Computer Science

Computer Science is a field that most people reserve for the nerds and the math geeks but now with this age of technology and such huge advancements the computer has become almost everyone is computer literate and using on a daly bases. Which now is stretching the field of people who are getting computer science degrees. So not only is it the "geeks" who are getting these majors but people who would have gotten a business degree 10 years ago. This is why I believe that yes their have been such leaps and bounds we have made with computers but we are about to enter a period of time when technology is going to grow to a level that even we the peope who will come up with it fully understand where we can take this. Technology that is going to come is going to blow all of our minds because people seem to forget how much has been done in such a short time. Windows was invented by a group of guys in a garage about 20 years ago, now it is one of the if not the biggest company in the world. Companies could continue to grow because Microsoft is not going to be able to have every inventor on thier payroll. Because of this the whole aspect of our culture and society can and will change everything on how we look at and how we conduct our lives.

Barry Bonds and steriods

Barry Bonds, hes finally been acused and put into the genre of the "steriod era" of baseball. In the recent past steriods have plagued the game and has boosted players numbers whether it be hitting or pitching. And the biggest person during this period was barry bonds but he never admitted to it and no player every said anything against him. But not with the new book coming out talking about how Bonds took steriods has finally given all of us fans who has known he has the proof we have been waiting for. Bonds in his early days looks like a tooth pick compaired to the Bonds that we see now and was a speedy out fielder who was known for stealing bases and being a smart hitter. Now he is known for his power and his home runs and not being able to steal, why? maybe becuase all the juice he took double his size and allowed him to be put up there with the real greats of baseball. I know this puts the mlb in a bad place about what to do with him if he does break these records but from my standpoint if he is allowed to stay in the record books you are just spitting in the faces of the great players that did not take drugs and did not cheat and worked hard to get what they did. But the good news from this is that steriod era is coming to an end because players are tested all the time now and if they are cought they can be kicked out forever. So now players like a rod and pujols can have great yerars and not lose their mvps they should be winning to players who juice to improve their numbers and steal awards like the mvp away from true players.

The Final Four

I do not know if anyone watched the final four and for once I wished I didn't. This final four was by far the most uneventful and boring 3 games I have ever watched. I would have rather have watched grass grow then watch these games, I wish I could have the hours of my life that I spent watching these games. Not one game was close ever and all four teams had no name players. The average basketball fan or even a follower of basketball could not name more than 5 players between all four teams before the tournament. And because their was no big team to draw in crowds or even put up a decent game they are saying that the final four has gotten the worst ratings ever for any final four broadcast. Thats not a good thing considering most sports analysis is calling the greatest sporting event and how it draws everyone into the tournament even if your team is not playing any more. The reason for this of course is all the extremely good players going strait to the NBA or now waiting a year then going into the NBA. Their are few players that stick around intil their senior year the only 2 media hyped players this year was morrinson and redick and it seemed that most people did not even like them. This year their was no college player for people to like so that they can have some one to root for. And even if some people picked one of those two players both teams where nocked out early in the tournament and did not even last that long. College basketball is going to have to do something to stop this if they do not want a repeat of what happened this year because if all the most talented players go strait to the pros then the college level will drop in popularity and in skill.

Computers and the lack of knowledge

Computers now a days everyone has one and if your not your "behind the times" but really what does a computer do for the average person? Someone might be considered not apart of this technological era because they may not know how to use a computer or one that well but what do people really do on computers that put them so much ahead of someone who does not. Most people with computers do not even use their computer to their full potential and only know how to use the basic skills. Of course because society has bitten into this tech boom and everything is being moved to the internet and computers which gives some reason to owning a computer when your in college. But people keep spending thousands and thousands dollars on having repairs, buying software and even buying new cpu's. People have begun to treat their own computer like a personal device and that everyone needs to have their own computer. This makes no sense to me I have seen families with 3 to 4 computers and they really use it for email, instant messeging, internet and maybe some word prossesing here and there. If people took a little time and learned how to take care of their computers then they would last longer and would run alot more smoothly. What my point in this ranting was the fact that people have bit to hard into this technological era and do not want to be "left behind" and so they are buying and buying new cpu's that cost thousands of dollars and then treat them like garbage and spend even a lot more money. People who buy computers really should either find someone who can give you some pointers with virus protection, cleaning up space on hardrive, firewall....ext.

