DMCA

The DMCA, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, has created a lot of unintended problems. Since its inception in 1998, the provisions have failed to meet the visions Congress once had. "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:" (EEF.org). Some of these consequences include ceasing free expression, innovation, and scientific research.
I think that the DMCA needs to be changed. In 1998 congress enacted the DMCA in order to stop illegitimate internet activity. It certainly has worked, but to what extent. They need to find a way to balance out what they view as illegal. A new set of rules should be put in place to allow such free expression and innovation to once again be allow.

Video Mashup

Difference between Search Engines

1. uss yorktown nt

All of the search engines provided essentially the same results. The common links were wired.com and wikipedia.com. A battleship that used windows. Windows crashed, subsequently leaving the ship dead in the water.
Baidu.com has links referencing an aircraft carrier.

2. google china censorship

Links related to the censorship ban in China. Google is no longer willing to censor search results on its Chinese service. This may ultimately lead to the shut down of google.cn. I was not able to find as many articles related to this topic on bing.com. Baidu was the most helpful search engine for this query. It had a ton of links about why google was ending the censorship ban.

3. Tiananmen Square

Google and Bing.com had a lot of links associated with the protests of 1989. However, I was unable to find links to the protests on Baidu.com or google.cn. This shows that there is noticeable censorship being implemented by the Chinese government. It was really interesting to see how the query provided no information on the protests

4. Taiwan independence

Baidu.com had links that doomed the independence movement to fail. While the other search engines did not. Other than that there was very little variance.

Google vs Wolfram/Alpha

1. All English words containing the letters "E,U,E"?
I found my answer faster through Wolfram/Alpha. The query I used was English words containing the letters eue.
Answer = Three, which includes queue, queued, and queues.

2. How much potassium in 4.7 oz of banana?
Wolfram/Alpha was more useful during this search.
Answer = 477 mg

3. How old was Barack Obama on the day you were born?
Once again Wolfram/Alpha was noticeably more efficient. The query I used was How old was Barack Obama on March 28 1989.
Answer = 27 years 7 months 24 days

4. Date and time of the next total solar eclipse in Eugene?
I was able to find the answer through google, however I still found Wolfram Alpha more efficient and timely. I entered total solar eclipse in Eugene
Answer = 11 am, Monday, August 21,2017

5. What is the minimum and maximum price of google stock since it went public?
I was unable to find a decisive answer with either search engine

6. Link an image of the barcode for UPC 01234567890
I could not conclude which site was faster because both provided answers immediately. I had to select the image option on google and it came up with the same answer as Wolfram/Alpha. The query I used was UPC 01234567890

7. How many vertices does an icosahedron have?
Wolfram/Alpha was incredibly fast! The query I used was Icosahedron.
Answer = 12 vertices

8. Distance from Eugene to Tokyo?
The query I used was distance Eugene Oregon to Tokyo Japan. Wolfram/Alpha was once again faster
Answer = 4886 miles

9. Average Oregon income per capita?
This time google provided the best answer. I selected a link through Wikipedia and a ton of information was provided. The query I used was identical to the question above.
Answer = 20,940

10. What is the Morse code for your first name?
The best result came for Wolfram/Alpha. The query I used was morse code for Alex.
Answer = . - , .-.. , . ,-..-

Empire State of Mind

Franchise History

The New York Knickerbockers, more universally known as the Knicks, are a member of the National Basketball Association. The franchise was formed in 1946 as a part of the BAA (Basketball Association of America). Later the organization would merge with the NBA. The Knicks are synonymous with professional basketball, but of late, its for all the wrong reasons.

The Knicks were once a great franchise. The infamous Madison Square Garden, located in the heart of Manhattan, was sold out almost every night. NBA greats like Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier, and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe dominated the illustrious hard word floor. The organization won a championship in the 1970’s and again in 1993. However, those years seem like a very distant past now.

In 2004-2005 season began with the highly anticipated arrival of Stephon Marbury, an incredibly gifted point guard from Georgia Tech. Before coming to the Knicks Marbury had been a perennial all-star. Starbury, his coined nickname, even played on the 2004 Olympic team. Finally the Knicks had found a much needed franchise player…Or so they thought. Marbury plagued the team for more than four years. He feuded with three different head coaches and was eventually benched for most of his career in New York. Nevertheless, he was successful at increasing the organizations salary cap. Marbury was traded in 2008. He failed to lead the Knicks to a playoff birth.

Currently, the New York Knicks are the laughing stock of the league. This organization needs to find a way to start winning again. David Lee, the team captain, needs some good players around him. The addition of Mike D’Antoni was huge. His coaching style should work perfectly with the New York mentality. However, what all Knicks fans, including myself, are looking forward to is the potential addition of Lebron James in 2010. Until then, we can only wait until the train wreck we call the New York Knickerbockers succeed.