ds106 Assignment #5

For this ds106 assignment I decided to do another spubble. For those of you who still don't know what a spubble is just click on this link for more details "Very Own Spubble."While the spubble is not the most challenging of all the ds106 assignments, I find it to be one of the funniest and most enjoying. I believe this picture was taken while I was in Shibuya. My friends and I found this really cool pet store where they had dogs just running around on the floor.

Common Everyday Object

For this ds106 assignment I chose to take a picture of an everyday object and manipulate the colors around the object. For more details on the assignment you can look here "ds106 Common Everyday Object." So for this assignment I took a picture of Tokyo Tower for anyone who doesn't know what the image is. For me this is a common everyday object because I see it everyday on my way to school. For this semester I have yet to go up to the observation deck. When I was in Tokyo for my first time I went up during the day time but I heard the view at night is in some respects better. I have a couple more weeks left in Japan so I am going to definitely put that on the "TO DO LIST" before I leave.

Regular picture of Tokyo Tower

My view of Tokyo Tower lol

Roppongi Street View Story: ds106

The name of this ds106 assignment is called "Street View Story." The purpose of this assignment is to use Google Maps or Google Earth to find a street view picture of a place you have been to, then to explain the significance of the picture. So for assignment I grabbed a picture of a club I have visited a couple times out here in Tokyo. While it's definitely not the best club in Tokyo, they do play very good music here. I choose this picture because just last weekend while I was there celebrating my friends birthday the police came and shut the club down. It was kinda a big scene there were some 50 cops and there was even a news crew filming the whole incident. It wasn't until later that I  found out the reason the club was shut down. Apparently the club had been operating without a license to allow dancing and to be open past midnight, which I found to be funny.  The club was frequented by a lot of foreigners, so now that it's closed I'm not exactly sure where they are going to go now. I've posted a youtube video clip of the incident below:

Car Lust DS 106

For this Ds 106 Assignment I decided to choose Car Lust as my topic. Audi's in general are my favorite car, but this particular make and model is by far my dream car. It's not to often that I have a chance to see this car in public due to how expensive it is to buy. However, I did see this car parked in the front parking lot outside my apartment. It stood out so much than any other car in the area. Seeing this car makes we want to work harder, so that I will be able to buy it one day.  I think I may have went and started studying right after I saw this car lol. Overall, this is by far my dream car and when I see it in person, it shows me that you can have the nicer things in life as long as your willing to put to time and dedication into your work.

Malware

I'm not even sure how many people are familiar with the term malware. I for one have heard about it but never really did any reading on to to fully understand what it really does and how it can affect your computer.

Wikipedia defines malware as: "short for malicious software, consists of programming (code, scripts, active content, and other software) designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, gain unauthorized access to system resources, and other abusive behavior."


In today's society you can find malware anywhere on the internet. A common place to find it is on social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn. Hackers have discovered that people who use these social networking sites are not very cognizant of the information they look at of share. 
A form of malware that can be found on Facebook is through the use of random friend request from people you don't know. This tends to be very common because it seems that most users will add anyone who ask to be their friend. While I have never had this problem, because I don't add people who I don't know personally, I have seen malware through some of the videos that are posted on Facebook. 


The main motive behind malware is so that hackers can steal you personal information such as bank number, social security numbers etc. 


Ways to prevent malware on your computer are through the installation of anti virus software. While this has proven to be very effective, you have to continually check for any update that may be needed for the software. If you fail to continually update your computer you are just leaving the door open for another malware attack. 


While there are many options out there to protect us from malware, in the end it still comes down to us and how cognizant we are of the things we do on the Internet. Those programs can only be as effective as the person using the computer. If you are continuously going to push the limits on things you do on the Internet then you are only asking to get something in return.  

For anyone who is having a problem with malware on your computer, I Found this youtube video that shows you step by step how to remove malware from your computer. The video is kind of long but I think it can be very helpful.

Final Exam Question: What is the name of the company that Facebook has partnered up with to protect users from malicious links?
Answer:Websense

My first Spubble

Ok, so this is my first attempt at a spubble for my first DS106 assignment. A definition of is spubble is when you take a picture of yourself in which your body language, gestures, etc. suggest one thing and then play off that using a speech bubble. To find out a little more detail about the assignment click on the this link "Very Own Spubble." A little background on the picture. It was taken while I was in Osaka and going up this ridiculously long elevator to get to the top of this observation deck at in one of the tallest buildings in the city. I guess if I do any other assignments like this they will be about my travels while out here in Japan.

Blog Assignment #3

For this blog post I am going to give a summary/response to "Timmmmyboy's" blog post "We Are All Artist".

In Timmmyboy's blog post he talks about how you don't have to be a designer or an art major to be artist. Art is very subjective meaning that while it may not be considered art to one person it could be considered genius to someone else. In his post Timmmyboy says "creativity is not inherited". What he means by that statement is that you have to learn to be an artist. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and time. He says that people who seem to just be naturally gifted with creativity probably grew up in a household that brought about creative thinking. For instance, the individuals dad may have been in a band while the mother was a writer. It's from growing up in that kind of stimulating environment that spawned the creativity within that individual.

Another one of my favorite statements from the blog post was when he said "when we are forced with challenges that we are uncomfortable with, we are most creative."

I totally agree with this statement because it's during those moments that we have to think outside the box because the norm isn't going to get the job done successfully. For me personally, while it is very difficult to find solutions at first to those difficult challenges. I feel that it's during that time I can think the most creatively and sometimes come up with my best work.

Overall, I was really able to connect with a lot of the points that Timmmyboy was making in his blog post. Art doesn't have to be a masterpiece like the Mona Lisa or Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. Art can be something as simple as a simple drawing of anything. However, in order to become a really good artist you are going to have to work on you craft everyday to master it.