Convergence of Media - Soap Operas

Throughout the years, Media has changed drastically going from simple radio broadcasts, to television shows, and to the internet! When i first heard about television on the internet i couldn't believe it. When someone told the class that they had Big Brother online 24 hours, i thougth about how crazy technology had advanced. Its crazy how when i was little, we had one black and white color tv and one color tv (with bad quality) to now having 3 HDTVs, 1 plasmas, and cable and internet television. With new ways to entertain and explore things, the internet can cause people to have an obsession.

Soap operas have been one of the world's biggest form of entertainment. Thousands of viewers enjoy the drama, life experiences, and events that occur in the episodes. It all started as dialogues on the radio. People would have listen carefully to enjoy and understand the stories. Speakers in the soap would have to be more skilled in their speaking styles.Then came the television. This new advancement would help listeners understand and get a mood and feeling about the episode. There were stages, images, actions that can be explained to improve the soaps. Now, we have television soap operas found on the internet! This has caused people to become obssessed and anti-social. They stay in their rooms by themselves with soaps online. The internet episodes = less spending time with friends and family

The History of Gaming

1966 - Ralph Baer - invented the home console for video games called the Brown Box...later called the Magnavox Odessey.

1972 - Nolan Bushnell - electrical engineer and entrepeneur who founded Atari,inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza-Time Theaters chain.

1980 - Shigeru Miyamoto - Japanese video game developer; employee of Nintendo who created the famous video games Donkey Kong, Mario, Star Fox, Pikmin, and Legend of Zelda. First game designer to include a storyline to the game.

1985 - Alexey Pajitnov - Russian computer engineer; inventor of the game Tetris.

1985 - Darling brothers - Richard and David founded the Codemasters company by creating and developing video games

1989 - SEGA Genesis was released in America by SEGA corporations in Japan.

1989 - Game Boy is released - a handheld game console created by Nintendo which included Tetris, the top selling game, in the package when bought. Price at first release was $109.

1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog was released in North America. Added many attributes to the video game character.

1991 - Oliver twins - two British brothers, Philip and Andrew, who started creating their own video games on their home computer when they were still in school. They soon started their own computer games company called Interactive Studios (now known as Blitz games).

1995 - PlayStation is launched in the U.S. after Japan's release in 1994. - this video game console was the start of PlayStations chain of home and handheld consoles. American Market Price: $299. First released by Sony Computer Entertainment.

1996 - Nintendo 64 game console is released in the U.S. - Third generation game console for Nintendo at that time. Originally announced as Nintendo Ultra 64 in Japan. Nintendo dropped the Ultra and now referrs to it as N64 or Nintendo 64.

1996- The Tamagotchi is created. Invented by Aki Maita and sold by Bandai. It is a virtual handheld computerized pet in an egg sized console. It consists of a screen and 3 buttons which allows the user to choose a series of options to take care of and raise the pet through time.

1998 - Gran Turismo racing game is launched in the U.S. Top selling game for Playstation. Created by Polyphony Digital and released by Sony Computer Entertainment.

1998 - Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue are released. Top selling video role-playing game launched by Gameboy. Originally called Pocket Monsters in Japan.

1998 - Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is introduced to North America. Produced by Konami. In this video game, the player must synchronize themselves to the rhythm and beat of the song with the up, down, left, right arrows on the screen.

2000 - The Sims is released. - life simulation video game created by Will Wright, distributed by Electronic Arts, and published by Maxis. Known as the best selling PC-game in history with 6.3 million copies sold, and the franchise with 58 million sold.

2001 - Xbox console is released. This was the first independent video game console created by Microsoft. Created by a small group in Microsoft indcluding Seamus Blackley.

2001 - Gamecube is released in the U.S. Produced by Nintendo with game discs at 8 centimeters in diameter.

The History of Internet

1969 ARPAnet - The first online network created by Advanced Research Projects Agency Network - This was the first working network service used in the world and it was the ancestors of Internet.

1971 Ray Tomlinson - Tomlinson created the first email service. People were connected through ARPAnet.

1972 Robert Kahn - Invented TCP/ICP protocol. Transimission Control Protocol was the technology used to transmit knowledge and info from the internet

1973 Vint Cerf - known as the "founding fathers of the internet" He helped create and develop the Internet and invented the TCP/ICP protocol along with Kahn

1976 Steve Jobs - He is the co-founder and CEO of Apple Computer and formerly, of Pixar

1980's Instant Message - a form of real time communication between two people on an online network using some form of computer with text.First instant messaging was mostly used by engineers and academicsin 1980's and 1990's. This first IM tool was started by MIT called Project Athena.

1980's Bill Gates - Gates is the is the co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former CEO of Microsoft company and is the founder of Corbis imaging site. HE's known to be one of the richest man alive.

1989 AOL - America OnLine is one of America's most famous internet provider, who are operated by Time Warner.

1990 World Wide Web (www.) - The year of my birth, the Web was created. It is a resources found on the internet

1996 Google - Google is the world's most famous search engine. It was started as a research project by two Stanford University students named Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996.

2005 Youtube - a famous free website where users are able to upload, share, and watch various video clips. It was started in February 2005 by three pay-pal employees.

Virus, Trojan, Worm

Virus - an unwanted program or code that has entered and broken through the internet's security system from an action caused by the user. viruses usuallyt cause the user's computer to crash or run very slow.

Trojan - this is a hidden program or code which is found when downloading something you would think is safe into your computer. for example, downloading a song or free video game online. you would think its seirous and for fun but trojans may be hidden in the downloadable file.

Worm - this is very similar to a virus. it is an unwanted program that can cause damage but unlike a virus, which attaches itself to part of a program to become a virus, a worm does not need another program to work.