Its been two days since Senator Barack Obama won the presidential election, making history by becoming the first ever African American President. I still feel like I'm dreaming. Never in my wildest dreams did I think my parents and I would live to such an accomplishment.
As a young African American man, this is so inspiring! I now know the feeling of being high off of life. I now truly know that I can accomplish any and ever dream that I have, with hard work persistence and faith.
I'm proud to know that I was a part of and witnessed HISTORY!
Don't follow your dreams, Chase them!
Rashad L.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Smartphone = save money
What if you could take a picture of an item from your phone and within seconds find the lowest price? Well, ShopSavvy made an application that would allow people with smartphones to use the phone’s camera as a bar code scanner. A user of this application would simply have to point the camera at an item and ShopSavvy connects to the Web to search for the lowest price, online and local stores, and product review. ShopSavvy also has the feature for retailers to add their emails and their projected price, the company sends out an alert to the retailers when the product hits that price.
There have been reports of ShopSavvy not having the information on all the products out on the market.
A down side to this new application is that it only works best for the G1 which is the Google phone. Other cell phones have fixed focal points which restrict the camera from working properly.
Another product-and-price database is called, Slifter, Virgin Mobile began offering users last month. This program works differently than the other application. It is featured on the phone’s “deck,” a directory of Web sites chosen by the carrier. It should work on more phones because the carrier put them there.
New York Times
“Hesitating Over a Smartphone’s Price? It Could Save You Money”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/technology/personaltech/06smart.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin
-Monica Sullivan
There have been reports of ShopSavvy not having the information on all the products out on the market.
A down side to this new application is that it only works best for the G1 which is the Google phone. Other cell phones have fixed focal points which restrict the camera from working properly.
Another product-and-price database is called, Slifter, Virgin Mobile began offering users last month. This program works differently than the other application. It is featured on the phone’s “deck,” a directory of Web sites chosen by the carrier. It should work on more phones because the carrier put them there.
New York Times
“Hesitating Over a Smartphone’s Price? It Could Save You Money”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/technology/personaltech/06smart.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin
-Monica Sullivan
Phones and more phones
After only being out in the Asia market for about two months, a second version of the Samsung T*Omnia was introduced on Monday in Korea. The upgrades on this phone includes a wider screen with high resolution for multimedia functions.
T*Omnia is going up against Apple's I-Phone 3G but Microsoft Steve Ballmer points out how the T*Omnia offers more extensive features than the 3G. T*Omnia comes with a five-megapixel camera with WI-FI, GPS, bluetooth and the microsoft office program, which allows PC users to transfer compatible files with ease.
Ballmer said, “I like the T*Omnia phone because it brings together communications, productivity, multimedia, and entertainment in a way that meets the needs of both consumers and mobile professionals.”
Samsung is currently negociating a deal with America for the T*Omnia to be distributed within the states. If the deal comes through, the U.S. will be seeing this phone on shelves at the end of this month.
-Ching
T*Omnia is going up against Apple's I-Phone 3G but Microsoft Steve Ballmer points out how the T*Omnia offers more extensive features than the 3G. T*Omnia comes with a five-megapixel camera with WI-FI, GPS, bluetooth and the microsoft office program, which allows PC users to transfer compatible files with ease.
Ballmer said, “I like the T*Omnia phone because it brings together communications, productivity, multimedia, and entertainment in a way that meets the needs of both consumers and mobile professionals.”
Samsung is currently negociating a deal with America for the T*Omnia to be distributed within the states. If the deal comes through, the U.S. will be seeing this phone on shelves at the end of this month.
-Ching
Monday, November 3, 2008
Profiting from pirated content
For many years now, entertainment companies like TV networks, film and music studios, have been fighting against having their copyrighted material available on the Internet for free. But now according to a post on Wired.com, "MySpace is launching an ad platform called Auditude that automatically identifies content from MTV Networks (content like "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "Punk’d") and will display an overlay that shows where the clip originally came from, its original air-date, and links to online stores where users can purchase the entire episode."
Auditude uses "fingerprints" in the original content to identify the audio/video data so it will be able to find the source no matter who uploads the video (i.e. copyrighted videos and clips posted to sites like YouTube).
Do you think this program is a step towards eliminating so many cases of people violating copyright law due to illegal downloading? Wired.com is saying that this is "a big step forward for monetizing online video."
- Jessica I.
Auditude uses "fingerprints" in the original content to identify the audio/video data so it will be able to find the source no matter who uploads the video (i.e. copyrighted videos and clips posted to sites like YouTube).
Do you think this program is a step towards eliminating so many cases of people violating copyright law due to illegal downloading? Wired.com is saying that this is "a big step forward for monetizing online video."
- Jessica I.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Another reason to get a DVR
On Thursday it was announced that the owners of the latest TiVo DVRs will soon be able to watch movies and TV shows streamed from Netflix. The two companies will begin testing the service, by having a portion of their customers try the service. They then plan to roll it out to hundreds of thousands of TiVo customers by early December.
