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!

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.

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.