Mobile Making a Move?

Two months ago on the blog for the Advancing the Story textbook she co-authored, Deborah Wenger posted about Steve Shamp who directs the New Media Institute at the University of Georgia.

Wenger wrote that after Shamp returned from a conference on mobile media, he is convinced that mobile media are now the best way to communicate with the world.

Shamp bases this on the fact that out of 6.6. billion people all over the world, 3.3 billion have a cell phone, while there are only 1.6 billion televisions and a few more radios than TVs. He says there are right now people all over the world trying to get out front through this medium.

In response Wenger wants to know if any are journalists.

I think probably not; at least not right now anyway.

Only after a lot of moaning and groaning after the internet has been around at a consumer level for nearly twenty years are we finally seeing news outlets take advantage of its immediacy.

Unfortunately it seems that news organizations are resistant to change unless they are the ones bringing it about.

However, I do believe the iPhone along with other smartphones such as the Blackberry, are going to force them to take notice of the obvious appeal of news anywhere at anytime.

To give news organizations credit though, not until the iPhone were consumers able to easily and comfortably search for news on their phone. That sort of thing was only available on a laptop with Wi-Fi. Sure cell phones have had internet for years, but it's slow and very hard to read.

That aside, I definitely agree with Shamp and while he mentioned something about advertising being lucrative on mobile devices, I hope that any news organizations that choose to take advantage of the platforms shy away from flooding our iPhones and Blackberrys with ads whenever we want to check the headlines.

We already have TVs for that.

The Campus Gun Debate: Are More Guns the Answer?

Graphic by Wayne Grayson





Dead gun bills found little support on UA campus
By Wayne Grayson

For years, many parents had a short list of things to fear when sending their children off to college: a dirty dorm room, the ever-present alcohol problem, responsible sexual behavior and last but not least flunking out.

As of late however, these problems have been overshadowed by the worsening situation of security on college campuses as seen in the Virginia Tech Massacre and the recent shootings at Auburn University and the University of North Carolina.

Alabama Sen. Hank Erwin’s solution to the problem was spelled out in a pair of bills he offered for consideration in the state legislative session starting Feb 5 which call for state colleges and universities to allow professors and qualified students to carry guns.

“The college campus has always been considered to be a bubble of security where students can come and grow into adulthood,” Erwin said. “But Virginia Tech smashed that to smithereens.

“I say it’s time to let the law abiding students defend themselves.”

On March 26, Erwin’s bills were put to rest when they were voted down by the Senate Education Committee.

However, while many UA officials and students will be glad to see the bills go, there was some support of Erwin’s bills on campus.

Chad Haynie, a sophomore majoring in political science, is the campus leader of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

Haynie said students who own guns are allowed to carry them everywhere they go except on campus.

“[Students] want their rights to extend onto campus which is state and public property,” he said.

What stops students from carrying a gun on campus is the UA Code of Student Conduct.

According to the document, illegal or unauthorized possession of firearms, explosives, other weapons, or dangerous chemicals on University premises is prohibited.

Haynie said he believes the definition in the code of unauthorized possession is unclear and needs to be addressed by the University.

“What we're going to look into is whether they can legally do that because they're sitting on the fence,” Haynie said. “If the University does not clarify we probably will look at our legal options to see if we can make the University make a stand.”

On Feb. 28, the SGA unanimously passed a bill discouraging the passing of Erwin's bill.

"[The] student body supports [the] current safety procedures of the University, but we encourage research of other ways to keep us safe," SGA Vice-President Madeline Barter said.

However, Barter said the bill is not to imply that the SGA is against guns on campus, it is only against Erwin’s particular legislation which the SGA found to be flawed.

Barter, on the other hand is against students being allowed to carry on campus. She said she feels the pressures of college life along with the emotional changes many college students are going through does not make a good environment when guns are thrown in the mix.

“Guns in that atmosphere does not sound like a good idea,” she said.

SGA President R.B. Walker said he believes the current security precautions on campus are suitable to handle an emergency situation should it occur.

“I appreciate Senator Erwin’s concern for student safety, but as a student on this campus I have enough faith in the UAPD and other forms of local law enforcement to protect students and I have faith in this administration to get students ready for the unthinkable,” Walker said.

The bills didn’t find support with University police either.

According to an e-mail from UA spokeswoman Cathy Andreen, UAPD feels students are ill-equipped to make the life or death situations carrying a firearm bring about.

