Last Week!

1. What might you have done differently if you were in the position of artist Ken Zeran, mentioned in this chapter?

Abelson discusses the Ken Zeran situation in chapter seven of Blown to Bits. Ken Zeran was an artist and filmmaker when someone posted his phone number on an AOL bulletin with an advertisement about t-shirts relating to the Oklahoma City bombing. Ken Zeran's phone number was listed under the contact information, but he had nothing to do with the t-shirts. Ken asked AOL to remove the post and they did so, but the original user posted the same incorrect information again on AOL. After AOL promised to prohibit anymore posts from this user about the t-shirts they did not follow through and Ken's next step was to get the police involved for his protection. Radio stations started to get involved in the case, but later apologized when they realized the true story. As a result Ken tries to sue AOL for defamation, but the court ruled that AOL is held to a different standard then publishers. I would probably follow the same steps as Ken, but take additional steps as well. I would change my phone number and email address so I would not be associated with this incident. Also, I would try to contact higher level employees at AOL so that they would take more action. I would also consider creating a blog to explain my side of the story and try to get other people to defend my side since AOL basically did nothing.


2. What might you do with access to UWB radio transmissions if you had a receiver in a car?

In Blow to Bits by Abelson, he discusses the topic of UWB or unltra wide brand radio. On page 288Abelson says that UWB, "splatter[s] radiation all across the frequencies of the radio spectrum". Abelson also explains that UWB uses low power and large bandwidth to carry information in a short time period a small distance. It does this so that it will not interfere with  any normal radio receiver. This technology is used to connect television, cable box and DVD player without having to use any other cables. Also you will be able to transport your music from your computer to your car. It would be really convenient to not have to hook up my ipod to my car radio, since I do not have an audio jack my ipod goes through the radio and you have to keep changing the stations. With this technology it would be a relief and my music would instantly be in my car. Another idea could be sending directions directly to your car, which would be extremely helpful. I always use mapquest and my gps and then decide which directions to follow.