Article Summary - The danger of Ipods....

This article is about the dangers of I-pod’s in society. The article reports on an incident of one teen who after just receiving her Ipod as a gift, plugged it into her computer and started to download music. When she went to pick up the device, it was so hot that it left a welt mark in her hand. The teen had other Mp3 players before and had never had a problem with there alkaline based batteries.

When informing her parents of the incident the teens mother rang Apple to complain. the article explains that the mother was shocked at their insensitive response, saying “nobody asked if she was ok, nothing like that”. Apple informed the mother that the Ipod can be replace and that they were not sure as to why it happened. The family were incredibly angry as the device was brand new out of the box, and Apple was not giving them the sympathy and compensation they feel they deserved.

This is not the only incident of a “burning I-pod”. Another teen in a different state experienced similar problems when he plugged his I-pod into charge, this time the I-pod was not brand new but still a new model. The teens states that after plugging it into charge for a couple of minutes the i-pod was so hot it was “hard to handle” and that when he noticed the cellophane under the screen curling up like it was burning. The teen unplugged the device immediately and called Apple for some answers. Apple told the boy that he would have to send them a cheque for 34$ to cover the “shipping and handling of a new I-pod”.Both families have contacted the Consumer Products Safety Commission and investigation have been led in both case’s.

There have been different reports across america of similar problems. Apple have said they now use different battery models on the new generation of Ipods and there has been no complaints of yet with the new models.

Both Teens have opted out of replacing there I-pods showing the dependance that our generation have on these music players. Both the families seem not too concerned about the actual Ipod themselves but the way the Apple company treated them saying “ hey seemed to not realy appreciate what the real problem was”. Both families try to inform others of the dangers of Ipods instead of boycotting the company, one giving there advice “Don’t use the Ipod in bed where the sheets could catch fire”.

This article interested me because of the dependance I have with my Ipod. Strange problems like these can occur yet teen’s prefer to ignore them and continue with the possible dangers than to go without music for a week or too.

Original Link to article : http://www.kptv.com/technology/21293360/detail.html

Summery of Article- Social networking has hidden dangers for teens:

Social networking has hidden dangers for teens:

This article is about a survey taken by 1,000 teens and 1,000 parents, to see how often teens spend on social networking sites, what they do when there on them and is it consentual or not. The article shows that at least a quater of teen’s have regretted things they have done on their networking site’s including cyber bullying, semi-nude or nude photos and creating false identitys.

The poll shows that parents don’t usually know what there children are up to on these sites, and they don’t know how to control there use. With teens now using these sites daily the risks of them ruining there futures is only a click of a button away. The survey shows that a large percentage of teens now check these sites more then ten times a day.

Social networking sites allow members to create a virtual profile of themselves sharing photos, brief thoughts and private information such as date of birth, employment info and address’s. The survey also shows that teens do not understand that deleting this information doesn’t mean it is permently eradicated. With a simple search of a name from future employer’s the deleted content can still be shown creating a kind of cyber “tattoo” that can’t be erased. This can create enormous consequences for teenagers futures as a silly offhand comment that they have posted might be the reason they don’t get accepted into college.

Researchers are stating that part of the problem are the parents. The survey shows that parents don’t understand how dangerous unsupervised internet sessions can be. Without proper guidence, teens have posted such private information as dates they will be away on holidays thinking that this information will stay private, yet in the hands of the wrong person can be incredibly dangerous. Parents should warn teens of these danger’s before letting them log on.

Some statistics from this poll are:

39% of teens have posted something that they have later regretted

24% have hacked into other peoples profiles therefore stealing there identity

13% have posted nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves or others on their profiles

37% have used there sites to participate in cyber bullying.

Original Link to article:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/10/BA9T1954T7.DTL

Factors you would need to consider when buying a PC or Laptop for my corse.

In my course (applied psychology) computers are vital for research, and word processing. This means a basic computer/laptop would suffice as long as the essentials such as an internet browser and basic office programs can be installed and used.

Some Helpfull Factors Before Purchasing A Laptop/PC Would Be-

Cost- As students money can be short and hard to come by. This means buying a laptop/PC is a investment for many. Some tricks for finding the best value for money is shopping around, don’t make a hasty decision and buy the first one thats in your budget, chances are you could find a deal on them in another store for the same model for a slight saving.

Guarantee - Garantee’s are useful as most Laptop/Pc’s are mass produced. Mass production means it is easier for a fault in them to occur. Most decent machines have garantee’s for around 2-3 years. They cover accidental damages, any failure of the product itself and part replacement. At the time of purchase of the original machine it may be possible to extend the warranty of it. Make sure to buy of legitimate recognised sources.

Portability - Laptop’s are slower then Pc’s so you must consider if you are going to need to bring your computer around with you or weather your work can be done from one area. If it is not a nessity to bring your work around, a PC may be the better choice as the same programs for a Laptop work faster on a PC.

Memory - A basic laptop will have around 1GB-1.5GB of system memory.A basic Pc will have around 2GB of system memory(RAM). Memory sticks can be bought for bigger projects but at an additional cost. The applications that we use in our corse, large memory should not be needed with a basic operating system (Windows XP/Mac OS X) .

LAN (Local Area Network Port) - All Laptops/PC’s should have a port for wired network for access to the internet which is vital for our corse. They should also have wireless network capabilities.

Basic Office Programs - In our corse we use a word processor as well as powerpoint for presentations. These programs should be installed already in a Laptop/Pc before buying, as separate they can be costly.

Battery(only applies to Laptop) - If you are intending to use your Laptop in many different places, a good battery capability is essential as not everywhere will have accessible plugs. an average battery life would be around 3 hours, this time will decrease with age of the Laptop. Users must be prepared for this when using a Laptop.

Sites Used for some information:

www.infohd.com/computers

www.mobileoffice.about.com

www.quickonlinetips.com

Sad Story...

Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder in which sustained muscle contractions cause twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal postures.^[1] The disorder may be hereditary or caused by other factors such as birth-related or other physical trauma, infection, poisoning (e.g. lead poisoning) or reaction to drugs, particularly neuroleptics.^[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystonia

This Clip realy disturbed me as the woman mentioned had her whole life to look forward to and as she was not born with the disease, she had to immediately adapt to her disability as had her family which must of been tough on all aspects of her life.....

Some links to sites that are helpful for my course....

http://www.apa.org/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/

http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/

http://www.psihq.ie/

Microsoft.JustAnswer.com

support.microsoft.com

wiki.answers.com

All these i have used or browsed through during my time in this corse.

Angry Pregnant People...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/22/psychology-of-a-teen-preg_n_108516.html


This article discuss's how teenagers are now starting to make pact pregnancys not unlike the common pact suicides...

this article interested me, because at the moment i have a very angry pregnant friend, who just this morning blew a situation completely out of proportion and sent me abusive messages.

i think this incident aswell as many others has shown me how much teenagers (my friend *jessica is 19) are not able to handle the emotional maturity that comes along with carrying a child..

To think that teenagers could be as influenced by their peers to get pregnant ''because everybody else is'' is unfathomable to me, but might explain the immaturity of my friend earlier...





*names have been changed for privacy purposes.