Alex Casazza Blogs

File Sharing is the act of transmitting files from one computer to another over the internet. P2P, or peer to peer, file sharing is transmitting files like books, movies, games, or music using a P2P software. In the reading, "Peers Find Less Pressure Borrowing From Each Other", Google and one of the largest peer to peer lender are teaming up to invest in the Lending Club. This gets borrowers and lenders to work together outside of the traditional banking system. It's a more efficient, easier process of direct funding through borrowers and lenders. Some examples of peer to peer sharing are Napster, Bit Torrent, KAD and eDonkey.

Privacy is essential for users of social media. Every social media platform, when creating an account, has terms and explains how the sites work. They also have settings where you can explore your privacy, whether or not you want your account to be private or public. It's important to have some privacy on sites like Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat to prevent stalkers, cyberbullying or to protect your posts from being viewed by people you don't want to view them. Every user of social media should take privacy settings seriously because the potential harm that can be caused is dangerous.

For this assignment I created a Bitmoji on snapchat. I went on snapchat, went to create Bitmoji and started creating my virtual avatar. It first asked what skin color, then the shape of my face, hair color and style, body shape, eye shape, and then I got to pick out my outfit. The process was really easy and fun! The Bitmoji is used within the chats on snapchat and it my avatar when people look at my profile. It adds another element to the app and makes it different than others like Instagram and Facebook. Other sites display an actual image of the person as their profile picture. By having an option to create an avatar, makes it a fun and different experience and allows the user to be creative.

The article called "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From It's Followers" talks about how companies like Twitter come up with new ideas and features through the users, not the people that work for them. Sites like Twitter allow users to share their opinions and ideas in a thread and other's can respond, challenge or add to their ideas. More opinions, allows for more creativity to be shared and if Twitter hears an idea they think would benefit their site, they will try to apply that as a new feature. Another company, Lego, has created a site called Design byME, where users can use Lego's design software to create new models and then Lego will sell those models. This ultimately makes their consumer's feel more involved with their company. I think it's smart for Lego to do this because basing there products off of the ideas of their workers may not work sometimes. The user's may come up with more creative designs and ideas that may be different and more well recei...

The use of virtual worlds are becoming more and more popular in today's society. Virtual worlds are a representation of the real world, but in the form of a computer based simulation. Many of these virtual simulations can be used in a person's home for purposes of entertainment. One use in the article called "At Hearing, Real and Virtual Worlds Collide", a virtual depiction of the Rayburn House Office Building was displayed on the walls so people in real life could see the crowd that had logged on to see the event take place. Some advantages of this technology is that it can improve activities like gaming or military training purposes, medical training for diagnosis' and even psychological therapy uses. Some disadvantages could be the amount of time it takes to recreate a virtual environment. Even when recreating that environment, things like lag time, lack of acuity, and overlooking of basic laws of physics can be disadvantages. In the article "Going to the ...

When I first visit Twitter, I notice many words. It reminds me of a blog where people are connecting with each other, having conversations, sharing opinions and expressing oneself. When I go on Facebook I notice something similar. Many people posting statuses, showing their location and where they've been. Facebook differs from Twitter in that you see more pictures being posted and people being tagged in other's photos. Both applications have bios on the user's profile, but Facebook goes more in depth with contact information, family & relationships, places you've lived, and life events. I also visited Instagram, this was much different than both Facebook and Twitter. Instagram is all about photos and videos. There is very little writing, mostly just photos with a small space underneath to write a caption. I also visited Snapchat, which is very different to all three of these applications. Snapchat is an app made to communicate with friends or family through photos ...