The new information resource: Tweetdeck

Google.com has always been my main resource when I want to learn information about a specific topic. Although, it helps a lot and most of the times I find exactly what I need, there are times where Google does not give me further information which I might need for a research paper that I am writing or collecting information for a project from my work. Fortunately I discovered Tweetdeck, a social media dashboard application for management of Twitter accounts. TweetDeck’s interface consists of a series of customizable columns, which can be set up to display your Twitter timeline, mentions, lists, trends, search results, hashtags, or all tweets by or to a single user. Using this application, I search and found more information about two topics that interested me a lot, cyber bullying and video editing. When I compared the search results of Google and Tweetdeck for these two topics, I realized a big difference in the amount of information I was getting. Tweetdeck found more sources, more users and accounts that were writing and posting information about these topics and that could from a photo and a Youtube video to a personal experience post. This application has given me the chance to find new sources for information.

Privacy and Security with the help of Lightbeam

As the years go by and technology becomes accessible to more people, larger amounts of information about people are posted online. Companies in order to produce products or create something, use that data to satisfy their clients needs.

Nowadays, a lot of people are still not aware that when they browse the Internet and access a site they do not just visit that site but also 3^rd party websites running connected services. In that way, those 3^rd party websites are able to track your visit and any type of information you have posted on the first website you visited.

Although this is a great benefit for companies to learn the needs of their consumers, a lot of Internet users do not want to be tracked and would like to secure their privacy. Thanks to Mozilla’s add-on for Firefox, Lightbeam, Internet users can now understand how the web works and see which websites track their data.

Today I used Lightbeam and in 20 minutes I visited 10 sites and was connectes to 55 third party sites. It seems that websites that I visit normally every day such as Facebook.com, Youtube.com, Google.com and Lookbook.nu, not only do they connect to 3^rd party websites but those websites also connect to their 3^rd party sites, allowing my information to be tracked by sites I never visited or even knew existed. Moreover, some of the sites I visited, like Lookbook.nu, connect with Facebook through 3^rd party sites, in result for those sites to track more information about myself from Lookbook.nu and Facebook.com together. Another advantage about using Lightbeam, is that it also gives you the ability to block certain sites or their interactions from tracking your information.

Using Lightbeam has really helped me a lot and has made me more aware about the web that I browse every day.

My Gear Motor Dress..

My Gear Motor Dress...

My Gear Motor Dress..

Fashion is so much more than just making garments. Fashion is a form of art which gives you the ability to combine many of your interests and loves. One of my loves since high school has been engineering. After a year of studying at the Fashion Communication program of Ryerson University i learned how to combine my two loves, fashion and engineering.

This dress has 4 circular vinyl pieces which spin around with the help of 4 battery powered gear motors.

Using a lot of equipment from Home Depot, a small electronic shop at College and Spadina and fabric stores, i was able after a week of hard work to put this dress together and showcase it at the second Wearable Art Show.
The 2 gear motors in front of the chest had 60rpm (rounds per minute), so when the model breathes and her chest moves it will not affect the spinning of the circular panel.
The other 2 gear motors wear 100rpm.

Using a lot of techniques which i learned from my first year in Design class i was able to sew the vinyl pieces together and create the circular panels.

Fashion gives you the ability to challenge yourself and your creativity, to push your imagination to its limits and create something beautiful.

 

Final Project Proposal

As the years pass the digital divide for senior citizens changes. It is important for student to know that in the year 2014 we can no longer say that elders need to start using the Internet because they already have. The purpose of tjis project is to inform and update the students with the Internet’s new target market, the seniors. Seniors, who are 65 and older and baby boomers, who are in between the ages of 45 to 65 are becoming one of the fastest growing group of Internet users. As a result, they are creating a new target market on the Web and that creates new things to post and upload on the Internet for them. Students who are interesting in creating websites could focus on this target market and help them get information or even entertain them.

This project is created by Stephania Stefanakou and Maren Woźniak.

Using Google correctly

Using Google:

