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Stronger, Better, Faster, Stronger: The Future of the Internet

It may be hard to believe, but the Internet has been around since the 1960s (And who thought it was a millennial like you).

The short version of the history of the Internet is that it was actually created as a military-government project with the goal of creating a  computer time-sharing system. Fast-forward to the 1990s, the Internet became an immediate two-way communication for consumers to have access to entertainment, businesses, educational, and governmental purposes. Today, it is a major necessity in our everyday lives and will continue to be for the rest of our lives and well beyond that.

With the growth of the Internet expanding into multiple countries and generations, it now stores an overwhelming amount of information, stored in bytes, and the amount of bytes being used is only getting bigger and bigger. Similar to the metric system, bytes are now measured in gigabytes, megabytes and terabytes. Now the scale is increasing to petabytes and exabytes.

comparative-scale-of-bytes

With the growth of bytes being used for the downloading of documents, music, and movies, and if your device, like a tablet, smartphone, or laptop, runs out of space to store these bytes, your device can run really ,really slow.

So how can you fix this problem? Well, for one, you can delete a bunch of downloads that you had no idea was on your device, or two, get a device with larger storage. Most businesses and tech companies are not able to do number one so they have to invest in larger storage units, some as big as a truck.

Snowmobile.png

That’s the Snowmobile, provided by Amazon Web Services, and the “Savior of the Internet.” The Snowmobile is a cloud storage service that is designed to transfer huge amounts of data by truck (imagine having one of these in your dorm room). The 45-foot long shipping container holds up to 100 Petabytes (which equals to 100 MILLION bytes). That is enough storage space to hold all of the information generated on the Internet since at least 2003.

So there you go! The future of the Internet is safe! As you were!

Punctuation Marks were the First Emojis ;)

*NOTE: My punctuation artwork were automatically changed into emojis. Stupid code 🤬

IKR 😮 my mind was blown when I realized it too! It happened at work, a nameless co-worker was filling out a survey one day and I noticed that he was giving the restaurant high marks, but was not as enthusiastic in his descriptions of the fantastic service that he was given.

Me: You should put an exclamation point at the end of your sentences.

Co-worker: Oh ok

Me: See! it makes it more exciting like an emoji. Punctuation marks are like emojis but really old. LIKE THEY WERE THE FIRST EMOJIS!!!!

And there you have it 🤯 If you really think about it, we were using punctuation marks before the smiley face days came along in the mid-2000s.

keyboard designs 4

The transition from punctuation marks to emojis are an example of technological convergence- the combination of computing communications and content around networked digital media platforms. This form of digital convergence, helped different mediums like telecommunications, cable TV, and computers together making it easier for viewers to see and read from their favorite magazines, newspaper, movies, and TV shows, by using alternative devices like tablet, smartphones, and laptops.

I am so putting this on a t-shirt 😂

 

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#TrollFarms Make The World Go ‘Round!

Get that image of the cute wild hair characters that sing Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop The Feeling” all day. I’m talking about the real-life Internet “Trolls” and the grazing fields on foreign soil that are contaminating the ideals of this country. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia had in fact orchestrated a multi-pronged cyber offensive on the 2016 Presidential Election to discredit candidate Hilary Clinton and help now President Donald Trump win.

Long story short, the debated definition of Troll Farms are organizations whose employees or members attempt to create conflict and disruption in an online community by posting deliberately inflammatory or provocative comments. The most well-known Troll Farm, located in Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg, is the Internet Research Agency (Now known as The Federal News Agency). The New York Times Magazines says the FNA has now become known for employing hundreds of Russians to post pro-Kremlin propaganda online under fake identities in order to create the illusion of a massive army of supporters. This agency has now made American social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook as its stomping grounds to wreak havoc on our values by tampering with major issues in the news, including last year’s Election.

