WIRED #2

Graffiti Goes LED

Well if we look at it this way... at least the freeways where graffiti resides, will be more lit up at night. I'm curious as to how graffiti artists who specialize in this style, maintain the power to keep their artworks lit. Do they revisit it with a fresh batch of duracell batteries? In any case, I think the concept is definitely intriguing. Definitely an eyecatcher, but hopefully it won't lead to any rubbernecking on the road. There's more than enough of that everyday, in my opinion. However, LED-lit graffiti is definitely something I'd take a minute or two to observe [not while on the road though]. If I were a graffiti artist, I'd want to try something like that. With new media growing by the minute, this was bound to happen at some point!


Free, As In Beer

This was a mediocre read for me. Though it did get me thinking about all those free programs you can download on the web. I was never aware that users could submit their own upgrades to the software. I probably wouldn't tweak around with the program, personally, but I'm for the idea. There's a lot of ppl who can't afford all the designer named brands, and this is a good alternate option. And with more people working together, I'd figure the software will continue to meet demands.


Spam + Blogs

Now I'm just paranoid of googling anything. Up until I read this article, I never heard of splogs. But now... I'm well aware that I've visited these so-called splog sites before. I'm not for the idea of having splogs. While reading about it, I couldn't help, but imagine some couch potato lounging around and collecting the dough off of internet users naively clicking onto one of their spam ads. I'm probably going to go back to this article and look at that screenshot of a splog page... it just seems helpful. This just reminds me of all those times when I've googled some keyword and ended up getting misled to a porn site. When I google, I want what I'm looking for. Not some splog!


Get Wiki With It

I like the idea of peer review on the web for people who want to submit their articles. Peer review on my papers and the likes in school always helped me see things in my paper that I didn't see before, and then in return, strenghtened that paper for the final review. With everything, I'd hope that people who read the articles submitted to those kind of sites, will be honest. The sites ask for the person's name, affliation and email address. I can see this as a potential for people who want to spam comment. Regardless, there will be flaws on the system. Though hopefully a good portion of the commenters will be there truthfully to comment with some helpful feedback.