Assignment: Making A Radio Script Out Of A News Story

News Article:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/12/12/250k-light-holiday-display-delights-brooklyn-residents/

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Lead In:

The holiday display at a house in Brooklyn, New York really brings Christmas magic to life this holiday season. Joe Smith is on location with details.

(sound of Christmas music plays) :05

(music fades behind Smith's voice and quietly continues to play during story)

Even in the night’s rain, crowds line the sidewalk along East 93rd Street, Flatland Ave. to see the holiday lights extravaganza that has been a tradition for the neighborhood since 1963. Illuminated by a whopping 250,000 lights, the house reminds everyone that their favorite holiday is just two weeks away.

Spot :06 sec. Aries Matela “We love this. The spirit of Christmas, you can feel it in your heart.”

The brains and the bill for this display, which comes in at a whopping $10,000.00 for the month of December, belong to homeowner Frank Seddio, a Brooklyn attorney and former assemblyman. Frank admits this property isn’t his full-time home; just his office space, and the lights are a labor of love that he inherited from the previous owner 24 years ago. Frank says that he keeps the tradition alive because he likes to see the people happy.

Spot: 03 sec. Julia Brady “It’s beautiful, it’s lovely.”

Yes, it is lovely and quite a holiday treat. I’m Joe Smith, WXYZ News, wishing you a happy holiday season.

Not Just Another Face in the Facebook

Facebook recently updated its page and made the layout look differently. Many users have not been happy with this change because they feel it is difficult to use and strange to look at. According to an article on gizmodo.com one facebook user, Alexandre Oudin, decided to embrace the change. The artist in a way "hacked" his own profile and changed things so that his profile now reveals a broken image of his face, rather than the random pictures featured on his page. I think that it looks really cool.  

http://gizmodo.com/5712601/not-just-another-face-in-the-facebook

2010 Best Apps

I, as an iPhone user, get very excited when lists of the best applications for iPhones are released. TechCrunch released an article on their website that broke down the best applications for 2010. Here is the list they posted:

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Overall Top 10 PAID iPhone Apps
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Angry Birds
Doodle Jump – BE WARNED: Insanely Addictive!
Skee-Ball
Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
Fruit Ninja
Cut the Rope
ALL-IN-1 GAMEBOX
The Moron Test
Plants vs. Zombies
Pocket God

==============================
Overall Top 10 FREE iPhone Apps
==============================

Facebook
Angry Birds Lite
Words With Friends Free
Skype
Tap Tap Revenge 3
The Weather Channel®
Paper Toss
Bing
ROCK BAND FREE
Talking Tom Cat

==================================
Overall Top 10 GROSSING iPhone Apps
==================================

MLB.com At Bat 2010
Angry Birds
Call of Duty: Zombies
Bejeweled 2 + Blitz
FriendCaller 3 Pro
Zombie Farm
TomTom U.S.A.
TETRIS®
Plants vs. Zombies
Doodle Jump – BE WARNED: Insanely Addictive!

===========================
Overall Top 10 PAID iPad Apps
===========================

Pages
GoodReader for iPad
Numbers
Angry Birds HD
Keynote
Glee Karaoke
WolframAlpha
Pinball HD
Friendly for Facebook
Star Walk for iPad

===========================
Overall Top 10 FREE iPad Apps
===========================

iBooks
Pandora Radio
Netflix
Google Mobile App
Solitaire
Movies by Flixster – with Rotten Tomatoes
IMDb Movies & TV
Kindle
Google Earth
Virtuoso Piano Free 2 HD

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Overall Top 10 GROSSING iPad Apps
================================

Pages
Numbers
Keynote
LogMeIn Ignition
SCRABBLE for iPad
Documents To Go® Premium – Office Suite
Angry Birds HD
Real Racing HD
Plants vs. Zombies HD
Proloquo2Go

================================

I found this quite interesting. I have a few of the applications listed on my iPhone and I am happy with them. Lists like these make me want to download more applications so that I can be taking full advantage of my phone.

This article is featured at: http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/09/top-iphone-ipad-apps-2010/

CityVille Hits 6 Million Daily Active Users In 8 Days

Talk about a popular trend! CityVille, a game created by Zynga, has hit huge success even though it has only been out for a small amount of time. It took 8 days for it to get to 6 million daily active users, which is extremely impressive. FarmVille took 46 days to hit that, and FrontierVille took 32; meaning CityVille hit numbers approximately four times faster! I have yet to check out this game but one of my friends plays it and states that it is "EXTREMELY addictive." The article on techcrunch.com that reported this news suggests that the reason that CityVille is so successful is because it had an international launch in 5 different languages. Whatever the reason, I agree with the article- to hit that many people that quickly is a little scary!

I checked out CityVille online to attempt to figure out the hype. Players play the game on Facebook, and on the Facebook page for it the description reads:

"Hey Citizens! Ever thought of creating the perfect city? Now you can, in CityVille! Create and run your own city. In CityVille, you’ll start from the ground up, literally. Start your city by growing crops and supplying goods to your newest stores and eateries. Don’t forget to collect rent from your houses. Be sure to expand your businesses into friends’ cities with franchises! Join the fun in CityVille, by Zynga!" 

I looked around on the page and I don't really see what the hype is about. That seems like a lot of work for a game, but I could see how it is easily addictive. 

The article that discusses CityVille's success can be found at: http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/11/cityville-6-million/

Facebook Is Taking Over The World.

On techcrunch.com one of the bloggers posted an image of the "social networks" map, which revealed that Facebook dominates over other social media websites. To think that a website can have such a large influence over so many people is ridiculous in my opinion. I find it crazy that Facebook's popularity is so massive because it is a place for "friends" (as Facebook says), which means that all the users of the site are connected in some way. To visually see the connections on such a grand geological scale is astounding. Social networks really are a big thing. The map additionally reveals that Twitter and Linkedin are largely influential. It will be interesting to see if the popularity of sites like this sticks over a long span of time. 

Here is what the "social networks" map looks like:

More depth on this topic can be found in the article which is located at http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/10/world-map-of-social-networks-shows-facebooks-ever-increasing-dominance/

Final Project

This is my final project for class- Garrett, Liz, Mcarthur and I went into the city and took pictures. It was a lot of fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpwQknfU6aI

Video Upload

This video was filmed with Photobooth on my macbook. It features me and two of my friends dancing ridiculously to Justin Bieber.