Tell Me Would You Kill to Save a Life

In honour of the new "Hurricane" video I thought I'd do myself an aul tribute to 30 Seconds to Mars in all their epicnessness on photoshop!!!
Took 4hrs (i was distracted by Supernatural :L) and a giant fight with my brother over the laptop to make it so I hope you guys like it! :D
Beany Out!!!!

What I Would Consider When Buying a Laptop for my Course

Decisions to make when considering a computer for my course:

1.      Desktop/Laptop

2.      Size & Weight

3.      Price & Warranty

4.      Antivirus Software

5.      Ports & Drives

6.      Hard Drive & Processor

7.      Applications & Programmes

8.      Battery Life

9.      RAM

Desktop/Laptop: The 1st thing I would decide on would be desktop or laptop and personally I would rather a laptop. I spend much of my time either travelling to and from college or in the college library. The library itself is unreliable for getting a desktop because they are in short supply and I would find it very hard lugging a desktop onto the 07.20 train never mind finding a plug socket once I'd gotten a seat. The laptop would allow me to bring it wherever I went so I could do coursework on trains, in college or if need be in my friend's houses. This would make things much easier in regard to getting work & research completed on time as the hours I usually waste travelling could be used efficiently. The laptop also takes up significantly less room and so can easily be stored during the brief time I am at home and not using it.

Size & Weight: As I am considering a Laptop the size and weight is also extremely important. I need something that is large enough for me to easily view the screen without eye strain even when I am not wearing my glasses (as they break on frequent occasion) however I also need something small & light enough that any laptop bag I put it into can easily hold the weight of it and so the strap would not tear and the risk of the laptop being dropped and/or damaged is significantly reduced. Through experience with the laptops of my parents and friends I think a 15” screen would allow for me to see easily with/without glasses. Most 15” laptop would also weigh only 5-6 pounds allowing for easy transport without strain on either my shoulders or the strap of the bag.

Price & Warranty: As most college students aren’t considered extremely wealthy price is always an issue. Thankfully most standard laptops (perfect for a college student) can be bought for 400-600 Euro. Personally I am currently looking a a laptop to the value of 450 Euro which is more than sufficient for what I need from a laptop. Warrantys on the other hand are a lot trickier. Most people would go for the 2 year warranty because it makes them feel safer however depending on what make of laptop you are buying warrantys can become rather pricey. Personally I would recommend either Compaq or Dell as they have a 1 year Warranty included in the price and it’s only 35 Euro for a 2^nd year.

Antivirus Software: There are currently tons of different antivirus programs on the market e.g Avast, AVG, Baracuda, etc. and while some of them may be given out for free personally I would go with Norton Antivirus. It’s more expensive (as it actually costs money unlike a lot of them) but it gives me peace of mind which is more then enough to keep me happy. The fact that it also keeps my computer from crashing is a bonus.

Ports & Drives: A CD/DVD drive is a must for most students as they will want to play DVDs, burn DVDs, copy DVDs to their iPods, play CDs, etc. A number of USB ports are also considered essential so that Memory Sticks, Printers, Scanners etc. can be hooked up to the laptop to aid in coursework

Hard Drive & Processor: A standard and well working laptop should have a Hard Drive that runs at a speed of around 2600rpms. Also many Laptops these days boast Hard Drives of 100+Gb however 50-60Gb is more than enough for most students, including myself, to save their coursework. I would also recommend an Intel processor my personal preference being a Dual Core processor as it has twice the power of most processors as well as running in Gigahertz

Applications & Programmes: The basic Microsoft Office package is practically a must for most students: Microsoft Word is used constantly to write essays as part of CAs, Microsoft PowerPoint is also very usual for making up presentations to be shown in class, Microsoft Excel would be useful for my course as it would help in my calculations for Research Methods & Statistics course work. For my course Adobe Photoshop is also pivotal for the completion of my CAs (Multimedia)

Battery Life: As I travel a lot and would use my laptop on trains and/or buses which are mostly devoid of plug sockets I would need a battery which last a while especially when I’m not entirely sure when I’ll next get to a plug socket so I would need a laptop which is compatible with an AC power cable and has at least 40hrs of battery life in it when fully charged.

RAM: I would only consider a laptop with at least 2Gb of RAM. This allows for good video playback, multitasking and as many students are also part time gamers will run most games without a general lag giving a smoother style of playing.

This is what I personally would look for when buying a computer for my course and these are the decisions I would have to make. If you have any queries, questions or comments please leave them in the comment box below.