“While the bill is well-intentioned, it is ill-advised for students to be allowed to carry firearms on campus,” the e-mail said. “Preparation for safe operation of firearms in an emergency situation requires extensive training that most students would not have had nor would the University be able to provide that training in a timely manner.”

A commander of the campus Army ROTC program who wished to remain anonymous said, in his opinion, the bill was dead on arrival.

According to the commander, the ROTC is prohibited by U.S. law and a Department of Defense policy from arming students unless they are traveling to a rifle range for target training.

What the bill will do, the commander said, is cause Universities to legitimize ordinary students to make life and death decisions.

Phillip Martin, a junior majoring in business, said he wasn’t suprised the bills were voted down and doesn’t think the bills were a good idea because they put a lot of responsibility into unprepared hands.

“[The bill] was just dumb,” he said. “I’m all for the right to bear arms and I love to shoot [guns,] but it’s just dumb to allow them to be carried on campus. You’re letting people make decisions that they don’t need to be making.”

Russell Howard, a senior majoring in political science, is a member of the National Rifle Association. However, even he said he feels the bills were unsound.

He said campus security should be left in the hands of UAPD alone.

“When I’m on campus I put my security in the hands of UAPD, not Billy down the street with a gun in his truck,” Howard said. “There are some very stupid people in the world who can get a gun permit and carry [a gun.]”

While Erwin heard a lot of opposition outside the state Senate to his bill, he said he believed there was a lot of quiet support within the legislative walls in Montgomery.

“The University officials are going to fear massive lawsuits and liabilities,” he said. “At the same time there is the support of giving law abiding students the right to defend themselves. We’re living in a brave new world that requires bold new laws.”

Erwin said he thought the bill had a fifty-fifty chance of passing.

“Everybody down here in Montgomery is a father and grandfather and we don't want to see our kids the victim of a homicidal maniac,” he said.







Exclusive interview: Erwin amends gun bills
By Wayne Grayson

Following the murders of a female student at the University of North Carolina and another at Auburn University, Sen. Hank Erwin decided to amend one of his highly debated campus gun bills.

Erwin made the announcement in an exclusive interview, before going into a committee meeting on the morning of March 13.

The first amendment removed a portion of the current legislation, which allowed students who meet certain qualifications to carry a gun on state university and college campuses, that requires students to be involved in a campus ROTC program.

A second amendment disqualified any students on any psychological drugs from consideration for carrying a gun on campus.

Erwin said he included the ROTC portion in the first draft of the bill as a test experiment to ease the minds of university officials.

“I put that in there originally to make that as a test experiment to make that a very narrow bill that would maybe give feelings of security to the university officials all over the state of Alabama that we’re not going to open this up and make it a Wild West,” he said.

He said he felt the requirement added an element of supervision to the process required for students to carry a gun.

“It led led me to think that with that type of military training and professionalism that they would be the best ones to experiment with to see if it would work,” Erwin said.

However, after the shootings at Aubrun and UNC, Erwin said he had no choice but to amend the bills.

“I’m going to put in an amendment to delete that particular point so that it opens it up to any student especially women,” he said. “After the Auburn shooting I want to make sure that women have priority to be able to carry on campus.”

“The girls are the most vulnerable, and I know that a lot of parents are concerned about the safety of their girls when they send them off even if they’re sending them out down the road to the grocery store,” Erwin said. “And some parents have gone so far as to get their girls license to carry even when they’re not in college. So why should they be denied the right to protect themselves on a college campus if their parents feel like they ought to be protected when they’re going to the shopping mall.”

Erwin said he feels when universities impede students from bringing guns onto their respective campuses they are breaking state law.

“If the state feels like you’re qualified to carry in your own hometown, why would you not be able to carry on a college campus,” Erwin said.

Erwin said the second amendment, which added a stipulation to the legislation that prevented students who are on any psychological drugs from carrying a gun on campus, will ensure that those students with a gun on campus will be able to make clear-minded decisions.

“[The amendment is designed] to ensure that folks who have some emotional challenges don’t create a problem to the entire student while they work through those challenges,” he said.

Erwin offered the bills for consideration in the state legislative session starting Feb. 5th and said he was inspired to do so after witnessing the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings on April 16th, 2007. The bills were rejected by a senate committee on March 26.

