Alex's Blog

Online shopping the new trend?

2011-12-05T19:34:00.001-08:00

There are a lot of people I know who shop on E-bay and Amazon. Its a growing trend seen everywhere. This past weekend emphasizes my point even more. Everyone knows how hectic and packed Black Friday is with all the deals and stuff. The new thing might no longer be retail stores, but retail websites. Fifty million Americans visited retail websites on Black Friday, a 35% increase from a year earlier. Within the first 25 days of November, online spending totaled 12.7 billion. That is just a ridiculous amount of spending online. That does not even include cyber Monday, which is a day dedicated to online shopping. Cyber Monday is becoming increasingly popular as well with record setting sales. That really puts into perspective how dominant online shopping is becoming.

What does this imply for the future? Already experts say that Christmas will no doubt set record high sales for online merchandise. Not to mention it is still growing. I feel that the world will exist more online than in the physical reality. I feel that the amount of people who go to malls will decrease rather significantly because of this. I don't like the idea though because what the mall provides. The mall provides a place where people can come together and see each other. Its festive and interactive. Online shopping isolates people. People are already isolating themselves enough through games and online sites. People need to go out and see other people. People need to remember how to talk to someone face to face. Online sales may not mean good things to come, but we will see.

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/883902-online-retailers-braced-for-record-sales-on-cyber-monday

Television, games, and internet in one box?

2011-12-05T19:10:00.001-08:00

Everyone knows about Xbox, the gaming console developed by Microsoft. Microsoft has promised to change the Xbox. The Xbox is about the become more than just a gaming console, but a television and internet hub as well. There has been tons of people who brought X-Box just to watch DVD's and movies instead of getting DVD players. It is a growing trend that X-Box and even PS3 is being used outside of gaming. Xbox really encouraged that trend by being the first gaming console to partner up with Netflix. Soon after that, Xbox added partners such as ESPN, Hulu Plus, AT&T, U-verse, and last.fm. Each and every one of these partners have influence across the web as providers of entertainment.Not only that, Microsoft plans to add content from 40 other new partners to make the X-Box more diverse with a new upcoming update.

The new partners, or updated apps, to be unveiled soon include content from ESPN, Hulu, Netflix and MSNBC in the United States. Within the next few months, Xbox plans to make deals and add on YouTube, Best Buy's CinemaNow, HBO Go, Major League Baseball and Comcast's Xfinity On Demand. Time Warner, HBO's parent company, also owns CNN. Though Apple maybe the dominant power house in tablets and Google in smart phones, Microsoft will be the leader in an interactive television and entertainment market.

I think this incorporation can hurt our economy, but do good in the long run. The Xbox will definitely get rid of satellite and cable which play a pretty big part in the economy. With the fall of these two technologies, the economy might fall quite a bit. The Xbox has potential to join markets as well as expand markets. With the Xbox more people who watch movies might think to play games and more people who play games might want to use Netflix. Xbox is just one of few technologies that are integrating our markets now.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/05/tech/gaming-gadgets/xbox-upgrades-microsoft/index.html

Bio-energy the new source of light?

2011-12-05T18:57:00.001-08:00

I remember in class, I was in a group that had to defend Freeman Dyson's ideas. He believed that the future of the world would be biotechnology. Many critics in our class said that that technology would be too far-fetched. They may have been mistaken. Phillips, a Dutch electronics company developed light in almost the same way fireflies, glow worms, and other bio luminescent living organisms do. This happens when luciferase, an enzyme, reacts with luciferin, a light-emitting molecule. This chemical reaction creates bio luminescence.

The way Phillip designers envision this new method of lighting is actually really simple. The mechanism will be a collection of hand-blown jars that contain a certain amount of biolumincescent bacteria. They will glow green when fed with methane gas. I am really fond of this technologically because it is really cheap and clean. No pollution actually arises from this. there are several problems with this though, the effectiveness of the lighting. As of right now, bio-light would be more suited to providing mood lighting rather than "functional illumination." It is a work in progress. I really hope to see this technology involve and become applicable to every day life. Imagine if everyone used bio-ligh instead of electricity to light their homes. We would be able to conserve fossil fuels and lessen the pollution we create. Maybe Freeman Dyson wasn't so wrong and the era of biotechnology is just beginning.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/03/tech/innovation/bio-light-eco-system/index.html

Social Media in Political Campaigning

2011-11-28T16:40:00.000-08:00

The topic of the day is social media and how it affects political campaigning. Is social media the new paradigm? First of all, what is social media? Before doing extensive research, the first thing that popped to my mind when I heard social media was Facebook or MySpace. Social media is so much more than that. Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to communicate with people interactively. This does not only include Facebook and MySpace, but it includes other mediums such as YouTube, Google+, AOL Instant messaging, and Twitter. Social media is a daily activity for me. Until recently, I did not realize the true power and influence of social media. It had the capacity to put the first African-American President into the white house.

