Salmon Creek

Last weekend, I went to Salmon Creek campground, located outside Oakridge, Oregon,  to take photos. It was late afternoon and very sunny when I got there. The Willamette river runs along the outside edge of the campground, which also has a day use area. The campground isn't opened yet, so we parked and walked in to take the photos.

The weather was beautiful; clear, sunny and shining right down the river.  The walk along the trail was fairly easy as was the climb down to the river to get photos of the falls.

This was taken en route to the falls from up above. Yes, the water really is that color.

This flower was along the trail. We were still walking towards the falls. Does anyone know what flower it is?

Here is the falls. I have been told that this falls does not run full all year. That it slows down to a trickle in the summer months. This year it should run even less considering that so far the snow and rain levels are well below normal.

Next trip out, I will have to do either early in the morning or when it is overcast. And I am going to do some more exploring in the area. There is supposedly a bridge somewhere near by.

Web 2.0 Assignment 9

For assignment 9, in the Web 2.0 class we had to read about the DMCA on the Electronic Frontier Foundation website and then post a blog about it.

DMCA is limiting and restricting free expression and scientific research. It has been used to control and beat down professionals in various fields.

It is jeopardizes fair use. It has made it so that owners of DVDs can’t make legitimate and personal use use copies of the DVDs that they have purchased.

It hinders or impeded competition and innovation. Some have used DMCA to hinder or slow down their competitors such as after market competition in laser printer toner cartridges, garage door openers, etc.
Apple has also used DMCA to limit its iPhone and iPod devices to Apple’s own software and services.

It interferes with computer intrusions laws. It has been misused as a weapon of retaliation. For example, a disgruntled employer has used DMCA against a former employee. The violation, the former contractor connected to the company’s computer system via a virtual private network (VPN)[www.eff.org Unintended Consequences : Twelve Years under the DMCA)


The DMCA needs to be changed. I am unsure as to how. A good start would be to make those who use it to bully or threaten accountable for their actions. SO far, it appears that they have not been held accountable at all.

Perhaps a DMCA should be rewritten and tightened up. Research needs to be able to be freely conducted. More importantly, the results need to be able to be published without fear of being punished or retaliated against.

Fair use needs to be allowed. What has been going on is not acceptable. If I want to burn a copy of a DVD or CD that I purchased so that my original remains in new condition, I should be able to do. I should also be able to burn copies for my son to use. I should also be able to do so. If I want to use music and various clips to produce videos for sites such as YouTube, I should be able to do so.

Mashup Assignment

Web 2.0 Assignement 5

For Web 2.0, we had to answer the questions below using Google and Wolfram to find the answers. 

1.       All English words containing the letters "eue"

I like Google better. Wolfram was a pita to use. I had to rephrase my question way too many times for me to even consider this to be a valid search tool for this type of information.

Using Google, I found the website http://www.morewords.com. The following words were listed there: feued, queue, queued, queueing, queuer, queuer, queuers, and queues.

On Wolfram, I found three words that contain the letters “eue” in sequence; queue, queued and
queues.

2. How much potassium in 4.7 oz of banana?

Wolfram returned the information immediately. It is 475 milligrams. Google required too much digging to get the information.

3. How old was Barack Obama on the day you were born?

Wolfram returned the result immediately. He was 3 years, 6 month and 23 days.

Google turned up many results for a Barrack Obama senior, not the president. Too much digging and or rephrasing required to get the answer.

4. Date and time of the next total solar eclipse in Eugene?

Google turned up this answer for the next total solar eclipse: August 21 2017 (found on http://www.hermit.org/eclipse/2017-08-21/) further digging in the article turned up a time: 17:21 (24 hour time), 5:21 pm.  (Based on a graphic showing the path of the eclipse and the approximate time it would pass over a specific location).

Wolfram:  12:25 MDT August 21, 2017 (What is MDT?)

5. What is the minimum and maximum price of Google stock since it went public?

Google: minimum price was $85 the day it was first listed; the maximum was $747.24 on November 7, 2007.  I found this information on two different websites. (Google was faster for me)

Wolfram showed graphs for the stock prices. I had to ask the question several different ways.  Minimum price was less than $100. Maximum price I was unable to find because I couldn’t think of a way that Wolfram could understand what I was looking for.

6. Link an image of the barcode for UPC 01234567890

 Wolfram found the following: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=barcode+01234567890   This page shows three different versions of the barcode.

Google found several sites that had the barcode, include other students’ blogs. One place to find it is http://www.activebarcode.com/codes/images/upce.gif .

7. How many vertices does an icosahedron have?

Twelve. Both Wolfram and Google turned up an answer quickly.

8. Distance from Eugene to Tokyo?

Wolfram gave an answer of 4886 miles. Google said it was 13882 flight miles. Actual distance Wolfram gave the answer, but for actual travel miles, Google gave the answer.

