For the CNET article click here.

I have seen people use Facebook daily, but they are usually only on once maybe twice at the most during that time.  I have never seen any of these people do bad in class because of Facebook use so my first thought is that the study might need to be a little bit more specific.

Maybe the researchers should specify an amount of usage that leads to lower grades.  Then people would know how much is too much and they might be able to address the Facebook activities of themselves or someone else.

Nintendo Wii owners can download games from all of their past consoles as well as classic systems like the Sega Genesis.  Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3 owners can download classic games as well as original content.

But online content has not received the advertisement hype that their in-store counterparts do.  One online expansion looks to change that trend.

Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and the Damned on Xbox 360 adds a new chapter of gameplay to Grand Theft Auto 4 on Xbox 360.  This expansion marks the first time that such an expansion has been exclusive to one console as well as being the biggest advertised online expansion ever.  The Lost and the Damned became available for Xbox 360 users February 17 and since then has sold one million copies.

Here’s and article about sales for the expansion.

If sales for Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and the Damned show anything, it might be that home console owners are finally ready for online commerce for video games.  Later this year expansion content for games like Fallout 3 and Call of Duty 5 is slated to become available for download.  Only time will tell if people are willing to sacrifice having a hard copy of a game in exchange for the convenience of not having to go to the local game store.

Outrage spread quickly across the internet as users found out about the policy which many felt infringed on their right to privacy.  As many websites covered the controversy, one Facebook user started a user group titled, “People Against the New Terms of Service,” that boosted to an estimated 90,000 users within a few hours.  The Electronic Privacy Information Center said Facebook broke the law by altering their user agreement in a 25 page complaint sent to the Federal Trade Commission.

By the middle of the week, Facebook executives had reversed their decision to change the policy and users information was deemed to be safe from being used without permission.

For more information about the Facebook scandal click here

The newest of Facebook scandals makes me wonder about a few things.

First, would a company really be able to legally use information from users for marketing or other purposes?  Facebook users have been able to post pictures or other information with the assumption that their friends would be the only people who could see the profile content.  If Facebook would have stuck to their guns, users may have seen anything from their profile used in an advertisement or something else.  Even though Facebook argues that they own the content posted on the web site, I don’t believe user information could be used without violating basic privacy rights.

Secondly, Is it ethical for Facebook to use personal information for possible money making purposes? Well imagine posting a picture of yourself from a party onto Facebook, then a week later the same picture shows up in an advertise for a dating site.  All perspective would be taken away from the picture because people you do not know would not know the story behind the picture.  I would be infuriated if I were put into this situation or a similar one.

If the user policy changes remained, I think online ethics would have taken a massive step backward.  Web sites like Facebook were created to let people from across the world talk to one another, but also gave people control of how private their online lives could be.  If information was used for purposes other than communication,  I believe the whole concept of being able to control the flow of personal information would be rendered null and void.

In the last year, Facebook has moved in a disturbing direction with their stance on user information sharing.  The latest scandal ended with Facebook reversing their decision, but there will come a day when this issue will have to be settled once and for all.  In fact, it may take a web site going through with information sharing and probably the eventual lawsuits in order to finally clarify this ongoing issue.

A lot of cell phone cameras already have a sound that plays whenever a picture is taken, but there is usually an option to disable the sound.  The new law would make a immutable sound mandatory for all cell phone cameras made for use in the United States.

The law has been proposed before and it was struck down in Congress according to another article by The Toronto Globe and Mail. The article also says there are legal analysts who do not believe the law will pass because it may not have the effect intended and people affected by tone deafness may not be able to hear the sound.

Whether the law passes or not, I think most people will be okay if the proposed law went into effect, but there might be a few who aren’t.  Cell phone cameras can be used to get some really cool pictures, but if someone is in a position where they need their cell phone camera to be silent, then they are either playing a prank on someone or are in a place where they do not belong with a camera…

... or you could just be really bored.

The film is one of many using the fairly new Real D technology, which alongside special glasses, makes showing 3D movies easier since only one projector is required instead of having to use two for older 3D technology.  This makes showing 3D movies more viable for theater companies because they only spend money on the movie itself in order to bring something new to the movie-going experience.

The movie industry is not alone in trying to bring back the 3D craze, in fact, television industry debuted a similar technology at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show to bring the 3D experience home.  Four major television manufacturers hope to have 3D capable sets available for consumers by the end of 2009.   Top manufacturers including Panasonic believe the new 3D sets will not cost much more than current Plasma or LCD television sets.

For more details on 3D televisions, go to

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/01/15/3d.tv/index.html

I do have one question about the new 3D movement.  Do people want to wear funny glasses in order to see television move into the third dimension?  While seeing a movie in 3D is a fun experience, I wonder if consumers really want to watch everything from the Super Bowl to the nightly news in 3D or if the 3D experience is something people want to experience in small doses.

I guess only time will tell.