Even politicians are falling into the social media influence. The power of social media can really be seen in the arena of politics and foreign affairs. So everyone here knows President Barack Obama, the first African-American president. Alex found some pretty crazy statistics on how and why President Obama became President.

President Obama’s victory has been deemed the “Facebook Effect.” The fundamental difference in President Obama’s and John McCain’s marketing strategy, is their usage of social media and I mean the difference is drastic. John Hughes, Barack Obama’s campaigning strategist emphasized the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and email. Comparing the 2, Obama had 2 million supporters on Facebook. McCain only had 600,000 supporters. Obama had 112,000 supporters tweeting to get him elected. McCain barely had 4,600 followers. Barack Obama had 97 million video views on YouTube. McCain only had 25 million views. The difference is pretty clear. Barack Obama at least doubled McCain in every aspect. Obama also abused emails. Barack Obama has 13 million people on his e-mail list. With a click of a button he can contact 13 million people. The reason why it is so effective is because its a cheap way to reach a mass of people.

Aside from using the more popular social media sites, he utilized different and specified interest groups too. He had profiles on Asian Avenue, MiGente, and BlackPlanet. These networking sites were geared towards specific ethnic groups. I am a Vietnamese and Chinese and I don't even have an Asian Avenue profile. Obama’s campaigning advisers made sure they did not miss any body. They even had an Obama Application for mobile devices. The application allowed supporters to send pro-Obama messages to everyone on their contact list. This is what I found most interesting. Applications are growing everyday in both the apple store and droid market. In my opinion, it is ingenius to create an Obama-application that promotes him. It is innovative ideas like this that made Obama become president.

I think that social media will become the dominant method of campaigning. Already 46% of people use web, e-mail, or text messaging for news about presidential campaign. In terms of video, 35% of America watch online political videos 3 times as much during 2004 elections. Its just obvious that more people are looking at social media mediums to get their political info. The increase can be seen from both the people and the politicians. Already, more than 500 American politicians have their own Facebook page. The election Obama is definitely going to be a mile stone to social media in presidential elections.

Some people are saying that the president might be decided on Facebook before the election in 2012. Just looking at Facebook, Obama has 20,708,235 fans. This is nearly 8 times as many Facebook fans as all Republican candidates combined. On twitter, Obama has more than 8,752,258 followers on Twitter. That's over 5 times as many twitter followers as the rest of the Republican candidates combined. that is quite a substantial difference in numbers no matter what way you look at it.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/94861/obama-and-the-facebook-effect.html

What if everything you did was done through the internet?

2011-11-22T17:24:00.000-08:00

We all know that the Internet is so influential and dominant in our society now and that its uses are always growing. Recently Google came out with a new revolutionary and innovative device known as the Chrome book. In my opinion, what the Chrome book has to offer is really unique and cool. The Chrome book is a personal computer that is almost a pure cloud client. That means that the Chrome book is a laptop in which everything is done on the web. For example, if you wanted to type up a word document on the Chrome book, you wouldn't use Microsoft Words, you would use Google Docs and save it on the web instead of on a hard drive. The Chrome Book has no programs actually installed on it. You can use applications through the Chrome Web Store. It is appealing because its simple, fast, and web-based. It does not even have a hard drive that exceeds to gigabytes.

I like the chrome book because almost everything I do is online as well, even if I am a college student. I presently already use Google docs as my primary documentation method. It is just more convenient because I do not have the risk of losing my work. I use social networking sites daily. I use calculators online to compute calculus problems. There isn't anything I do on a computer that isn't related the web. One problem arises? What happens when you don't have access to the web? Well the Chrome book as 3-g as well which allows you to have internet everywhere.

Aside from all the specifications, what does the Chrome book imply for the future of all computing devices and society itself? If the chrome book does become popular and dominate as the primary computing device, everything will truly be done online through the internet. This reminds me quite a bit of Neuromancer. In Neuromancer, the cyber world or "internet" world dominates society. There are already growing trends of increased use of internet, Facebook, and Twitter. I believe that the world will eventually become this way. The Internet is the power source and the chrome book is simply the medium.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/15/samsung-series-5-chromebook/

http://www.google.co.uk/chromebook/#features

http://news.cnet.com/chromebook-netbook-ipad-which-would-you-rather-spend-$500-on/8301-17938_105-20062229-1.html

New Paradigm: Tablets replacing Laptops?