Netflix is aiming to make its download service available to as many consumers as possible, said company spokesman Steve Swasey. However, he did not ass what portion of Netflix's 8.7 million subscribers are also TiVo subscribers. "The whole idea is to grow the service," Swasey said. "We want to keep our members and attract new members."
For TiVo, the deal allows it to better differentiate its DVRs from the typically less costly ones offered by cable and satellite TV service providers.
The deal follows similar agreements that both Netflix and TiVo have signed with other companies. Earlier this year, Roku, a Saratoga-based start-up device maker, launched its Netflix players, a $100 set-top box whose only feature is the ability to stream Netflix videos a consumers' TVs.
My family just got a DVR for the first time and I feel like it was a very great investment. I don't have much free time but I have a few shows that I like to watch. With this product I am able to watch it when I do have a free minute and even fast forward through the commercials. I would not be interested in the Netflix part of this offer but I am still a fan of the DVR.
- Carly Youngren
Green skyline and company innovation
The greening trend has recreated the New York skyline.
The New York Times has a really cool little video up on its website right now showing how energy conservation looks on a 100-plus floor skyscraper.
The video shows photos from
The energy efficient lighting is achieved through dimmers, timers, motion sensors and different types of bulbs. New green buildings are becoming more prominent.
I also stumbled upon an article titled "It's no time to forget about innovation."
"By its very nature, innovation is inefficient," states Janet Rae-Dupree in the first sentence.
Rae-Dupree suggests that even as the economy may be melting before our very eyes or as many Americans are bombarded with the current political climate, this is no time to forgo future investments. But rather than scaling back on all innovation, risky or not, it is important to pick and choose where and how much.
Author and former chief technology officer at Cisco Systems, Judy Estrin offers 5 rules to "entrench innovation in to the corporate mind-set": trust, questioning, risk-taking, patience and openness
"Fostering a company wide atmosphere of innovation — encouraging everyone to take risks and to think about novel solutions, from receptionists to corner-suite executives — helps ensure that the loss of any particular set of minds needn’t spell trouble for the entire company." --Rae-Dupree writes
According to the experts, while this may be a difficult time to get loans or even look past the difficult times at hand, the current situation may foster innovation. Plus it is no time to not try and refocus creativity and innovation in a company's field.
After all it may be worse for companies to resist innovation than it is to take a few risks.
Erin
The New York Times has a really cool little video up on its website right now showing how energy conservation looks on a 100-plus floor skyscraper.
The video shows photos from
The energy efficient lighting is achieved through dimmers, timers, motion sensors and different types of bulbs. New green buildings are becoming more prominent.
I also stumbled upon an article titled "It's no time to forget about innovation."
"By its very nature, innovation is inefficient," states Janet Rae-Dupree in the first sentence.
Rae-Dupree suggests that even as the economy may be melting before our very eyes or as many Americans are bombarded with the current political climate, this is no time to forgo future investments. But rather than scaling back on all innovation, risky or not, it is important to pick and choose where and how much.
Author and former chief technology officer at Cisco Systems, Judy Estrin offers 5 rules to "entrench innovation in to the corporate mind-set": trust, questioning, risk-taking, patience and openness
"Fostering a company wide atmosphere of innovation — encouraging everyone to take risks and to think about novel solutions, from receptionists to corner-suite executives — helps ensure that the loss of any particular set of minds needn’t spell trouble for the entire company." --Rae-Dupree writes
According to the experts, while this may be a difficult time to get loans or even look past the difficult times at hand, the current situation may foster innovation. Plus it is no time to not try and refocus creativity and innovation in a company's field.
After all it may be worse for companies to resist innovation than it is to take a few risks.
Erin
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Tis election season
Tuesday could not come sooner...
Not only will all political "analysts," "pundits," and/or "experts" be out of jobs for 4 years (this is of course for their disservice to the American public through the entire election season), but we will also welcome a new president. Here's hoping he will be "that one."
But until then, we must deal with some bumps.
Wired.com reports that Floridians and Pittsburgh-ians have been receiving robocalls telling voters that they can vote by phone on election day.
I'm not implying that this was done by one campaign, but it is offensive to see Americans do this to other Americans.
What is going to happen come election day? Long lines, possible technology breakdowns, there are many things at stake.
I can only hope that "technology" comes through this time.
Erin
Not only will all political "analysts," "pundits," and/or "experts" be out of jobs for 4 years (this is of course for their disservice to the American public through the entire election season), but we will also welcome a new president. Here's hoping he will be "that one."
But until then, we must deal with some bumps.
Wired.com reports that Floridians and Pittsburgh-ians have been receiving robocalls telling voters that they can vote by phone on election day.
I'm not implying that this was done by one campaign, but it is offensive to see Americans do this to other Americans.
What is going to happen come election day? Long lines, possible technology breakdowns, there are many things at stake.
I can only hope that "technology" comes through this time.
Erin
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