“The college campus has always been considered to be a bubble of security where students can come and grow into adulthood,” Erwin said. “But Virginia Tech smashed that to smithereens.

“I say it’s time to let the law abiding students defend themselves.”

UA students say votes significant

Obama choice for most students

By Wayne Grayson and Charity Scott

The Crimson White

(*Note: This story ran last Wednesday in the Crimson White.)

With nine months left until America elects the next president, some UA students are already getting excited.

Some students said they think the state caucuses and primaries are just as important as the real thing, and they showed it as a steady stream of students flowed through the doors of the Student Recreation Center Tuesday.

The overwhelming sentiment among students interviewed was a deep belief in the importance of the college-aged vote and a desire to have their political opinions heard.

Brittni Robertson, a senior majoring in biology, said she thinks the youth vote is more important now than it has been in the past, and that is evident in how media channels such as MTV and CNN have been progressively gearing election coverage toward the college age group.

Robertson said she came out to vote because it would be a waste not to.

"I just wanted to exercise my right to [vote] because it's a privilege that shouldn't be taken for granted," she said.

Daniel Gaffney, a junior majoring in biological sciences, said college-aged voters should be highly valued.

"I would hope that people understand that [our vote] does count, because we are the future," he said.



Spreading the word

Jennifer Greer, associate professor and chairwoman of the journalism department, said taking advantage of the Internet is helping candidates reach out to younger voters.

Many of the candidates have gone beyond basic Web sites in their online campaigns, she said.

"When candidates first went online, they had little more than a stagnant Web site with a glossy picture and platform statement," she said. "Before, it was mainly one-way communication. Now it's becoming more interactive."

Young voters are going to hold sway on the outcome of both the primaries and the general election, Greer said.

"I think they are going to impact turnout," she said. "Candidates are now going to the places where students congregate online."

Amongst these Web sites are www.myspace.com, www.facebook.com, and www.youtube.com. All of the main candidates have used at least one of these forums in their campaign.

In fact, some students have been expressing their political fervor through their Facebook status updates, with one student urging others to "Google Ron Paul," and another claiming to be "Huckacited."

One of the candidates most dependent on the youth vote is Rep. Ron Paul.

According to Matt Chancey, the Southeast regional coordinator for the Paul campaign, the largest group of Paul supporters is made-up of people under 30-years-old.

"There's a lot of Ron Paul workers working their tails off and they're not even old enough to vote," Chancey said.

Chancey attributes Paul's young support base to the way the campaign is based on "outside of the box" ideas and a strong online spread of information on the candidate.

"It's inspirational for a young person to see a leader who's leading and not pandering," he said. "For a young person to see someone who is 72-years-old and a seasoned statesman and is still as enthusiastic as they are - it's inspiring," Chancey said.

Sen. Barack Obama also holds a large block of college-aged supporters that continues to grow.

Obama supporter Alex Flachsbart, a junior majoring in political science, said the Obama campaign is largely a grassroots one, focused on building a wide base of support nationwide.

"From day one we were trying to draw young people," he said. "It has worked because Sen. Obama has catalyzed the movement for change."

He said the local campaign office has tried to engage students through phone calls, going door-to-door to speak with potential voters, holding interest meetings, posting fliers, chalking on campus and passing out information.

"College students have been the backbone of the Obama campaign from the start," he said. "He is the first one to say college students have the ability and the obligation to get involved. He is the first person in 50 years to reach out to us and engage us."

Ben Foster, a junior majoring in telecommunication and film, is a supporter of Sen. John McCain and said resource constraints have impacted the local campaign and its ability to reach students.

"Honestly, we haven't had a lot of student involvement," he said. "We have been trying to push a grassroots effort and do the small things."

He said they have focused on informing people as well as getting McCain's name out there through bumper stickers, Facebook messages and yard signs.

"We've suddenly been getting an attention surge in the past month, and that's very exciting for us," he said. "We're getting help from Sen. McCain's success in other states."

He said he thinks a lot of students are excited about McCain and his platform.

"The Democrats don't have a monopoly on change," he said. "Students are ready to contribute."

Jackson McClendon, a supporter of Gov. Mitt Romney, said after meeting Romney through a family friend he decided to get involved.

"He has a genuine and very fierce work ethic, and a solid platform," he said.

Besides rallies, McClendon said the campaign has distributed a lot of information to let students know where Romney stands on the issues. He said they have not focused on the youth vote as much as other campaigns.

