First Day

Sorry guys I forgot to embed in HTML. Bad mistake on my part.

Time for our final project. Taber and my call to action is it’s time to stop texting and start talking. Enjoy.

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I’m writing a response to an article written by John Dyer of MSN Money. In it, he lists the five business sectors that are going to get a boost from an Obama Administration. Coming in at number 5 is Information Technology, a subject near and dear to all of us. We have already discussed in class, ways that Obama can be more of an Interactive President. Yesterday (saturday), Obama took to You Tube to deliver an address to the nation. He has already announced his FCC campaign and now it looks like one of his priorities is to increase the broadband fiber-optic networks. It certainly seems that sticking with information technology may prove to be more profitable then say getting into the banking or automotive industries.

I decided I would blog while I watched the Jets/Patriots game on the NFL Network. So here it goes. Why are Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders all bundled up on the set while Steve Mariucchi has no overcoat on ? I guess former coaches are tougher than ex-players.

I just became a big fan of the group Jada. Never heard of them but three out of the four are smokin. Bad audio problems make it tough to listen to.

It always seems to me that the Jets come up short in a big game like this. A loss and then its off to Tennessee next week and 6-3 can become 6-5 real quick. A win and first place at 7-3 sounds really good !! No pressure here ?

First Quarter

Fifth time I’ve heard that this game is why the Jets brought Brett Favre to New York. Enough let them play.

Have to admit that the Patriot linebackers and backs are really well-coached on short passes. They get to the receiver quick, make sure tackles and don’t give up extra yardage.

Horrible job on replays by NFL Network on challenge, never saw an angle where you could see if Coles had possession.

Touchdown Jets !!! Nice drive great job by offensive line. OK lets see what the defense can do. Football sucks with score, commercial,kick-off, commercial. Too many stops in play but I guess the networks need to recoup their money somehow.

Announcer missed the fact that the Jets were forced to call time out because they had too many men on the field and a penalty would have given the Pats a first down.

Horrible third & five play call against the heart of the Jets D but we’ll take it.

Great end zone replay on completion to Keller where you can see the lane the quarterback has to throw in.

The league is such a copycat league, Miami had success with the Wildcat offense (running back takes the snap), now everyone does it.

You can’t drop a ball in your hands in the end zone. Ouch !! Field goal, good but…… Up 10-3 after one.

Second Quarter

Nice scramble run by Cassel but somebody tell him to slide, he’s going to get himself killed.

DVR just switched to Gray’s Anatomy. Got it back to game without missing a play. That was close.

Good drive by the Patriots but good job by Jets D forcing the field goal.

I’m lovin Leon Washington right now. Kick-off return for touchdown. Say what you want about Favre but Leon Washington has been our best offensive player this year.

I love when the refs spend five minutes discussing a play and then rule it a do over.

Unbelievable one hand catch by Cotchery. Lets score again !!

Touchdown Jets. Wow this is getting good, but still early.

Stuffed on a three and one play. Most improved part of the Jets this year is run defense. Kris Jenkins big reason for that

And down goes Cassel on fourth down !!

Very conservative play call on 3rd & 14. Patriots will get a chance to get points before the half.

Touchdown Patriots. Right back in the ballgame . Knew the Jets went too conservative on that last drive.

Halftime up 24-13.

Third Quarter

Big defensive stop early here is needed. Can’t let team and crowd into the game.

Three completions to three different receivers, too comfortable back there

Huge turnover, really needed that, he just lost the ball.

Patriots defense is very energized right now. Linemen are getting great penetration off the line.

Interactive museum at Patriot’s stadium. Sounds like an ICM 501 field trip to me.

Jets defense is getting breaks at the right time, that bad snap really stopped this Patriots drive.

Lets see if the Jets get back to their gameplan and move the ball.

Big first down, Leon Washington again.

You can feel the momentum of this game shifting, the Jets offense is doing absolutely nothing, the difference in this game is the kickoff return and a couple of Patriot mistakes.

Another big defensive stop, Jets in control ??? Is this announcer watching the same game I am ? Thank god the Patriots keep shooting themselves in the foot.

