Worst Website Ever!!!

Ling’s cars, is a British online car dealer whose website is one of the worst I’ve ever seen.  You truly need to see it to believe it; it is covered in advertisements, lots of flashing arrows promising better deals then already advertised and quotes form happy customers.

    http://www.lingscars.com/

Arngren.com is a website that sells only model and remote control toys and golf cart style automobiles;  all the products for sale are piled on one main page, the only way I can describe it is a total “cluster @#%&”

  http://www.arngren.net/

The Government of Zimbabwe’s website is the sorriest excuse for a government funded project I’ve ever seen. It looks like it was made in 1995 by an amateur; there are a couple flashing icons to click on which don’t go anywhere. My favorite part is that it was updated in 2012.   

http://www.zim.gov.zw/ 

Ron Oslund’s homepage is quite a site to be seen (pun intended), everything from its neon light inspired header to the placement of links and info about Ron. It’s a true gem.  

http://ronoslund.com/ 

The Martinsburg Police Department website is another absolute must see; this page does not look as if it’s to represent any sort of authority at all. It looks like it was designed to mock a police department and unintentionally is working quite well. Do be honest I wouldn’t trust this small West Virginia’s town police department solely based on this site alone

    http://www.martinsburgpd.org/

Websites iLike

1, Facebook is easily one of the most user friendly sites on the internet; Facebook makes it very easy to share information and see what others are up to.

Facebbok.com

2, stumble upon is a website in which you check off boxes of things you are interested in, stumble upon then takes you to websites that you would be interested in based upon the boxes you checked. The site is easy to navigate and you can surf it for hours.

stumbleupon.com

3, wimp is a web video site which collects cool, informative and funny videos. Although its not very well designed the content is east to access and very entertaining.

wimp.com

4, Zappos, being a 6ft, 7in male with size 15 foot its hard finding shoes. Zappos makes it very easy to find shoes in my size that I like. Zappos is extremely user friendly, I simply type in mt shoe size and brands I like and it formulates a list of shoes which fit that criteria.

zappos.com

5, Mac Premo is a New York City artist whose web site is a visual wonder. Although the site was made to promote his art and business the user interface of the site is great and makes you want to further explore the site.  

         

macpremo.com

5 Twitter's i follow

1, The Museum of Modern art, I’m fallowing MoMa because I’m a huge modern art fan and like to be in the loop for information about new collections and artiest openings.

2, ESPN’s sport center, I’m following Sport Center because I’m a huge fan of sports and like to know about trades, free agents and stats for all sports.

3, The New York Yankees, I am a massive Yankee fan and like to hear about the moves they are making for the upcoming season.

4, Camp Dudley, is a summer camp in Upstate New York that I went to and worked at, my family is very involved in the dealings of camp Dudley and it’s nice to hear what’s happening their .

5, New York Times, I’ve been reading the NY times since I was just a wee lad and there tweets are informative and keep me in touch with NYC.        

Look at me, im on Twitter!

The blogging community was changed forever by the advent of micro blogging sites like tumbler and twitter. When blogging first hit the scene its was much harder to get a large audience to look at your posts; due to the fact that it’s not that popular and peoples posts where somewhat hard to find. The biggest difference between blogging and micro blogging is that sites like twitter have become hugely popular and more people are using twitter then have ever used standard blogging sites; I feel that micro blogging is the ever man’s blog, where as a true blog you need to go looking for and is not as easy  to find. For example if I wanted to find P. Diddy’s  blog I’m sure it’s out of date and not written by Mr. Diddy; whereas his tweeter is probably updated daily by him. Also micro blogging sites have a limit on how many characters can be in a post, which makes them more reader friendly. Micro blogging is quite different then social media sites, Twitter is “what I’m doing” Facebook is “who I am”; if I wanted to let people know about what I was thinking right now I would Tweet it, if I wanted friends to know about my birthday party I would put it on Facebook. I have never used twitter before; I don’t necessarily want people to know what I’m doing all the time, nor do I think im so important that people care what I’m doing. Since I have recently stared a twitter I will use it to show people how funny, witty and cool I am, I have never needed a web site for that before but here we are in the web 2.0 generation. Also reading what funny and witty things my friends from home are doing will be fun. In the past I have expressed my dislike for twitter, but for the sake of this class I’ll give it a shot.          

