Googles of Developments

Today, Google announced their plans for a cell phone in the near future. "Near future" means weeks. And the phone part, well its not actually going to be a phone. What I mean is that Google is creating an operating system for most available phone carriers. It bundles together most of their available services, like their unmatched search capabilities, GMail, GPS, GoogleMaps, Froogle (Product Searches), Youtube, and instant messaging. Sources say that Google may be ready to name TMobile as their carrier, but at this point not much is certain about the future of the product. One more step towards Google Grid... (If you don't have any idea about Google Gird, watch the Youtube video "Epic")

Tacoma Renaissance

Have you ever seen the Columbia Bank Center over on "A" Street? I recently became acquanted with the Accounting company Moss Adams, which resides in one of the many suites. The funny part is that I came in "contact" with this company through a fender-bender in traffic with one of its employees (Was actually a pleasent experience! Shows you the kind of people that reside in Tacoma!). I looked them up on the internet to find this pleasant quote:

It is an exciting time to work in Tacoma as the city is experiencing a
renaissance: from the Glass Museum, featuring the Dale Chihuly Bridge, and the
expanding University of Washington Tacoma campus, to the Sound Transit and light
rail and new apartments and condos being built downtown. All of this and more is
within walking distance of the Tacoma office. Not only does this provide
business opportunities, it also provides ways in which our personnel can get
involved in the community. Working in the Tacoma office can provide you exposure
to our group specialties and the ability to experience this renaissance first
hand.

They are absolutely correct. Being a student of the expanding campus of the University of Washington, I too can witness this renaissance first hand. I was very sheltered before this year, being a resident of Gig Harbor, to the amazing aspects of Tacoma Life! I had never ridden a city bus before, and the options are astounding! I took a trip on the Light Rail and was surpirsed, and proud, that our city has a free public transportation system.

To any of those Anti-Tacomans, get rid of those false-first impressions. Come see the countless woderful experiences that are all within walking distance! How can you even say that Tacoma sucks? Its only because you are too ignorant to care.

Your supporter from over the bridge,

The Napster

Kevin Freitas, the Tacoma blogging Guru, visited my Living and Working in the Virtual World class at UWT on Tuesday. His visit was inspiring more than anything else. He showed us that through his many years online blogging he has gained a pretty large influence in the WWW. In fact, he can search Google for the word "Kevin" and be in the first few entries! That totally amazes me! He is top of the list for searches on the most random things! But that is what amazes me: He blogs about what he wants to, and people really do find it useful. I hope to continue this blog and be able to gain knowledge of FEEDS and HTML in order to create my own blogging site just like his. I also took the liberty of joining feedtacoma.com for all of my future Tacoma blogs. What a stud!! Well, Im off to do my midterm for Living and Working in the Virtual World!

RUGBY 07-08

The rugby season is starting again! I played last year as a rookie on an all-rookie team that had its first season. It was an incredible miracle season, and the story is here. I will be following the progress of the team this season as well as recapitulations of the games on that blog with small blurbs on this one.

In my technology course @ UWT we discussed very briefly online purchases. To relate, I recently purchased my first rugby ball online through a company that uses UPS ground shipping. That website is so easy to use not only to send something, but to track it as well! I can tell where my ball is at all times and when it is going to arrive here. They say that about 75% of all buyers abandon their shopping cart before purchase, some due to the confusion by the site. That is not a problem with UPS, as their site is easy to use and navigate through. I would use them again.

P.S. Anyone is welcome to join our rugby team. The only prerequisites are that you are 19 or under and of the male gender. More information will be posted on my other blog in the next week.

Doh!! I forgot...

I promised I would post my Simpsonized self in here! Thanks fo rthe reminders! Here are the two versions. I cant decide between the two!! I would recommend you go and Simpsonize yourself though! It is way easy!

Egosurfing

Egosurfing- a popular past time becoming increasingly familiar in our modern society. Ever had the curiosity to see how much you are written about online? Don't think you would find anything if you ran your name through Google.com? Think again.

Google reports that 25-50 Million searches of proper names are executed each day. So you aren't alone. In fact, it has become a major strategy for CEO's to figure out how they are viewed by the public through egosurfing. "You have to have thick skin" says Pete Slosberg, owner of Cocoa Pete's Chocolate Bars and Pete's Wicked Ale. He often searches his own name in Google, and finds out what problems with customer service there are to confront them. What a clever use of the advanced search capabilities of Google!

Kevin Delaney of The New York Times goes further to say that Google is a very powerful influence in your professional career. If you are becoming lost in the many crowds, he writes, it may have occupational and financial consequences. People might wonder why you aren't showing up in a Google search, which can be worse than actually showing up.

Now I know that you are wondering where I rank right? Well, the only thing as bad as having a common name on Google, is sharing a name with a celebrity. I grew up by the name "Bryant Boyer," which happens to be the name of an NFL player. I am, however, second on that page for my Track and Field in High School. Its alright with me because it is a respectable mile time. Next on the list: Swine Registry?? I swear it has nothing to so with me!!

Anyways, I rank first on Google for "Bryant Boyer" track, "Bryant Boyer" tacoma, "Rob Boyer" Wrestling, and "Bryant Boyer" scrum half (my rugby position). Other notables are "Briant Boyer," which it seems is where my name was misspelled with relation to my Band, and "Bryant Boyer" wrestling, where I am listed third in my high school wrestling results.