Final play of quarter and you could feel it coming. Cassel with all day to throw, the Pats offense moving up and down field and then boom TD with two points and its 24-21 nailbiter.

Fourth Quarter

This is the point in the game where Jets fans feel like only the worst is going to happen. We can’t help it, we’ve seen it too many times before. We sold our soul for one Super Bowl and nothing but bad has happened since.

Like I said nothing but bad can happen as the Jets fumble on the 40. Jets offense has been invisible since middle of second quarter.

Real good analysis by Collinsworth showing how wide open the middle of the field is for Cassel to take off and run.

OK tie score, 10 minutes to go, isn’t this why the Jets got Brett Favre ?

Jets are moving down the field. Got to get a TD no field goals

Biggest penalty of the game, gives Jets a first and goal. We got a break here because I did not see a hold.

That holding penalty was pretty obvious.

I would keep running it and stick it in there

Touchdown Jets  J-E-T-S jets,jets,jets great job by the offense

While I’m blogging, i just got five texts from five different friends.

3 and out, the Jets can’t get too conservative here, 2 or 3 first downs ices it

3rd and 3, if the Jets get the first, its over, if not, the Patriots get one more chance. I would throw a safe quick pass

So there you have it, Jets too conservative, Pats live and have a chance

This is nerve wracking

4th down with 8 seconds left, how snake bitten is my team ? We’ll soon see.

Pretty snake bitten I guess. TD with 1 second to go. Are you fuckin kidding me ?

If they lose in OT this will be devastating

Overtime

We get the ball first, lets just score here and end this quick, please

Body language on the Jets sidelines doesn’t look good

A field goal to win it…gods please smile down on us, please, pretty please

What a game, Jets win, Jets win

34-31 in OT First place is ours…

As the cool autumn nights give way to the winter ahead my thoughts went back in time to the sport that used to be a very intregal part of my life. Growing up in Queens, New York City, we played some little league baseball, but in our concrete jungle environment basketball was king. We would go down to the schoolyard and play three on three  half court or five on five full court from morning until dark. In the winter, we would go to a local gym and play pick-up games all day long. In the late 60’s, early 70’s there was no team bigger in New York City than the New York Knicks. Yes, the Jets won the Super Bowl in 1969 as did the Mets a World Series, but those were just one off championships. (Little did I know then that the Mets would only win one more time and the Jets never again). But from 1969 to 1973, the Knicks won two NBA Championships and played in 3 NBA Finals.

A Teams Team

This was a team that fed off the pulse of a city. They excelled at team work, playing tough tenacious defense and looking for the open man on offense. Their coach, Red Holtzman was a tough nosed Jewish kid who played college ball at CCNY (City College of New York). One of my classmates, Stephen Bass, was his nephew and every Monday we would go to that gym I mentioned earlier and watch the Knicks workout. Red, was Uncle Red to us. The team captain was Willis Reed. At 6′10″ he was considerably smaller than the Wilt Chamberlains and Kareen Abdul-Jabbars he had to guard. His strength was his heart and a never give up attitude. That was never clearer than when he injured his knee in Game 5 of the 1970 NBA Finals and limped out onto the floor for a Game 7 match-up with Chamberlain, Jerry west and Elgin Baylor. When Willis appeared in the tunnel the whole Garden went crazy, it was the loudest crowd I had ever heard. Back in those days, ABC which televised the Finals blacked out the local markets so the Game 7 of the NBA Finals was blacked out in New York. Could you imagine that ? I couldn’t wait to watch the game so I was listening with my trusty radio. Marv Albert (yes, that Marv) was the Knicks announcer and he began to do play by play of Willis’ warm up shots. Every Laker stopped dead in their track when Reed hit the court. Willis would hit the first two shots of the game and not score another point. But, his courage inspired the team and the crowd and the Knicks won their first title ever.

Clyde

While Reed was the heart of the team, Walt Frazier was the teams soul. Nicknamed “Clyde” after Clyde Barrow of Bonnie & Clyde fame, Frazier’s flamboyant play made him a New York icon. He earned his nickname because of the way he “stole” the ball from the opposition. He was a familiar face around all of the New york City hotspots. His moustache, sideburns and beard, his long fur coats and his wide brim hats made him as big a personality as Broadway Joe Namath, Reggie Jackson, Derek Jeter or A-Rod.

