How to make a Mashup

Stick Michael

Swarm Intelligence and Robotics

WolframAlpha A5

I have been asked to post information about this "knowledge engine on my blog enjoy!

Spend some time looking at wolfram|alpha. Check out the examples to get an idea of what it can do.
Use both wolfram|alpha and google to try and determine the answer to the following questions. For each one, state the answer, and say which tool was the most useful or fastest in finding the answer.

1. All english words containing the letters "eue"
2. How much potassium in 4.7 oz of banana?
3. How old was Barack Obama on the day you were born?
4. Date and time of the next total solar eclipse in Eugene?
5. What is the minimum and maximum price of google stock since it went public?
6. Link an image of the barcode for UPC 01234567890
7. How many vertices does an icosahedron have?
8. Distance from Eugene to Tokyo?
9. Average Oregon income per capita?
10. What is the Morse code for your first name?

1. Wolfram: queue, queued, queues.
Google: found: feued, queue, queued, queueing, queuers, queues

2. Wolfram: A 4.70 oz banana’s potassium content is 477mg and constitutes 14% of daily value.
Google: numerous references to potassium but no specific answer.

3. Wolfram: May 28, 1957 is before Barrack Obama was born.
Google: numerous references but no specific answer.

4. Wolfram: Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 4:52 pm-duration 5 minutes 46 seconds, path width 147 miles.
Google: August 21, 2017

5. Wolfram: Minimum is $306.57 maximum is $629.51
Google: numerous editorial sites
6. Wolfram: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=UPC+01234567890
Google: nothing in the way of specific fact.
7. Wolfram: 12
Google: wikipedia had a quick accurate result.

8. Wolfram: 4886 miles
Google: nothing specific

9. Wolfram: $40,040 per yr
Google: provided a link that reported yearly averages but no aggregate.

10. Wolfram: Leslie in morse code = *-**|*|***|*-**|**|*
Google: found a really cool site called poke my name http://www.pokemyname.com/firstname_843_leslie.htm

Unintended Consequences: Ten Years under the DMCA A9

So what is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA?) What was the intention behind the formation of this act? The DCMA was enacted with the intent of preventing the theft of copyrighted material on the internet. In practice, the anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright infringement. As a result, the DMCA has developed into a serious threat to several important public policy priorities. DMCA

To determine whether a use of a work is fair, courts engage in a case-by-case analysis, starting with the four factors set out in the Act: the purpose and character of the use; the nature of the work; the amount and substantiality of the work; and the harm to the market for the work.

The question that begs response is what problems have the DMCA created? We know that big business have long used copyright laws to control piracy of their proprietary material. This includes ideas, products, and content. Many an artist can tell you that their life's work is owned by some big multimedia entity and they have absolutely no control over its dissemination. So who does this act protect? not the consumer and often times not the creator.

The one who benefits is the copyright holder. The internet has created a large open access forum to these traditionally protected bits and pieces of content. The practice of creating "mash-ups" really pushes the limit of proprietary control. Because of the creative and highly personal interpretation of others created works pushes the boundaries of the original interpretation many copyright holders are taking a very personal view of these mash-ups and other created objects using content originally created and copyrighted by others. Many of these individuals and corporations do not support these varied interpretations.

There is a great deal of concern regarding the re-sale and theft of the content and related technology's. How does the DCMA regulate the decision of what is authorized and regulation and what is not. This is where they are falling short on protecting the consumer and the copyright holder. Oft times the consumer is making a sound and reasonable use of the content and/or technology but is prevented from sharing their work because of a desist order that is not supported by the force of the law, yet they are permitted to use this act to make a frivolous request in the first place.

Major criticisms of the act include not only frivolous use of “take down” orders, but it allows a monopoly by Macrovision's analog protection programming, it discourages open research and development of new technology s and communications formats. There is open resistance and strong opposition by influential organizations such as the “Electronic Frontier Foundation”. EFF

Chinese Censorship A4

1. uss yorktown nt

2. google china censorship

3. Tiananmen Square

4. Taiwan independence

What do these terms mean to you, do you have a pre-determined conception of them? Like most of us these are familiar terms but lets explore why. As part of a classroom assignment I was asked to seek information from several different search engines in the US and China to see how they would report based on specific keyword strings of information. I was looking to see how the information I was seeking would be portrayed with the thought of censorship in mind. I searched google.com, google.cn, bing.com, and baidu.com.

