It has been awhile, hasn't it?

So much has happened since 2010 - there have been plenty of changes.

For one, I graduated San Francisco State University. 

For another, I interned and then got a position in a start-up company (so new that the website is still under construction). 

In this blog page, let me just go over what has transpired since my last update:

• Graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Information Systems
• Graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in eCommerce
• Quit a comfortable, decent-paying job to pursue an internship
• Went into an internship at a start-up
• Got hired by start-up

Other people have been quite supportive over my decisions, due to several factors:

• While I did get a fair pay, I wasn't happy
• I noticed that my past job festered unhappy coworkers - they had decent pay but weren't quite happy with themselves or their coworkers. It was a bit depressing
• I didn't want to live a life filled with "what ifs"
• I desired to have a position where I learned new things almost every day and utilized the skills that I acquired whilst in college

After reading that, you can understand the reasons.  However, here are the post-decision...not-quite-regret-but-something-eerily-like-it

• Need to change and learn how to "live within means"

Not really a list, but it's enough to make someone pause and consider.  If you're going to make a transition, this one is a big factor that you need to consider.  This one reason has made a big impact in my life, and it's something that you really need to prepare yourself for.  I assumed that I could last long, but you never know how much you should save up before making that change.

Yes, I had actually saved up money before planning the transition from my job whilst in college to my internship.  I had assumed that a savings of $5,000 for a 6-month to a year-long internship would be long enough before I "got hired".  Yeah, well... that didn't work out as well as I thought.

My thanks that I have survived as long as I have - even if it is barely - is to the whole "living with your parents" thing.  I still have to pay off bills, and a car, and car insurance, and health insurance (once I left my job for the internship, I had to get a personal health insurance), and the list goes on and on.  However, parents... they help a great deal.  My mom, especially, since she's the one who throws me a bone almost every week on getting me some food to last the week, and sorting out my bills.

My advice for new grads or others similar to my position:

• Save up a whole lotta money unless you don't have a lot of debt 
• Make sure you have supportive people around you that you can rely on
• Learn to live within your means (and try to avoid using credit cards or else your bills will skyrocket...)

Despite having graduated, and receiving a position at the start-up, the pay is still severely lacking.

If someone asks me whether I would change my mind if I could do it over again, I would still stand my idea of taking the harder path.  Without taking that step, I wouldn't have learned as much as I did. I wouldn't have learned to appreciate family as much as I have.  I wouldn't have learned the value of money.

And I certainly wouldn't have known the vast difference between what you learn in school and what you learn in the real world.  I knew that what we had learned in class wouldn't be quite as applicable when utilizing it in a job setting.

However, when you actually come across that situation it's very humbling. 

Just recently, in my job, my boss had a "pop quiz" for me. He wants me to start learning ERDs (Entity-relationship Diagrams).  I had to tell him that I haven't learned much from my class (if you had the teacher that I did... you would certainly know why).  In the 30 minute he gave me, I was a wreck. The course I took didn't really apply ERDs in a situation where we could utilize this in the real world - outside of a classroom setting. Everything was by the book. 


There I was, in front of a computer, trying to learn how to use the mySQL Workbench's EER.  I had gotten as far as making tables... and then got stopped because I couldn't figure out why the many-to-many relationship wasn't working like it should. 

So here's another advice:  get an internship / entry-level position as early as you can in your college career. 

This way, you can really get a leg up on the competition.  No matter how minor you think you are learning, at least you're learning something that could be useful to you. 

I was thinking about laptops today - not that I intend to purchase one, of course.  However, I sometimes have those feelings to look at them, and see what the current specs are and if it is something you would buy (some day).  Of course, by then, there are new, better ones. 

However, I have noticed that the definition of a "good laptop" means different things to different people. So I just wanted to write this blog, about laptops in general, and what I look for before labeling it as a "good laptop".

As a college student, I look at the weight of a laptop - I don't want to carry around a heavy piece of machinery around campus.  No way, no how.  I'd rather it be fairly lightweight - portable.  That's why it's a laptop, right?

Next, check out the CPU (central processing unit) - the higher the GHz, the better.  At the moment, something that would be nice to have is a 2.6GHz but, in general, a 2.0GHz is alright (though you may find yourself growing annoyed with how slow your computer is running). 