A very destructive blow that FNA has taken credit for is by acting as the Tennessee Republican Party by creating there own Twitter handle @TEN_GOP. Gaining as many as 150,000 followers before being deactivated in August, 2017, POTUS, in addition to many other White House staff members, including spokesperson Kellyanne Conway, campaign digital director, Brad Parscale, and son Donald Trump, Jr., retwetting posts from fake accounts including one from September of this year, saying “We love you, Mr. President!,” where the Commander-In-Chief replied:

Twitter

Congress is now learning from this situation by trying to come up with solutions to prevent anything like this from happening again.

Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mark Warner (D-VA) have introduced a bill called the Honest Ads Act. If passed, the bill will require sites like Google, Facebook, and Twitter to keep a public registry showing the name and contact information of any individual or entity that spends more than $500 on political ads in a year in a push to make it easier for people to see information about who paid for the political ads they see online. Republican Senator, John McCain, says action like this is “more important than ever to strengthen our defenses against foreign interference in our elections.”

In addition to Congress, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which is a bipartisan project to counter Russian disinformation, is also helping to prevent Russian influence on the Internet. This transatlantic organization had identified over 600 accounts on Twitter, communicating inaccurate material about the #TakeAKnee NFL debate.

To all who are reading this, I encourage you to proceed with caution while looking at content on the Internet and on your favorite social media platforms. The writer may not be who they say they are.

 

 

My Musical Date With Uncle Hapnin’

Have you ever had a time where everything fell into place at the right time? Well, that happened to me this past weekend. The setup of the best weekend ever started a few weeks ago, when my …

Source: My Musical Date With Uncle Hapnin’

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What I know For Sure! (Not the Oprah version, the Allison version)

So the reason for this website, the reason for these blogs, and the reason why I am writing this right now are coming to an end. My Introduction to Digital Communications class at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University is pretty much over.

To tell you the truth, the class, which was history focused on how the Internet and social media became a mandatory necessity, was really dope!

I never knew that the time that I was a kid, watching Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, and drenching my little brother and sister with my super soaker, was the same time that the world of digital was being created.

The amazing thing about the class was that I really learned a lot too. Not only did I learn a lot from the curriculum, but also from my classmates.

This is what I know for sure:

  • Professor Emily will always be called Professor Emily to me. This is mostly because I had difficulty pronouncing her last name which is “Kulkus”.
  • Don’t do your Asynchronous work on a cruise ship. The WiFi was so bad that it took me hours to download a 10-minute lecture.
  • LaTron loves his tech toys. He’s always talking about buying the latest thing or buying his third Amazon Echo.
  • Nate’s favorite thing in the whole wide world is his Baltimore Orioles hat.
  • Bria has a passion for the ones that she loves, and they are really lucky people too!
  • Lilli’s husband always likes to walk in front of her computer camera as if he wanted to participate in the class.
  • Megan loves to talk about her new husband, and I hope that never goes away!
  • Jelyse needs to be a paid spokesperson for Fit Bit! I’ve had the wellness device for several years, and she was able to tell me things about it that I had no idea about.
  • Media literate victims are all around us!
  • All you have to do is ask. An example is when I was researching for my case study for my final grade, I took a hail mary to ask my shero, Chairperson of Urban One, Cathy Hughes, for an interview and she said yes! I might try that on asking Dwayne Johnson to marry me next lol!
  • Melina has a passion for dogs and animals in need which is something I commend her for!
  • Sha’Mira is Kohl’s most loyal employee and hopefully, an executive at the retail store is reading this now and will give her a big-ole raise for it too!
  • Joe’s girlfriend likes to drop hints of marriage on her social media. Her plan to share her Pinterest with him which had pins of different wedding ideas was genius!
  • Abe has a different perspective on social media and the Internet than I do, and having him expose this to me will make me a better person.
  • Eric laughed at my jokes the most! And he has a sparkling white smile which I loved putting on his face!

Of course, I learned a lot of other stuff, but these are the things that I’m gonna take with me for the rest of my life!

I met so many people that have embraced my weirdness and never let me feel guilty about it either. I am proud to say that my classmates have turned into my friends, and that was always a struggle for me. Don’t get me wrong, I can get along with people just fine, but I just always felt like I never fit in until now.

So thank you to Professor Emily and my classmates for an enjoyable experience with all of you and may we continue to progress in this program together!