My Comments

My comments can be found at the following:

Jessica Chiu

Princess Sababay

Jessica Lee

Justin Au

Kenelm Wong

Flora Wong

Have a safe and wonderful summer everyone ^_^.

Are you a Right Clicka or an iBook Flippa?

To choose between an Apple product and a Microsoft product is hard, but if I was to think clearly about it, I'll definitly go with Microsoft. Why? It's because it's Microsoft. Many games and programs that are available online and on the market today are designed for Windows, with very little of them being compatible with Macs. There is an exception though, and that is Windows Vista. But I'll talk about this later on in my post. I don't hate Macs or anything, but I believe that Windows are better overall. They're the most widely used OS on this planet. Plus, when you buy a computer, that computer usually works with only a Windows OS and not an Apple OS.

Even though I think Microsoft is better than Apple, Microsoft does have its own share of problems. One example, it's the use of the registry. The Windows registry isn't a bad idea, but it's a pain to use. Everytime you install or uninstall a program, it's recommended that you run a program like CCleaner to clean the computer of unused registries to prevent Windows from crashing a lot more than usual.

To answer the question, I am a "Right Clicka". However, I will never make the switch to Windows Vista. Vista is an utter fail for Microsoft. It's a resources hog, it's slow, and after having Microsoft release Service Pack 1 for Vista, Vista is still a pain to use. For me, I think I'll skip Windows Vista and stick with Windows XP. The only time I'll use Vista is when I'm forced to use it.

Bigthink.com: Conversations about the BIG questions

The video that I chose can be found here, called Facebook and Privacy by David Pogue. David works for the New York Times as one of the authors for the Technology Columnist.

In the video, David states that he doesn't get why people he doesn't know want to add him as his friend. I agree with David's view on this. I personally have a Facebook account, and why do all these people that I don't even know want to be my friend? To be a virtual friend and to be a physical friend is two different things. Physical friends help you get through a difficult time, and they encourage you as well as meet face to face, talking and having fun. These are things that friends you met online can never do. The video also states that we are losing our privacy, which is absoutely true. Nowadays, there are many companies out there that intrude into our private life, and governments are passing laws which takes away our privacy. As David said, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. As technology continues to improve, we'll lose our privacy and it'll only be a matter of time before we have cameras all over the place watching us go on the computer, take a walk in the park, etc.

I think http://www.bigthink.com/ is an excellent site, spreading the word out on what's happening around the world and how the world's changing. This site is based on the education of others, and I believe it has done an excellent job with that. After watching the video on Facebook and privacy, I learned how useless some things in life really are and what's actually happening behind our backs. To cate more people's attention, they need to advertise and spread the word that such an educational site exists.

Prepare to be Amazed: When Graphic Artists Get Bored

As Ms. Largo said at , graphic artists are know for their sense of irony, humour, and ability to think "otuside the box." This video shows many amazing pictures of artists using different items in life such as food and converting them into hybrid pictures. They are all very cool pictures, but I got in e-mails before even cooler ones where the artists used different types of food and created faces or animals out of them.

As for the most interesting picture in the video, that picture would have to be the one where the Earth looks like a snake and the Moon looks like a mouse. Botht he snake and the mouse blended very well into the Earth and the Moon respectively, and you can tell which part of the Earth represents which part of the snake. The same applies for the mouse too, espicially the apparent addition of the tail at the top of the Moon.

I think the graphic artist was able to achieve this hybrid photo with the use of Adobe Photoshop. I think he used tools such as the clone and gradient tool, as well as the smudge tool. Looking at the picture, I think a pencil tool was used to draw in the tail of the mouse, keeping everything nice and simple. Many layers were used as well when the artist was creating this picture. Only hard work and patience can accomplish this amazing hybrid picture. This shows that taking your time and doing a good job will certainly have its rewards at the end.

Pirating, Me Maties!

I think downloading copyrighted material is illegal and must be stopped. However, even after saying that I won't stop downloading copyrighted materials? Why? Because we can and it's free. Sometimes, I'm forced to download illegal content because they don't show in Canada for another 6 months. One example is Hong Kong dramas. The time it takes for one drama series to end in Hong Kong and the series to show on the air here in Canada can take over 6 months. Plus, after you watch it, there's no way that you can obtain the series unless you rent it or buy it from places like Pacific Mall, which is probably known to everyone as the place to get pirated DVDs.

I for one will continue to download till the day I die. I simply don't have the money required to purchase all those DVDs and CDs that I want. Plus, even if I do buy a legit CD or DVD, I may not like it. If I don't like it, what am I supposed to do with it? That's like $20 going down the drain for something that I didn't like.

Even though programs like Napstar and Bittorrent are used to download illegal content, many sites use Bittorrent to upload legal content as well. Why? Because it's faster. there is a stereotype going around that whoever uses Bittorrent will use it for illegal purposes. That's not true. A couple of months ago, new sound card drivers were available for download via BT because a certain company had disabled features that their sound cards were supposed to come with. Then, a certain someone enabled all the missing features and distributed them throughout the Internet with the use of BT. Is it illegal? Probably. But, was it fair for the company that created the sound cards to purposely cripple their drivers so they can force their customers to purchase newer, more expensive sound cards? Absoutely not.

Walking the Talk

Living in a developed country with an abundance amount of resources, it's no surprise that my ecological footprint was a huge 8.5 hectares. If everyone lived in a developed country like Canada and they all lived like me, we would need 4.5 more Earths in order to staisfy everyone's needs and wants. However, we have only one Earth, and there is only 1.8 biologically productive hectares per person on this Earth. Even though my footprint is at a gigantic 8.5 hectares, that is definitly going to change once I move to a smaller place over the summer. A place that's closer to Mary Ward, and a smaller house overall. Since it's a townhouse, the amount of electricity spent on heating and air conditioning should significantly drop, and with less electricity use means lower electricity bills and more energy conservation.

There are many different ways for us to conserve energy. We can turn off the appliances and lights when they're not in use, open the blinds instead of turning on the lights during the day, taking public transportation, etc. Plus, the more energy that we conserve means that more money can be spent on something else. I think the website is a great site for people to change the way that they live in order to lower their ecological footprint. While we live here and consume the Earth's resources like there's no tomorrow, other places around the world are suffering and all living in poverty. We need to change, and just us making change won't be enough. The government has to promote changes as well. If we have politicians like Harper ignoring the fact that global warming is present with us, it'll only be a matter of time before the human race wipes itself out.

"Halo 3" Be Thy Name!

Movies are movies, and video games are video games. They are both different sources of entertainment, and I believe that they cannot be compared with each other. We live in a society where we now have movies that are based off of video games and vice versa. Plus, different people have different tastes. Some people may love to play video games as a form of entertainment while others may love to watch movies as their form of entertainment. I believe they are both aimed at different types of people while trying to achieve the same thing, to entertain their audiences.

Even though there are stereotypes and facts that say males are usually more attracted to video games while girls are more attracted to movies, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's true. I for one like both video games and movies, however I am more of a gamer than of the movie-watcher. I simply find video games to be more enjoyable since I get the feeling of excitement and adrenaline that I rarely get in movies. However, we have to learn to control how much time we spend on playing video games or watching movies. If we spend too much time on these forms of entertainment, then we won't have enough time for other things like homework.

I don't think video games will ever become more popular than movies for people at my age, simply because almost everyone, if not everyone enjoys watching movies. There is a bigger movie audience in this world than a gaming audience. Also, the use of famous actors such as Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Scarlett Johansson attract a huge amount of people to the movies that they are part of because many teenagers consider them to be "hot."