"The majority [of students] are pretty much indifferent," he said. "Some are choosing the candidates at face value, and some are zealously backing their candidates."



Al-Obama

Despite all the candidates' work, according to uwire.com, students across the nation have heard the message of Obama most clearly, reporting him as sharing with McCain a majority of the endorsements from college student newspapers associated with the Web site.

That report translated to the University. Out of 27 students interviewed, 14 said they cast their ballots for Obama, with Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul tied for a distant second, with four votes each.

Rebecca Kaplan, a junior majoring in fashion design, said she voted for Obama because his plans fit her personal beliefs well.

"I voted for Obama because I want to get out of Iraq," Kaplan said. "I like all of his plans. You can just trust him. I don't think you can trust anything with Hillary [Clinton], who voted for the war. I'd rather vote for someone who has been right from the beginning."

Bonnie Stith, a senior in New College, said that she voted for Obama because he has not spent as much time in politics as Clinton.

"It's really difficult for me to think that 35 years of Hillary's experience means that there hasn't been 35 years of corruption," she said.



Martha Gravlee and uwire.com also contributed to this story.

Inside Old Bryce State Mental Hospital

A few friends and I decided to take a trip this Friday night into the old and dilapidated annex of Bryce State Mental Hospital near the Tuscaloosa Airport off of Highway 82.

There isn't much information on the web on the history of the annex but I found a good compilation of the rumors and what is known about the place on the al.com ghost stories forum:

"Actually, what everyone calls "Old Bryce" appears to have been a mental institution built as the sister to Bryce Hospital. Bryce is located in Tuscaloosa next to the University of Alabama.

'Old Bryce' was the mental hospital for black patients during segregation, from what I understand. There has indeed been a fire, and the building may be structurally unsound. During wetter seasons of the year, the basement floods, and is impossible to navigate around.

It is not advisable to enter Bryce, as it is constantly under surveillance by the local police, trying to keep trespassers away. It is owned by the state of Alabama, as is the S.D. Allen nursing home that sits on the land adjacent to "Old Bryce."
Old Bryce was actually called either The Colony or the Boy's Colony. As for the reason that it closed down, there is speculation that experiments were performed on the patients that may have been inhumane (lobotomies, for instance). But at the time, these procedures were considered legitimate medicine.

Personally, I think the institution was shut down because of desegregation, but I don't know why Bryce would not use it as additional facilities if that were the case... the buildings were built nearly identically to each other, and they are both owned by the state."

Since there isn't a lot of information or video of the inside of this place I decided to post a video of our adventure inside.
Enjoy.

Visuals from Bessemer Polling Locations

I visited two Bessemer polling locations today, the city fire department and City Hall. Not much was going on at either one, and I was not allowed to come inside the actual buildings so most of these shots are from the outside.

I mostly took pictures but I also chatted with some of those that voted. From my perspective Bessemer, at least the downtown portion, looks highly supportive of the Democratic candidates, Obama and Clinton. However, Obama had many more supporters outside the locations.

Here are the rest of the shots.

New York Giants Win Super Bowl 17-14 Over the New England Patriots

The New York Giants just upset the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. 

I am speechless and EXTREMELY excited. Being a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I hold a deep hatred for the entire Patriots organization. I'm so happy that all of this build up that the media has made for the Patriots and their "perfect season" has been for naught.

They are still not a dynasty.

I'm extremely happy for Eli Manning, Michael Strahan and Giants head coach Tom Coughlin, all of who definitely deserve the win. 

Oh yeah. The game was probably one of the best of the past 20 years of Super Bowls. (Except the one two years ago which the Steelers won.)

Hey Tom. Go cry to Giselle.

GO GIANTS!!!

UPDATE: FOX Sports just revealed the results of their poll asking who is the greatest dynasty of the decades.

The winners (of course) were the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s with a whopping 29% of the vote with the Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s coming in second.

Republican Debate at the Reagan Library

Last night I watched the Republican Debate from the Reagan Library on CNN.

Disgusting.

While there were four candidates, CNN obviously thought two didn't really matter much and decided to give Arizona Sen. John McCain and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney a 1 hour 30 minute outlet to bicker with each other.

Meanwhile, our country falls deeper into recession. But I digress.

I counted while watching and Texas Rep. Ron Paul had no more than 4 opportunities to speak during the entire thing. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to Paul's right had maybe two more opportunities.