Food

Sorry that most of my blogs from recent time are about Europe but it was a big culture shock to me about how different a place can be even though the countries in it are considered Western Civilizations. I have hear in the news all the time about how the US is so over weight and that we are so much fatter than every other county. At first I had the stupid American opinion about how we were just a richer society and so we indulged into food more but after my trip to Europe I come to find out that it is not that we are richer so we can afford to buy more food, no the difference is the food itself. When I was in Europe I ate a wide variety of food and was shocked on how everythign was made with so many vegitables and so healty with none to almost no grease on any of the food. The only fast food restaruant that I saw was McDonalds with a very different menu and even the food that was the shown on the menu as the same tasted better with less grease. The first meal I had when I got back to the US I almost throw up because I thought it was so greasy and this was after only after spending a week in Europe. This made me think about when I was Europe and I could think of few people that where over weight and these where older men who were not even that fat just had some what a stomach. People will continue to be overweight in this country if the food does not improve because of course their is healthy food but when the majority of food is bad for you and is easier than going an extra step or even paying more for healthy food, people will continue to eat unhealthy food.

Wireless Internet

Everything now a days is becoming mobile, cell phones, ipods... ext. and of course now a days computers, laptops. Even though laptops have been around for awile now they have not always been completly mobile because of the use of the internet. When most people think of the computer they think it mostly as an advanced calculator and type writer that can also get on the internet. Most people do not use computers to their full extent and use it mostly for the internet so in this case laptops have not always been usefull because very few places gave wireless internet. Then coffee shops started to offer wireless internet to anyone that would come into the coffee shop. Then people started to like the idea of mobile internet and started putting up wireless internet so that people any where in cities, college campusses and homes can use it. Recently our fraternity has gotten wireless which is great and I do really enjoy it but to have it we have all these recievers that stick out of the ceilling. And my problem is not that it made it look ugly or anything like that but what is the radiation levels these recievers are sending out. With everything becoming more mobile we are being exposed to more radiation and what kind of radiation do these recievers send out? Is this something that we need to be worried about now before it is to late and hundreads of people are saying they have brain tumors from to much radiation? I am no health freak or afraid of change or the improvement for our lives but it seems like we are walking into unknown territory that could have dire consequences.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft for those who do not know what is, it is a massive online RPG (Role Playing Game). For deeper clarification it just means that you play as a character and you improve this character by duing quest, killing creeps and joing groups and doing dungeons killing high level monsters. There are many different RPG's on the market and I have either seen or played a good deal of them but WoW (World of Warcraft) tops them all. First of all it is made by the etablished computer game company Blizzard who has made many games that have been awarded game of the year including Warcraft 3, The Frozen Throne (expansion pack to Warcraft 3), diablo and StarCraft and now they can add WoW. WoW is one of the best looking games, every detail in the world is very well and having a wide range of weather atmospheres. The size of it is also one of the biggest I have ever seen, from large dungeons and instances to the size of the World itslef. Your character can be modified so that no one else will have on like yours, you can adjust which race, type of class, sex, color of skin, profession, color of hair, hair stlye and face. There are many many quest always giving you something to do, whether it be something you can done by yourslef or you need to get with a group. Groups and guilds let you join up with other class's or the same class and let you go kill hard monsters or even attack the oposing side (Alliance and Horde). And of course the wide range armor and weapons that push you to continouslly look for things to improve your character. With all of these options it is no wonder that when people play the game they get addicted to it and not just addicted to it as in I play a good deal but on all the time. People that try the game once want to keep going to improve their character because people get attached to them and want to watch them get better and get better items. The one down fall of the game is the fact that you have to pay a monthly fee of about 12 dollars after you buy the game which is about $60. Even with that thoe WoW is one of the best made games that I have seen and/or played and even after it being released for over a year now it is still incredibally extremely active and multiple servors are full all the time.

Airlines and Big Companies

Like I said last post I went to Europe this spring break and dealt with travel for the first time by myself and it really opened my eyes to a lot of things. For example one of the things that cought my attention was the airlines and how they overbook every flight. I really find it hard to believe that airlines are having so much trouble because every flight I took was overbooked and by a large amount of people. How are these airline companies having so much trouble if they are over selling flights? I know that this was during a busy Spring Break time period but I heard this from a lot of people that their flights where over booked also. This blows my mind that airline companies our any of these huge companies could go bankrupt. The reason why I think this happens is that these companies get ahead of themself and keep expanding intil they are not making money. After this happens they drastically cut back which causes the economy to fall and then when they think that they are in big trouble they just yell bankrupcy and the government comes and save them. I believe that companies like this need to have some one monitory them to make sure that these money hungry ceo's do not continue to use the market like they have.

