Blogging is all about passion! If a person feels strongly about something, blogging is a great outlet to express his interests. Blogging is a way to get noticed by others with similar interests that you may never meet without the blog. Blogging helps us to learn more than we ever knew on a subject and could potentially make us an expert.

I began a blog this semester and I plan to continue to blog, although I may change my topic to a more career-oriented one. I feel that it is important to continue to blog for career reasons as well as personal ones. Blogging may someday help me to land a job. Bloggers have an advantage because they can rant and rave about anything that they feel passionately about and others will listen. Other bloggers with similar interests will come together and contribute towards the same goal. Blogging is a great way to increase your knowledge and teach others what you know on a particular subject matter. Bloggers can choose a very narrow subject or a broad one. Many times, bloggers are very knowledgeable about their subjects because they are infatuated with what they are blogging. Blogger, Paul Bausch said, “Professional reporters are good at putting things in context, but they don’t have the depth of knowledge in specific areas that the people they’re covering (and often their readers) do. The weblog format provides the structure for people to write about their daily lives–and journalists could look to this as a source of expert knowledge.” (http://www.justagwailo.com/filter/2003/10/01/blogging)

After I graduate college, I plan to become a Pharmaceutical Representative. Blogging may help me to get a job, or it might just increase my knowledge in the field. Whatever it may do, blogging can only be beneficial to my career path. Others who are knowledgeable in the field are likely to contribute to the blog, therefore increasing my understanding. A quote from http://www.justagwailo.com/filter/2003/10/01/blogging said, “Weblogs provide multiple coherent “views” on a distributed discussion simply because each author tries to make his weblog meaningful. This provides a reader with choice of “entry points”: I can always select weblogs fitting my level of understanding and preferred reading style and use them as “lenses” to grasp what’s going on.”

I plan to create a blog on the ins and outs of the Pharmaceutical industry. Compiling a stock of information on the industry will help me as I get ready to find a job and allow me to converse with others who are knowledgeable in the field. Blogging will help me to get some factual information as well as the personal experiences of others in the industry. I am looking forward to beginning this blog because it is going to enrich my understanding and make me more appealing to those who might hire me in the future. Doing the blog will show that I have the determination, knowledge, and most importantly, the passion for my future career.

Blogging is a great way to follow a passion and get opinions and ideas out in the open. Who knows, maybe the right person will read my blog and give me the job that I have always dreamed of.

Major cell phone lobbyists have launched a campaign opposing a proposed law for Oregon municipalities to collect a 5 percent cell phone tax.

Late last week, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association sent letters to major Oregon lawmakers urging they defeat the tax. The proposed tax had been introduced earlier this year.

The tax on Oregon residents would increase a typical cell phone bill by about $2.50 a month. Wireless operators would keep a small percentage, about 3 percent of the overall pool of money, to pay for the costs of collecting the tax.

Dang, what are they going to tax next?

For the first time since 1963, Billboard has made some big changes of its own. The weekly magazine has undergone a redesign, with a less cluttered cover and expanded coverage of topics like marketing and unsigned bands.

Billboard, published by the VNU Business Media division of VNU, wanted to adapt to the times. Forty years ago, music moguls had no inkling that songs would be bought online or used as cellphone ring tones, or that new bands could get a big break in television commercials.

“We see a lot of opportunity in this industry, which for the last several years was an industry in distress,” said John Kilcullen, president and publisher at the magazine. “Billboard should take a leadership position to showcase the innovators.”

Mr. Kilcullen said he expected the eye-catching covers to help newsstand sales. And though subscription sales are most prized, any increase would be welcome. Billboard’s average circulation declined to 20,559 at the end of last year, from 25,945 at the end of 2002, according to its filings with the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

It’s good that they’re finally changing their layout and design. Times are changing and they should too–especially if they want to attract more people.

Google has created a new feature that enables the users of its online search engine to see all of their past search requests and results.

Activating Google’s “My Search History” service, unveiled Wednesday afternoon at http://labs.google.com, requires users to create a personal login with a password. Users of Google’s e-mail, discussion groups and answer services can simply use their existing log-ins.