9. Average Oregon income per capita?

Wolfram gave the answer of $31930/year (2007 estimate). Google gave more recent information: $35,956/year (2008) source: http://www.qualityinfo.org/pubs/single/pcpi.pdf

10. What is the Morse code for your first name?

_._ |.. | _ _ | _ ... | .| ._. | . _ . . | _ . _ _ 

 K      I       M      B       E    R       L             Y

Both Wolfram and Google found the answer quickly. Wolfram provided that answer only, while Google provided additional information that could be used or discarded as needed. 

http://www.pokemyname.com/firstname_2265_kimberly.htm is one of the sites I found on Google. It showed my name in Morse code and Braille among others. It also provided other interesting information about the name Kimberly.

Internet censorship

For the web 2.0 class I am taking, we had to do some research on internet censorship. We were given specific terms to research on the following search engines: google.com, bing.com and from China, baidu.com (CHina's search engine) and google.cn (Google's china website). The terms and what I found out are listed below.

1. uss yorktown nt
The results for each search engine were very similar. I suspect that this is because the subject was not offensive to the current Chinese government.

2. google china censorship
With google.com and bing.com, I managed to find stories about the censorship that  covered it in depth and about the impact on people. While I was able to find stories on china censorship on the other two search engine, the summaries were not in depth and were tended to be slanted towards the Chinese government rather than what was actually happening.

3. Tiananmen Square
Both google.com and bing.com had results that covered the Tiananmen massacre/protest as well as general information about the location. There was also basic tourist information available as well as a virtual tour. Videos were also listed. History information was available.

Baidu.com listed the following results: results for the Olympics that were held there, tourist information and general information that residents would use. There was also some tourist information listed. There was no mention of the student protests or any results that would show the Chinese government in a bad light.

Google.cn showed similar results and images. Once again there was nothing controversial and nothing that could be considered offensive to the Chinese government. If it can't be seen by the residents of that country, then nothing of that nature has ever happened. With enough time and brainwashing, history can be rewritten for the residents of China. I find this to be disturbing. It is difficult enough to find factual and truthful information online without having to worry about access to information being limited and the information sanitized ; and even worse being rewritten with no regard to what the truth actually is.

4. Taiwan Independence
To a point, all four search engine showed similar results. The search engine that are china based showed less detailed summaries or synopsis. Once again, it appears that the results are sanitized and limited on those search engines.

While I can see the appeal of censoring hate groups to prevent them from spreading their poison and infecting others, censorship is a dangerous practice. Great harm can be done by changing the truth into lies. There is a fine line to walk.  Certain things should be censored or controlled. What is going on in world events should be told in a factual and truthful manner, not censored because it might make your government look bad or make said government's population think and question what is going on.

Some photo samples

For Web 2.0, we have to post some photos. Here are some photos that I took during the summer and early fall.

This photo was taken from the top of Mule Mountain located outside Oakridge, Oregon. This was the same day that the thunder storm started the Tumblebug Fire complex. We could hear the thunder and see some of the lighting in the distance. 

This photo was also taken from the top of Mule Mountain. Some sunlight was staring to show through the clouds when I took this photo. Rain was on the way though. We left shortly after the photo was taken due to incoming storm.

This photo was taken in the Cement Falls area. Cement Falls is located near the old Rigdon Forest Service Ranger station. The bee was somewhat cooperative while I was taking  photos.

All of these photos were taken with a Canon Rebel camera.

Please note, I retain all copy rights to my work. Permission must be obtained to use my photos.

the cheapskate a CNET blog

This is a blog that I check on a very regular basis. Rick Broida has posted some very good deals on technology, and has provided good information on how to locate promotions and coupons to make the good deals even better.

The cheapskate is located on CNET website. There are other blogs there on different technology related subjects. (What can I say, I am a CIT student. What few blogs I may follow are either technology or multi-media oriented.)

Speaking of multi-media, check out Web Design Blog for free templates, vector graphics and tools for web designers. There is even a e-mail newsletter available.

Legend of Zelda

I have been a big fan of the Legend of Zelda for over ten years. After watching one of the "Holding out for a hero" (Bonnie Tyler's song) Legend of Zelda videos convinced me to upgrade my toy to the Wii. Until last February, the most recent game console in my home was the Nintendo 64. I love the graphics in Twilight Princess.

I also very much want to learn how to make videos like this. Enjoy the video. The music is"It's my Life" by Bon Jovi. (So old school as a certain someone has informed me. )

Flash drive failure...

Talk about stress. My flash drive with all of my labs done so far this term is not being recognized by several different computers. And not to mention all the other work I have done so far.

I have managed to redo some of the JavaScript labs. Too bad one of them isn't working right and I had it working perfectly in the lab stored on said flash drive. It looks like I will be up late tonight and early tomorrow redoing all that work. Not fun.

Did someone forget to give the computer gremlins their toys so that they would leave everyone else alone?

Blogging for college credit

Well, here we go on my first attempt at blogging. I am taking a class called Web 2.0 in college. Currently, I am a dual major , networking and multi-media design.

In the past I haven't been much for journaling, much less blogging online. So we will see how this goes.

The first few blogs will be mostly about my adventures and misadventures with photography.