The Rest

The rest of the starters consisted of forwards Bill Bradley, a Rhodes Scholar from Princeton who later went on to become a U.S. Senator and Dave DeBusschere, who also played major league baseball. Bradley had the touch from the outside while DeBusschere was one of the leagues best defenders and rebounders. If the three point rule had been in effect back then, both of these players would have been among the league leaders. The other guard, Dick Barnett, was one of the first blacks to play in the NBA and had a distinctive style of jump shot where he would throw both legs back as he jumped. The bench consisted of Cazzie Russell who was one of College Basketball’s greatest players while at Michigan, Dave Stallworth, who was playing despite having suffered a heart attack and a tall gangly white kid who used to come into the game to flail his arms like a windmill while guarding the inbounds pass named Phil Jackson. The rest of the bench was Mike Riordan (who used to report in just to give a foul and then leave), Bill Hoskett (on the 68 US Olympic team) and Nate Bowman.

1971-1973

After winning it all in 1970, the Knicks lost in 7 to the Bullets in the eastern Conference Finals in 1971 and to the Los Angeles Lakers (team that won 33 in a row) in 1972. Before the 1972-73 season, the Knicks added two new members. Jerry Lucas who played for the NCAA Champion Ohio state Buckeyes in 1960 and Earl The Pearl Monroe, one of the greatest one-on-one players in NBA history. The Pearl changed his game to fit into the Knicks style of play and never was that style more on display than one night in November of 1973 when the Knicks trailed Jabbar and Oscar Robertson by 18 points with 5 minutes left to play. That game was the game that proved the team concept worked and why the Knicks team will always be embraced by the city.

Circus At The Garden

That was 35 years ago, and the Knicks although competitive in the 1990’s have not won a Championship since. Now the stentch emanating from the Garden is a team that is totally dysfunctional. Too many years of a bad owner (Dolan) trusting a horrendous executive (Isiah Thomas). Bad trades, horrible draft picks, firing Hall of Fame coaches and a sexual harrassment trial have made basketball fans in New York run for cover. With Thomas now gone and the exile of Stephen Marbury to oblivion the road back to respectability has begun. I miss the excitement of basketball played right and long for the return of that true team first mantra. I don’t want to hear from, Celtics fans or Lakers fans who have their own teams to root for. I just want to be able to root for my team once again.

We’ve all at one time or another commented about friends and neighbors, they seem so nice all the time, I wonder what they’re like behind closed doors. Well, it seems that the internet age has changed all that. The internet has opened up that closed door and allowed corporations, friends, neighbors and perspective employers a glimpse into that private life. So at what expense has new technology exposed us ? This module has opened up my eyes to just how vulnerable we are. Is it our ethics that are being compromised ? Or is it the ethics of big brother who is monitoring our every key stroke ?

What is Private ?

I guess each individual has a different assumption as to what is private and what should be made public. Using the example cited by Alexander Halavais in ” Search Engine Society”, if I walk into a convenience store or a department store I have the expectation that I am being monitored by a surveillance camera. I do that with the knowledge that I am not in the store to do anything illegal. I want the store employees and the people shopping to feel safe. So if there are cameras accomplishing the safety feeling than I am in favor of it. But, what if these cameras are being used for something different ? Suppose, as I walk into the store, the camera focus on which aisles I walk down, which products I pick up, which products I try on and ultimately which products I buy. This information is then sent to a market research company like the ones on the CNBC special, “Big Brother”, who are gathering information about my shopping patterns and tendencies. To make matters worse they are doing this without my permission. This is an invasion of my privacy.

Ooglie Googlie

I can follow all reasonable rules of protection but I am still vulnerable. Banks encourage its customers to pay the bills online. Once you create your account, all your information, from account numbers to social security numbers to sometimes even your mother’s maiden name are all in one place. You do this with the faith that the bank will keep our information totally secure. But, is there really 100 percent security in this new technology age ?  I leave my digital fingerprint on every web site I visit and now I find out that even if I erase my history, there is still a record of it stored on a server somewhere. How can a person not feel a little paranoid. It is one of the reasons that Bush’s signing of The Patriot Act in 2001 has brought about such protests from privacy advocates. It is sad to think that the terrorists succeeded in taking away one of the essential elements of our democracy, the right to privacy.