Now why check out the CPU for its GHz?  It's because that particular specification is centered around running multiple programs at once (all those word documents, pdfs, videos, etc).  The higher the GHz, the more it can run and the more efficient it does it.

Another is the RAM - same as the CPU, the bigger the amount, the better.  Don't settle for less than 2GB!  And like the CPU, it's about how fast and efficient your laptop can run those programs you have opened up.

All the other specs are more or less standard - graphics.  If you're not a gamer, or have any intention of using your laptop to run games, then you don't have to worry about it too much.  Whatever comes with your laptop. should be sufficient enough in loading any video you may place in there.  For those that are curious though, then what you want to look at it is at video cards like NVIDIA GeForce 8000 series or ATI Mobility Radeon. 

Battery life - pretty standard.  The longer it lasts, the better.  If you don't mind carrying around the battery, then by all means, don't worry too much about it.  

I don't really place a great deal of effort on this one, since I don't use it up all that much anyway, but the harddrive space is something to look into.  For me, I just get a standard 256GB harddrive but there are others that want more.  Hard Drives is just something that stores your documents, music, videos, etc.  One important aspect - aside from how much it can hold - is the speed of the hard drive.  Because it's what reads the data you store in it.  An adequate speed is generally more than 4200rpm. 
At the moment solid state drives for your hard drive are good purchases for a laptop spec - it means faster start-ups and access, more reliable, and no noise. Just make sure you get a decent sized one (again 256).  I have heard, however, that they tend to wear out faster, but that was awhile back - perhaps they are more durable this time around?

So to get down on it: I mainly just look at the weight, the RAM and the CPU with the others as an afterthought.

San Francisco's AT&T Ballarpk is situated at  24 Willie Mays Plaza San Fracisco, CA. 

There are a number of ways to get there, but the best way would have to by by commuter train.  Why?  Because it's cheaper.  Parking is atrocious and trying to get in and out is a hassle.  Much better to just take Bart and switch to the M-train or any other Muni trains that lead to AT&T Park. 

Now what's there to do there?  Well during baseball season ... there's baseball. 

Aside from that there are smaller events like a county fair, emerald bowl, and even concerts. 

Within the ballpark they have family attractions such as the Coca Cola Fan Lot where fans are able to run around the bases. They also have a superslide shaped in a coca cola bottle. 

There's a little park for small children to have fun and experience softball thrown by either a pitcher or a pitching machine.

For those a little older, there's a speed pitch where you can test your arm.  But it costs money.  $2 for four pitches, $5 for accuracy.

Inside the park there's a Build-a-Bear Workshop.  They feature Lou Seal, but if you're not interested in that, they have other options for you, or you can just stop by and check out the products.  It's always interesting to visit and see what they have there.


Now what else?  Oh yes, the food.

I have to say that if you are visiting the ballpark, you should bring a lot of money and a credit card.  What would be better is if you bring outside food. It's really overpriced.

If you are going to eat there, then here are my suggestions:

• Avoid the beer - they're priced at $5.75 for a 12-4oz (really tiny) and $9 for a 16/20oz.  
• Avoid the water unless it can't be helped, they're priced at about $4.75 for a Dasani.
• Nachos sold at the Doggie Diners are pretty small and overpriced that comes with regular corn chips and standard nacho cheese (with jalapenos if you want to get them).  Slightly bigger ones come with slightly more corn chips but same sized nacho cheese and the addition is the salsa.  It's not even the fresh kind either, they come from bottled ones . So I'd avoid that or try to see if the the Compadres (a better vendor for Mexican food) is still there. But last time I checked, people were telling me that they left and aren't going to come by anymore.  
• Pretzels are so-so, but they only come as "salt or no salt" with no other alternatives.  Cheese with it come with nacho cheese and charge you $1 extra for a small cup.  They're priced at about $4-5.
• Candy is now available at the ballpark but the prices are around $4-5 for big box, but the inside is a rip-off.  You're better off with larger movie theater, at least it reflects the amount...
• If you are getting a drink, beware that the place does not provide a cover and straw (they have never provided such a service).  So make sure you can carry the drink around without spilling it, or you'll regret it.  Nice ones I would suggest getting are the souvenir sizes - it's large and are priced around $6 but they're like 32oz or more.  Once you're done drinking it, you should try getting it signed by a player or something.
• Food I suggest to get?  Garlic fries or dogs from the portable stands.  Dogs from the portable stands sell mostly sheboygan dogs or some such - they come longer and more seasoned than the ones sold within stands such as Doggie Diners or Say Hey! 
• Popcorn is iffy, and they do not provide kettle corn, just butter and salt.  With no option of more butter and salt. 
• There are burgers and pizza sold.  The pizza is okay, and comes in a personal pan so it's good for sharing if you can't finish it off.  Burgers are sold at the Pizza Port I believe and they have a vegetarian option for them.  
• Another thing to note there are condiment stands situated a few feet away from the food stands, so you can put your own condiments on them.  I noticed that a lot of people would either automatically say what they want on their hot dogs/burgers... 