Beany Out!!!!

ICT Article Summary 2 - 10 Reasons to Delete Your Facebook Account

Beside a badly taken picture of the top half of Mark Zuckerburg’s head is a statement encouraging people to delete their Facebook accounts after the author has done the same because he thinks Facebook is unethical but also because he’s starting up his own Social Network and he wants to branch away from Facebook (This is fair warning that these reasons are probably somewhat biased).

The Author then goes on to give 10 reasons (in descending order) why people should delete their Facebook account (in fairness to him none of these involve his new site). They are as follows:

10. One-Sided Terms of Service Agreement: Evidence is given including clauses detailing that inaccurate profile data can lead to account termination. Supposedly this is because Facebook sees its customers as “unpaid employees for crowd-sourcing ad-targeting data”.

9. Unethical Behaviour of CEO: Facebook has always had the question of how ethical Zuckerburg is overshadowing it. He has supposedly used Facebook’s user data to read rivals emails and discredit them. He also paid out millions in a suit over how he stole the original Facebook idea.

8. Facebook’s War on Privacy: Through reading articles with quotes from Zuckerburg the author has decided that: “Facebook not only wants to know everything about you, and own that data, but to make it available to everybody.” He also explains that this in itself is not unethical but the technique it uses is.

7. Facebook – Classic Bait-and-Switch: As they tell developers how to access your information they remain quiet on the implications of this to users. Facebooks gets you to share personal information and then make it public. “Since they are in the business of monetizing information about you for advertising purposes, this amounts to tricking their users into giving advertisers information about themselves.” This is why Facebook is worse then Twitter.

6. FB the Bully: They sued Pete Warden (software developer) for showing how their Bait-and-Switch worked as he made data publicly available. However pretty soon after they did the same thing themselves. “Their real agenda is pretty clear: they don't want their membership to know how much data is really available.”

5. Sharing Private Data in Applications: When you install an App the App developers instantly have access to all your information so your data should now be considered completely public

4. FB – Not Technically Competent Enough: Facebook is not currently competent enough technically to stop a user’s data from being hijacked. Their “Like” button is a gateway for spammers, for example. According to the Author: “They either don't care too much about your privacy or don't really have very good engineers, or perhaps both.”

3. FB – Account Deleting Difficulties: When you delete your account they don’t fully delete all your data and any Apps you have still have it aswell. Deleting your account is also confusing as the easiest part is “deactivating” your account which is not the same as if you log back in it’s as if you never left. To actually delete your account you must sift through all the online help to find a link so in essence, Facebook is tricking people to keep their data

2. FB Doesn’t Support Open Web: This is us pitching in to allow Facebook to collect more data about us and aiming for Facebook to be the one source that has access to it. They also call it “Open” a misnomer as only those with a Facebook account in the first place can have access to it as it is completely proprietary to Facebook.

1. “The Facebook Application Itself Sucks”: With it’s abundance of useless gimmicky Apps, ad companys that even with access to our personal information still don’t give us proper ads (the Author illustrates this by saying most of his ads are for dating sites because his status is single), the customisation navigation is too ridiculous to bother and the feed page loads extremely slowly.

The Author concludes the article by stating that Facebook is trying to monopolize the Web by adding every feature of it’s competitors. He thinks Facebook is doing whatever it wants within the confines of the law. But we don’t have to put up with it as Facebook could be forgotten about (as Myspace has been). “Facebook isn't the only game in town. I don't like their application nor how they do business and so I've made my choice to use other providers. And so can you.”

Here's the link if you would like to read the full article on the BusinessInsider website:

www.businessinsider.com/10-reasons-to-delete-your-facebook-account-2010-5

Beany Out!!!!

ICT Article 1 - Deep Inside Xbox 360 Kinect and Why It's the Future of Microsoft

 Cheesy Background music from the “Inception” Soundtrack aside, the short video before the article is quite informative with Dr. Ilan Spillinger (Microsoft, Vice President of Interactive Entertainment, Business & Hardware) giving a brief history of User Interfaces from DOS to present day where we have as they are calling a “Natural User Interfaces” i.e. The Kinect which incorporates audio, visual and gesture. In between examples of how the Kinect can be used Raghu Murthi (General Manager, NUI Hardware) talks of the mechanics of the Kinect with its automated camera lens for visual capture and innovative audio (Multichannel Echo Cancellation) for voice capture. Spillinger finishes the video telling us that in the near future they will be forced to update either the Kinect or the 360 itself to allow for the advancement of the system.