Travelling and Public Transportation

I was lucky enough this Spring Break to be able to go to Italy to meet up with some friends that spent the semister abroad in Florence. This was my first trip to Europe and my first time travelling by plane by myself. This was the first obstacle travel wise that I had to get over because my plane flew out of Cincinnati and I did not have a car, So I had to find a ride to the airport which was a lot more difficult than I first planned. Luckly I found a ride but because the time they wanted to leave I arrived at the airport about 5 hours before my flight and spent a lot of time just sitting around. But besides that I got on the plane and got my seat and fell asleep the whole flight intil we landed in Paris France. That was an interesting experience because I had a connecting flight to Pisa about 2 hours after we landed which I thought gave me plenty of time but That was not the case, because Paris does everything by bus including after you get off your plane, they shuttle to the terminal. This causes delays because you have to wait for the bus to fill up and if the bus filled up you had to wait for the next one and then wait for that to fill up which wasted a lot of time. I had to then get to a different to a different terminal, to this I had to run around and find another bus to get to the terminal that was connected to it and had to run to make my flight, and I barly made it. This left a bitter taste in my mouth about how europe handled things but was not that bad. Once I landed in Pisa I got my suitcase and headed to the train that went to Florence, it was well labled and easy to find. To some up the week we used trains to go to other cities and busses when we get there to get everywhere and they were easy and fast. When the day came for me to fly back home I just jumped on a train and did it all bymyself even as a foriegner not really sure of what I was doing. When I got home my ride did not show up and there was a huge deal on how I was going to get back to bloomington. There were no busses that went to a train station and there was not even a train that would go to Bloomington. Europe's mass transit system is by far more superior to ours and now I see why we use so much gas then any other country. If we could figure out some way to maybe get to that stage maybe not drastically but slowly over time we could save so much money and still get to places just as fast.

HD TV

HD tv is the new technology that every single adult and child wants to have in their home. When HD tv first came out I did not think that they really looked that different and where not worth the money. But I later learned that there were almost no channels that supported HD and that these tv's were trying to show graphics that were not there. So of course they would not be a significant difference but now a days hd is all rave and a must have for all people. Channels like espn have changed the way their set looks so that it is better with hd and it will look better. HD is taking over even the game platforms, with this new release of new game platforms that produce hd graphics. To see what these new consules have to offer you have to have a hd tv and you will be able to see the best graphics that gaming has to offer. It is a matter of time intil regular screen tvs will be a thing of the past and the hd tvs are the norm for everyone to own. But for this to happen their will have to be a cheap version of it to come out because the mass majority do not want to pay around a thousand for a tv espcially if people are on a fixed income.

Fantasy Sports

Fantasy sports have become a large new market and is due to this new tech age. People have started to become more tech savey by the fear that will be left behind in this age of technology. So now that the internet is common knowledge people have started to go to the internet for entertainment. Fantasy sports gives every sports fan their ultimate dream of owning and managing thier own team and also being able to play against other team managers in an organized league. This new technology makes it real easy and fun and almost effort free since the site does all the busy work done. Because of the easyness of it, it has grown huge and has become a monsterous market that today is bringing in big revenue for the successful and established sites.

Google

Google as everyone knows is the biggest search engine in the world is used people across the globe. It was started just as that and nothing else but as the years have gone by google has grown to try and conguer other parts on the web. Business, email and so much more but is there anything that is going to stop it? It is one of the most recognized company names across the world and when they put that name on a new product it seems to excell really well. So is google going to be the next microsoft? I have thought about this for awile and even though comparing google to microsoft is almost non existent because microsoft is manly a software company and the tech giant and google is really just starting to branch out and those branches are still stationed on the web. But if google continues to excell I believe that one day that they will try to make that jump, if this happens google will dominate because Microsoft reitically has no compittion. If google comes out with operating system software they will be able to control everything that a basic computer user uses. This will make more sense to the average user which willl cause problems for microsoft. So if google is not bought out by some other company or breaks up and gets to the point of making its own software then they will be the monopoly on software.