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(12/08/09 8:04pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Here they are: The most memorable personal technologies of the aughts. Not all of them were good (Windows Vista, I’m lookin’ at you) but most of them were invented in the last 10 years. Those that weren’t hit their popularity peak during that time. Without further ado and in no particular order: Internet browsers — Mozilla Firefox’s open-source revolution and Google Chrome’s extension of Google’s world dominance are the most notable additions to our Web browsing arsenal, though Apple’s Safari also debuted. However, ’90s baby Microsoft Explorer is still the most widely used. Slingbox — In 2004, Sling Media introduced the Slingbox, allowing users to remotely access their television anywhere they have an Internet connection. Another convergence technological advancement, Slingbox has become a forerunner in TV streaming. It even won an Emmy Award in 2007 for technology and engineering.Segway — The Segway personal transporter came out early in the decade with incredible buzz. It was to revolutionize transportation and solve urban congestion. But the “scooter on steroids,” in the words of Minyanville.com writer Josh Lipton, just hasn’t caught on with the general public. Still an oddity, it is stereotypically used by police officers and the nerdy. (See Weird Al’s “White and Nerdy” music video.)Global Positioning Systems (GPS) — Although Michael Scott might have suffered from using his GPS, these navigation systems have been helping the directionally challenged in increasing numbers. More than 15 million units were sold in 2008, and sales were expected to grow this year, according to USA Today. The multibillion-dollar GPS industry has also given rise to a new activity — geocaching.Netflix — Although this direct-to-consumer DVD shipping company debuted in 1997, it didn’t start eating into rental stores’ profits until this decade. Also thanks to Netflix, we can keep rentals as long as we want without paying late fees, stream rentals directly to our computer, and we no longer have to face to prospects of driving all the way to the rental store only to face a shelf bare of new releases.DVDs — Introduced in the late 1990s, DVDs surpassed VHS tapes in sales by late 2003 and became the standard in optical disc storage. No need to be rewound, DVDs proved more durable, able to store more information than magnetic tape and offered better quality than VHS. The last major supplier of VHS tapes made its final shipment in December 2008.HD DVDs, Blu-ray Discs — A la Betamax versus VHS tapes, the advent of high definition DVDs brought on a format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray. After 2008, when Toshiba and HD DVD gave in to Blu-ray, sales of the discs and players have grown enormously and will supersede standard-definition DVDs. Blu-ray gets its name from the blue-violet laser beam it uses to read discs.VoIP — Standing for voice over Internet Protocol, the technology allows voice communication through digital packet-switching networks instead of analogue networks. Video gaming — From 128 bits to high-definition graphics, video gaming has come a long way in the past decade. Nintendo Game Boy Advance, GameCube, DS, Wii, Sony PlayStation 2, PSP, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox and Xbox 360 all revolutionized gaming in the aughts. Games such as Madden 10 have become so advanced graphically that some people enter the room and think there’s a real football game on. Systems feature online interactivity and CD-, Blu-Ray- and DVD-reading. And games such as Rock Band (and its derivatives) and Wii Sports have attracted larger audiences to the video-gaming world.Satellite radio — Changing the way we listen, XM Radio became the first active satellite-radio broadcasting system, launching in 2001. The next year, Sirius came on the scene. The two merged in 2008 and exist as Sirius XM. Clear reception and commercial-free, Sirius XM boasts more than 19 million subscribers.E-readers — Electronic-book readers, or e-readers, entered the market in the second half of the decade and are gaining popularity. Amazon.com’s Kindle is the bestselling product, and Sony’s Reader and Barnes and Noble’s Nook also compete in this new way to read. The portable devices allow people to read digital newspapers, magazines and books without all that paper getting in the way.Digital cameras — Digital cameras have superseded film cameras as the standard in photography. In fact, digital camera sales surpassed film sales in 2004 or so, and the major film companies have switched to digital. Digital cameras have become ubiquitous, and almost all cell phones have them. Traditionalists and tourists appear to be the few who still use film.Instant replay in sports — Instant replay has been around for decades, but it was not until the 2000s that sports