However, even though Paul definitely had the least time to speak, he still managed to come out looking better than both the smirk riddled jerks to his left. 

Here are the highlights from Ron Paul's side last night:

Hopefully enough American voters saw this last night to realize the top two candidates in this race are full of themselves and not very many good ideas.

David Shribman speaks at Gorgas Library

Executive Editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette discussed the bright future of "the papers"

In our on-demand world, as technology continues to advance and the internet continues to grow, more and more people are getting the news from cell phones and computers, while less and less are getting it from an actual newspaper.

In fact, many think the newspaper business is dying.

Just don’t tell David Shribman.

The executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette spoke Tuesday night at Gorgas

Library on, according to Shribman, the bright future of newspapers.

He began, however, with the past.

“When I started in this business we set our type with hot metal and wrote our stories with typewriters,” Shribman said.

Shribman noted how much things have changed since those days, telling the audience about his granddaughter who calls the typewriter Shribman has kept after all of these years “grandpa’s old printing machine.”

Now, with the luxury of computers and e-mail, many reporters don’t even need to step foot into a newsroom to get their stories to an editor.

But Shribman said the internet will never drive newspapers into extinction, noting the Post-Gazette’s Web site only garners four per cent of the paper’s total profit.

This isn’t to say no one visits the site. In fact there are quite a few Pittsburghers who get their news from the online edition of the paper. According to Post-Gazette.com, every month 2.8 million users generate 40 million page views.

However, some things never change. The business still makes those who practice it very busy people and Shribman said he has a lot of responsibility to worry about. But Shribman said good editors are supposed to worry.

“And I must be a damn good editor because I worry a hell of a lot,” he said.

Shribman said newspapers are and always will be around because those who rule our nation, its people, need information to continue making proper decisions. Newspapers go out and get that information for them.

But in giving the people this information, many see newspapers and the media in general, as a group of skeptics overly critical of the government. Schribman disagreed.

“We’re not skeptical because we don’t believe in the founding principle of our country,” he said. “We’re skeptical because we believe in them utterly.”

However, Shribman said finding information is not all newspapers do.

“The role we play in this society is not only as hunter-gatherers,” he said. “We’re cultivators…We’re cultivators of an endangered way of life that deserves to survive.”

As the talk progressed, Shribman said the newspaper business is in the middle of a crisis of confidence.

He called for a reforming of what the business does and for those in it to remember the other industries which went through the same kind of period and have survived.

Shribman said he encourages his staff to embrace the future.

“We have to be open to the future and open to its challenges,” he said. “We’re not in the newspaper business, we’re in the news business.”

Another Shift in the Making?

I found it very odd when the "hot topic" in the Republican debates shifted from Iraq to the economy after Ron Paul had consistently owned the other candidates on the war topic. 

Yes, the economy is a huge topic, but we cannot just sweep Iraq under the rug. The best way to handle the two would be to realize what Dr. Paul has realized.

When the moderators of the debates have chosen to let him talk, Paul has consistently spoken on the economy and the obvious recession (that many over at FOX News continue to ignore) we are currently in. That is because he feels Iraq and the economy are inseparable. Our recession is a direct effect of the awful decisions we have made in invading another country. As the dollar continues to go down, the price of OIL continues to rise with our continued involvement in the Middle East since they control these prices.

Anyway, Dr. Paul released a new economic stimulus plan and it is good stuff. According to RonPaul2008.com, the plan is based on four points:

  

"The four areas that the plan covers are:

1. Tax Reform: Reduce the tax burden and eliminate taxes that punish investment and savings, including job-killing corporate taxes.

2. Spending Reform: Eliminate wasteful spending. Reduce overseas commitments. Freeze all non-defense, non-entitlement spending at current levels.

3. Monetary Policy Reform: Expand openness with the Federal Reserve and require the Fed to televise its meetings. Return value to our money.

4. Regulatory Reform: Repeal Sarbanes/Oxley regulations that push companies to seek capital outside of US markets. Stop restricting community banks from fostering local economic growth."

All of this makes me wonder if the "hot topic" will shift once again as Dr. Paul owns his opponents once again on this issue.

You can check out the whole plan here.

CNN Coverage of King Day

For me, one of the neat facets of the King holiday every year, is the attention it receives from the media. Each year, I usually end up learning something new about Dr. King and the message he died fighting for.

