Tech current event

Topic: Solar panels, the cheap way

Title: Social project uses pop bottles to provide indoor lighting for the poor

Source: Gizmag, here

 Summary: Instead of fancy-shmancy solar panels, some students in Michigan decided to use an old camping trick to light homes without power. They install water filled pop bottles into rooftops so that the water refracts light all over the room. Here is an image from their site:

Reaction: I think this is awesome and I'm wondering why this isn't being used more often. We have plenty of soda, plenty of empty soda bottles, and poor people have a lack of electricity. Do the math.

World impact: Free light! Poor countries could get so much more light, and still have waterproof roofs.

Blog post (late)

Welcome to my blog! This week we, at the GECHS, have had an easy week. Watched a movie, had some "chill" time. Well..... Sorta.

New Vocab:

Represent: How you are presenting yourself online.

Persona: Image or personality you portray to others

Avatar: Image/graphic that represents you online

Anonymous: Hidden identity

Inhibit: Being careful/restrained about your actions or impulses

This week we also learned about a nifty little thing called Glogster it's basically an interactive poster. Kind of makes me think  of an "E-Billboard" of sorts. Some positives, it's a simple to use tool, (which all you iPhone users will love) and a huge following, so you followers don't have to worry about awkward looks. As for all you free spirits out there, expand to an all new audience. The wonders of the inter-webs awaits! Unfortunately, the good cannot exist without the bad. ERMAHGERD, If I have to wait for it to load this long on EVERYTHING, I will die. I mean, sure I'm not boasting massive data capabilities on my simple wi-fi setup, but c'mon? I can run Minecraft (copyright Mojang, don't sue me dude) but not Glogster?

We also learned about being real online. In order to be real online you have to BE YOURSELF. Now, don't go home and post all your vital information on Facebook, just don't go home and say you are the president of the world and you're dating models.

We watched a movie about bullying, like I said earlier, it was called Cyberbu//y. (yes, slashes for "L's") Starring Emily Osment, and it was about (not too surprisingly) cyber bullying! But alas, the poor girl was forced into suicide by her best friend. Luckily enough, she couldn't get the cap off, and her friend got off Scott-free.

Weekly review

Hey everyone, this is my blog post. I planned on speaking some weird foreign language but it didn’t work. Anyways, this week we learned about all sorts of neat stuff.

Here's some new vocabulary!
target: victim
offender: bully malicious intent.
bystander: witness that does nothing
up stander: witness that does something
escalate: intensifies-increase
de-escalate: decrease

Also this week we learned about a thing called WeVideo, a cool site where you can make videos for free. if you need a (terrible) example, here's mine!


A few positive things about this tool is that A: its FREE, B: its easy to use, C: there is no immediate limitations requiring you to pay. Then again, I just discovered it this week. On the negative, I have to say that its path editing/slide fading tool/stitching feature when editing really disappointed me. I mean come on, I had to space out my slides, choose between having SFX or music. And the transitions made me want to bang my head on the computer.

Overall my week has been pretty good, just watched a few videos about cyber-bullying, watched a movie in World History, and I have soccer finals this weekend.

Weekly current event

Topic: Overpriced wires

Article: Apparently this matters: $13,000 HDMI cables

Source: CNN news "apparently this matters" section

Summary: Diamond brand HDMI cables are made of silver, they are $13,000, and they are just as good as three dollar cables. They present the argument that silver is superior but i think its just plain overrated. I still use my free HDMI cable I got online, valued at $2. Same quality.

Reaction: I think this is the birth of Apples success. By that I mean one company gets rich off of saying their product is better than all the others' products, when in actuality it is just an overpriced piece o' hardware. I mean seriously, is my Android worse than an Ipod as far as battery, yeah, but is my map accurate, is my processor faster, and are my apps cheaper, if not FREE? So why go with overpriced cables with silver in them when you could have the same quality with plain wires?

World Impact: None. The only reason someone would buy these is to show off.

Weekly review!

Good evenin' folks, this is your friendly neighborhood spider-man bringing you the latest on life here at the good old G.E.C.H.S.-sketch, but man have I got a lot for you. First off, I would like to give a shout out to the kind gentlemen finishing our long awaited L.S.B. building, can't wait!

Also, I got few new words for you, like: self disclosure: giving out personal information, or delicate data. Another good one is reciprocate. Basically it means passing on/giving others stuff. Now you may ask, "Didn't you guys learn about privacy and safety a few weeks ago?" And we did, but this lesson isn't just about what websites are real or not, this is about "sexting." It generally means to send dirty pictures/videos through some form of technology.

In class we used this nifty little site, called MakeBeliefsComix, that lets you build your own comic within the web browser. Check it out when you have the time. Here's the ones I did about sexting:

This one is about a young man building a healthy relationship through the web.

This one is about sexting and the "NO." strategy. Simply put, its just saying "NO."



Some things I like about the site is its great user-friendly setup. A five year old could navigate the site successfully! Unfortunately, a limited "cast", few background options, and the inability to draw directly to the comic make it fall down on my scale. Overall I would give it a 3 out of 5. Because hey, its free!

In our D.D.L. we learned about more sexting and how a girl got so sick of being bullied she ended it herself. Is that really necessary? Someones child is gone because of people reciprocating "sexts". I for one am going to think about her next time I get on the web.

Well, this ends yet another great week down here at Gaston. Peace.