Press Delete or Reset

So as we move into the future, what should our expectation to privacy be ? Are we moving toward an open society where everyone file shares like in the film “Steal This Film” ?  Will there be files on every individual where everyone will know your likes, dislikes, fetishes, secrets ? Things that happened to you in the past will remain with you forever. Why shouldn’t people be allowed to have a clean slate and start again ? Why should everyone have to carry around their pasts like an anchor on their shoulders. Psychiatrists urge you to let go of the past, so that you can move on to the future. Is the technology of the future forcing us to hold on to our pasts ? And what happens to our social interactions ? If you go out on a date or to a job interview or to a party and everyone knows everything there is to know about everyone, what happens to getting to know somebody ? It seems to me that this technological invasion of privacy is taking our society on a step backward instead of the logical step forward. I guess now I can do a Google search and find out what’s going on behind those closed doors.

It has been an almost two year marathon and now Campaign 08 is down to a 12 hour sprint to the finish line. So does America feel like they have a good handle on the two candidates ?  It depends upon how you read between the lines of the poll information. I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama wins in a landslide and I wouldn’t be surprised if McCain wins by a very small margin.

Clearly, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida are still up for grabs. McCain will need to sweep all three unless he can win Pennsylvania and/or Ohio. All of the polls seem to agree that for McCain to win he has to take most of the states that are still too close to call. So what do we know what John McCain ? Most of his ads and speeches seem to be focused on telling us why not to vote for Obama rather than why to vote for McCain. Obama will raise your taxes, Obama is associated with terrorists, Obama’s healthcare plan will sink Joe the Plumber! Ok, I get it, but what will McCain do ? Don’t know. He wants to keep us in Iraq which will cost lots more money. Where’s that money going to keep coming from ? He wants to give everyone 5,000 dollars towards Health Care, doesn’t Health Care cost most Americans over 10-grand a year ? Where’s that money coming from ?

Has the Domocratic Congress been a disaster these past two years ? Absolutely ! But, who is leading this Congress right now ? Nancy Pelosi ! Not exactly a unifying voice in the party. Will that change with a Democratic President ? No guarantees, but it is possible ! Truth be told, there are lots of unknowns about an Obama Presidency.

The one thing that I am definately convinced about is Obama’s ability to lead. He has the IT factor, whatever that is. He will better shape the world’s opinion of America. He will try and I emphasize the word “try” to change the way Washington works.And from an ICM 501 point of view, he better understands the new technology and the importance of utilizing the new communications.  More Americans will vote tomorrow than in any election in our country’s history. History will be made if our nation elects an African-American tomorrow. It’s a new chapter of America that I believe will revitalize this country and restore our good standing in the eyes of the world.

Well I gave it the old college grad school try !! I spent time on Twitter this afternoon trying to engage in some last minute politicting for Barack Obama. I twit voted for Obama and then entered a Bush forum. A lot of McCain supporters were questioning why the President was not out campaigning for the GOP candidate. I chimed in that the two men are not very fond of each other going back to the 2000 Presidential campaign and that McCain is is trying to distance himself from the current Administration.

What was frustrating to me was that there was such a delay on my computer that by the time anyone responded the conversation had turned to something else. I found this to be the same issue when we were all on Twitter during last week’s political panel discussion. The other frustration I felt during that discussion was trying to listen to what the panelists were saying while at the same time writing my posts.

I think the Twitter idea of having someone to have a conversation with is a good idea, but I left my experience feeling more frustrated than fullfilled. Maybe the amount of traffic on political forums at this time is heavy and once it calms down the delay will not be quite so long.