The service allows users to decide if they want Google to automatically recognize them without having to log in each time they use the same computer. Those who prefer to log in on each visit can use a link that will appear in the right-hand corner of Google’s home page.

Whenever a user is logged in, Google will provide a detailed look at all their past search activity. The service also includes a “pause” feature that prevents it from being displayed in the index.

Users will be able to pinpoint a search conducted on a particular day, using a calendar that’s displayed on the history page. The service sometimes will point out a past search result related to a new search request.

I think this will be a good feature. It might even save time because you will be able to recell past searches.

With all of the newer, lighter, and smaller technology, visually-impaired and blind people have started to struggle.

Jay Leventhal, who is blind, still fumbles with the tiny controls on his iPod but has given up on the kiosk in his New York office building that lists all the tenants.

For Leventhal, even laundry has become a task requiring the help of a sighted person. The washers he uses now take smart cards instead of quarters, issuing instructions on a digital screen that he can’t read.

“The biggest barrier for blind people is access to information, and more and more information is being made available through different machines that aren’t designed for people who can’t see,” says Leventhal, editor in chief of AccessWorld: Technology and People with Visual Impairments.

Blind people need a way to communicate with the machines that surround them, he says, from automated tellers to ticketing machines at train stations and airports.

Randomhouse has purchased a share from a cell phone provider. They want to provide book access through cellular phones. They have already announced that they will provide a foriegn language study book that can be accessed by cell phones.

Random House, the country’s leading trade book publisher, announced Thursday that it had purchased a “significant minority stake” in VOCEL, a San Diego-based company that describes itself as a provider of “premium-branded applications for mobile phones.”

Random House also announced that it has reached licensing arrangements with VOCEL to provide cell phone access to the publisher’s Living Language foreign-language study programs and Prima Games video game strategy guides.

“You have a whole generation of consumers, perhaps more than a generation, who are never more than 10 feet from their cell phones, including when they shower,” said Richard Sarnoff, president of Random House Ventures, an investment subsidiary of Random House, Inc. “Increasingly, cell phones are becoming an appliance for entertainment and education.”

Cell phone texts have already caught on in Germany, South Korea (news - web sites) and Japan, where a cell-novel became so popular that it was turned into a feature film, “Deep Love.” But don’t expect the next Tom Clancy thriller to pop up on your phone. In the United States, Sarnoff said that phones, like e-books, are currently better suited for information than for narrative.

“The screens are inappropriate for that kind of sustained reading,” he said. “That’s a `maybe, someday’ discussion. We’ll keep an eye on that area, and if something happens … we’ll certainly respond.”

The authorities are investigating two bogus e-mails targeted at families of soldiers killed in Iraq. The e-mails claim to have ties with the US Homeland Security.

The scams “are among the worst we have ever encountered,” Michael J. Garcia, director of the department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau, said Friday.

Both of the online pleas for help — and money — link themselves to the bureau.

In one scheme, e-mail sent to families of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq include a link to the bureau’s Web site. The e-mail seeks to recover money from a friend of the slain soldier.

In the other, the e-mail identifies itself as being sent by a federal agent trying to track down funds looted from the Iraqi Central Bank by Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)’s son. The e-mail also links to the bureau Web site and asks for confirmation of the recipient’s address by urging, “There is a very important and confidential matter which I want us both to discuss.”

Garcia called both e-mail campaigns “bogus” and urged people to ignore and delete them.

There are some new toys out there with a lot of knowledge. These toys know the name, favorite food, and other personal information about the child. A small microchip allows the toy to store the information. Parents can use a CD-ROM or a cable connection to download any information that they want the toy to store.

These electronic toys, which make a child’s play more interactive and personal, are among the products manufacturers are betting on to help them reclaim sales lost since 2003 to grown-up gadgets like iPod music players.

“Kids tend to remember experiences that are personalized,” said Reyne Rice, a toy trend specialist for the Toy Industry Association, the industry trade group.

While these high-tech offerings account for only a small number of the products being unveiled at this year’s industry expo, the American International Toy Fair, which officially begins Sunday, they represent the “wow factor” — the kind of product that draws parents into stores, said Chris Byrne, a New York-based independent toy consultant.