leagues really began to use the technology in their officiating. Replay is used by the MLB, NBA, NFL, NCAA and the major tennis tours ATP and WTA. Though it exists to make sure right calls are made, instant replay frustrates some fans due to overuse and stoppage of play — not to mention that the referees still don’t always make the right calls.Hybrid-electric and flexible-fuel vehicles — Thanks to dependence on foreign oil (and its prices!) and environmental awareness, ecofriendly cars have become very popular. Frighteningly silent, hybrids reduce the need for fossil fuels while flex-fuel cars that use Ethanol also make good use of our corn. Corn, is there anything it can’t do? Backup cameras — These useful cameras on the back of vehicles make it easier for drivers to see what is behind them. A safety upgrade, backup cameras help prevent tragic accidents as well as the occasional run-over mailbox. They are especially handy when grandpa backs the motor home out of the driveway.DVRs — Digital video recorders are in an estimated one-third of American TV households. Though bad for network ratings and advertisers whose commercials will inevitably be skipped, DVRs save viewers time and give them peace of mind. Schedules don’t need to be arranged to make it home in time to watch your shows. Just DVR them, and say goodbye to the Geico gecko.Cellular telephones — The introduction of 3G networking early in the decade paved the way for today’s ubiquitous cell phone use. Cell phones have made once-commonplace pay phones, including those in the Indiana Memorial Union, obsolete. They’ve even led to a decrease in wristwatch sales. Some see cell phones as the harbingers of death, while others are addicted to them and can’t make it through class without checking theirs.Text messaging (SMS) — With the rise of cell phones came an explosion in text messaging. From 2005 to 2009, annual text messages went from a total of more than 57 billion to more than 1.3 trillion, according to Cellular Telephones Industries Association.Broadband and wireless Internet — Where would college students be without high-speed Internet just about everywhere these days? Probably the library. No longer does one have to spend hours on dial-up, disconnecting when someone wants to make a phone call. Now users can visit hundreds of Web sites in less than an hour. No Ethernet cable? No problem. Wi-fi enables Internet access to everyone in the home — and and maybe even freeloading neighbors.Peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) — Despite Napster’s shutdown in 2001, peer-to-peer file sharing flourished. Services such as Gnutella, BitTorrent, Isohunt, Kazaa, LimeWire, Morpheus, Pirate Bay and more have entered the scene. And some have them have already left because of lawsuits with the music recording industry. Legal and ethics questions abound, yet peer-to-peer file sharing persists with millions of users sharing files daily.Windows Vista — Vista was named Infoworld.com’s No. 2 all-time tech flop in 2008. It was PCWorld.com’s biggest tech disappointment in 2007. Enough said. Released in early 2007, the operating system encountered a myriad of problems and criticism. Many users stuck with its predecessor, Windows XP, until Windows 7 was released this fall. Others jumped ship and now own Macs.Flash memory — Flash memory — along with external hard disk drives, CDs and DVDs — replaced floppy disks as more effective ways to store and transport files. Advances within flash memory technology have driven costs down while increasing memory capabilities. Flash drives with less than 1 GB of memory are a joke, and external hard drives that are 1 TB today cost the same as or less than a 500 GB one did at the same time last year. Web 2.0 — Web 2.0 changed the way we live. It includes web-based communities such as Second Life, hosting services such as Flickr, Web applications, social networking tools (Hello, Xanga, Myspace, Facebook and LinkedIn), video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Hulu, wikis, blogs, mashups, folksonomies and so on. The new era of the Internet features Google as a dominating force, and Wikipedia — though exceedingly helpful — is still not a reliable source.Everything Apple did — Apple owned the decade. Its products included four kinds of iPods, the iTunes music service, iPhones and its line of Macintosh computers. Even its clever PC-versus-Mac commercials have become infamous. The iPod defines a major tech advancement in the decade — MP3 players, the CD player’s successor.Digital, high-definition television — After delay after delay, the United States finally made the switch to digital TV broadcasting in February. This coincides with advancements in TV set technology, as CRT televisions are out of style. Flat-panel displays — including LCD and plasma screens — make the picture clearer than ever before. HDTVs are the wave of the future in TV watching.