Facebook, awkward silence

                I have been a Facebook user since they first allowed non-college students to use the site. I remember being a freshman in high school when I first learned about Facebook, my brother came home from college for spring break and commented on the fact that I was using MySpace and told me “soon Facebook will allow everyone to make a page”. When I was a sophomore Facebook expanded away from just offering college students space on the site; now everyone could make a page.  That was six years ago and Facebook has expanded dramatically; including businesses, the ability to make events and adding groups are just a few additions to the site since I first joined. I use Facebook predominately for learning about events and keeping in touch with close friends, primarily through groups. I know a lot of folks who use Facebook to promote their business, buy and trade thing via Facebook marketplace, share photos, play games, meet new people, etc.

                In class we were instructed to start a new Facebook for a “business based” project. It was important to start a new Facebook page because one’s personal page may or may not have inappropriate materials; when creating a page for a business it’s best to keep a clean, wholesome image. Having said that, it’s best to keep all inappropriate materials off Facebook because there truly is no security on Facebook; if a person or company wants to see what’s on your page they will. A lot of companies now check prospective employees Facebook’s to see what sort of pictures/posts you have on your page; if they deem it “inappropriate” they will not hire you.

                I have found that people take what is posted on Facebook very serious; too serious if you ask me. I no longer interact with people I don’t know extremely well on Facebook; because it can make future face to face encounters awkward. The biggest Facebook trap for a heterosexual male is the Facebook massager; you meet a pretty girl, friend her on Facebook, she accepts, you then “creep” her page and use the massager for a little chat. What the guy may think is flirty, funny and cute in a young ladies eyes probably is coming off as creepy, weird and unattractive. This is one of many rules of etiquette that should be taken in consideration. I have been a Camp Consular for many years and my first rule about Facebook is no campers can communicate with me; I have heard horror stories about young people getting “cyber bullied, abused” not that I would ever do something like that, but why even make it a possibility. Another good rule is don’t write anything on someone’s wall that you wouldn’t say to their face; nothing makes me more ashamed to be a product of the 21^st century then internet drama. Another  rule I follow is don’t friend or except friend request from someone you don’t know, chances are they want to sell you something or spam your page. I am seriously thinking about deleting my page because of these for mentioned reasons, you can come off like a total creep, employers look at it and you can’t help what people post about you , it is an insincere platform and should be called the antisocial network. I have a love hate relationship with Facebook, on one hand I love learning about, making fun events and staying in touch with close friends; on the other hand I don’t like all the judgment, bullying and abuse that takes place on the site.                                        

5 organizations in need of a FaceBook Page

Blue inc. is a freelance graphic design firm out of Brooklyn NY; owned and operated by classically trained painter Mrs. Doreen Maddox Canning.  Doreen started as a studio assistant for artists Red Grooms and Chuck Close, which further interested her in graphic design because both incorporate strong graphic visuals in their art.

Jim Zivic design creates industrial furniture using aluminum, coal, steel and leather. Jim’s interest is in using functional materials and forms traditionally used industrial settings.

Chips is a soup kitchen in Brooklyn NY. They feed over 500 people a day and also offer cloths and food for disenfranchised people to take home..

Pino’s La Forchetta is a pizzeria in Park Slope, Brooklyn. It is located at 181 7^th Avenue, 11215 and boy do they make a darn good pie.

 7^th Avenue World News is a convenient store/deli in Park Slope Brooklyn have has been severing its commuity for over twenty years. They are open 24 hours a day and have everything you would need at any hour of the day.    