The article itself speaks along the same lines of the video but goes into greater detail talking about more elements of the Kinect and how it came to be as well as being riddled with images to illustrate what they’re talking about. Microsoft first hired Spillinger so it could be “deeply engaged on the next generation Xbox”. When Microsoft began looking at building a NUI (Natural User Interface) they found most of the pieces or components were already available to them e.g. the PrimeSense 3D Sensor. We are then told that the Kinect brings together tracking your body with full depth mapping, voice command response and a video camera to form an infantile NUI.

The Kinect’s Optical system allows it to “see” through 3 eye-like holes in its “head”. Microsoft have taken million dollar 3D tech and made it in volume and cheap. The Optical System projects a laser and detects what’s happening based on what’s reflected, the projector and sensor create a depth map then with the camera at precise alignment it blends together RGB with depth map to create a virtual greenscreen

A demonstration of how the Voice Command doesn’t always work then shows us how complex the Kinect’s audio set up is. Its size & shape are made by the precise placement of 4 microphones along the bottom places found by research in 200 homes globally. These mics create an audio profile of whatever room the Kinect is in. The Kinect’s Voice Command system is a lot more complex the “push to talk” as it doesn’t have cues. It fixes this with Beam Forming, allowing it to focus on specific spots; the Audio Processor also uses MEC to cut out other noises. The Voice Command has a built in Accent Recognition so it can understand commands from any voice.

The Kinects are tested for various common ‘wear &tear’ issues such as smooth cameras and  withstanding excess heat, the latter being stopped by a built in fan which will stop memories of the “red ring of death” coming back to haunt Xbox users who will be reassured that “it is a new device, there’s nothing from the past”. Vents have also been purposely put in for the same reason.

The Kinect’s shape was chosen because of the mics but also because it is glossy and looks ‘premium’. It is also not personable (unlike the EVAesque prototype) making it blend in with the room’s other tech.

The software is what makes Kinect what it is; the hardware alone is just parts. Kinect sees people as thousands of pixels. Using a database of 20 million images Kinect coverts the raw data to a skeleton which makes your body available to the game. The Kinect can theoretically see as many people as you want however it is designed for 2. The Kinect can recognise people using facial recognition on the RGB camera but it can also recognise by the pixel skeletons general shape (quicker).

At this point another video has been squeezed into the article with a discussion between the Gizmodo journalists, Spillinger & Murthi about why this is the right time for the Kinect to come out, what makes the Kinect so revolutionary, what can be done to make the Kinect evolve over the next few years and how they may come about and is there an Xbox 3 on the horizon (thanks to the Kinect, no). Spillinger ends the video assuring us that if there is a need for change with the Kinect or the 360 itself in the future they will hope to have it out at the right time.

Further assurance is given when Raghu and Spillinger assure us that Kinect if it does not initially do well will not be left to rot as they think the 3 pillars of Xbox are: content, LIVE and Kinect. Raghu talks of how Kinect will evolve as it spreads across other parts of the Xbox platform. The Article ends on a hopeful note as at the time of publishing Xbox had not reached the shelves but what has been seen on Gizmodo’s tour makes them feel as if the Kinect can do nothing other than very well and may even influence other Microsoft projects in the near future.

Here a link to check out the original article and see the videos aforementioned in my summary:

gizmodo.com/5604308/deep-inside-xbox-360-kinect-the-interface-of-microsofts=dreams

Beany Out!!!!

We're as Close as the Vena Cava and the Aorta

Ok first to the 3 (at most) people who properly read this. Dreadfully sorry i havent posted anything in a while it seems everytime i come on this to write something a wall the size of China appears in my head and shouts "F*** YOU CIAN THIS BLOG AINT HAPPENING!!!" ....dont you just hate shouting walls theyre always so angry and agressive. Sometimes I wonder why they dont make chatting walls they'd be alot more fun like the doors in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that sighed contently whenever they opened or closed. THEY'RE FRICKING AWESOME!!!! Sorry went off a bit anyway the point is I have been collecting my thoughts on various shtuffs that have happened recently so i will do a super mega post on them soon as I get the chance bet ya cant wait for that now :P ooooor if youre normal you dont care haha

Secondly just wanna give a big thumbs up to fellow blogger and a good friend of mine for almost 3yrs now FuckknFrisson. This girl is only 15 however her views on life and the world range from the kooky innocence of a girl her age to deep insightful things that Stephen Fry would be proud of. By the way as you can see by me saying insightful things (FAIL) I am not half as deep as I sometimes like to pretend I am :D Going back to my friend I'm pretty sure the moment she reads this (if she reads my blog at all that is - I aint sure :P) she is gonna pull a complete freaker and tell me to take it down soooooo in advance i would just like to say : "IT AINT HAPPENING!!!" :D

