Me and the Computer

Long time no post here. The reason for that is I did a little experiment. We'll right now I am a bit confused as ever. Or probably they just outworked me. But that can't be the case since someone I know who will not stop working ended up the same as this blog. The rules must have changed a bit. That is the only explanation I can see. This only means one thing. It's time to relearn. Now what am I talking about? Nothing. This is just me thinking out loud. Never mind. Now move along. :)

In a very surprising move, Disney just bought Marvel for $4 billion. The deal will take effect in 2013. As a fan of Marvel movies , what does this deal implies to us? Well, now instead of Stan Lee cameo appearances, we will no be looking for hidden Mickeys. lol. I wonder if you are familiar with that. If you watch the Disney channel there is a segment there where they make you watch a Disney movie like Mulan. And in those segments you are supposed to look for 3 circles arranged in an upside down triangle. Hence - hidden Mickeys! Hehe. Can you imagine Wolverine, Ironman, and the Incredible Hulk dancing with Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck at Disneyworld? I know, I know they are not going to do that. Won't They? *worried expression* Hahaha. I can't stop laughing. One thing I am looking forward though - is Pixar and Marvel working together to create a CG Movie! *Whistles*

Doing business has changed a lot since the advent of the Internet. For example, it used to be that you could hire a company to create a hype behind your brand, product, or service. But this is not true anymore. You can no longer dictate to the consumers how they will view what you offer. Because if one customer is not satisfied, he is going to blog about it and a lot of people will know. Another thing is that, we don't sell to a single neighborhood anymore. My store may be located in Manila. But that doesn't mean that I can't sell to someone located in Los Angeles, London, or Vancouver. Likewise we should keep in mind that our competition isn't also limited to local stores anymore. So how does one succeed in a world that offers so much opportunities and yet is also more competitive? Here are the most important books I believe could point the way to help us succeed in this 21st century. 1. The Long Tail:Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More - by Ch...

Last night I was looking at DP trying to learn something new. And then this guy posted a screenshot of a blogger who earned so and so cash from a few blogs that's just 9 days old! Of course on this day and age images can be easily manipulated. And a lot of marketers have used this technique to get attention. And many people have been fooled with this technique. (MLM people are notorious with this. They will tell you that they make so and so and they show you the things they bought and the amount of checks they made. Then they make you buy into their system. And before you know it you are working your butt of trying to make money - the thing that you were trying to avoid in the first place that is why you joined MLM. But you are so happy working for them because you have been hypnotized already. Until you get tired, burned out, and quit while never making anything sustainable. Or the MLM company folds because they could no longer recruit newbies who would support the uplines. If ...

We all want a better and more prosperous life, especially, for our family. We all want to do good to improve our society. But sadly there are people who make a living by exploiting our good intentions. Take time to read a post by my friend Danny, regarding his personal experience with these kind of people. You can read it at part 1: http://dannybuntu.blogspot.com/2009/06/day-1037-how-to-make-300000-php-month.html . part 1b: http://dannybuntu.blogspot.com/2009/06/day-1037b-update-i-got-email-today.html part 2: http://dannybuntu.blogspot.com/2009/06/day-1037c-part-ii-how-not-to-invest-in.html part 3: http://dannybuntu.blogspot.com/2009/06/day-1038-summation-how-to-get-venture.html

Today I planned on writing about another disruptive technology. But I could not bring myself to do it. Disturbing pictures from Iran keeps running to my mind. Especially about this girl who hemorrhaged in front of a cellphone camera. (You can search for "Neda Iran" Youtube to find out about her. Be warned though that it's a very disturbing video not fit to be seen by everyone). I'm thinking, here we are, our only problem is thinking about the latest gadget to buy or trying to figure out how to work a software. While in another part of the world people are fighting for change against a long standing regime and dying in the name of freedom. And they are asking for us to help them, specifically the UN. But is the world going to move to their aid? Ironically, in my country meanwhile, some congressman are making the move to suppress freedom and remain in power for as long as they desire. To my countrymen, let the pictures from Iran remind us how bad it will be for...

Before cellphones had SMS there was the pager . It is a simple communication device usually clipped to a belt. The way it functions is that you call a Paging company and then they will send the message to the pager. When the message arrives it would either beep or vibrate just like the cellphone.  The pager was the object of constant butt of jokes back in the days. Sometimes you send a message to someone and it would arrive misspelled or in a bad grammar. And sometimes the operators sends the wrong message to the wrong person. There is this joke about a messenger sending a congratulatory message to a person who's relative have just died. And meanwhile, also sending a condolence message to a couple who have just been married. The paging companies were just like that.  One paging company I remember is Pocketbell. And then back in those days it was a standard for folks to have both a cellphone and a pager. But when cellphone companies began to offer SMS, the paging i...

In our lives, we occasionally witness technologies coming along that kills existing industries and give birth to new ones.  I remember that before there were computers there was the typewriter. One typewriter company that I can recall is Olivetti. But of course there were many others. The typewriter required considerable effort. You really have to push the keys very hard so that the keybars would strike the ribbon properly and the ink would transfer to the paper. And then every time you press a key the carriage would move. So that when it reaches the end you have to reach out and swing it all the way back.  There was an industry built around correcting typing mistakes - the Liquid Paper. It is a white fluid that you apply to your typing error. You wait for it to dry out and then you retype on the letter that you have just erased. And of course another industry that relies on the typewriter is the ribbon industry. It is the part of the typewriter that holds the ink. ...

We used to buy newspaper everyday. It was a good source of news, infact, it was the only source of written news back in the days. When I was in highschool, we bought newspapers so that I could improve my English vocabulary. And then later on after that, when I entered the professional world, we bought it for the classified ads so that I could find jobs. But today, printed news is dying. There isn’t a week when you don’t hear newspaper companies closing or doing measure to cut cost. What changed? More and more people are turning to the internet for their news. In the internet, you can not only read about events but you can also see or listen to them in a form of video or audio. More over, printed news is slow news. When it reaches you, the articles it contains are already several hours old. While with the internet, you can read about an incident instantaneously or just a few minutes after it happened. Lastly, with regards to classified ads, we now have Ebay, Craigslist, and s...

There are Swine Flus, Bird's Flu, Mad Cow, Foot and Mouth Disease, and Red Tide. So what do we eat now?

Cloud Computing is a novel idea. You take a companies back office software (like accounting, purchasing, sales, human resource, etc. ), host it to a third party, and let them take care of its maintenance. This has two advantages: 1. The software is kept in one location so it will be easier to maintain it. 2. Companies can concentrate on their core business and let the professionals handle the technology side. However there are also things going against it. Like Denial of Service Attack . You won't have access to your software which is hosted outside of your company if the hosting company suffers a Denial of Service Attack . If you read my earlier post before this one, you will see that recent victims are reputable technology companies. Another thing is that, there will always be companies who will not be willing to share their data. Especially, if these information are vital to their competitive advantage. These are the challenges that will prevent Cloud computing...

Have you ever logged on to the Internet looking for something? And while you were doing your research you realized you can open another tab in your browser to check the latest news. And while you are at it you open another tab listen to a music stream. And then you open another tab to play a massively multiplier online game. And then while you were doing all those things you decide to open another tab so that you can watch video streams. Ah, the convenience of having endless websites to visit, a very fast internet connection, and a user friendly internet browser. But as you get used to these perks, do you ever feel that it’s getting harder to focus? I have read that Attention Deficit Disorder begins from childhood and continues throughout a person’s adult life. But is there a case when an adult never had this problem but gains it because of his lifestyle and activities? Or does it lie dormant or perhaps subdued, but somehow the endless choice presented by technology aggravates ...