amazing technology that sort of uses IM

Three years ago, if someone would have asked me what a defibrillator was, I would have not had a clue. Now, not only do I know what a defibrillator is, but I also have one; it has totally opened my eyes to medical technology.

In late 2006, I began getting really fast heart beats that would make me feel out of breath and often pass out. After several trips to the emergency room, many tests, and some heart monitors, I was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia (VT) with fibrillation in February 2007. VT is a fast and irregular heartbeat, which can lead to stroke or sudden death. I had two surgeries in an attempt to correct the problem, but neither were successful, and I ended up at the Mayo Clinic. Here, the doctors discovered I not only had VT, but atrial fibrillation, which complicated matters even more. Because the problem seemed too risky to try to correct, I had a Medtronic Virtuoso Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator (ICD) placed in me in July 2008.

The official Medtronic website defines the Virtuoso as "the latest generation of cardiac rhythm disease management." It is constantly monitoring, and delivers the appropriate therapy when necessary; for shorter arrhythmias that do not exceed 180 beats per minute (BPM), the Virtuoso acts as a pacemaker, and paces the heart back into a normal rhythm. For sustained arrhythmias more than 180 BPM, the Virtuoso will deliver a therapy shock. I have experienced both- and I have to say, the shocks are NOT fun.

The Virtuoso is equipped with Conexus Wireless Telemetry and SmartRadio Technology. This uses the Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) radio frequency band 420-405 MHz. This technology allows the Virtuoso to communicate with the clinical programmer. In the actual Pacemaker Clinic, the technician can adjust the BPM level (mine was originally set at 160, they changed it to 180) and the voltage of therapy shocks delivered. The information stored on Virtuoso is transmitted, and all of the arrhythmias are pulled onto the computer screen. The really cool part is that I can also send my transmissions from home, instead of driving up to Colorado Springs for a 10 minute appointment every time I'm suppose to send in my recordings. I have a home device that plugs into the phone line, and sends the transmissions through this device to the Pacemaker Clinic. Not only that, but should I have a very dangerous arrhythmia, the Virtuoso will communicate with the home communication device, and send a notification to my doctor.

So, while my Virtuoso may not exactly be interactive media, it's a pretty darn cool piece of technology and it even uses radio waves and the internet! I am very thankful to have the Virtuoso- while it may not have made my problem disappear, I feel a whole late safer knowing that it can stop a dangerous arrhythmia.

No Love, or Broken???

No one has left me comments, dammit! Does nobody like me, or was (as I originally suspected) my new template jacking up? Grrrr....

Shuffle Up and Deal

So I'd say that one of my favorite forms of interactive media is interactive games; I love video games and have since I was probably 7 or 8, but more recently, I've been addicted to online Texas Hold'em.

PokerStars is my favorite! This is a free downloadable software that allows you to play a wide variety of poker games, from Hold'em to Razz to Omaha, in either real or play money games. Play money is obviously more for practice, especially if you don't have money to be playing real money games at the moment. However, real money games start off quite affordable- $1.20 double-or-nothing tournaments (the $0.20 is PokerStars' profit). The games can get up into the thousands of dollars. There are also tournaments to win a place in a bigger, better tournament- whether it be a chance to play in a big money online tournament, or a seat at the World Series of Poker Main Event ($10000 buy in). They also issue Player Points, which allow you to shop in the PokerStars store. With your player points, you can purchase autographed photos of pro players, PokerStars apparel, books, dvds, and more.

Because it is illegal for online gambling sites to interact with American banks (BOOOOO Bush >:/) PokerStars handles the money through a European bank, so it takes about two weeks to receive your check from PokerStars once you cash out. However, it is very much worth it, once that check arrives in the mail. PokerStars also keeps track of your earnings, for when tax season rolls around.

So whether you're there for the fun, the money, or both, PokerStars is the perfect place to play poker with thousands of people from all over the world.

Little Big Planet!

So I have to write a blog about how awesome the game Little Big Planet (for PS3) is. If you've never played it, you're missing out BIG TIME. And while I will try to explain it, no explanation can really do this awesome game justice.

See, the thing about this game is it is appealing to ALL ages and kinds of people- from gamers to young kids to just average adults. What's even more is, as my boyfriend put it, "This game proves that you don't need guns, violence, and gore for a game to be fun." Yes- this game is innocent enough for the whole family to play, but weird enough to keep anyone's attention!