How do you fix a problem that it seems no one understands ? I came across this article in Monday’s Wall Street Journal and the author makes a good argument that government involvement may not be the right way to go about it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122506830024970697.html

So you want to be an interactive designer ? Uh, NO !!!!! Deciding what buttons should go where on that latest must have piece of technology ? How many screens to go through until the ATM actually dispenses my money ? Read an e-mail on my mobile phone ? That’s just not me. I would consider myself a “survivor”. The person described by A.Cooper in “Riddles For The Information Age”, as a person “not impressed by the new found power (of computers), but who are mighty impressed by how stupid the interaction makes them feel.” But, is being a survivor enough to get anywhere in our society today ? Does it really need to be that hard to operate master technology ?

Friction Is Stranger than Truth

What I do buy into is the theory of “cognitive friction”. From the beginnings of my exposure to the new technology of computers, I have always been the one to figure out how to get done what I needed to do and ignored the rest of the machine’s functions. For a long time this served me just fine, but as the tasks I needed to master increased I found that my knowledge of computers and gadgets also increased. We live in a society where the technology grows in leaps and bounds almost daily and so to does the need to keep up with it. Large and small businesses alike must be able to compete technically with the next guy to not only produce a quality product but to be aware of consumer needs. The job seeker needs to be able to compete with the skill level of another person competing for a job. And the teacher or professor needs to be on top of the techno advances to better prepare his students for what lies ahead. Surprisingly for me it was the shear repetition and evolution of the tasks that helped my computer literacy to grow.

Master of your Own Domain

So while it’s important to know about the advances in interactive design, how much of it do you actually use in everyday life ? Playing off of Coopers example of his home entertainment system, I would like to tell my own version of that tale. When I decided to get surround sound for my TV and DVD system I was directed to a guy named Jazzy Jeff in New Haven. It took him four different house calls over almost a month in time. He would come at dinner time and invariably my wife would be guilted into feeding him. Wires were everywhere running from my system in my family room into the floor and down into the basement where both the satellite and cable wires entered the house. When he finally finished, he proceeded to program my satellite,cable,DVD,CD and amplifier remotes into a Harmony all-in-one remote. One remote for everything, I thought what a great idea. He took the time to write everything down on a piece of paper and went over it with me. It was a case of me understanding what he had done with no knowledge of some of the other functions of the components. For example, I could not program the DVR on my cable or satellite without using the cable and satellite remotes. My picture in picture was not set properly so I could listen to a CD while my TV was on the screen, but I couldn’t watch House with my wife with the Met game in a little box in the corner. And if you want to talk about interactive design flaws, it takes me three different button clicks to go from satellite to cable. Now I have mastered all of these moves from repetition, but, I have been told the funniest conversation in the world is me trying to explain to my wife how to set the TV to either record something for me or get it so she can watch a show. So my solution is to have all four remote controls at my beckon call and now I truly am the master of my own domain.

Computer Literate to Power User

So frustrated was I by my lack of techno savvy that instead of just sitting there getting more and more annoyed I decided the time had come !  After all I felt I had come from a “naive user” to a “computer literate” person, why stop there. I wanted to go all the way to “power user”. I started spending more time get acquainted with my gadgets. Instruction manuals are sometimes not the only answer. When I purchased my first “Blackberry” phone, I found out there was an online site for Blackberry users to share thoughts about problems they were having. I also found out it was a great way to learn about features that I had no idea existed. After wasting a lot some money on ringtones I discovered how my entire music library could be turned into a ringtone. So am I still a “survivor” or perhaps an “AIT” (apologist in training) ? I’m not sure.

The 12:00 Flash

So do I want to be an interactive designer ? Uh, MAYBE ?? Reading through D.Safer’s “Interactive Design” book showed me that my Blackberry experience was an example of user-centered design. Would my Harmony all in one remote control work better if there was a way to program my cable and satellite DVR’s ? Will my 91 year-old mother ever figure out how to use her answering machine or get the 12:00 to stop flashing on her DVD ? Probably not. She’ll just wait for me to come over and reset it for her. But, I’ve already seen myself extolling the virtues of my new MacBook Pro computer. Am I becoming an “apologist” ? Oh god, something is happening to me I can’t explain ! The moon must be full. My mind is changing right in front of me. I’m starting to see things through the eyes of an interactive designer.