Maybe it was just me, but this year, I didn't see very much coverage of the holiday, at least on the TV end of things. 

However, CNN did have good coverage of the day including a great piece by one of their reporters Soledad O'Brien that aired a few times. The piece was just done well from every aspect, the writing, the shooting, everything.I tried to find a YouTube video for that but was unsuccessful. I would check to see if it is coming on again as it was very, very good.

In addition, many of their regular programming that day were themed around the holiday.

Here is a video made possible by a really cool feature CNN has called the i-Report which regular watchers to upload their videos of important events to the CNN website which CNN then airs for a unique point of view. 

i-Report on Parade

And how can we forget about, the Democratic debate that aired on CNN that night? Before Obama and Clinton went for each other's throats that night, they and Edwards spoke that day about Dr. King. Here is footage from the CNN site.

Democrats on King

Off the television, CNN put together a very cool section of their website in honor of Dr. King. It is called the Road to Equality.

There you can find many stories on the holiday as well as iReport videos from viewers.

There is also another portion of the site dedicated to the King papers here.

All in all I have to say that CNN takes the award in covering the holiday. Not only with the stories they ran on TV, but their website holds some very good and very well organized information for anyone wishing to learn more about Dr. King.

Macworld 08... Thinner Air

Hi-ya. 

Being the unabashed Apple fanboy that I am, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the announcements from Apple CEO Steve Jobs's keynote at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco this past Tuesday.In the keynote he made four announcements, so for the sake of organization, we'll use that format to discuss them.

1.Time Capsule

In short, a very, very cool idea. Steve explained it best during the keynote as a less annoying companion for Time Machine than your wired external hard drive. It utilizes Apple's awesome Airport Extreme 802.11 N wireless technology to wirelessly back up your system and comes in the impressive 500 GB version and the you'll probably-never-need-this-much-space 1 terabyte version at $299 and $499 respectively. On top of that, it's also a full Airport base station. Those are pretty great prices for very big hard drives and when you factor in the wireless feature, you can't help but say hats off to Steve and the guys at Apple for this one. I personally don't use the Time Machine feature because I don't have a real reason to do so, but this is certainly the way to go in my book if that appeals to you.

2.iPhone and iPod Touch Software Updates

For iPhone owners, this isn't a very big deal. You all get a free software upgrade of the already 

awesome features that came with your Jesus Phone. The Maps application now uses the phone's GPS capabilities to pinpoint your exact location to make finding your way to places easier. A new feature is the web clips capability that is similar to the one that was introduced with Leopard's version of the Safari browser. It allows the user to essentially create their own widgets out of sections of their favorite web pages and, on the iPhone, post these widgets to their home screen. Speaking of home screens, the latest update allows users to customize their home screen and flip through up to 9 different ones.

It's iPod Touch owners, like me, that have reason to be excited about the update. That is, if you can justify the $19.99 price mark Apple has placed on it. The update adds the Mail, Maps, Weather, Notes and Stocks applications to the iPod along with the new customizable home screen feature and Web clips. Personally, I have been waiting for this update for a while mainly for the Mail application because it by far my favorite native Mac application. Maps is a cool application as well, I just don't know how much I can say for its overall worth in terms of use because you will need to have the Wi-Fi connections in order to use it. Of course, that goes for all of the iPod touch's internet features, but any maps program would be better suited if it could be used anywhere on the go.

The Weather app will also be cool but is also limited by the need for a Wi-Fi connection. I will never use the Stocks app. But I am excited about the Notepad app. I've wanted that for a while as well. The customizable home 

screen feature should have come standard in my opinion, but I will use it.

3. iTunes Movie Rentals and AppleTV "Take 2"

I think this is a huge step in the rental industry, albeit a late one. When Apple first released their AppleTV a year ago, it was done very sloppily with very little hard drive space and almost zero push for the product. After nearly falling flat on its face the AppleTV is back with an all new software update bearing the name "Take 2," allowing users to stream content directly from the internet AND rent movies in standard definition and HD. Of course you can also rent movies for use on your computer or iPod too, but this move is one step closer to the end of movie rental chains and the dreaded late fee.

When renting through iTunes you download a movie from apple and once it has completed at least 30% of the download you can choose to begin watching. If you choose to wait, you have 30 days to begin watching, but once you hit play you must finish within 24 hours. Also, within that 24 hours, you can watch it as many times as you want. Once your 24 hours are up, the file disappears from your computer automatically. I'm not sure how that works on the iPod front, but I'm guessing that the next time you sync it, it takes it off.