Video Project Paper

            During the process of making my self-portrait video there where many obstacles to overcome, firstly my group was given the unfortunate topic of politics; involving that theme into my self-portrait proved difficult considering politics isn’t really my cup of tea. Secondly I felt rather uncomfortable being in front of the camera due to the fact that most all my interaction with film has been behind it. Don’t get me wrong I’m the opposite of shy and can be rather entertaining; I just wasn’t sure how that would translate on film.

While brain storming for ideas I decided not to take a comical route with this project as I had with most other video projects I have done in the past. Instead I wanted my project to be a commentary on the division of wealth in Buffalo New York and how I interact with it. On the east side of Elmwood avenue there is a grand collection of classic Victorian homes surrounding an Olmsted park and a fine art museum; on the west side of Elmwood is one of the more impoverished areas I have ever seen, burnt out and abandoned houses, many homeless people, crime galore etc. during the filming process I found it took me a number of sessions before I was happy with the content I had. The editing process proved easier than I anticipated, IMovie is an easy platform to work on and I feel like I can now use it to its full capability. While attempting to upload my video on Vimeo I had a number of issues; for one I had to make a Viemo account and it took an entire day before I could upload on said account. So then I used my YouTube account which proved to be much easier to deal with.     

The group project was the next step; although there were some hiccups along the way as far as having all our content I still felt like our group worked well together and succeeded in producing a decent video. Our idea was to tie our self-portraits together with additional footage to show that although we are from different political, social, economic backgrounds; we are here living in Buffalo and going to school together. It was a challenge sharing the editing time and coming to an agreement on what the end video should look like; there would also be times when a group member would come unprepared which also made editing more difficult. Being on a team is all about compromise and picking up slake that you team members leave behind.

This video project was a good experience for me; I now feel more confident in my ability to shoot footage, edit it and post it on the internet. If given more time to film I’m sure the video would be more visually stimulating; but I feel good about the finished product considering the time I had to complete it.                                        

youtube VS Vimeo

In the battle for online video service supremacy there are to top contenders, YouTube and Vimeo. Both essentially perform the same task; an online data base where one can upload and watch videos online. Yet the differences are vast, and both have their strongpoints and weaknesses. Being of the web 2.o generation I feel confident in my ability to point out the pros and cons and choose which web site reigns supreme.

            Viemo, the younger of the two sites and less popular still contends for “better site” due to its more professional interface. If I was in charge of a web 2.0 business and had to create the blog or online content for said business I would defiantly choose Viemo over YouTube. For one the video quality is excellent and I would want my companies online content to look as professional as possible. Also because Vimeo doesn’t have the 450 million monthly visitors I feel I could more easily reach my target customers. All in all I would say that Viemo is better suited for professional use. Of course there is always the other side of the coin and Vimeo is no exception, there are plenty of weaknesses involved with the Viemo platform. For starters you are only allowed to upload one HD video per week unless you purchase the Viemo plus package which cost $59.95 annually. Then there is the data size issue, there is a 5ooMB upload limit as opposed to YouTube’s 1GB. The community size on the website can also be a con; you will not get as many visitors as you would on YouTube because less people frequent the site.

            YouTube is hands down the king of online video sites, its 450 monthly visitors makes it one of the most visited sites on the web. YouTube has the power to make any creative person a celebrity by posting a cool video on YouTube. YouTube’s superiority starts with its user friendly interface; any computer novice could easily watch and post videos on YouTube. Another pro to YouTube’s credit is there 1GB file size which allows the user to upload more and longer videos. Because of YouTube 450 million visitors a month it is more likely to become the next Justin Bieber then if you were to post your content on Vimeo. Of course there are downsides to every site and YouTube is no different; many professionals in the web 2.0 community consider YouTube’s interface to be “ugly” and “unprofessional”. The fact that there are so many videos on YouTube makes it easy to get lost in the sea of B rate content.

            So in the battle of video service supremacy, the winner is, depending on what your looking to accomplish. If you’re looking to promote, sell, or attract new customers Viemo is definitely the site for you. If you’re looking to entertain a large audience or be entertained then YouTube is more you’re speed. In close I have added a video of my own, notice the service I used, it’s the one I prefer by far.