Just ME!

All about me...
I am currently 18 years old and I believe that I am just starting to discover myself. I have always known who I am, but I am starting to realize what is truly unique about me. Its not always easy to realize what an amazing person you are especially in the 21st century when everyone strives to be the same perfect person. Let me rephrase that, it is especially hard to be happy with yourself when you are a girl in the 21st century. It seems that all females want to be 100 pounds, tan, blue eyes, popular, etc. It has taken a loooooong time, but I am starting to be very happy with myself. Because who I am on the inside is so much more beautiful then any girl walking the run way! That is something that I am very proud I can say and I hope that many other girls can learn to accept themselves and discover their true beauty just as I have.

I am a Tree Hugger! I love my planet and I feel that it needs so much more respect. If we don't take care of it now, we will not be able to enjoy it in the future. I love doing local River Cleanups, it is a fun and easy way to do your part!

I love fashion and makeup!
I love raising money for charities, doing breast cancers walks, Relay for Life, etc. My father, sister and grandmother had cancer so I try to support cancer charities whenever I can.
I am a big supporter of AIDS awareness. Many people have a very bad perception of the disease and I believe that it does not get as much support as it should!

I love musiccccc and dancing!
I LOVE animals. I have 3 dogs, two of which are adopted from shelters. I believe that anyone looking for a pet should go to a shelter because there are so many animals there that need a great home. I also have 2 chinchillas who I completely adore!
I love the water. I have been boating just about since I was born. I have had my boaters license since I was about 12. And I love my Yacht Club Eastern Yacht Club. I am also a Chesapeake Bay Princess, proudly representing Eastern Yacht Club!I hate Drugs, Alcohol, Racism and prejudice of any sort.

My dream is to be an animal trainer, marine and exotic animals. I would love to work at a zoo or an aquarium. Another dream of mine is to own a farm/zoo/aquarium. LOL.
Last but not least, I am a lover NOT a fighter. I do not believe in violence. And I am 100% against bullying! Bullying is such a prevalent problem in today's society and I believe that it needs serious attention. Make peace not war!
Family, my boyfriend and friends are the most important things in my life!
God is love.

Me and my boyfriend of over 4 years, Imran<3

My family and I walking in Relay for Life!

Internet Connection Types

kbps=kilobites
mbps=megabites
bps=bites

My Digital Footprint

Digital Footprints: In simple terms, a way for your life to be digitally tracked and followed. You can see someones digital footprint by doing a simple search in good. You can find pictures of people throughout their life, information about them, information someone has entered into websites, something written about them, etc.

I did a search of my name in google...WOW! I'm famous! Okay maybe I'm not, but I was shocked at everything that came up.

Information about my Twitter, which I haven't used in about a year comes up! Links to my blog shows up. But then there is information that I didn't put out there. Numerous links about pageants that I have been a part of. An article about a scholarship that I received when i graduated high school, which i never even knew existed. ETC.

Doing that simple research of my name showed my how easily it is for someone to track me and find out what I have been doing for the past couple years. That digital footprint will keep getting larger as I get older. I would leap to say that in about 5 years I could do another Google search of my name and I would probably find about 10 more things. For some people this digital footprint could be a good thing. But if you put bad things on the Internet, such as bad picture on your Facebook, an employer could look that up.

I think that people need to be more educated about digital footprints and how they are created. You are going to create it for the rest of your life and leaving a "bad" digital footprint could really cause problems for people in many aspect of their life.

Web Browsers

The Web browser that I use and always have used is Internet Explorer. I am currently using Internet Explorer 9 and I love it, it is the best yet. Internet Explorer 9 has advanced graphics, faster speeds, improved javascript performance, etc. Internet Explorer has always seemed to be one of the most popular web browsers. It is the web browser that I use at school or on someone else's computer. Internet Explorer is very accessible and easy to use.

