Archive for September, 2008

Education Matters!!!

Posted in politics with tags , , , , on September 21, 2008 by Alex Funk

A friend posted this on Facebook and I wanted to call attention to it. If you want to be President of the United States I think education matters just a little bit don’t you?  We are not talking about geeky software engineers who drop out of prestigious colleges to create internet startups, we are talking about Commander In-Chief of the greatest nation in the world

Obama:
Occidental College – Two years.
Columbia University – B.A. political science with a specialization in international relations.
Harvard – Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude and President of Harvard Law Review

Biden:
University of Delaware – B.A. in history and B.A. in political science.
Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

McCain:
United States Naval Academy – Class rank 894 out of 899 ….(5 from the bottom.)

Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester
North Idaho College – 2 semesters – general study
University of Idaho – 2 semesters – journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester
University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in journalism

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Search Engine Rap Battle

Posted in culture, internet with tags , , , , on September 18, 2008 by Alex Funk

With Google dominating the search engine wars over Y! MSN and some new (fading) startups like Cuil it only figures now if there is going to be real competition let them battle rap it out.

from http://searchenginerapbattle.com/

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New and Improved: Google Maps for Moble

Posted in internet with tags , , on September 18, 2008 by Alex Funk

Twitter allows me to find out things as they are happening in real time like a conversation you would have with a co-worker or friend except it is happening all around the world with millions of people, some you know most you don’t.  Some of the useful things that pass through my twitter stream are product announcements like we have had over the past few weeks. Its how I first found out about Google’s new browser Chrome and how I found out yesterday that Google released a new version of its mapping software for mobile phones and I have to say it is amazingly better than the previous version. Now there is transit and walking directions as well as street view and the ability to find your location even if you don’t have GPS. The look and feel has been updated somewhat as well to be more 2.0 sexy.  Thanks Mashable!

Informative video from Google. Disclaimer: Slightly Corny

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Government Bailouts – the interest goes to…

Posted in politics with tags , , on September 17, 2008 by Alex Funk

So the U.S. government sweeps in rescuing poor AIG with $85B taxpayer money. I get it we don’t want to see what’s further down the spiral, but if we the people are lending these big corporate giants money which they need to repay – shouldn’t we share in some of that interest being payed back?  I mean aren’t a million+ Americans using AIG for some reason paying them premiums and service charges and all the other fees that they collect?

And should’t AIG feel thankful to the government and the American people for coming up with the cash to bail them out?

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The Google/Andriod Phone is Coming!

Posted in culture with tags , , , , on September 16, 2008 by Alex Funk

Thank Goodness! – I have been thinking about cancelling my T-Mobile and going with the AT&T plan just to get my hands on a new iPhone but with the Google Phone coming out on HTC dream I may have a gooey alternative!  This phone is touch screen and even comes with a slide out keywboard for better typing than on an iPhone. The pics and demos I have seen so far do not dissapoint and I am looking foward to gettting rid of my Blackberry in a month or so.

Details from Techcrunch say we should expect the phone in late October which hopefully will be great timing with T-Mobile’s nation wide 3G rollout.

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New Microsoft Ads are…

Posted in internet with tags , , on September 16, 2008 by Alex Funk

So there is A LOT of buzz about the new Microsoft ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, and that is just the point.

They are to spark conversation! For now they don’t have a point. There are lovers and haters (a lot of haters) and everyone likes to dissect the underlying meanings of these ads but it may be a little premature to do that until we see some more from Redmond.

Haters are saying how are these ads going to sell more Vista? Well they are going to sell a lot of Vista with or without these ads. If you buy a PC its coming with Vista so unless you are a a select few demographics your new computer is going to come with Vista preloaded. It’s the OS for PCs. Now if you are a college kid you may get a Macbook, or a musician who can afford the Apple goods. If you are a tech-nerd who builds your own computers than Ubuntu is probably your OS of choice but for the rest of us sheep Vista is it.

The commercials are not advertising Vista because there is no need to (and actually there is more ephasis on the “Windows” brand than this iteration. The commercials are there crack a smile from people plopped down in front of their TV or computer screen and entertain. Maybe the commercials are even a little hint at the future with Microsoft – chewy computers that we just want to eat up – maybe the next craze in technology, just as the iPhone has done it for mobile phone devices, Microsoft may be releasing the next computer gadget that folds into your pocket or you play with on a table like Microsoft Surface. – Its the future we’ll just have to wait and see.

Read what others think:

BusinessWeek

TechCrunch

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