Anyways, I'll stop here.  

Interviews can be stressful - no wait, they are stressful.  It's selling yourself to an employer, hoping that they'll take interest and hire you. 

Even more scary is that even if you pass the FIRST interview, there will be 2-3 more interviews after that.  There are various kinds of interviews that you could be facing.

Before an interview, do not arrive more than 20 minutes early as it can set the mood off.
Interview Types:

• Personal and Informal - One on one in an informal setting like a restaurant or just the work-site.  Usually a more much relaxed atmosphere. Business casual or casual clothing.
• Personal and Formal - One on one but in a monitored setting and a time frame.Professional attire is mandatory.
• Progressive Interview - Long interview process where you may be interviewed by more than one.  HR, Manager, Department Head, etc.  Each will be asking questions about yourself and your capabilities in performing your job, etc. Beware they may end up asking you repeated questions that have already been covered.
• Group Interview - Intimidating atmosphere, where you meet with a group of more than 3 people in a board-room setting.

Advice:

• Stay calm and focused - try to work off the nervous energy before arriving for your interview by taking a calming walk around outside, listen to soothing music, etc that can put you in a good mood
• Firm handshakes are great, and look them in the eye with confidence 
• During a personal and informal interview - try to engage a personable atmosphere with your interviewer
• Standardized questions like "What's your greatest weakness" will be asked.
• Try to form a connection with the person who interviews you by telling more about yourself that may appeal to them and make them want to hire you
• In a group setting, try to look at everyone in the eye and not just focus on one person - remember that you're being interviewed by a group and not just one person. 

Aside from that, here are 5 Ways to Turn off Employers.

• Arriving too early for an interivew
• Letting Desperation Show
• Being too Aggressive with Follow-Up
• Talking Crash with Anyone
• Lacking Direction

I received this on the email.  For those that are either just curious, or are thinking of prospective degrees to work on while in college.

Top-Paying Degrees

• MBA (Masters in Business Administration)  
• MHA (Masters in Health Administration)
• BFA (Bachelors in Fine Arts)
• BA in Elementary/Secondary Education
• AA in Financial Services

What you may or may not know:

• It's good to come to campus a little bit earlier if it's your first time - getting lost before you get to your class just shows poor preparation
• You should carry around some extra scantrons and a blue book or two with you, in case you forget it's exam day.  Or if a friend may need one - always good to lend a helping hand
• If time allows, you should join a club or two just to fill in that resume and meet new people while you're at it!
• Get into an internship as soon as possible - may pay off in the future
• If not an internship, try to get a job. Any experience is good experience
• Always bring your student ID in case your Professor asks for it, and some campus libraries will require you to fork it over before you can borrow their computers
• Take advantage of your campus' Career Center. 
• Companies call colleges all the time so they can put in a request for interns or part-time positions, even the occasional full-time
• Career Centers offer services on how to prep you for interview and look over your resume

• Career Fairs are ideal, but most of the time they are targeted towards graduating seniors
• If you don't fall into that category - try to establish a relationship with the people at the booths that you are interested in.  They can give you valuable tips and a card to call for more information,  
• Aside from booths for internships or jobs - there are booths for volunteers that may take on below Seniors
• Bring resumes with you and dress in - at the very least - business casual clothing
• Research the companies attending the venue so you can tailor your resume to suit them
• To research, you can check out your campus' Career Center website where they should list all attending companies