Like I said, I am very much for this and at $2.99 for SD and $3.99 for HD, the prices beat or match that of the big rental chains, and hey, you don't have to drive to get them or wait to they come in the mail. Thanks, Apple.

4. MacBook Air

Weighing in at only three pounds and measuring in at 0.76 inches at its thickest point and 0.16 inches at its thinnest, this 13-inch laptop dropped jaws when Jobs slyly pulled it out of its manilla envelope. This little guy surrounded Mr. Jobs's keynote with a considerable bit of buzz. The rumors were flying for months in advance about what Apple's new ultra-portable laptop would thrill us with and much of those rumors turned out to be true. 

There was one rumor however that didn't turn out true, and it was the one that we all held most dearly. Early on, it was said that Apple would attempt to price the Air competitively with Dell at around $750. So when Steve broke the news that this piece of art would put us in the hole a cool $1799 at the base price, our hearts broke. 

Another big rumor that did come true was that about the solid state hard drive not unlike those that power the iPhone, iPod touch and iPod Nano. Basically these are very tiny hard drives with NO moving parts, making them extremely more durable and perfect for on-the-go use, not to mention the boot time with a solid state drive is next to nothing because they are lightning quick. However, some of us neglected to think about how new the technology is and how much something like this costs. At its base price, Air holds a regular 80 GB hard drive, but the consumer can opt for the $999 upgrade to the 64 GB solid state hard drive. All in all, if you want the the solid state version of the Air, you're looking at spending about $3,000. Wow is right.

On top of all this is the sheer fact that this is not a very practical laptop. I paid about $1700 for my nearly maxed out MacBook, which boasts a 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 120 GB hard drive. Without the solid state hard drive, the Air would be a downgrade that would COST me $1300 bucks.

But it isn't all bad for the Air. Since there is no included optical drive with the Air, the guys at Apple brainstormed and came up with two great ideas. The first is the ability to use the optical drive of another computer on the same network be it PC OR Mac. All you do is install the software on the other computer you want to use and its drive is now yours. This is mainly for software downloads and installations and I don't know if it would work for watching movies or not. The second option is the super slim SuperDrive that allows you to both view and burn DVDs and CDs. Best of all it's only $99. Wow. However, for those hoping to score a cheap burner for their existing system, it ONLY works with the Air.

Overall, the Air is really for rich Apple supporters who want an oversized PDA when they're on the go to do their work on. But don't dismiss the Air yet. As with all successful Apple products ( iPod, OS X, AppleTV, etc.), it will need time to reach its full potential. Until the price drops and more realistic reasons to buy the thing surface, marvel at the sheer beauty of its design and the mere fact that it actually exists and REALLY is that thin.

In my book, MacWorld went pretty well this year. Three hits for Apple, and only one slight miss. I'm going to end up definitely using two of the announcements and in regards to the Air, its probably a good thing it ended up being so expensive in that it saved me from buying another computer 6 months after buying the Mac I'm on now. 

Basically, yeah, the Air is expensive, but get over it.

Hugh Davis Farm Journals, UA Digital Collections

During class Monday, we had the pleasure of meeting the fine individuals who who manage and add to the UA Libraries Digital collections. Essentially what these people do is take many, many pictures of old artifacts, including portraits, old UA yearbooks, and in this case, farm journals from 1849, and scan them into an online database for research purposes.

Hugh Davis kept journals of his exploits on the form to keep a record for future reference. Below is an image scan of one of the pages from his 1849-1854 journal.

You may not be able to read the writing, but this entry is a "Sick List" showing when members of the Davis family got sick, what they had and how many days of work they missed. It seems the measles were rampant at the time.

The director of the Digital Collections said these journals would serve as a good look into  the weather patterns of the South when scientists studying Global Warming need to research a date preceding the forming of the National Weather Service. Interesting stuff.

A New Age?

Welcome JN 325!

In the past, this blog has been a creative outlet for me. There are a lot of poems and prose on here dating all the way back to my senior year in high school. However, I thought it might be interesting to go ahead and revamp things on this page a little with the content that I will be posting for JN 325 at UA. Hopefully my visits to this page to post 325 content will force me to begin re-posting the material this blog housed originally. I must say I have missed the discussions this blog used to generate.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wayne