(11/16/09 5:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Three years ago, Bloomington resident Kent Johnson found himself homeless and without a job for six months.On Saturday, Johnson and a group of local musicians raised about $1,000 for Shalom Community Center by playing a benefit concert at Players Pub to thank the charity that helped him get back on his feet.Johnson said he was grateful to all the people who came to the concert. He said it was also a huge first for him because it was the only time any of his music was played in front of a live audience.The musicians included IU students, faculty and staff. They played songs from a CD they recorded called “Playin’ for Change,” which was released at the concert and features songs written by Johnson during and after his time being homeless. Wearing a ball cap and jeans, Johnson introduced the group to a standing room-only crowd before launching into the first song. Bathed in red and yellow light, he strummed his 1970s electric guitar and sang the song the CD was named after. The pub rang with the applause afterward.Johnson said the music’s inspiration came from the staff at Shalom Center, a local charity at Fourth and Washington streets that helps the homeless and the impoverished in south-central Indiana.The musicians played the concert and recorded the CD for free. The pub said it plans to donate all proceeds from the cover charge for the benefit and all CD sales to the Shalom Center, which Johnson said was his vision for the whole project.“It would be really cool if somehow one of the songs managed to escape and really get out there and generate a ton of cash for Shalom,” he said.Johnson told the concert crowd the CD was not his. He wrote the songs, but it was a collaborative effort. Throughout the concert, he introduced the other musicians and highlighted the help of Sweet Owen Sound Recording Studio, his coworker Gerald Murphy, who created the album cover, local media and Players Pub.Johnson said the songs he wrote are about society’s response to poverty. Titles include “Shoulda Been Gone,” “The Weight” and a song he wrote in an alley behind the Shalom Center called “Hard Life.”Spencer residents Bob and Judy Ochs came to the event after reading about it. Bob Ochs said the song “Playin’ for Change” had a deeper meaning. While he said he could envision Johnson playing on the streets for coins, he said the song also had a message about changing society.“He tried to be the voice for some of the people at Shalom,” said Judy Ochs, who has volunteered at the center. “He wasn’t just trying to perform. He was trying to be a voice.”
(10/25/09 9:13pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Ike & Julie Arnove PlayOffs, sponsored by the Bloomington Playwrights Project, began Friday with a press conference announcing the PlayOffs where Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan threw out the first pitch — literally.But first, Kruzan said he had to confess something.“I’m not a huge basketball fan,” he said, with faux gasps coming from the audience. “I’m a Cubs fan. ... And if you’re a Cubs fan, you have to act.”He took off his black zip-up jacket to reveal a Cubs long-sleeve T-shirt. Then he threw a ball with the PlayOffs’ theme, prop and dialogue on it to a catcher, who caught the ball, and the crowd of playwrights, directors and actors roared with cheers and applause.The PlayOffs is a baseball themed BPP fundraiser in which nine teams compete to create the best original play in 24 hours. Proceeds support the theater’s mission of creating new American plays and toward its main stage plays. Performances of the PlayOffs continue at 8 p.m. Sunday, Friday and Saturday, and tickets cost $10.Teams had to make a play with the theme “lost in translation” that included a baseball bat as a prop and the line “Failure is not an option” in the dialogue.After Friday’s press conference, teams dispersed to work on their plays. Team Josie & The Holograms pulled up some chairs in the theater lobby, and the three actresses offered their talents.“I know the first six digits of pi.”“I have a good Russian accent.”“I can sneeze on command.”Playwright Josie Gingrich, pen to her upper lip, nodded her head and looking nowhere in particular asked if any of them had a baseball jersey. At least one did, and then they spouted off that they had Barbie dolls, stuffed animals, lots of shoes and even a rider’s crop they could use. The team brainstormed for about an hour before calling it a night.“This is gonna be fun,” the team’s director Jen Alexander said. “I’m excited!”Gingrich finished the first draft of her script at about midnight on Friday. She said she was feeling pretty good about it, and that meeting her actresses beforehand had been a big help in preparing the play. She said she had seen them all act before.“I think they will do a great job with whatever they’re given,” she said.The team rehearsed most of Saturday. Fifteen minutes before the first performances began, Gingrich and Alexander said they were excited for their play. Gingrich said, unlike other playwrights, she didn’t stay up all night to finish writing the script. She was done by 2 a.m.Actress Kathleen Boyd prefaced the event by leading the crowd in singing the national anthem. When she continued to sing the more unfamiliar second stanza, the crowd stopped. Singing alone, she started to look around, trailed off, feigned embarrassment and hurried offstage. Then the plays began.The majority of them were comedies, including the one by Josie & The Holograms.The play was titled “Common Ground” and told the story of three sisters trying to relate to one another. Gingrich incorporated several items that came from the discussion Friday night including goth clothes and makeup as well as a greek jersey and tattoos.IU alumnus Chris Hartman, now living in Washington, had two friends involved in the PlayOffs. He said he came to the first night expecting mediocrity, knowing the teams only had one day to prepare. But he said the actors were solid and that the writing had a lot of thought put into it.Hartman said his favorite performance was “The Love Translator,” which featured senior Carly Cohen as a hippie-like relationship guru.“The main actress stole the show,” Hartman said. “She got lucky and had a good character written for her, and she played it well.”