•  Nowadays, a standard one-page resume may not be enough.  Though a good start, I have noticed that more companies are asking for CVs.  
• CV:  Curriculum Vitae
• Limited to two pages, instead of a one-page - though there are others that want more than that
• A more detailed synopsis of your background information
• For more information check out:  Writing Curriculum Vitae

• Don't immediately assume that when you go to college, you're in for a more laid back lifestyle
• depending on your major and the classes you take, the coursework you are lumped with gets more difficult
• Freshmen year is pretty standard but over the years the workload becomes more challenging
• When buying college textbooks, don't limit yourself to the campus' bookstore
• Look online for cheaper deals - Amazon and Half.com are always an option
• Look into ebook if available - but beware, your Professor may not like it, especially if they plan to allow you an open book test
• Group work is not always fun and games 
• Sometimes it can be more trouble than its worth
• Online classes are not always the best
• Even though it is much more convenient, sometimes the response time between a Professor and a student is not that great

There are more that I wanted to list out, but I'll stop here.

The times I have been missing has not been too impressive. I haven't done anything completely worthwhile - I am still attending college and I am still working.

There have been a few things I have learned:

• Group work in college is challenging if you are with a 'bad' group
• Business majors is not an easy ride as I had first assumed
• Trying to find a job is challenging
• When you do find a job, it's not as glorious as you would think
• Co-workers can be amusing as they are annoying :/
• Co-workers can be great assets, but only if you have developed a good connection with them
• Student life is not at all like it is in the movies - most times you don't even know what day it is
• Never forsake the chance to build network relations

     

Jonathan Schwartz's Weblo...
Boycott Novell » Speculat...

Here are two related articles that I came across at digg.com. It's probably not new, it's been awhile, but - oh well.

The first one is from Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog about litigation. It would appear, and according to the other weblog - Pamela Jones - that it is a comment about Microsoft litigation. Sun is making a stand that the open source community, Linux users, is the way to go. With the litigations occurring from MS, they are playing a dangerous field by threatening the customers. The most likely - and obvious - way is that they can, and will leave you.

It was also implied, according to Pamela Jones' little insight, that it appears that based on Mr. Schwartz's words that Microsoft had pressured them to sue Open Source/ Linux users. A mistake since they were turned down. This appears to a mistake that MS often has done over the years - and one they have not learned from. Like when they tried to get Minix to sue Linus/Linux for the name, or the fight against Google not too long ago.

Besides nothing yet has occurred from the allegations that MS has placed on Linux users. If MS was serious about suing them, they would have already done so by taking the Open-Source users to court.

Personally, I think they're just using this as a scheme or way of dealing with the fact that they have not sold that much for their Windows Vista. And although I have recently purchased a laptop that has Vista in it... I've installed Ubuntu in it, because I was not that happy with Vista - takes up too much memory, slows down after awhile, and still not compatible with a lot of applications.

Dell's Linux

I was recently informed that Michael Dell actually used VMWare Workstation, and he uses it to run Ubuntu. VMWare Workstation is pretty much used to run OS systems, really useful if you don’t have a burner handy.

After roaming around digg.com, I came across this article and find that Dell, Inc. is considering from a list of choices on what to install in their Dell computers and then releasing them to the public. I wouldn't mind whichever Linux OS they use, but I am curious about Novell/SUSE, openSUSE, and RedHat. Fedora I have learned a fair bit from other people, and Ubuntu I have used a few times.

I have not used a Dell before but I have no doubts that future buyers will find it interesting. These days there are more people converting to Linux and I really don’t see the numbers dwindling anytime soon – especially with the prices rising for Windows Vista. Compared between an overpriced OS and freeware, there’s no doubt that people will be more willing to accept it. I am amazed by how popular Linux has become, and I hope that Dell will be successful in this new venture.

Music

This small article was amusing. You can play it smart by keeping your share smaller than 1,000 songs. However, it is surprising that people have over 1,000 songs in their shares. It makes me wonder just what songs that they have, and if they know every one of their songs - for all you know, you may a copy of that song already in your share and just forgot about it. As for the computer alerting you whether or not you want it overwritten - there are ways to bypass that and still have the copy of that song in your drive - the part about the song having a 1-2 second difference in the illegal copy (like the song being 3:41 and then the next copy being 3:39).

