Wednesday 28 October 2009
Spider Diagram
For the spider diagram, I chose to start off looking at I.D Cards and the whole debate that's currently happening around them. Personally, I think they're a bad idea. I completely agree with the 'Invasion of Privacy' argument and if they were to come about, it would frighten me to know, that somewhere, someone has all your details in front of them, right down to your eyes. I honestly don't see the point in them. I mean, surely it's just an over glorified passport? I mean, what's the purpose of them? To keep tabs on every single person in the country at any given moment? And no doubt all that information would be stored on computers. What would happen if the system failed? Would the person in question be detained until their file could be viewed and they be deemed 'safe' or not? And how exactly would we harvest all this information? Time consuming and expensive. Would there be an age limit when you had to get one? Would you have to have it on your person at all times? Could a policeman stop you in the street and demand to see it? Passports can be replicated, so would it be possible for the same thing to happen with I.D cards? I'd never really considered them that much before this, but actually sitting down and thinking about what it would mean really frightens me. Of course I understand that somewhere for either a store card or applying for a loan, someone has access to your information, but that is given. If I.D cards were to become a legal necessity, that information would have to be taken from you, so not necessarily willingly.
I then moved on to looking at similar ideas, like the security bands that prisoners wear to make sure they're making their curfews and that led to looking at items people carry with them to help them, like rape alarms or the 'assistance' buttons the elderly can use to ring for help if they have a fall. There seems to be quite fine line between helping people and controlling them.
I then looked at identity theft. It's not exactly identity theft, but I have undergone something fairly similar myself. There's a website called: redwatchonline.com which my dad showed me about a year ago. It's a very right wing website and features a great deal of racist material. (You need to actually google it to find it and if you do, please be aware that some of the comments passed on it are extremely offensive, because it is essentially a website run by nutters) You go into it and are made aware that it is politically controversial material. It has all these subheads saying: 'East London Reds,' 'Welsh Reds,' 'Liverpool Reds' and so on. If you click on 'Scottish Reds' you can find pictures of myself, my friends, my mum, my dad, my mum and dad's friends etc
Pretty frightening that out there some has deliberately taken my picture to put it a fascist website like this, without my permission.
I started on an idea for a product, but didn't fully develop it. I wondered if you could have a bank card with all your details stored on it, but it would be completely blank to look at. Just a nondescript piece of plastic. The cashier would have to swipe it and your details would come up on the screen, including a photograph so they would be able to tell if it were you or not. It would still have the chip and pin function, but the photograph would be an added feature to help protect against identity theft. In doing this, I hoped to try and find a link between using people's information to help them.
That's all for now folks, but can I just add as a final note that I personally do not condone ANY of the material on the previously mentioned website and that share none of the their sympathies. I abhor racism and fascism in all it's forms, so please do understand that they've put me on that website because of this; I don't agree with them, and that's why they've got those photos because they look to people like me as the downfall of their mentalist regime.
I then moved on to looking at similar ideas, like the security bands that prisoners wear to make sure they're making their curfews and that led to looking at items people carry with them to help them, like rape alarms or the 'assistance' buttons the elderly can use to ring for help if they have a fall. There seems to be quite fine line between helping people and controlling them.
I then looked at identity theft. It's not exactly identity theft, but I have undergone something fairly similar myself. There's a website called: redwatchonline.com which my dad showed me about a year ago. It's a very right wing website and features a great deal of racist material. (You need to actually google it to find it and if you do, please be aware that some of the comments passed on it are extremely offensive, because it is essentially a website run by nutters) You go into it and are made aware that it is politically controversial material. It has all these subheads saying: 'East London Reds,' 'Welsh Reds,' 'Liverpool Reds' and so on. If you click on 'Scottish Reds' you can find pictures of myself, my friends, my mum, my dad, my mum and dad's friends etc
Pretty frightening that out there some has deliberately taken my picture to put it a fascist website like this, without my permission.
I started on an idea for a product, but didn't fully develop it. I wondered if you could have a bank card with all your details stored on it, but it would be completely blank to look at. Just a nondescript piece of plastic. The cashier would have to swipe it and your details would come up on the screen, including a photograph so they would be able to tell if it were you or not. It would still have the chip and pin function, but the photograph would be an added feature to help protect against identity theft. In doing this, I hoped to try and find a link between using people's information to help them.
That's all for now folks, but can I just add as a final note that I personally do not condone ANY of the material on the previously mentioned website and that share none of the their sympathies. I abhor racism and fascism in all it's forms, so please do understand that they've put me on that website because of this; I don't agree with them, and that's why they've got those photos because they look to people like me as the downfall of their mentalist regime.
Tuesday 27 October 2009
Brainstorming
Ok, so we're carrying on very much that Tony Buzan is The Almighty and whilst I'm yet to be converted, I vow to try to be saved.
Brainstorming was much more fun than the Evil Mind Map; was easier to throw out ideas and get your brain in action. We used the post it method, which I think was much more successful than us all sitting round writing.
Tuesday 6 October 2009
Mind Map the Second
Slightly shoddier scanning but as far as I'm concerned scanners are the devils work and I have no camera, so the hell with it!
Mind Map the First
Ok, I am a technological retard, so please bear with me as upload these as seperate posts ...
Mindmapping: The Tony Buzan Way
Ok, must say for starters that I was not particularly taken by this task. I can most certainly understand why we needed to do it and what purpose it filled, but as for mind mapping? To hell with it and bring back the good ol' spider diagram! I'd not known there was a particular difference between the two, but Tony Buzan has taught me that I'm a messy thinker (apparently) and that the way I think is too cluttered, or words to that effect. I didn't like his method of mapping out; I think the method should be based purely on what the student feels most comfortable with and I ended up getting really confused (not a rare occurance) with this particular way of working. I tried (and failed) several times to start it, but couldn't get into his way of thinking so ended up doing a draft and then a final copy. He mentions that in the book this is fine to do, but to me, seems an utter waste of time.
I really enjoyed 'The Tipping Point'. Took aggges to get into and I did have to start it a couple of times as my mind (occasionally) tends to wander ... Look! Look! Something shiny!! But once I'd conquered those first couple of chapters, t'were quite an enjoyable journey through the land of gonorrhea, syphilis, Hush Puppies, Sesame Street and teenage suicide in Micronesia.
So, here is my attempt at the mind map. It's quite colourful, but then I found that helped me to sort the individual chapters of the book and see exactly where one chain was going and another began. It'll still take me a while to fully embrace it though; I'm rather stuck in my ways when it comes to studying. However, I'm supposed to be an open minded individual, so perhaps Tony and I will become best pals and together take on the bastarding world of essays, exams and other mind numbingly tedious formalities. Who knows?
I really enjoyed 'The Tipping Point'. Took aggges to get into and I did have to start it a couple of times as my mind (occasionally) tends to wander ... Look! Look! Something shiny!! But once I'd conquered those first couple of chapters, t'were quite an enjoyable journey through the land of gonorrhea, syphilis, Hush Puppies, Sesame Street and teenage suicide in Micronesia.
So, here is my attempt at the mind map. It's quite colourful, but then I found that helped me to sort the individual chapters of the book and see exactly where one chain was going and another began. It'll still take me a while to fully embrace it though; I'm rather stuck in my ways when it comes to studying. However, I'm supposed to be an open minded individual, so perhaps Tony and I will become best pals and together take on the bastarding world of essays, exams and other mind numbingly tedious formalities. Who knows?
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