Little Big Planet takes place on Little Big Planet- the place of imagination. Your character is a little SackBoy. When you first get him, your SackBoy is made of plain brown material. As you progress throughout the game, you collect new materials for your SackBoy to be made out of, and you also get clothes and accessories to dress it in.

The game starts in Story Mode, which you start in the Gardens levels, and progress from here. In addition to collecting items and materials for your SackBoy, there are stickers and decorations to collect. Both stickers and decorations can act as switch triggers to open up hidden areas in various levels, but they serve another very important function: you can create your own levels! Online players can play your levels, and you can play levels that other players have created. Also, you can partner up with another player and play a "story mode" level together.

I think the most fun part of this game is how... original? Twisted? Weird? It is. For some reason, I highly doubt the creators of this game were sober when they brainstormed. This just makes the game more fun! It's the kind of world you can't even imagine, because it's so creative... it just leaves you wondering: How the hell was some brilliant enough to come up with this?! I wish I could describe this more in detail, but it's so hard. Watch this video- it's sweet- and will give you some insight into just how awesome this game is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ihj6nLMnVM

Collabritive Definition of Interactive Media

Basically, you interact or engage with various forms of media.

Interactive media is not limited to electronic media- choose-your-story books, for example, are a form of basic interactive media, simply because you get to choose how the story is going to flow.

What is Interactive Media???

Interactive Media issssss.... media that you interact with.

What is media? The dictionary doesn't give a very good definition, and it's hard to find a good definition period, since a word that has such a broad span of what it can mean; however, the best one that I have come across, pertaining to interactive media, is "tools used to store and deliver information or data," (Wikipedia). Interactive is pretty self explanatory- the user, in some way or another, interacts with the media.

So interactive media can be a wide variety of things! Video games, online poker tournaments, computers, printers, digital cameras/camcorders, Smartboards, CPS units, defibrillators/pacemakers, telephones, DVRs, electronic books, regular books, Photoshop, Premier, Audition... it could go on and on!

As I May Think...

"Wow" is the first thing that that comes to mind when reading As We May Think. Maybe not even "wow" the word itself, but moreso, the feeling; this article left me in awe, and for more reasons than just one.

After reading through the introduction and first section of the article, I found myself thinking, "Okay, when did Bregar say this article was written? 1945? Nah, I didn't hear him right, it can't have been written that long ago." Not one to ignore a pressing thought, I scrolled to the top of the page, and there it was: July 1945. What the heck? "Two centuries ago Leibnitz invented a calculating machine which embodied most of the essential features of the recent keyboard devices," (2).This sentence alone is enough to confuse the heck out of anyone (concerning time). Recent keyboard? Like the cute little white MacBook keys I'm typing on right now? Yet, there is the mention of this calculating machine? Ummm... you mean calculator, right? The graphing kind? This is why the article is so perplexing; Bush writes very sophisticatedly about technology, yet it is technology that is yet to be.

Bush writes about upcoming technology with pride and excitement, but now, nearly 65 years later, the technology he writes about is almost laughable. Take the dry photography, for instance. I honestly didn't even realize there was such thing as wet and dry photography. I'm old enough to remember non-digital cameras, and heck, I remember when I got my first digital camera ($300 dollars for a 3.notverymuch mega pixel, but I thought it was the bomb, and at the time, it was). However, what I remember pre-digicam is simply taking the camera to get its roll of film developed; if you were lucky, you had a really cool Polaroid... and sadly, Polaroids aren't even being made any more. The times are too digital. This makes me wonder- what would Bush have thought about digital cameras?!

And the Encyclopedia Britannica being reduced to the size of a matchbox? Hahaha! Try pictures, text, audio, and video fitting on something the size of a fingernail! However, this is the beginning of compression- and where would we be without compression? Just not too long ago, my mom and I were panicking because she needed to get a video she made onto her zip drive, but it was too big of a file. Then I remembered- we could just compress it! What a lifesaver :)

Vannevar Bush was sure an extraordinary man; although we may laugh now at the primitive technology that he speaks of in As We May Think... we need to remember that this article was written just at the tail end of World War II. That's before women/African Americans/other minorities even had rights! To think, Bush was speaking of and predicting the invention of various things, from speech recognition devices to personal computers to the internet- to even electronic encyclopedias. Now, over thirty years after Bush's death, we have everything he predicted and so much more. This makes me wonder- what would Vannevar Bush think now?