April Foolery

April Fool’s Day has returned and it has graced us. Well, Google has graced us at least. Google launched a myriad of jokes centered around CADIE.

CADIE is an artificial intelligence system that apparently is going rogue and is taking control of Google. However, CADIE allows Google to improve it’s products with features such as 3D Browsing in their Chrome browser, Gmail Autopilot in Gmail and Brain Search with Google Mobile.

YouTube joined in on the fun again this year after rick-rolling everyone to death last year. Actually, I don’t know if you’d like to call it fun when all the videos are inverted and start playing upside down.

The Guardian in the UK says they’re going out of print and will use Twitter only to deliver the news.

All fun and entertaining, but I think companies need to get a little more aggressive with their jokes.

Maybe Apple could pull a prank where every song downloaded on April 1st is the same song. Perhaps something by Prince? But yes, the same exact song. No matter what you’re downloading you get that same Prince song. Actually, Paula Abdul may be more funny.

Microsoft could file for bankruptcy! That would get some heads spinning.

Facebook could announce that you can now sell your information online.

The government could put our an absolutely brilliant prank though, or a couple. Could you imagine President Obama announcing that he’s painting the White House black? Or maybe the Treasury announces a $5 coin?

In all honesty, at this point the best joke would be Obama coming out and saying the words that would soothe the ears of millions, perhaps billions: the financial crisis is fake! April Fools!

Pune, India script.

The following podcast is presented by the friends of Guadalupe River Park & gardens and the San Jose State University Journalism & Mass Communication department:

San Jose and Pune established a sister city relationship in 1989 and the city has a history of a Maratha Empire that began in the late 1500s. Pune is very well known for its rich agricultural regions, universities and high level institutions.

Pune, India has become one of the largest growing information and technology regions in India. The seating area in the Pune sister city features a Shivaji Maharaj statue that was donated from Pune, India. Shivaji founded Pune in 1640 and was a modern warrior who fought foreign invaders and even established a Maratha kingdom that lasted for 200 years, with the capital being Pune.

The Pune, India Sister City is at location 38 on the Guadalupe River Park map.

The Ekaterinburg, Russia Sister City is located nearby. It is currently awaiting greater community involvement. For more information, please visit grpg.org

Be anywhere at anytime.

I wish I could sit on top of a pyramid. This wasn’t possible to imagine 50 years ago. I’d never be able to see myself sitting on top of a pyramid.

But now… it is very possible.

I can easily use Photoshop to crop together a picture of me, sitting in a chair, on top of one of the Great Pyramids in Egypt.

When I was in high school one of my friends, who was excellent with Photoshop, editing a picture of another friend to make it look like he was riding a camel in the desert.

The world of media keeps making it more fun, and more dangerous, for our ordinary lives.

In fact, for young people… these things have become ordinary.

Google It

Google has Google. Google has Flickr. Google has YouTube. Google has Android. Google has Orkut.

Google has used all these services to invade our lives. Google uses all of these services to connect us to the world and to each other. Using all this new media, one could get overwhelmed.

We have the ability to search for anything on the internet with Google.

We have the ability to upload and share pictures in a community with Flickr.

We have the ability to upload and share videos with YouTube.

We have the ability to use our cell phones to contact the world on the mobile OS of Android.

We have the ability to connect to each other in all these ways with Google’s social networking site Orkut.

Heck, we even have Blogger from Google. A way to share our lives with others through words.

Social networking with the Palm Pre

Sprint and Palm are going to be taking cell phones to a whole new level.

We all think, and thought, that the iPhone was revolutionary. The new Palm Pre seems to go above that. Now, cell phones will be our social networking devices. Although you could argue they already are… they’re about to take it to another level.

The Palm Pre and it’s webOS will be connecting you to all your social networks at all times. It’s going to keep you in the loop all the time and keep your friends in the loop.

I think I’ll call it the Twitterphone.

Tweet Tweet

Facebook recently overhauled their user interface to put an emphasis on their news feed and status updates.

It basically looks, and feels, a little like Twitter.

Social networks are growing and becoming more innovative every single day… and I think this new Twitter phenomenon is going to become a big part of that.

The ability to see what your friends and contacts are doing or thinking at any given moment and then the ability to comment on and have a discussion about those things is something amazing.

People are aiming to stay connected to each other at all times, it seems like.

Confidence is Everything

Confidence is everything in life. It’s true. People are attracted to things that show confidence, and one thing that isn’t showing confidence right now is the American economy. Consumer confidence is down and therefore the economy is down. That’s ultimately how it works here.

Yes yes, the housing crisis caused all this but it was just one thing that led to far more. Basically, a lot of people couldn’t afford their payments and their credit cards and lost their homes. This affected all those investment companies and banks because they couldn’t get their money. The Dow absolutely sinks and people begin to lose confidence in the economy.

People stop shopping. Companies begin to lose money. Companies lay off employees and sell off parts. People stop shopping.

It’s a wicked cycle that will keep repeating itself until we enter a depression. Isn’t that a scary word? Depression.

Government steps in and sets aside $700 billion to give to those financial institutions. They use it to buy out weaker financial institutions and in the case of AIG go on a little retreat to Arizona.

They should be using it to lend to people so people can get some money to buy some homes… but… people aren’t confident enough to do that right now.

Banks like Bank of America and JPMorgan and Chase say they’re helping people get out of their mortgages and keep their homes and such things, but that’s not going to solve everything.

If I just was lucky enough to get out of a ‘toxic’ mortgage I’m not going to spend my money… I’m going to save it and use it wisely.