(10/23/09 3:49am)
Teams of playwrights, directors and actors will compete this weekend to
create the best original play with about 24 hours of preparation for
the sixth-annual Ike and Julie Arnove PlayOffs, a Bloomington
Playwrights Project production with a baseball twist.
(10/19/09 4:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Before the 51st Annual IU Homecoming Parade started, the crimson raincoat-clad Marching Hundred tried to keep warm while practicing in the Forest Quad parking lot. Some of the euphonium players did jumping jacks, and the tuba players hopped in place as they played. The trombone section continued a tradition of huddling, all white-gloved hands in the middle, and chanting “kill” louder and louder.“We have to sacrifice a member of this section in order to bless the performance,” freshman trombonist Ross Wertjes said.Though last year’s parade was canceled because of rain, this year hundreds turned out Friday at the IU Student Alumni Association-sponsored parade to kick off Homecoming Weekend. The theme was “Wacky Wild Crimson Style.”The rain and cold did not keep graduate students Nikole Miller and Marwa Ragheb inside.“It’s not a good day for a parade, but at least they’re having one this year,” Miller said.A whistle signaled that it was time for the parade to begin. Spectators lined the sidewalks on Third Street and Indiana Avenue, took photos with their camera phones and cheered. In front of the Lambda Chi Alpha house stood a row of students with red bead necklaces next to a dozen children with plastic bags weighed down with free candy and T-shirts.The Marching Hundred Alumni Band was crammed into a stakebed truck. It played the IU fight song as spectators clapped and sang along. At one point, freshman football player Jamonne Chester jumped out of the old-school fire engine that he and other football players were in. The crowd screamed and put its hands in the air as he gave high-fives.Four other fire engines’ sirens wailed. Members of area Shriners clubs zipped around in circles in tiny convertibles. An Irish dance team came after bagpipers from the Bloomington Fire Department’s pipes and drum corps marched by. Even Dori, the Alumni Association’s Monroe County Chapter puggle mascot, showed her IU spirit by walking the parade wearing a crimson IU jersey. A man in the I Association’s 50-Year I-Men float yelled, “It can’t be any more fun than this!”Alumna Mindy McDaniel came from Tennessee to see her nephew play in the Marching Hundred. She said the parade was awesome and brought out a lot of IU pride.“It’s worth sitting out in this freezing cold,” she said.By the end of the parade, Miller and Ragheb stood holding red flying disks from the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center filled with candy and fliers. Ragheb said the parade was fun but that she wished she had gotten a few more T-shirts thrown her way.“Never got a Frisbee before,” Miller said.“See, that’s progress,” Ragheb said, laughing.The largest crowd was at the Sample Gates, where the parade ended with a pep rally. There, George Taliaferro and Anthony Thompson were honored. They were the parade’s grand marshals and are the only living IU players in the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame. Taliaferro was presented a rare find – his rookie football card. In 1949 Taliaferro became the first black man to be drafted into the NFL.Athletics Director Fred Glass, wearing a pink cap, told the crowd to go to Saturday’s football game against Illinois. Coach Bill Lynch echoed the sentiment.“Like Fred said – Go Hoosiers,” Lynch yelled.
