret. The issue with blogging is that some may wish it to be more personal and private in nature, but the reality is that anything that you post on the internet becomes something for the public. If you want it to be private, you should keep a diary instead.

Research Project Topics

1. My first idea falls under the category e-Commerce. The topic is online gambling, and whether or not it should be illegal. Congress just passed a law regarding online gambling. It has been illegal for some time due to the Interstate Commerce Law, but companies have been able to get around this by having foreign-based websites. Now, the US Government is going after the US credit card companies as a way to stop the abuse of online gambling. The issue here is: how to curb illegal activity online, especially if it lies outside of US jurisdiction.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188048,00.html

2. My second idea can be considered a legal issue. It is the issue of illegal file sharing, and how to protect the movie and music industries. One option to consider is the prospect of a subscription service for music and movies. Users could get unlimited movies and music to listen to for a certain fee per month, or a limited number of both for a smaller fee per month. Songs and movies would be able to be played on the computer through the internet, but would not be saved onto the computer unless the user was to purchase the song or movie. Yahoo! Music Unlimited is a similar service for music--you can purchase the song to burn to a cd for $.79, or just listen for free.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/15/riaa_filesharing_stats/

3. My last topic falls unde the software and communication technology category, and is the issue of operating system wars. There are arguments both for and against the consolidation of operating systems. The arguments for include the ease of compatibility that Macs and PCs currently face in areas of email, pictures, music, etc. This would also make it easier for portable devices to all run on the same software. The arguments against are centered around the importance of competition in an issue like this. If there were only one operating system, competition would be eliminated, and thus companies would have no incentive for innovation. Competition breeds innovation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/technology/13apple.html?ex=1271044800&en=0e0e0817aa6517f8&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

In-class

I have always been fascinated by technology. Anything that is supposed to be the latest and greatest gadget really catches my eye. For many years now, Sharper Image has been my favorite catalog; even more so than the sports apparel magazines. I am intrigued by the transformation of technology over the years, from my family’s first computer to our 200 GB desktop, or even from our super-slow AOL dial-up to our wireless DSL network. For a period of time in high school I was extremely fascinated by nanotechnology, because that is where I saw the world of technology going. It seemed as though everything was trying to incorporate nanotechnology in an effort to make gadgets smaller, faster, and more powerful than their predecessors. Since that time I have shifted more to the area of consumer electronics—everything from iPods to laptops to cell phones to TVs. I was so intrigued by these things that I even wrote my admission essay to Stanford on the success of Steve Jobs in his creation of the iPod, and how this has become an international icon. Needless to say, it worked.

First post

Monday night, just finished first day of sophomore year. I have been up since 6am, since we had morning running. This is my first offical assignment, creating a blog, which is kind of fun. To think that this summer I didn't even know what a blog was!