But don't take my word for it....

Newspapers Online

While going to UW-Tacoma, I had the opportunity to find myself in a guest lecture given by Mark Briggs of the Tacoma News Tribune. He is the editor of TheNewsTribune.com It was a unique experience to be able to view what is becoming the new world of news through his futuristic eyes. I also decided to Simpsonize myself as I saw that he had done so. However, the picture upload device is down at the moment, so I will post it later. What I thought was especially interesting was the power the press truly had in the early years of America. Briggs explained of the monopoly of advertisement that the papers had, and it is amazing to me. Nowadays, Google.com is responsible for 40% of the world's advertisements!! Talk about becoming a Virtual world!! I simply cannot wait for the google grid!!

The US Postal "No Service"??

Is the process of writing a letter really all that different than that of an e-mail??

Has the world turned into a mail versus email battle to the death? We have to remember that the standardized mail system was a key development in our early society. The idea was first coined by Benjamin Franklin. Is it simply time to cut the system down to the bare necessities and fully integrate email as the proferred method of communication? Some would argue the sentimental value of a letter is worth so much more than an email. How much more? is it worth the 32 cent stamp on the letter? People may spend the money and time to make such a message personal to you, but it is necessary? Is it wanted? Many disagree upon this question, but the common ground remains: The rationality of sending Email now outweighs writing a letter for delivery. Its fast, its easy, and, most importantly for our stingy American society, its FREE. Need I say more?

Well I will anyway. The postal service may be dying in practicality, but it will still be in business until we can send items through a fax machine. We also cannot forget the pioneering effort of the Postal Service. As people began riding ponies through the country bringing a hand-written letter from one dignitary to another, they had little idea the future they were preparing for. Their systems were implemented into a modern postal service with the blue trucks driving mail from house to house and returning mail to the Post Office. The mail carriers then had no idea that soon this would be done electronically. Now someone may write a letter and scan it, or simply type it, and send it to basically a post office, or mail server, which sorts and sends it in the right direction. What is so great about this system? No human effort invovled at all. None. All done electronically. But we can't be so ignorant and narrow-minded as to think that this is it; That we have reached the future. No Way! We must now turn our vision and thoughts to the future and wonder what we are paving the way for with the email system we are developing now. There is a future beyond now, but what is it? Does it involve an integration of the U.S. Postal Service into possibly a U.S. Postal and Internet Service?

There are many similarities physically about the USPS and Email, but what about deeper parallels? Here is a very interesting article I stumbled upon that explains that how people nowadays react and respond to Email is no different than how Mail used to be. I would recommend even a glance at this article.

My point is that change happens. Let it happen. Embrace it in fact or you will be crushed by it. See my other post ; )

The New World

Are machines really taking over??

Our day and age is expanding. They knew it as George Orwell was writing 1984. They knew it as Hanna-Barbera began producing the first cartoon to depict a family living in the future including robots, The Jetsons. We see it all around us as we watch cartoons online instead of on our new-age plasma screen TVs. Was War of the Worlds really too far off? Will we ever know?

Ultimately, we stop to look around. What is this new world we have created? It seems that everything that is done in our lives today is linked to some sort of Internet activity. Think about it. As we buy a Pizza from Papa Murphy's Take 'N Bake Pizza, we may first visit their website to download coupons and find their nearest location. Then we call-in our order. They take our order on their paper tickets, which were ordered online, and proceed to create the Pizza. Where do the ingredients come from? Well the order may or may not be submitted electronically to the warehouse company, but when that company sends out the order to be picked up and sent, it is sent through an electronic form through the Internet. In fact, all warehouses are being created and merged onto an entirely online format including automated messages on earpieces sent to the workers giving instruction. How cool is that?? Anyways, back to Pizza... The ingredients are previously delivered to the particular Papa Murphy's store (and by the way, the mushrooms, zucchini, onions, etc are chopped fresh every morning as well as the dough and salads!!!) and your order is made with them. At the end of the day, the cash is counted, numbers of pizzas are recorded, and stock of ingredients is taken. The cash report and pizza reports are all posted online and linked to a particular owner in order to keep track of all of the regions sales.

The Point Is that our lives are becoming increasingly electronic, linked to the Internet, and advanced! What do you think was going through my mind as I watched an episode of Numb3rs the other night without any televisions channels? How? I looked up the episode on the website, hooked my laptop to the TV, and there you have our modern idea of "TV." This virtual world, if you will, should be embraced. It is our future, and only through an attempt to understand this wave of technology can you ride it in to the shore. Otherwise, you may get washed away like many stubborn people/companies. In fact, in continuation of this rather annoying extended metaphor, the tide is coming in, and it is really a matter of sink or swim as the future of our world is very deep in the wave of technology. Don't get me wrong, it is not through an isolation, or submersion (OK, ill stop with the references to H2O), of ourselves into the technological future. It is through a key integration of the technology and our current way of life creating a new, more efficient, more enjoyable way of life!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lets give the virtual world a great big hug and embrace it to be our roommates, spouses, and companions! Now, lets do it!