Thing is, the economy won’t get moving again until that happens.

And that won’t happen until people lose the fear and gain confidence.

We pulled out of the Great Depression with a mixture of World War II and the New Deal and it’ll be a similar path to get back to where we were this time as well.

First, we need to invest in America’s infrastructure. Second, we’ll take part in a new war, but this war will not involve shooting. It’ll be the war on global warming.

A combination of infrastructure building and green jobs is the way out of this mess. Once this happens consumer confidence will slowly build until people begin to shop and purchase things regularly and businesses will once again begin to grow.

It’s much easier said than done, but it’s what will have to be done for the economy to recover.

I’m sure the market would be able to fix itself as well, but it would take far too long for companies like GM to file for bankruptcy and reorganize and start everything up again.

I don’t believe the American people should wait that long. 

Obama the Socialist?

Sen. John McCain’s new dig at Obama is that he wants to “spread the wealth” and that that makes him a socialist.

When I heard this, and learned that people could actually be buying into this, I laughed. 

Firstly. If anyone, and I mean anyone, supports an NFL team that isn’t successful and calls Obama a socialist or “redistributing the wealth” they might as well give up on the “socialist” NFL.

The NFL has revenue sharing you see. What that does is it takes all the money it makes from TV and distributes it amongst the teams. Major League Baseball, AMERICA’S pastime, does the same thing. 

Look. Obama may be very liberal, and I understand that doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. But to believe that he wants to redistribute wealth and make America a communist state? Really? Does anyone pay attention? Do people realize that a BAIL OUT would be the same thing? Doesn’t McCain support the bail out? 

I believe John McCain, like Republicans in the past eight years, has been put in a tough place. George W. inherited an America that had some problems, but those problems were probably overshadowed by the good economy. But, the dot com boom finally busted and 9/11 happened. I don’t know how unlucky you could get to start a presidency. 

Something similar happened to McCain. See, the conservative way of doing things isn’t doing so well right now. After eight years of George W., people are sick of Republicans. This will be mirrored by the way the Senate races go. McCain is the leader of an unpopular party and happens to be a very liberal conservative, if that makes any sense at all. 

McCain had to solidify the base, which is what the Palin pick did, and he’s done that pretty effectively with his new “socialist” message. I suppose it worked, but you don’t have to go that far.

It especially hurts when Obama is not going to raise taxes for the middle class. 

Basically:

Obama is not a socialist.

McCain has no choice but to say these things.

Don’t fall for campaign spin from EITHER CAMPAIGN. 

To further the above point, McCain isn’t Bush.

Don’t stick to one news source.

I think my last point is the best one. Don’t only watch MSNBC because the ultra liberal view can blow your mind. Don’t watch too much CNN cause they are slanted to the left a little as well, though it’s not as obvious. Don’t watch too much Fox News cause there is far too much yelling, and I don’t think it’s good to watch people yell a lot. 

Ultimately, I got off track here… but everyone needs to look things up for themselves and ratify their sources before listening to one thing and running with it! Gah.

Who You Aren’t

I’m not entirely sure how this came to be, but Halloween has somehow become a day about stepping into the shoes of someone you aren’t. This could mean dressing like a friend, politician, celebrity, stereotype, animal, fictional character and everything in between. 

But why do we do this?

Halloween started as a celebration of the dead. People would dress up as animals and eventually saints, angels and demons and start dancing around big bonfires celebrating and such things. So how did we go from dressing up like animals and angels to Britney Spears and Richard Nixon? 

Simple. Insecurities. 

People want to take a break from being who they are, and honestly, being an angel, demon or saint is pretty boring. So why not extend that tradition to other things? It’s a pretty liberal view of the original holiday, but that’s what we’ve got now. And that’s how it’s come to be.

People, I believe, find comfort in being able to dress up like a pimp or James Bond rather their boring selves for once. They can step into a role and let themselves loose. It’s only one night after all, why not?

It’s all in good fun, right? Well… as long as no one takes it too seriously. Remember though, who you may become on Halloween is not who you are. 

Just because you dressed up like Sarah Palin, who is bound to be a popular one this year, doesn’t mean you get to be uninformed. 

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. 

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is don’t lose your thinking just because you’re playing someone else for a night. Just because you’re Jason Voorhees doesn’t mean you have to do potentially dangerous activities. 

Be careful out there and enjoy Halloween.

Taking on the iPhone

It’s been the goal of every mobile manufacturer since Apple launched it’s gateway device. Who would blame them? It looks as if the success of the iPhone has increased adoption of Macs around the country, and to an extent, the world. 

Although the iPhone, and now the iPhone 3G, are the most fashionable and cool phones out, you really don’t need to have one. The iPhone still misses some key features like recording video and the ability to send and receive MMS messages. 

I mean, there are alternatives such as the HTC Touch Diamond, Blackberry Bold, and now the Blackberry Storm. 

The HTC Touch Diamond is on the Sprint Network for $250 (after you save $200 instantly, $100 on a mail in rebate, and with a 2 year contract). [from Engadget]

The Blackberry Bold should be available on the new AT&T this October.

The Blackberry Storm should be available around this October on Verizon Wireless.

As you could probably tell… T-Mobile is the only company that got left out of this super phone race…. err, well, not really. 

According to Fortune, which sites the Wall Street Journal, the first “Google Phone,” powered by Android, will be available on T-Mobile for $199. It’ll be called the HTC Dream. 

So have no fear. You don’t need to have an iPhone to be happy with your mobile device.