Now what makes people want to do the whole illegal download, thing? Well, there is the obvious part about it – price. No one really wants to take money out of their pockets or bank accounts just to buy the CD.

Another part is accessibility and convenience. Picking and choosing what songs you want in your CD/computer/iPod. With the CDs, you may like one or three particular songs in there, but the rest is just crap to your ears. When you download, you can pick and choose what songs you want, and which ones you do not want – just click on the song, and there you go! Furthermore, the song is right there in the internet, why go all the way to the store when you can download it?

Aside from CDs, people can also download software and movies. There are some who download games, but I don’t know much about how that exactly works – as far as I know, there is this mod-chip that you can now buy for your DS that allows you to download whatever game you want and play it. Now for the software and movies, the same can be said for the CD reasoning – price, convenience, and accessibility. The prices for products like Microsoft and Macromedia are expensive, so you can see why people would rather download the over $100 software. Yes, you could buy freeware instead, but people are fixed into the belief that they would rather have these products. And for movies, they are mostly available on the internet weeks before they are released to the public. The quality is very different from the real-deal, but most people don’t care.

Poor Russian teacher...

It is sad and sort of irritating. The school teacher is prosecuted for using illegal software, and chances are he did not know it was illegal! Even if he did know about his wrongdoing, you cannot really blame him. He lives in a rural town, 1,000 miles away from Moscow. A poor community, therefore they probably had slow computers - at best. And sure, you can say why did they not just use OpenSource programs like Linux for their OS and OpenOffice as a substitute for Microsoft Word and Excel? Well, if even students at State did not know that these programs were available, can you blame a rural community? They are miles away from another city/town, and they are probably hard-pressed enough if they could even afford an internet connection to download these programs.

Well, now that this occurred, there is one good thing to come out of this event - people will surely know that this town exists and there will be sympathizers coming to their town and offering them donations. Publicity can be helpful.

CAPTCHAs

This short article is amusing. As we know, site administrators use CAPTCHAs to prevent automated scripts from performing certain functions. What this article is about, is more tuned into preventing certain people from doing things - such as logging onto the internet.

It's more rooted into entertainment than anything else. Honestly, I doubt people would take kindly to this proposal of preventing people from participating on the world wide web. However, people should try it out - it's amusing to see what happens if you purposefully log the incorrect word into the sentence that the site provides. If you choose to the wrong word, it take you to another page that says that apologizes, but will not welcome you into the internet. And then suggests that you read certain books - the dictionary, English Grammar for Dummies, and How to Spell Like a Champ.

Ubuntu 7.04

I admit that I have yet to try Ubuntu in my laptop, and I have never once thought about trying to put it in my Desktop – I hardly use it anyway, so why bother? However, I have been tempted all year staring early January to try and switch to Linux. The main reason for wanting to try Linux is because my brother and his friends often discuss Linux.

Linux is an OpenSource, from what I have gathered since discovering about this OS, and it is generally free aside from those that actually charge you to use their system. The free ones that I do know about is Ubuntu, but the person who wrote the article prefers Kubuntu – I’m not sure what the general difference is between the two, because I do not know anything about KDE. I have tried to install Ubuntu only once and that was a few weeks ago to my laptop. Unfortunately it did not bode well, because my laptop’s disk drive is not operating up to par. Since then I have not tried Ubuntu, but I should at some point because of my curiosity.

Now then, the article discusses the new version of Ubuntu and the writer merely discusses the new changes that it brings – mainly the appearance of the OS and being able to migrate from your old OS to the theirs along with a newly designed help center for new Ubuntu users (something I should check out if and when I finally install it, hopefully by then I have gotten my laptop’s CD/DVD drive fixed).

For those that do enjoy Linux, you may want to check it out. But overall there’s no need to. Linux is all well and good, but there’s no hurry to get the system because Linux constantly improves their system every so often. A new one should be coming around sometime soon.

Internet problems...

Apparently, Comcast is having difficulty in managing its internet service if they are going around calling their customers and warning them about overusing their internet. It is understandable, but being a business should not give them the freedom in dealing with it in such a horrible way. Just calling them once or twice and warning them off, then unexpectedly cutting off their internet without telling their customer on what day their internet will be cut off. It is a bit rude and unprofessional.

