Instant Messaging

I used instant messaging a lot more when I was younger, but it's still handy now, especially when chatting with my brother or with friends I've met on message boards or elsewhere online. Group chat (and even group video conversations!) are excellent for collaboration. Being able to transfer files much more quickly than ever before is also a huge plus. Even Evernote, the note-storage and sharing program, has a messenger built in to allow for collaboration between business associates or friends. 

Personally, I prefer Pidgin, which is more of an aggregation client than anything else. It allows me to connect to IRC chats, AIM, Facebook, and many other types of IM networks all through a single client. This allows me to maintain friends I've acquired through various programs who use different types of communication, but without needing to download a ton of different programs myself.

Skype and VOIP

I have used Skype for both business and personal calls. It has allowed me to have free conversations (including video calls) with my family across the States, and gave me the opportunity to have a free conversation with a graphic designer in Chile. Advantages I have personally experienced with VOIP are the cost efficiency and convenience. However, VOIP doesn't work without Internet, and if the current connection is bad, it can also provide poor audio quality.

LinkedIn Examination

From my experience, LinkedIn is great for forming business connections, for sharing your expertise (and becoming more known for it), and for opening up communication with other people who are either in your field or interested in it. I have read a lot of excellent articles and conversations of people who are very experienced with what they do on LinkedIn. I have also made several connections with people in my current industry, or with people with whom I can form a mutually beneficial business relationship. My advice for utilizing this site to the fullest would be to make a powerful profile (using tips for constructing worthwhile resumes), to engage in conversations through industry groups, and to add business relations or friends who hold value to you (and to not blindly go adding a lot of strangers who will randomly endorse you, as it will make your profile look less than genuine).

Social Media Comparison

Podcast #3: Freakanomics

http://freakonomics.com/

I chose Freakonomics because it's an entertaining but interesting source of information. It brings attention to some otherwise underrated or hidden aspects of the world, as well as educates and informs on very important topics - in very fun and engrossing ways! The topics vary wildly but never fall short of being worth every minute!

Podcast #2: Fresh Air

http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/

I chose Fresh Air with Terry Gross because it's also one of my personal favorite podcasts. It has a lot of interesting talk show style conversations that ask really relevant and fascinating questions, which usually result in some amazing insights from some worthy minds. The interviews are always very respectful as well, allowing everyone their own fair say and never arguing or interrupting; merely asking the necessary questions and being open to the opinions of the other side.

Podcast #1: TED Radio Hour

http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510298/ted-radio-hour

I chose TED Radio Hour because I personally love to listen to it. It's a wonderful presentation of all sorts of breakthrough ideas, opinions, and creations. TED has always been an inspirational and motivational way of both empowering and educating people around the world, and I have learning all sorts of amazing things through this program. I highly recommend it!

My Wikispace Page

https://sherryweb2p0.wikispaces.com/Wikis

Discussion #3: Educational Origami

This wikispace discussion offers a variety of Web 2.0 tools as well. Rather than just listing and comparing Web 2.0 tools and services, however, it also appears to provide tutorials that might assist in one's education and awareness of Web 2.0, such as for Twitter, photo sharing, RSS, blogs, and photo sharing sites. It also provides suggestions for image editing tools, polling and survey tools, and visual search services ("Cool Web 2.0 Tools").

Below the page, people are able to place comments, where one individual even let the original author know that a link did not work on the page. The author thanked the commenter and fixed the problem (Cool Web 2.0 Tools").

References:
"Cool Web 2.0 Tools". Retrieved from http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/WEB+2.0+Tools

Discussion #2: Cool Tools for Schools

This wikispaces discussion provides various Web 2.0 tools that might be useful for teachers and students. An example of this would be the collaborative tools page, which provides a list sites, software, and services such as Google Docs, Google Apps for Education, TeamViewer, Dropbox, WordPress, and even other wikis ("Collaborative Tools").

References:

"Collaborative Tools". Retrieved from http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Collaborative+Tools

Discussion #1: Jim Holland's Web 2.0 Tools for Educators

This discussion defines Web 2.0 as the "next generation of Internet" in which the content is created by users, culminating in an exchange of ideas and perspectives ("Jim Holland's Web 2.0 Tools for Educators Home"). It also goes on to explain what a wiki is, what "widgets" are, the difference between linking and embedding, and the word "Freemium". It's a pretty random mashup of concepts I know are related, but ultimately don't transition well into a single home page. But still, it's related to this week's coursework and is hosted on wikispaces, so I wanted to use it for my assignment.

