Below is my website...It's a iist of beloved, time-wasting websites. Very useful for finals week.

http://www.users.muohio.edu/karchld/IMS/

Have a great summer!

This article from Space.com may not be about breaking personal technology, but it does highlight the significance of seemingly trivial interactive internet features. NASA will be announcing the name of a new section of the international space station tomorrow on the Colbert Report. Stephen Colbert has mentioned the new module numerous times, hoping that it will be named for him. NASA held an online poll in which those interested could vote for or suggest names for the new module. Colbert's fans voted for the comedian more than 230,000 times.

I thought this story was interesting due to the viral aspect of a goofy cause like naming part of the space station after Stephen Colbert. Anything can reach cult status online.

ITunes' repackaging of songs and other downloads made for an interesting story on British news source The Guardian and other major news sites.

While the majority of downloadable songs will still be sold at 99 cents, a certain number of new hit songs will now be raised to $1.29. Many older catalog songs will now go for 69 cents. In addition, music retailers can now sell songs and albums packaged with videos, ringtones, and the like through iTunes' new, three-tiered pricing system.

This may not be the most exciting story (unless you, like me, know that all your favorite tunes will probably end up in the discount bin), but I find shifts in the online music industry interesting. The Apple brand seems to have helped iTunes survive the rise of illegal download sites, in part due to "exclusive" content. Somehow, the music industry may remain profitable.

I found this article interesting and kind of amusing. It discusses the use of blogs as a kind of relationship counseling, with people posting online what they really think about their significant others.

Some of the bloggers featured in the article find that blogging helps them sort out issues in their relationships and other areas of their lives. One woman claims that her husband reading her blog and responding in person has truly helped their marriage. Others have stories of breakups after a "secret" blog was found.

This seems a pretty risky game to me. Although writing down thoughts or feelings may be therapeutic, putting said feelings online may create a serious case of oversharing. One of my friends set up an online blog talking about her husband and their relationship, and, I'm ashamed to say, I check out their dysfunctional relationship whenever I'm feeling down. However, some people say blogging about personal issues helps them tremendously. It will be interesting to see if the trend in personal postings continues.

This article from Politico discusses "new media" in relation to the Obama administration. Unlike previous presidents and cabinets, this one is more than willing to address less traditional media sources. In recent press conferences, bloggers and reporters from distinctively liberal news organizations were given front row seats, and the president has paid more attention to reporters from blogs like the Huffington Post. In the article, communications officers discuss the advantages to speaking to niche news sources and target audiences. I find it interesting that this is one way that the shift to new media is manifesting itself.

My Favorite Things

Here's a list of some of my favorite things (and it's not even set to music)!

• The first day of spring


• Peach rings


• Bright c olors


• British late-80s punk rock


• Sending witty text messages to my friends


• The Onion

The blog .">Romanesko was one source featured in my annotated bibliography. Romanesko is an online news blog written by Jim Romanesko of the Poynter Institute, one of the most highly respected institutions in the journalistic world. The blog covers news in the media industry, and provides up-to-the-minute information on what is happening in news companies. There are usually a number of articles on advertising and revenue; the most recent crop includes stories such as the Associated Press’ decision to consider requiring subscriptions for web access to some news, news sites’ attempts to get their information linked to Google, and other business propositions in the news industry. Including some of these stories in the paper would integrate extremely timely examples of revenue-hunting in online world. I check it whenever I hear of a breaking story in the news industry - the blog is all over the Seattle Post-Intelligencer this week.