(09/21/09 2:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Children bopped around in inflatable play areas, chomped on popcorn and tossed cornhole bean bags – all in the name of health. “It’s been a lot of fun, ” said Faith Campbell, a Bloomfield resident, who was interrupted by a whistle blowing. “And loud.”Health and safety collided with family entertainment Saturday at the third annual Children’s Health & Safety FUN! Fair, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of South Central Indiana.Campbell brought two girls, friends Danielle and Leslie, who were attending the fair for the third time. Leslie said her favorite part was the balloons, which many children made into hats and wore all day.More than 500 children attended the fair, which had more than 40 informational booths and featured live entertainment such as dancing and a magic show.On one side of the parking lot was a school bus from Monroe County Head Start. The area around it was marked with yellow signs reading “Danger Zone” to show children where they shouldn’t walk too close to the bus. Representatives from Head Start invited children inside to see the bus, where they were taught safety rules, such as making sure to be 10 “giant” steps away from the bus and never to cross the street behind it.“The No. 1 thing we try to tell them is if you can’t see the driver, the driver can’t see you,” said Kathy Potts, Head Start transportation coordinator.Potts said that once or twice a day, motorists will pass stopped Head Start school buses, despite the buses’ red flashing lights and signs.“Red means stop,” she said, adding that “it only takes one moment” for impatience to turn into tragedy.At the tobacco cessation booth next to the bus, one girl stood quietly and listened to Monroe Tobacco Prevention & Cessation Coalition representative Sage Christianson tell her about the negative effects of smoking. A poster of a tongue, yellowed and blackened by smoking, hung from the table.“The kids are always really interested,” Christianson said. “They love things that gross them out.”Pediatric dentist Keith Roberts ran a booth at which he said he strove to help educate parents about the importance of dental care at an early age. Photos lay on the table showing the differences between a healthy one-year-old’s mouth and one whose upper teeth were decayed because of juice.“I’m tired of seeing kids have tooth decay,” Roberts said.Bloomington Hospital offered free lead poisoning screenings for children and adults. The hospital also gave away bicycle helmets at its bicycle safety booth. The station had fitted and given away about 100 helmets, toddler-sized to extra large, halfway through the fair.Bloomington resident Marlena Mize picked up her grandsons, who live in Sullivan County, and brought them to the fair. She said her grandsons both received the free bike helmets, learned how to use the proper hand signals while riding a bike and enjoyed the inflatable Moon Bounce walk.Bloomington resident Matt Wysocki said his step-grandson Julian White went through the Moon Bounce walk 20 times. He said Julian looked a little tired and wobbly, but an hour later Julian found his way onstage and learned how to hula dance.The event chairwoman and president of the Kiwanis Club chapter, Vanessa McClary, said the fair was great for parental awareness. The intent was to put information out there, for parents to come and receive it and take it home with new ideas about how to care for their children. McClary said all those goals were accomplished.“If they missed the event today, they missed a treat,” she said.
(04/12/07 4:00am)
My letter is in regards to Edward Delp’s column “Turning on victims” printed on April 5. A closer look at the Indianapolis Star article that Mr. Delp referred to, which I’m assuming is the only source of information he used for his argument, is needed for the situation to be communicated fairly.\nMr. Delp wrote that College Park Church “turned its back” on the alleged victim. However, looking at the same article that appeared in the Star, it is evident that this is untrue. \nAs Mr. Delp even noted, the church has given financial aid to the alleged victim’s family for counseling. Nowhere in the article does it say for a fact that the church has done anything against the alleged victim’s family; the only inferences that this is so are given by claims from disgruntled former church members. One must keep in mind who the people are who made these claims: the alleged victim’s father and someone who stopped attending the church months ago. Common sense tells us that these are probably not two of the most detached, objective or even knowledgeable sources in this situation.\nAlso, near the end of the column, Mr. Delp suggests that the Justice Department should investigate the church. From what the Star tells us, the alleged molestation did not occur at the church; it was at Van Gorp’s home. Mr. Delp also implies that College Park is no longer safe for children. If he is referring to the fact that Van Gorp is still allowed in the church, this is a moot point because Van Gorp is only allowed in the building with an escort, and those who run the children’s ministry are aware of him and the charges against him.\nMr. Delp stated his belief that child molesters do not deserve sympathy and support – only isolation and prison – and that the church is supporting “evil acts” like child molestation. Nowhere in the Star article does the church say it is supporting the alleged crime; rather, it is supporting the alleged criminal, who lost his job. There is a difference.