2011-11-18T17:02:00.000-08:00

For a long time now, the use of computers has grown rapidly. Almost everything can be and will be done by a computer. This is foresee will remain true for a very long time, but something new has entered the market that has the potential to change everything. In a growing and integrated society, computing power is needed on the go. Usually a PC is only available in the office or at home and a desk. A lot of work completed on the road is done through smart phones. Though smart phones are incredibly useful, it is still not powerful enough to completely replace the PC. What society needed is a new device that can bridge the gap between the power of PC's and the mobility of smart phones.

Recently we have seen the emergence of tablets such as the iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and Sony Tablet S. These are just a few of the existing tablets. Tablets are just what they sound like, a flat screen with touch screen capabilities. They have wireless connection which enables users to easily check Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Most tablets now have applications such as Google Docs or pages from Apple. Tablets now are developing the ability to do documentation. Aside from that, Tablets are useful reading tools. They can serve as an e-book provider.

They are obviously not powerful enough yet to replace laptops, but they have potential. Recently Bill Gates was asked to comment on the iPad 2. Bill Gates stated that it is a great product, but it is not perfect. All the corporations around the world are racing to reach the perfect tablet that can completely replace computers and laptops. This perfect tablet will be the new computing device with touch screen abilities as well as a pen, physical keyboard, and voice recognition ability. It will invade every area of business and personal life states Bill Gates.

Already this growth in tablets is apparent. 13.6 million tablets were sold this summer, as opposed to 7.3 million net books. Net books are still farily popular, but it is obvious that they are declining whereas tablet sales have nearly doubled since the start of the year. Aside from that, tablets are already being integrated into school as you can read from one of my earlier posts from September. In my opinion, technology is always changing and evolving and that is what is happening now. people like simple ergonomics. They want a device that is powerful, simple to use, and appealing. That is what the perfect tablet is projected to be. We are now here at a cross road in computing devices. Will tablets become the new trend and paradigm?

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/ipad-and-tablets-outsell-netbooks-by-two-to-one-50005787/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10451702-71.html

Will prosthetic change the disabled to the too-abled?

2011-11-10T18:31:00.000-08:00

Oscar Pistorious is quite a controversial name in the world of runners. Why? Oscar Pistorious is an amputee. Since he was young, both of his legs were amputated. He has long since replaced them with prosthetic legs. A new type of prosthesis were developed in which Oscar took advantage of. They are j-shaped blades made of carbon fiber. These prosthetic legs are also known as Cheetahs. Since then he has competed and won against able bodied South African runners. Oscar's dream is to compete in the Olympics. This is great news right? A pair of prosthetic legs that allow the disabled to run again?

Oscar Pistorious has been prohibited from competing the Olympics by the IAAF or the International Association of Athletics Federation. They said "mechanical advantage of the blade in relation to the healthy ankle joint of an able bodied athlete is higher than 30-percent." What does this mean about the future of the Olympics? Will the Olympics have to different factions? One for the disabled and one for the able-bodied? Or will they merge the two into a competition of man against half man half machine? If the Olympic combines the two, will they half man half machine gain a competitive advantage? Some experts state that Oscar's prosthetic legs lengthen is stride and shortens his time by several seconds. Able-bodied runners practice everyday and improve by hundredth of seconds. which seems to be unfair.

This seems to be like Neuromancer in so many ways. Will athletes begin regard their bodies as a tool to compete and win? In Neuromancer people willingly replace or have weapons surgically implanted into their bodies. In my opinion, I feel that their will be two factions of the Olympics as soon as there are enough elite disabled athletes to compete. Already Oscar Pistorious has a competitor from London, Jonnie Peacock who has one prosthetic leg and one able-bodied leg. The future of sports is really looking to change with the introduction of advanced prostheses.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/olympics/article-2069912/LONDON-2012-Paralympian-Jonnie-Peacock-Great-Britains-answer-Oscar-Pistorius.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/sports/othersports/15runner.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/17/prosthetic-limbed-runner-disqualified-from-olympics/

Text messaging the new strategy to revolution?