1. How would you search for an exact word or phrase?In order to search for an exact word or phrase on Google you have to put that exact word or phrase in between of double quotes. A query with terms in quotes finds pages containing the exact quoted phrase.
2. How would you search for something on a specific site? To search for something on a specific site you have to include the subject you are looking for and the site that you want to find this information on. For expample, if you want to learn about fashion week 2014 on the site stylecircle.com you are going to write [fashion week 2014 site: stylecircle.com]. This will return results from the specified site only. You can also use it within images.
3. How would you correctly search for a definition? To search correctly for a definition, you will have to place the word define in front of the word that you want to know the definition of. For example, if you want to learn the definition of the word “remedy” you would type [define remedy].
4. How would you search for a specific product available within a specific price range? To search for a specific product available within a specific range you would have to type the name of the product that you are looking for and then the price range with two demicals between them without spaces. For example, if you want to find out about bicycles between the price of $150 to $300 you would type [bicycle $150..$300]
5. How would you search for a specific filetype? To search for a specific filetype you will have to write “filetype” and then the filetype you are searching for like this [filetype:txt] or other types: swf, xlsx, pdf, gif. This way Google will return files of the extension you specify. Also, do not put space between filetype, the colon, and the extension.
6. How would you include or ignore words in your search? To ignore words from a search you would have to put a dash (-) in front of that word you do not want to include. 
7. How would you find related pages? In order to find related pages for a specific website you would have to type the word “related” before the website you are searching related pages for. For example, [related: stylecircle.com] 
8. How would you find a topic, searching all available synonyms of a word? To find all available synonyms for a specific word you would have to put the symbol ~ in front of the word you would like to find synonyms of. For example, [~cadaverous]. This symbol is known as the synonyms operator. 
9. How would you find the time in another country? To fond the time in another country you would have to type the word “time” in front of the country’s name you want to find the time of. For example, [time:Greece]
10. How would you find out how many Egyptian pounds you get for $20 Canadian dollars? To find out how many $20 Canadian dollars are in Egyptian pounds you would type [20 Canadian dollars to Egyptian pounds].

Digital Etiquette

Web 2.0 has been beneficial to everyone that uses social media allowing them to communicate with other people and to share their ideas and creativity. However, this has created a new world, the digital world, and although it has given a lot of new opportunities to people, it has its down side as well.
Just like for real life, there are some unwritten rules that everybody has to follow in order to live in a pleasant environment with one another. In order to have a nice environment to interact with others on social media platforms and share your thoughts, we have the digital etiquette. Digital etiquette help prevent bullying and bad language online, identity theft, invasion of personal privacy, information overload and much more. It is very simple to practice good etiquette, people just have to treat others the same way they want to be treated, with courtesy and respect.
One of the most important things to remember is that anything that you do on the internet is a reflection of who you are. First of all, be a nice, positive and respectful individual, no one will want to associate with someone who is negative and complains. Secondly, you have to follow the terms and the community rules of the social media platform that you use. You cannot address hurtful comments and bully other individuals on the web. Moreover, to have a good relationship with your web community members on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, write short, creative posts that have value to your community and do not over share. In that way, the other members will not get bored and annoyed by long posts every hour.
To find out more about digital etiquette you can visit: http://www.linkedstrategies.com/social-media-etiquette-10-commonly-overlooked-best-practices-in-social-media/
or you can watch this slide show:

What Is Digital Etiquette from guestc38192

I’m back!!

Hello everyone,
I know i have not posted anything since May and i apologize.In May of 2013 i went back to my home, Greece for the summer and i started working on an island from June to August working everyday from 8-12 hours so it was very hard for me to keep up with the blog. I came back to Canada on September and started my second year in Ryerson, Fashion Communication and so far it has been amazing. Learned a lot of valuable things and participated in many fashion shows. I was Assistant Producer of a fashion show called The Wearable Art Show and i was so happy on November 5th when i saw so many people that came to see the show.I designed my own gear motor dress and what i mean by that is that i made an actual outfit that had 4 circular vilyn pieces on it that spinned around by battery powered gear motors. Was a big challenged but i did it!! I passed all my courses, raised my GPA and applied for the exchange student program so really hoping i get accepted.
Anyway, the reason that i started writing on my blog again now is because 2 of my courses this semester want me to be writing blog posts as our assignments, so you will be reading a lot about photography and social media! Hope you guys find them interesting and i will be posting AGAIN starting from NOW posts about me and the fashion school!!
Great to be back!!

Life is Beautiful Fashionistas!!

Hello guys!!

So it’s been almost a month that i am back in Greece, back home and i gotta admit it, although i am having a lot of fun and relaxing, i kinda miss school…WEIRD!! I guess i got so used the past year always having a project due that it feels weird now doing nothing. Anyway, it won’t stay like this for the whole summer, i am startinga job in mid-June at the beautiful island, Mykonos, and i am excited!!

Also, i would like to thank you all so much for the support you show me here at my blog and on lookbook.nu, things have been going very well and i am very happy.

Here is a big, weird and happy face of me to say thank you to you guys!! As you will notice at the picture i am experimenting with Photoshop CS6, trying to learn how to make flawless faces, but i am still a beginner!! Let’s hope for better results in the future!!

My Sunshine Outfit of the Day!!

 

Well hello there my little fashionistas!!!

It has been such a lovely day here in Greece today and i am just loving it to death!! The outfit of the day is a polkadot sleeveless shirt and a mustard color pleated skirt!! A simple hair updo since it’s very hot today and my favourite sunglasses!!

Hope you like my outfit, if you do don’t forget to HYPE it for Lookbook.nu