All kinds of toys are going high-tech — industry analysts estimate that at least 75 percent of toys debuting this year will have a microchip. Jim Silver, publisher of the Toy Book, a New York-based industry magazine, now calls the toy business “the family entertainment business.”

“The lines have blurred between toys and electronics,” he said

A University of Miami sophomore, along with two friend set up an online aution to sell books. He claims that his service is cheaper than some of the more popular ones. Some students say that they would rather buy and sell with this new web site.

Zia plans to post his books on College Junktion, an online auction designed by college students, for college students, that opened for business Friday. Registration to the Web site — www.collegejunktion.com — requires a valid “.edu” e-mail address. Such addresses are reserved for people connected with schools.

President, CEO and University of Miami sophomore Jason Baptiste developed College Junktion with two friends living on the same dormitory hall.

The idea grew from a bulletin board Baptiste passed while going for a cup of coffee on campus. “There was this board with hundreds of flyers of stuff for sale — a car here, a textbook there, this TV. The only way to get exposure was this board,” he said. “I thought, ‘What could I do to make this easier? Why not create a service to buy, sell and trade them on the Internet?’”

It’s no longer a unique idea, with online giants Amazon’s and eBay’s massive auctions and the regional classifieds on craigslist. But Baptiste, 19, from Norwood, N.J., plans to combine auctions with networking features found on Friendster or thefacebook, which link users by common interests or acquaintances.

Within the next few months, Baptiste said, photo sharing, calendars, blogs and user groups will be added to the site. Eventually, the friends-of-friends listed in a seller’s network could become a potential pool of buyers he can contact directly.

The internet and the elderly, two words that usually don’t mix, but a new company is trying to bring the two together. “CyberSeniors”, a new computer training program is getting the elderly up to date on technology.

Charles Huntoon, 84, leaned back in the overstuffed couch of a Free Street cyber cafe and laughed when he was asked whether he ever got frustrated trying to teach himself about computers.

“I don’t know if frustrated is the right word,” Huntoon said. “There were plenty of times I’d have liked to throw it out the window, though.”

Bafflement with what Huntoon calls “this box” remains a problem for many older people, denying them access to the health information, social connectedness and creative opportunities offered by computers and the Internet.

But Huntoon and thousands of other elderly Mainers are solving the riddle of the box with the help of CyberSeniors, a Portland-based computer training program for older people.

In recent months, the organization has opened its Free Street cafe and expanded into Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Today it will announce a $250,000 grant from Microsoft to open 32 health-care training centers across Maine for the instruction of senior citizens and doctors.

All these initiatives strive to integrate older people with an increasingly wired community.

The cafe offers instruction as basic as clicking a mouse, and as advanced as evaluating the worth of information on the Internet. It also offers seniors a chance to mingle with more-experienced older people and with younger computer users who are checking e-mail, writing reports or scanning pictures.

The health-care centers will enable doctors and patients to learn how computers can help older people become better-educated health consumers.

“This is all about real community as well as virtual community,” said Elizabeth Isele, founder and president of CyberSeniors. “We’re not teaching people this to further isolate seniors.”

Authorities are trying to find the anonymous contributor to a web page. “MD4BUSH”, the anonymous contributer has aided in spreading rumors about Mayor Martin O’Malley. The rumors are about his personal life. Two Sun reporters have been questioned in their involvement.

Jervis S. Finney, chief counsel to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., has begun questioning members of the media - including two Sun reporters - about “MD4BUSH,” an anonymous contributor to a Web site that posted rumors about Mayor Martin O’Malley.

Finney said he was asking the questions as part of his investigation into the activities of Joseph F. Steffen Jr., an aide to the governor who was fired Feb. 8 for his involvement in spreading the rumors about O’Malley’s personal life.

O’Malley has vehemently denied the rumors.

MD4BUSH had several Web log exchanges with Steffen about the O’Malley rumors and gathered a number of Steffen’s most damaging postings in an easy-to-find location on the Web shortly after the story reporting Steffens’ connection with the rumors broke on a media Web site.

In a Feb. 16 letter to Sun reporter Michael Dresser, Finney cited a federal appeals court panel’s decision this week that undercuts reporters’ right to shield their sources. In a separate letter to Sun columnist Michael Olesker, Finney asked “whether you are in fact ‘MD4BUSH.’”

