Creative inspiration

For our discussion this week, I'm going to throw something at you that's a little different. I want you to go to this part of the benedict.com website. Make sure your speakers are plugged in and working, and I want you to look at three examples of copyright infringement and let me know what you think. Check out the George Harrison, ZZ Top, and Vanilla Ice examples. Listen to all songs and give me your thoughts. Remember, some of the other examples on the page are a little dodgy, so user beware.

I have heard of this issue before, an artist using a tune or riff from another artists song in their own. I understand the issue from the original artists point of view, that their creation is being taken by someone else and turned into a song that is not their own. The Queen song is definitely taken from Ice Ice Baby, and I have a hard time believing that Queen did this unknowingly. Although George Harrison states that he did not know he was taking the tune from another song and lawyers state that he may have done it subconsciously. I understand that artists get their inspiration from other artists, but that inspiration can sometimes become theft. There is a fine line between being inspired and influenced by an artist and having some style resemblance in music and downright stealing their originaly songs. 

My day via social networking

Pick a day and list how often in that day you come into contact with a computer, especially one that you think might be networked. We all have networked computers at work and at school, but where else do you see them being used?

-Wake up with alarm on my phone.

-Check for text messages or other notifications. 

-Look at instagram and catch up on the photos posted during the night. 

-Continually throughout the day I check my phone for texts and am usually involved in a conversation. 

-Open my computer and check emails, facebook, blackboard etc. 

-Catch up on the blogs that I follow. 

-Head to work, listen to my iPod. 

-Clock into work on a computer. 

-Place orders on computers at work. 

-Clock out of work. 

-Work on homework. 

-Watch a TV show on netflix. 

-Youtube videos when I should be sleeping. 

-Catch up on instagram once again. 

• Post photos from day on instagram. 
• Text friends before I go to sleep. 
• Set alarm to repeat day all over again. 

I want another blog posting from you for this week. For this one, I want at least a 250 word observation in your blog on how computers and networks affect you. If you want, I'll also take this as a podcast instead of the blog posting if you're feeling really creative.  

Computers and networks affect our lives daily, without fail. From laptops to ipads and smart phones, we can have some sort of computer and network at our fingertips anytime and anywhere. It is very rare that our culture is found unconnected in some way. We use computers and networks in every aspect of our lives it seems like, to keep up with friends and loved ones, to answer questions, to work and even to just waste time. Thanks to networking, I am able to keep up with people that I would have lost touch with long ago. Facebook keeps me in touch with people from all of my social circles past and present. Google not only helps with research, it helps settle arguments. I have had so many conversations with people where a certain subject comes into question and the only answer is to turn to google to prove one wrong. If I had a way to calculate how much time I have wasted on the computer I might be sick to my stomach. But at the time of wasting, it seems like pure bliss. Sitting in front of my computer avoiding school work and looking at funny pictures of cats is such a great and needed escape at times.