Moreover, the part about the customers calling customer service and the representative not even knowing what is going on is absurd! That is what I call horrible service. The company should have given a notice to them, and now the result is having customers unexpectedly having their internet cut off for a whole year. Comcast could have stated a limit, which they did not do, instead of losing more customers to other companies who are willing to host them.

It is a good thing that I am not under Comcast or this could have happened to me. Then again, I hardly download any content that is larger than 1GB, but I cannot say the same for my brother. Movies, TV shows, and music are constantly exchanged over the internet these days and there is no sign of it stopping anytime soon. If we were under Comcast, I am sure we would have been within that group of people that suddenly lost their connection.

If Comcast is doing this, I’m sure that Yahoo! DSL would be more than willing to take their customers – even though their high-speed internet is not as fast.

Universal Default Clause...

The Universal Default Clause is clearly something to worry about if you have trouble paying your bills. I don’t think I knew about it until recently when my mother paid for one of her credit bills late. The interest rate was absurdly high when the next bill rolled around, and when she called the credit card company they told her about the clause. Ever since then, she has been reading all the fine prints before applying to any credit card company. It is always a safe bet to read any contracts before signing for anything, even if it appears inconsequential.

What I did not know about in this Universal Default Clause is having a trigger for “having too much debt” and applying for a car loan or a mortgage loan. That is really horrible for people who are having difficulty paying for their bills. There are factors to consider about why they would even do such a thing – like the fact that they currently don’t have the finance availability due to a loss of a job, or something serious as that.

Analytics

Google Analytics is ideal for business owners and webmasters. Of course, people who simply partake in websites like blogs could benefit in it, but it’s not entirely profitable. It’s helpful for tracing just what, exactly, visitors like about the website based on what they are looking for – colored photographs versus black/white – and in which state/country the visitor comes from as well as which pages they most often look at. It is always useful to know what your customers/visitors enjoy most out of your website so you can focus more on that aspect of your website.

After seeing the site, and knowing about this offer from Google, I feel like I wish that I had it beforehand when I was actually more into website making than anything else. It would have been useful back then so I know what visitors focus on when I was making the website, but I have long since given up on that hobby. Still, I could always just use Google Analytics in the current blog we’re doing or anywhere else I feel like. So far I simply placed one into blogspot.com.

Gmail As a Personal Nerve Center

I came across this at dig.com while scanning for possible blogging material. This was quite an article and I have been thinking along the lines as the writer. Making Gmail as the hotspot of your internet use that can range from a simple e-mail tool to a news update, blogging tool, Calendar, etc has been something that could always be a possibility but I have never delved into the thought until now. Gmail has so much potential aside from being an IM and e-mail tool with all that storage space that it can surely handle.

One of the possible outcomes that caught my interest was the Calendar, blogging and the real-time news update. He also mentioned something that I haven’t known before – Twitter. Looking at the site, it seems lively but the main reason for twitter is for consecutive updates to post on the main page of what people are currently doing right at that moment. I am positive, however, that there are other uses for Twitter as he says – he mentions that he uses it from time to time to check if anyone updates it for more informative uses such as current news.

Overall the innovative way that he uses his Gmail is what I find fascinating. I may actually try it out and, as such, I actually saved the article into my Google toolbar. It’s true that the new Google toolbar has a Gmail function that you can take advantage of. I’ve actually begun doing that as of this moment.

Hack Attack: Add music and movies...

The Hack Attack article is useful to some extent, but I found it lacking for some strange reason. Maybe it’s just me, maybe not – who knows?

Adam Pash’s article makes a few good points. iTunes is limiting with its “lock-in…to one music library” and there should be alternative methods that can be used so you don’t remain within that one, single music library.

Floola seems like an interesting alternative as is the Winamp iPod plugin that I have been hearing about. However, I doubt that I really will try it out – perhaps someday but so far I can’t be bothered to care. The interesting thing that I found about Floola is how you can add music from any computer and how you can manage your music. You can manage your music via iTunes, though it takes longer, but at least it can be done. Unfortunately, iTunes can’t add music from any computer – I found that out the hard way. Thank goodness I managed to fix that problem.