References:

"Jim Holland's Web 2.0 Tools for Educators Home". Retrieved from https://webapplications.wikispaces.com/

del.icio.us Review

https://delicious.com/sherrydelicious

del.icio.us was annoying for me. It kept to sign up with Google+, but every time I tried, it would fill the email address field with a string numbers and yet not let me submit without an @ sign in the email. I ended up signing up manually with my blogger's specially created Google+ account. Aside from that, very easy, and I like the way it suggests tags that you can use. :) I've never used del.icio.us before so it was a learning experience, but I don't see what its use truly is when you have bookmarks available to you. Not really my style I guess. 

Flickr Review

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132799260@N03/?

An issue I had with Flickr was that I had to give information I didn't want to give in order to sign up for a fake/class account I'll never use. I didn't like that I had to submit my mobile number in order to sign up for Flickr. I ended up making a fake one and hoped I'd remember my password. :P Oh well, other than that it was so fast and simple: Upload, change the tags and titles and other info right there, and bam. Done. 

GIMP Open Source Review & Comparison

I have used GIMP in the past but have now become a consistent Photoshop user. I user Adobe programs for all sorts of things, mostly because I do a ton of photography and retouching, digital illustration, lineart, logo design, and some print design. One huge thing for me is that Photoshop offers swatches for Pantone colors, which are pretty standardized in print especially. Photoshop has a wonderful streamlined interface, the ability to customize interfaces depending on your current tasks, and offers very very powerful functionality for heavy users such as myself.

However, Gimp as an open-source free program is awesome, don't get me wrong. GIMP takes up way less space than Photoshop does and for someone who doesn't use a lot of the really specialized tools in Photoshop, it's not even necessary to eat up so much space and processing power. GIMP is free and if one doesn't NEED all the features Photoshop provides, it is an excellent option with a vast amount of tools I haven't seen in any other free image editing software out there. Unless one has worked their way up to some of the more complicated and powerful features Photoshop has to offer, I would say GIMP is outstanding alternative for anyone needing an image editing program.

Eclipse Open Source Review & Comparison

I have both Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA on my computer. Both have served my purposes, and Eclipse was great for school work. I didn't find the need for any more than Eclipse offered me, but I did end up getting IntelliJ merely because I had a free year to play around with it as a student.

IntelliJ does have some nifty features that make it seem more streamlined. IntelliJ offers far better and more streamlined options for autocomplete and suggestions on how to improve your code, or where it could be going wrong. Eclipse may offer these things, but not in as unobtrusive a way as IntelliJ does. Additionally, IntelliJ offers features like refactoring, which I've found work really well, especially in instances of renaming classes or methods.

Lastly, IntelliJ's autocomplete is just so much better for not only Java, but also for HTML and JavaSCript. You can search for particular methods all throughout your project and it has a better debugger.

However, I will be the first to say that my life was just fine without IntelliJ. Despite its nice features, as someone who hasn't gotten into Java development extensively, Eclipse served me just fine. It has a great interface and gets the job done. Given that I had absolutely no problems and wanted for nothing when using Eclipse, I would say it is an amazing success in terms of the open source movement. I would definitely recommend Eclipse to anyone getting into Java development.

Chrome Open Source Review & Comparison

Chrome is my go-to browser option, although I use Firefox fairly often as well. I have grown accustomed to both and very much prefer them to Internet Explorer.

As for differences, Firefox does have an excellent level of customization. It is also my understanding that Firefox has much better privacy simply because, unlike Google, it doesn't have a million and one ways to make extra cash off of all the user data it collects (at least not as much as Google does). Still, I use extensions on Google to prevent ads, scripts, and trackers, although I do allow ads on sites that don't use them obtrusively and that I want to support.

Chrome, seems to make my life as a web developer a lot easier, allowing me to play around with source code really easily with some awesome visual aids while I'm at it. It also syncs up really well with other computers and mobile devices through connection to my Google+ account.

Web 2.0 Video

Web 2.0 Image

Mashable Summary

Mashable seems to provide news and information to the generation of people who use technology in their every day world. Mashable appears to want to inspire people to innovate and be empowered through technology and the Web.

TechCrunch Summary

TechCrunch seems focused on providing articles pertaining to information technology companies. While I have heard about TechCrunch, I have never actually kept up with it before. Now that I am more familiar with what its topics revolve around, I will certainly be taking a lot at it more often.

GigaOM Summary

GigaOM appears to be a blog that focuses on new technologies. It goes over general news, events, and performs research on various emerging tech. It seems as though GigaOM would like to humanize technology and help to make it a more integrated part of our world.