Deal Catcher

During the last class we had a presentation by the guys who started the website Dealcather.com. I thought it was a very interesting presentation, as it showed a lot of the things we discuss in class in a real life situation. The idea for the web site was simple yet effective. It is amazing that they are in the top 5 of over 100 bargain sites. Just as impressive was them surviving the dot com bust that happened just after their site took off. Their presentation was overall a great learning experience. Thanks for inviting them Professor Brown.

Packers

Stiuqxela is awesome. And so are the Green Bay Packers. Not as much as Wu Tang, because they are forever.

Matt Kates' End of Poverty Post

Matt's post discussed a book about the poverty situation in much of Africa and other less developed countries of the world. I read a book about that same subject entitled "The White Man's Burden." Altough both book talked about similiar subjects, the author in The White Man's Burden, William Easterly came to almost the exact opposite conclusion as Jeffrey Sach. In fact, he said the only way we have currently tried to aid Africa is through top down approaches, and we (the western world) have spent over 2 trillion dollars, yet the economic situation has not improved. He was much more in favor of bottom up approaches. Although these approaches do not promise to end world hunger or poverty, they are much more effective. People actually go into towns or villages to determine what it is the village best needs, instead of applying broad measures that most likely will not mesh with their culture and economic situation. As you can see, I am more in agreement with Easterly. To get more of an idea of what Sach's thesis was, check out Matt Kates' post.

Hardware Implants

I was reading some of the articles on Slashdot, and although many are interesting, I found one to be particularly amazing. The blog talks about implanting a computer chip to act as a neuron. The article then makes some impressive claims that if this chip works as described, it "could remedy everything from Alzheimer's to absent-mindedness — and reduce memory loss to nothing more than a computer glitch." That would be simply amazing, but I would like to see some more information on the subject before jumping to any conclusions. Check it out here.

Katie's Post Before Spring Break

In her post, Katie discussed how technology has advanced the hiring and recruiting process of employers. She addressed a topic I had not heard of, which is posting job openings on SearchBlog. I think this is just another advancement in how the internet has made the hiring process easier for both employers and employees. A person who is looking for a job now has access to thousands more opportunities than they have in the past, and this allows employers to get a more qualified applicant pool. The process is also cheaper and faster online. While there are a few downfalls, such as people applying to jobs they know they are not qualified for simply because it is so easy, I think the benefits far outweight any of the problems. For more information, check out her post.

Michael Phelps

I am not sure how many people know, but this past week Michael Phelps competed at the FINA World Championships held in Australia. During the course of the meet he won 7 gold medals and set 5 world records. I am here to make the argument that his performance during the past week was the greatest individual sporting performance in history of not only swimming, but all sports. In a sport where 1,2, or 3 tenths of a second seperate the winners from the losers, Phelps domolished the competition, and his own world records by as many as 4 seconds a race. This type of domination is unheard of in this sport. This article argues both sides of the question, whether he is the greatest athlete of all time or not. At this point the concensus is that he is far from it, but I to differ. Any true sports fan should at least take a look.

Products Enhanced by the Web

I thought that the example given in class of a product improved by the web was a great one. The news industry is having to be completely overhauled and are forced to think of new ways to get the news out to the public. People can now have up-to-the-second news on any issue they want to hear about. This is definately an improvement over the stagnant, twice a day news most people are used to. It is unfouranate that many of the prominent newspapers throughout the country are struggling to sell their paper editions, but I am sure they will have some creative answers to replace that revenue. I am confident of this because news will always be in high demand from the general public, so they will be willing to conitnue to pay what they were paying for paper editions in other ways.