Of Wikipedia and WoW...

Last post of the semester. Scary.

To end the semester, I read the article "The Book Stops Here" by Daniel H. Pink. It is a fascinating discussion of the rise and growth of Wikipedia. The fact that Wikipedia has exploded to such an enormous degree that the Encyclopedia Britannica feels threatened amuses me greatly. That something as huge as Wikipedia could develop from entirely voluntary contributions, and remain open to all to add to, yet stay, for the most part, accurate, is mind-boggling. UserFriendly, an online geeky comic strip, actually has featured both the Britannica/Wikipedia rivalry, and the fact that anyone can add/edit entries on Wikipedia (check out Dec 9-12 cartoons). Both spot-on. At this point in time, I'll usually go to Wikipedia before I hit a printed encyclopedia, at least for general information. If I'm just curious about something, odds are pretty good that the wiki information will be sufficient, and probably accurate enough.

On an entirely different note, I figured I'd bookend my blog for the semester with an update on my WoW characters, just like I started the semester with. Jamoyah, my paladin, is level 70 now, and has picked up her epic flying mount. Here's a pic of her with her new ride (plus my current UI, which I know I said I'd post a pic of.)


Oooo, ahhhh. Starstalker, my hunter, has also hit level 70. It actually took far less time to get him up, since I was already familiar with some of the quests, plus he had plenty of rested bonus to work with. That really speeds things up.

Apotheosis (my guild) is currently working on Karazhan and Gruul's Lair. We're up through the chess event in Kara (working on Shade of Aran currently), and we've killed High King Maulgar in Gruul's. Best attempt on Gruul himself was 47%. We've still got some learning to do, but we're having a blast with all the new content.

A Moment of Silence...

Obviously the events this week at Virginia Tech have been on a lot of people's minds for the past few days. Why, how, so many unanswered questions. Yet amidst all the tragedy and unanswered questions, a few points of difference in this generation and their use of technology have arisen.

As was reported by more than one new agency, people tried to find out about how friends and loved ones were, whether they were okay, through more than just calling them. And the students on the inside, hidding in their classrooms, reached out in the same way. They posted to places like facebook and other such social sites, blogging about their thoughts and feelings and what was going on. Odd to the older generation that the Internet was their first thought of a way to find out about friends, but hey, we are the digital generation, so they say.

Web 2.0 -- Evolution

I read the article "Why the Web is Like a Rain Forest" by Steven Johnson. It highlights the fact that the Web as we know it is evolving from a thing of basic text hyperlinks into something far more versatile. Information feeds on itself, expanding out to touch far more people than it would reach with just static hyperlinks. The world of blogs has exploded, and is a huge part of this change. People are becoming more and more connected, despite having never actually met in the real world in most cases. The world is becoming a smaller place. I remember making my first webpage using raw HTML. It was amazing at the time. It will be interesting to see just what the future brings.

My mother is actually eyeball deep in all this, amusingly. Check out her blog here if you've got time.

Cyber Security (Hah!)

A lot of people just don't realize how easy it is for hackers to steal information these days. It can happen to anyone, and it happens all the time. Check it out... Here are a few articles from the last 2 weeks from various news sites regarding security:

cnn.com - Credit Card info theft from TJX
news.com - Security hole in Vista patched
nytimes.com - EMI to sell music in iTunes without anti-piracy software
latimes. com - More on the credit card info theft from TJX

Do I find all this surprising? No, not really, especially not the hole in Vista being a new version of an old hole in the other Windows OS's. That really does invite hackers to go to town double-checking all the old holes in the previous OS's to see if they were reintroduced in Vista. The TJX credit card theft is not anything new really; it just happens to have been the largest perpetrated thus far. It certainly won't be the last.