Olesker and Dresser said they had no knowledge of MD4BUSH.

The Zimbabwe elections are going to be held on March 31 this year. The government has finally agreed to allow political parties to buy campaign advertisement on Zimbabwe’s only tv and radio stations, but many say that it is too late to be of any help.

Movement for Democratic Change secretary general Welshman Ncube says he wrote to the ZBC in early February about placing campaign advertisements, but was told to wait until the onset of the election period.

Mr. Ncube said the regulations now made it impossible for the MDC to advertise on Zimbabwe’s only television and radio stations, which are government controlled.

Andrew Moyse, director of the Media Monitoring Project that observes media in Zimbabwe, said the new regulations would exclude the MDC from advertising, even if it had the money to buy air time. He said the MDC had not been allowed to advertise during the past two national polls.

Mr. Moyse said there was a High Court order from the 2000 parliamentary election ordering ZBC to provide fair and balanced news and current affairs. He said the ZBC consistently has ignored the order for the past five years. He said the state broadcaster is constitutionally bound to provide non-partisan news, which he said is ignored in every newscast on radio and television.

Mr. Moyse said when the Zanu PF Party launched its election campaign last week, the state broadcaster provided four hours of live coverage, and that the journalists and camera crews were all wearing Zanu PF campaign regalia. He said in the last national poll three years ago, Media Monitoring Projects statistics showed that 96 percent of political coverage was given to President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the four percent in which the MDC was featured were negative or false reports.

It doesn’t look like the elections will come out fair this time eathier.

Internet journalism, especially blogs, fit into the marketplace of ideas because average people can bring their ideas forward for anyone to read. Blogs are important to the marketplace because it makes it easy to voice ideas and makes it simple for the public to find specific information that they are looking for. With blogging, people can share their ideas much easier than earlier in history when it took wealth and prestige to be heard.

The marketplace of ideas has changed our perception of journalism, because anyone can put information on the internet and people are likely to read the most newsworthy information regardless of who wrote it. This is how Matt Drudge became so popular. He did not have educational experience in the field of journalism, but he is one of the most well known “journalists” today. On the internet, anyone can become a journalist based on the type of information that they provide to the public.

Recent blogswarms have allowed the truth to come out more often. When a large group of people join each other in conversation, as bloggers do, it is easier to find the truth. Bloggers played a hand in the recent CBS scandal, when false information was presented about President Bush. The bloggers found the truth of the matter while the prominent journalist presented false information to the public. This says something about journalism because time, and time again, bloggers have exposed the truth.

I believe that the chaos and cacophony of internet speech actually strengthens the marketplace because it provides an extensive amount of information and multiple perspectives. If one is smart enough in his search for the truth, I believe that he will find it in the marketplace of ideas.

I do not believe that internet speech should be controlled, because that is the beauty of it. The internet is the marketplace of ideas, a person does not always have to buy into those ideas, or even find them tasteful, they can simply avoid the information that they choose to avoid. I believe that the internet has increased our freedom of speech. Censorship in internet speech will only lead to more and more control of what can be said, and therefore, knowledge will become less available.

If you want to read about the Paparazzi cameras click here.

There is a new device that could hit the market soon that would prevent celebrities from being photographed at certain times if they chose not to. It is a type of remote, that when pressed blurs an image from any digital camera. The remote will help celebrities to keep their privacy, which in my opinion is important.
Read about it

It’s called Klondike. It is a new system that the sales associates are using at Bloomingdale’s for marketing. The top twenty percent of shoppers are the main target. The system keeps records of purchaces made by these customers and allows the sales associates to recomend certain products that may go along with their usual shopping trends. The system even allows for a snapshot of the customer so that the sales associate may be able to find them on the sales floor and maintain a relationship with them. The article said that sales associates are more likely to go the extra mile for these customers, for example, allowing them to return something that hasn’t been on the shelves in years.
I can understand that it is important for sales reps to maintain relationships with their best customers. This system seems to be very helpful, but it caters to certain people. Just because you don’t shop at Bloomingdale’s 30 times each year does not mean that you don’t have the money. I think all customers should get the same benefits as the top 20%. The system should reach out to more people and maybe buisness would grow even more.