When I searched for USS Yorktown I found numerous references to current day information about the newest Navy ship commissioned in 1982, I found some information about the USS Yorktown of WWII. And one reference to the USS Yorktown on “bing.com” (http://www.slideshare.net/kapitan/aircraft-carrier-cv-1-presentation) that described a revolutionary battle led by “General George Washington” but no clarifying referent was found to explain why it was so listed. Turns out the USS Yorktown was named after this famous battle of 1781 in Yorktown Virginia. On google.cn I went 3 pages in before I found any references besides the windows NT failure, and this was regarding a gun club event title “Remember the Yorktown” (http://www.twincitiesidpa.com/results/2008%20Season/2008-06-07.pdf) . The next page again showed just info about the NT failure.

On the google.cn site, listed information was mostly regarding the NT failure and the occasional odd bit of information that did not translate to an english equivalent that made sense.

I searched Tiananmen Square on baidu.com and google.cn, I found nice stories about the square and the importance of this cultural location, I did not find anything relating to modern day protest movements. Just about Mao Zedong revolution, most of the information was in a very positive slant, Mostly about how great it is in China, how happy the people are who live there, things about “pop” culture, short stories, I did not find any real news items that truly touched on real life issues or modern day social concerns. When I went to google.com and bing.com, I found that all of the primary pages discussed the violence perpetrated in the square, listing casualties, the issues and concerns that brought the individuals there to protest the current regime in power, and descriptive stories about the the square and it cultural importance to the Chinese people.

Next I searched the term “China Censorship” I found the topic vetted on each search engine but it was more predictably slanted by the search engines in support of the idea of countries dictating content management if they conducted a lot of business with China vs. Those who had some problem, ie. Microsoft and Google. And the people who blogged regarding individual freedom to make their own informed choices.

The last item I searched was the most blatantly propagandized by the Chinese search engines. I was unable to find a single reference to the violence at the square that is so historical around the world today. I did find that the western based search engines almost exclusively presenting content regarding the cultural protests against the current socialist regime.

In conclusion, I find that the degree of censorship is directly related to modern marketing usage. The Chinese search engines only allowed topics of discussion where they could control the slant without seeming to avoid the subject in terms of the politically inflammatory items. When there was a more palatable context this was used to the exclusion of all other information. This allowed the impression of being informed without providing any knowledge of widespread disaffection with their viewpoints politically.

John Jaqua Student Learning Center A7 my own mash-up

I went on a tour of the new learning center for athletes yesterday. This facility was built by Phil Knight and then gifted to the University of Oregon to provide a state of the art facility for the UO athletes.


The building is amazing and fabulous, it is a glass structure dedicated to the athletes who have played for the UO.

As you enter the building you are surrounded

by state of the art classrooms and meeting areas where students can study and work on school assignments. The atmosphere is one of warmth and welcome in spite of all the glass that surrounds you. It is expansive and features biographical bits and pieces of the many athletes who are former and current students this year. One of the nicest features is a glass wall that features etched glass impressions of athletes, staff and alumni of the university that form a three story tall image of Albert Einstein.

I hope that with with all the hype that has gone into this building and the Matthew Knight arena that the athletic community really steps up and shows the country that they are top performers on and off the field. I have met many of the UO athletes who bring so much of themselves to the campus in terms of sharing their athletic abilities and many of these students will go on to become influential alumni in the professional world. The John Jaqua student learning center is a living tribute to those students and their accomplishment on and off the field.

Family, Community, life in General

I wanted to share the blog that I found http://khanfamilyoffive.blogspot.com/ these people have such a postivie and interesting life and are wonderfully willing to share their joy in parenting wondeful children, living fully in their community and sharing joy!

Places to see

I Love my Ducks