Everything else is only mildly interesting like how you can get a myPodder for downloaded podcasts and a Pod Player to play your music if you don’t have your iPod with you. It was nice enough to read, but nothing too exciting. I haven’t really use podcast via iTunes, although my boss frequently visits the site. I only visited the place once or twice but it was only amusing to watch the videos available to watch in there. As for Pod Player, I don’t see the need – I almost always have my iPod in hand so why would I need it? If I don’t, oh well.

Lastly, there is the CD to MP3s with CDex. I haven’t used it before; instead I chose to use Easy Ripper, another freeware that can also convert music CDs. There are other available softwares available, but I suppose the author simply mentioned one because it works for him.

What I found strange was how he mentions all these applications from all types yet he doesn’t mention one for videos, only music. With the current iPods available, it would be safe to assume that there are people with the video iPods. However, he hasn’t mentioned one and I wonder if it’s because he would be hesitant to suggest within the article.

Overall the article was informative and the suggestions welcome. But I have gotten used to iTunes, and I have found my own ways to make it work for me and my iPod. Floola and Pod Player sound interesting enough and may actually be better to use, but after months of using iTunes I have learned to live with it. Others, however, may find the article worth their while.

New Tiny MacBook

The new tiny MacBook is still in development but what is released so far is semi-interesting. The notebook is smaller, lighter, and I would think tougher in exterior to prevent most accidents – like spilling water, accidentally dropped, etc.

The ones familiar with the new MacBook mention the missing optical disc drive. This is something new and I am quite at a loss as to why. Are they planning something new, possibly revolutionary in placement for the missing disc drive? Or do they simply think that it is no longer needed? After all, more people are becoming increasingly aware of the flash drive and that is possibly what the ones in charge with the MacBook are going for.

It is mentioned that the new MacBook is expected to have an onboard NAND Flash. With this there is no longer needs for a USB interface and treats the flash memory as part of the system’s disk drive. Apparently this way you won’t have to go through all that trouble just to eject your flash drive from the system. Of course I was told by my brother that Ubuntu Linux works that way in their latest version, all you have to do is unplug your flash drive from the computer/laptop and your data is still safely stored into your USB device.

There will be some things that people will find odd like the fact that there isn’t an optical drive, but there are ways to get around that. With the new technologies available, there really isn’t a complete need for optical drives because of external hard drives, flash devices, and the internet. However, I am sure that people find something disconcerting about the new MacBook like the fact that without the optical drive, people will wonder just how exactly they can download their games – at least those unavailable for download online. The Mac is not the best system to use for gamers in general, because some gaming companies just don’t make it for their system.

I am not sure if Japan will be completely taken with the new MacBook, but at least it will be compact and holds something new for the consumers to enjoy.

The Pirate Bay, Featured in Vanity Fair

The article featuring the Pirate Bay is kind of interesting, but not as amusing as I thought it would be. It's interesting to note how they came into the business. To think that just because of a friend and some shows that were freely available via the internet, a mega-site as famous as the PirateBay came into existence.

It makes sense why I haven’t heard about Pirate Bay until just recently, seeing as they started off in 2003 and haven’t truly made any remarkable debut until 2004 – 2005. I think the only time I can remember where I have visited their site was not until… last year, in fact. Their site is now known to have one of the largest filesharers and users, their content filled to the brim with actual content that could be said to be a copyright infringement.

And it probably is true, at least most for most of them. As I recall, the files that they carry can be downloaded via bittorrent. Bittorrent is a peer to peer protocol that distributes large amounts of data (like music, games, movies, etc.). Though bittorrent is not new in the internet world, at least the program is now being well-used since suprnova.org has been closed as of December 2004. Moreover, what’s hilarious about the article and what is commonly known of the owners of Pirate Bay is their continuous run-in with the police.

I particularly enjoy what’s said in the link to Vanity Fair’s article. How the movie companies are finding it difficult to combat piracy, and then the mention of the electronic companies joining the piracy fleets. It made me come to the realization of how people manage to design the technology in order to play the files in their home computers.

These days file sharing is one of the most common things around – people all over the world are not only sharing music and movies, but TV shows as well. There is no need for packages, only an internet connection and something as handy as the bittorrents to get the latest files. I don’t believe there will be an end to this at all even if the police brings a site down, because another site will rise up.