I have tried out a popularly emerging Web Browser called Mozilla Firefox. I have talked to a friend who swares by Firefox. He says that it is alot faster, has better downloading speeds and is overall better at opening applications. However, I have tried out Firefox on his computer and I do not feel this way. It is not as easy to use as Internet Explorer for one and I think that if anything the speed is equal to that of Internet Explorer. As for Firefox having "faster downloading speeds" I also do not feel that is true. I have an i3 processor and Internet Explorer 9 and I run downloads extremely fast.

However, I will admit that I may be a bit biased because Internet Explorer is what I have always used and I plan on continuing use of it. But I have been pleased with every new version that has been released, each improves in many ways. And statistics do show that more people in the world use Internet Explorer than any other Web Browser. I believe that the majority of the population uses Internet Explorer for a reason.

RFID tags-Ethical Dilema

RFID- Radio Frequency Identification
Since the United States has started using RFID passports there has been much debate on the safety and security of them. One man who really questioned the security of them, decided to do a test to prove to everyone that they were a huge security risk, this man was Chris Paget. In 2009 Chris Paget used $250 worth of equipment to copy and scan the information on RFID passport cards and enhanced driver's licenses. He did this while driving around San Francisco. Chris Paget said that he did this test to show the security weakness in the technology. Although what Chris Paget did was unethical and illegal, it did prove a very good point. There is security and privacy risks. He proved that almost anyone can do it because it does not cost alot for the equipment and you can literally get the information by walking past someone. So in this case, I think that what he proved totally justifies what he did.

I do not think that the United States should consider scrapping the RFID passport program because it can be very useful. However, I do think that they need to alter them to be alot safer and more secure. They need to make better measures to ensure that only certain people will be able to detect the RFID tags because they do contain very important information.


RFID tags are used in many other ways besides passports and drivers licenses. They can be affixed to cars, computers, people, animals, clothing, cooks, mobile phones, etc. There are obviously the same security issues and concerns that come along with them being in passports. People can use them to track information or receive information.

Youtube Privacy Policy

YouTube is a site that I access at least 5 days out of the week. I use YouTube as a site for information and entertainment. YouTube was started in 2005 and has come an incredibly long way since then.

YouTube has a privay policy that could be considered better then many other sites, but it is lacking in some areas.

Positives:

• YouTube allows you to chose your information that is made public
• YouTube allows you to chose and age limit for your videos(an age that a viewer has to be to watch your videos)
• YouTube allows you to make complaints and reports about other videos
• YouTube has a very strict copyright policy, as soon as they are aware of a copyright issue they will remove the video immediately
  Negatives:
• It is possible to lie when filling out your information to create a YouTube account(making it possible for people of a young age to view vulgar or innapropriate videos)
• You do not have to have a YouTube account to view many videosGreat timeline of YouTube, from the start to now.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

Co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Apple Inc.

Steve Jobs was born February 24th, 1955. Sadly on October 5, 2011 the world lost an incredibly visionary man that contributed so much to technology, and personally my everyday life. Steve Jobs battled with pancreatic cancer for 8 years. This battle with cancer caused Steve to resign as the CEO of Apple in August of 2011.

This a link to the bio and timline of Steve Jobs' life.

Suprisingly, Steve Jobs was not a college graduate, he decided that college was not for him and quit. In 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple in Steve Job’s garage. Stev Jobs grew up taking apart electronics with his father, so this was no suprise. Steve Jobs later branched out and purchased Pixar Animations Studio, which has also come to be very sucessful. Steve Jobs returned to Apple as CEO in 1996. Steve Jobs return changed Apple in many ways, Steve brought many new ideas to the table that would change Apple and ensure its success for life.

The first Apple computer was created in 1976, the Apple I. Now, in 2011, Apple has the iMac, the iPhone, iPod. And what some would argue to be the greates yet, the iPad. Apple lost an incredible team member when Steve Jobs died. But Steve Jobs legacy will forever live through Apple, a company that I believe will never die.

My current favorite handheld device

Currently my favorite handheld device is my iPod Touch.I bought this device for a few reasons. The first reason being because I love music. The second reason is because I love the sleek look of the iPod touch. And the third reason is because it has many other capabilities beyond just being a portable music player, it is also like a portable mini computer. I can even put this device up against my many smartphones that I have had in the past. I have had every smartphone from Palm's, to HTC's, to androids and the newest galaxy's.