2011-10-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

Everyone text messages. It is just the normal way to communicate with someone quickly. Sometimes I've noticed my friends text messaging someone who is across the hall. I send several thousand texts per month alone. Never have I thought more of it than just a simple communication device to be used daily. Recently I read a very interesting article about a protest in the Philippines. President Joseph Estrada was a corrupt leader of the Philippines. We was impeached and had his trial on January 17, 2001. During this trial there were several loyalist in the Philippine Congress. They had voted to set aside key evidence that would surely put Joseph Estrada away for good.

As soon as the Filipino citizens heard they reacted quickly. They were extremely agnry that their corrupt president was about to be set free due to lack of evidence. In less than two hours after the decision was announced. several thousand Filipinos converged on the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. The numbers kept on growing as time went on. Within the span of several days, over a million people arrived destroying all existing traffic patterns. The legislators were so shocked and alarmed the quickly reversed the decision and Estrada was gone for good by January 20. This result was due to the public's ability to collaborate and organize a massive and quick response.

The key method of communication for this protest was in fact text messaging. This really shocked me right here because text messaging seemed so mundane. I did not ever imagine it could amount to putting a corrupt official away. I mean within the span of three days, approximately seven million text messages were sent with most saying "Go 2 EDSA. Wear blk." Even the wording was very simple. Text messaging is a technology that can allow masses of people to collaborate. Never underestimate technology and how much it can affect the world.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67038/clay-shirky/the-political-power-of-social-media

Netflix for books?

2011-09-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

The theme in class currently is the information revolution. I read an article on CNN about Amazon considering a book service similar to the way Netflix provides movies, shows, and documentaries. The internet is the primary source of this revolution and already a new way to used it has appeared. Amazon is considering a service in which people pay an annual fee to get book"rentals." If this idea goes through and succeeds the Wall Street Journal believes that it will diminish the number of book sales and hurt book distributors. Already with the application of the Amazon Kindle and e-books, a prominent bookstore has completely closed down. In another article from CNN, Borders, an American bookstore, has filed for bankruptcy.

I remember times where I would come to Borders and sit down a read for hours. More recently I purchased a variety of e-books instead of purchasing actual books. How much people are doing the same thing I've done? The idea of clicking a button on the internet can give me access to an entire library is astonishing. Numerous people are being hurt by the bankruptcy of Borders. What is next? Books-a-million? Will there be a time where books will only be accessible through the internet? I believe in a decade or so that this will happen where all text will be on display through the internet. This is a perfect example of the information revolution.

Links:
The death and life of a great American bookstore
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/12/first.borders.bookstore.closing/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Amazon considering Netflix-like book service.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/09/12/amazon.netflix.books/index.html?hpt=te_bn2

iPad's for kindergartners?

2011-09-12T10:34:00.000-07:00

Recently I saw a very interesting video on CNN. A public school district in Maine is supplying each kindergartner with an iPad. The costs are estimated to be two hundred thousand dollars. It is stated that forty percent of kindergartners in a particular school from this district are not meeting reading standards for their grade. The school believes that the iPad will help improve these results and help compensate for the number of kids in the class. A teacher states that she is unable to give her students the attention they need due to the size of the class. The iPad's interactive programs are supposed to make up for that. Psychologists believe that the iPads will negatively affect students for a variety of reasons. For example, too much screen time can take students away from reality.

Though the school district states that they will be aware of that, I find it hard that they will succeed. Just by what I've seen, technology such as the iPad, X-box, and a variety of others has become a barrier between reality and the user. Is this a sign that technology is starting to be incorporated into our education? Is this beneficial? I do not believe so. A part of learning is developing social skills and being able to interact with others well. There is more to life than exceptional grades. Success is correlated with social skills and academics. Both of those can only be learned in a class room setting, not an iPad. What is your opinion?

Here is the link to the video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2011/09/12/cohen-kindergarten-ipad.cnn?hpt=hp_c2

Who am I?

2011-08-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

Before I start blogging about the very important issues around the world, I want to tell a bit about myself. Obviously my name is Alex. I am majoring in Biomedical Engineer. I haven't decided about my humanities or social science major yet. I am half Vietnamese and half Chinese. I am a buddhist. I am very outgoing. I wrestled for Mallard Creek Highschool. I participate in many extracurricular activities. I try to do as much community service as time allows. I am a very straight forward person. If I think something, I will let you know. I am not one to hide my thoughts if I believe they are beneficial. I have a brother who wrestles with me, and a sister who works with me. I love them very much. They have helped me a lot when times get rough. My father is a big inspiration to me. He has had such a difficult life growing up and manage to do the impossible. A man from a foreign country with no support has managed to raise a family of 5 with great morals and ethics. Hard work can solve almost any problem and that is the path I want to follow.