Okay lastly I just wanna say thanks to another friend of mine for a few kind words. I recently recieved all my emergency tax money back from work so I've pretty much been shouting about how happy I am to whoever I see (one track mind guys :P) on one occasion I mentioned that "that's me sorted for Xmas i was getting worried I wouldnt have the money to buy anyone's presents" when my friend turned to me and said "wow thats extremely noble thinking of your friends, I wouldve just bought cigars and hookers with mine". Manly jokes aside he was being serious and what he said really made my day so thank you very much RK you are some legend :D

Alright as customary to my blog i shall leave you....WITH A VIDEO :D
I wanted to put up one of the little girl from the MCR vids singing Na Na Na with a keyboard but I'm pretty sure everyone other then me is sick of listenin to me go on about MCR so I've chosen SCRUBS!!!
The song goes with the theme of this post about how awesome my friends are. If I havent mentioned you in this post it aint that I dont love you its just my one track mind sticking to certain things and not others :P


Beany Out!!!!

Tonight the World Dies (ICT Blog Introduction)

Yes people the end of the world is coming I fear as I am forcing myself to conform once again. As this is the 3rd time this has happened since my blog was first set up and it is foretold that bad things come in threes i fear this may be the end for us all. To those of you who I love I regret the fate that will now befall you on account of my actions and I hope that in time you all may forgive me. To those of you I dislike whether it be minor or full scale hatred see you all in Hell you bunch of b*****ds.

Anyway enough ranting and bulls****ing on to the subject of my conformity. As part of my ICT CA I have been told to add an Introduction to my Blog. Originally I thought that this meant putting something in the About Me section or adding in a Blog Description (both of which I did ages ago...). However recently I've noticed many of my classmates have put in a special post specifically for an Introduction so to stop myself from panicking and losing my beloved sleep I guess I must do as the rest have done *tear*

So Welcome everyone to my "Amazing" Introduction:
My name is Cian Dunne and currently I am studying Applied Psychology in IADT, Dun Laoighre. I am in my 1st Year and LOVING IT!!! The only thing I dont love is the hour and a half commute to college and back home everyday.... Poor me :P I have been assigned to create a blog as part of my ICT Continuous Assessment. This is my first blog however by the end of the first post I realised I had found a new love and havent looked back since :D My blog centres around me, my life and what I like/love/dislike/hate. If you know me youll probably find this all extremely interesting (NOT!) if you dont you may find it a good insight into my life (or just enjoy stalking me....you scary ass F******D) So check me out see how super special awesome (YGOTAS IS THE SEX) my blog is, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride!

THE FUTURE IS BULLETPROOF!

PS for those of you who dont know the pic is from Constantine! F***ing EPIC movie starring Keanu Reeves trying to stop the Apocalypse :D Check it out its well worth it :D
Beany Out!!!!

We Make It So Damn Easy To Get By!

What up my peoples! You guys are my followers and I love you for that! YOU!!! *puts pointing finger through screen at viewer* Goddamn this kinda thing is so much easier to look like youre doin in a vlog Goddddddddddddddd!!!!!

Anyways i gotta throw in a couple links to useful Psych sites for my ICT Xmas CA or ill lose marks (OMFG!!! :O) so heres a couple i've found well helpful when it comes to the aul Psychology :)

http://www.psychology.com/ - pretty much the end all for a psychology student great for articles and case studes definitely worth checking out :)

http://www.apa.org/ - Judging by how pretty much everything we do has to be APA format i thought this site might be quite useful :P

http://www.scientificamerican.com/sciammind/ - Spin Off Magazine of Scientific American dealing completely with Psychology really good for regular articles and keeping up to date with psychological news and breakthroughs :D

http://www.psychologytoday.com/ - Little bit girly tbh but still good for articles for throwing in the aul Psych Journal to keep Cliona happy :P

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=4MvOwqNB_CQ&feature=BF&list=PL1D6C5FC9E7B57AF3&index=1 - Youtube Channel with awesome Psychology Lectures from a Professor in UC Berkeley (Autumn '07)

Well there ya go! Hope ya find em useful :)
And now i leave you with Sigmund Freud teaching us.....on the beach! :D


Beany Out!!!!