I like the iPod the most because:

• For such a small device, this iPod Touch has amazing graphics. The graphics on my iPod are better than the graphics on my laptop PC.
• The iPod has all of the things that i use on a daily basis, such as email, internet, music and video chat.
• When the iPod is connnected to the internet it runs at very fast speeds.
• The screen reaction also workd suprisingly well for such a small device.
• Amazing sound quality.



This is a link to all of the features of the Apple iPod Touch.

I do not face any challenges when using my iPod Touch because I feel that it is an extremely well made device. It has everything on it that I use on a daily basis and I can get APPS for many amazing extras.



The only thing about my iPod Touch that I feel should be upgraded is the fact that it is not very customizable to your personal style and I wish that Apple would create capabilities for that.

Overall, the iPod Touch is a great device that I would suggest to anyone that loves music, games and the internet.







This is the link to the hp pavilion g4.

This is the hp pavilion g4. It is an amazing laptop at an amazing price. This is not my computer yet, but it will be in a couple of days because I just ordered it yesterday! I have been wanting a new laptop for a long time now, but it has taken me time to buy one because they are a vert big inmvestment. And being a young college student, money is not something I am in abundance of.

My current laptop is a Dell latitude. That is a picture of it on the side. It may not look too bad from the picture, but dont let it fool you. It has horrible graphics and an extremely slow processor. I have had the laptop for about 6 years and I didnt even get it brand new. It was my moms and she handed it down to me. I am not a very big fan of Dells because it is the only brand of desktop computer we have ever had in our house and we have always had problems with them. So when I was shopping around for a new laptop I was determined that I would NOT get a Dell, no matter how cheap they are compared to other computer manufacturers.

I did a lot of research before deciding on the compuuter that I did. I wanted to make sure that I was going to get good quality for the money that I spend and laptop that was going to meet my everyday needs. There are a lot of differences between Dells and HPs, but there is also some similarities. The hp i ordered is an excellent computer compared to my Dell, even compared to other brands new computers out right now. I could put the HP that I ordered up against many top computer brands right now.

HP Computer
Positives	Negatives
Lightweight (only 4.68 pounds)	Webcam is not HD
Compact size (14 inch screen)	Does not include Microsoft Office
Nice look & color	-
New & fast processor (Intel Core-i3)	-
4GB of System Memory	-
Nice build quality	-
Windows 7	-

Dell Computer
Positives	Negatives
Compact size (14 inch screen)	Bad screen resolution
Good keyboard	Old & very slow processor
Accessible shortcut keys	Windows XP
-	1GB System Memory

   

The Pace of Technology in My Lifetime

I am currently only 17 years old, but even in my lifetime technology has changed immenseley. New technology is always coming out and some of the inventions amaze me, I never seem to understand how things so little or so thin can do such amazing things. Just when you think something can't get any better they come out with a newer cersion of it.

One of my favorite developers of technology is Apple, I believe that they are much farther advanced than any company out there. Their products do things that I never thought i would see, from a laptop almost as thing as a piece of paper; to a giant iPod that can do everything a computer can. In my opinion Apple raises the bar for all other companies and even in 20 years I dont think that any other company will be on their level. Apple is also coming out with newer and better versions of their products. One month they will come out with an iPod and then 3 months later they will come out with an even thinner one. Their technology simply amazes me. One year after I was born, in 1994, Apple introduced the Power Macintosh, the first of many Apple computers to use IBM's PowerPC processor. Then just 7 years later Apple introduced the iPod. I bet they never imagined that the iPod would grow to be one of the most common accessories in America.

Believe it or not, new technology comes out everyday. I cant even imagine whats to come in the next 10 or 20 years. In the next 10 years we could possible get new types of laptops with amazingly fast speeds and storgae. And in the next 20 years we could possibly get hovercraft cars to drive on the street.