Effects of Technology

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving holiday. I know it’s hard, but try your best to heat that junk up a week later and serve it up. If you agree with my tastes, you know how painful it is to eat leftovers, especially cold meat that is meant to be hot. Anyway, I found an interesting article about U.S. currency, and the changes it may endure.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20846364-23109,00.html

It almost blows my mind that there hasn’t been a better way for blind people to use money yet. I’m sure they can tell the difference between a quarter and a dime, but a crisp 1 and a crisp 50?? Good luck. It never ceases to amaze me how technology can improve our lives. Some would argue that technology makes our lives hard, as the demand for the latest and greatest takes hold of us, and we need to be constantly fed by electronics. I agree that technology has changed the ways in which we get news, get educated, and carry on business, but I don’t know whether I think it has a fully negative impact. I really like watching football on a 1080 Hi-def TV. 10 years ago, we wouldn’t understand any of that but TV. Whether it is good or bad, we can all agree it changes society. It may or may not cause health problems, and it may or may not make us happier. The fact is, it is here, and it isn’t leaving.

The question is then, how do we use it to our benefit to make society educated and happy? We can simply refer to websites that come from sound sources, but there is yet another problem: too much useless information. I don’t care that Stanford University did a study on the comparison between birds and midgets. The trick is, to use what we have to our advantage, and become enlightened because of it. Some use it as entertainment while others view it as entrapment. Think about it this way, technology makes it possible for a well-trained monkey to do almost any job that before would take a highly educated, well-practiced professional. For a fun comparison, we’ll use James Bond. Eventually, James Bond will be a machine that is capable of seeking and destroying his enemy and following commands to complete objectives. This movie would not nearly be as good as say, any other James Bond film. The fact that a highly trained human is performing these amazing feats is what makes the movie interesting. It makes Bond’s job interesting too. If Bond simply typed a name in for a machine to destroy, it would take all the fun out of the job. This is what I fear is happening to our jobs across America. We are making ourselves obsolete, and finding replacements for our jobs.

I’m curious to see what you think, so let me know!! There will quite possibly be more on this topic in the next blog.

Playstation 3 vs. Wii

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/11/17/ps3_debuts_to_long_lines_conn_shooting/

Finally, the long-anticipated release of Sony’s Playstation 3!! But, is it worth 600 bones and a week of camping out in front of Best Buy to get one? I think not! I would love to have the chance to play one everyday, but not for the price. There is no way you’ll see me spending $600 for a PS3 plus $60 per game. You would be more likely to see me playing the new Wii, by Nintendo. It is a fully interactive gaming system, where the remote control is your controller. It is not only a remote control, but it is motion sensitive; so, if you are playing tennis, it is your racket, if you are bowling, it is your hand grasping the bowling ball. This idea is new and innovative, making more of a reality-based game play, where you and your friends can have a lot of fun together actually using your sensory skills. I am not bad at using my fingers and thumbs to control a player, but it would be a lot more fun and creative to use your body movement, i.e. in the new Wii. The name is pronounced “wee,” like something you’d say when going down a slide at the park. The games seem to be more innovative than the traditional “better graphics, more realistic game play” of most the latest and greatest systems available today.

Eventually, I think you will be able to be fully-immersed in a video-game, to the point where your arm will hurt from pitching in baseball. Imagine how much fun it would be to play baseball on the computer screen, in the big leagues, all in the comfort of your own home and your only real opponent your best friend. I think the Wii’s success will be murdered by that of the PS3, because so many people have to have the new Sony product. There will be some losers (such as myself) who find innovative, creatively new concepts the most fun to play. I don’t see myself purchasing either of these products for a long time (when you can get them for under $200), but I would certainly enjoy playing them.

Investment Showing Signs of Good Return

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198714,00.html

This study shows how high rates of return are for those of us who decide to save our money. In today’s society, we are used to maxing out a few credit cards, making minimum monthly payments, and keeping a worry free state of mind. What people don’t realize is that they will soon have to pay off all that debt, twice as much over as they once had. It is easy to go to the store and buy everything you want with a piece of plastic, not realizing the cost of the item down the road. In some cases, you cannot pay off credit card debt by making only the minimum monthly payment. They charge so much in interest, that you get bound into something you never saw coming. This is why credit cards can be so dangerous.

On the other hand, for those of us who care about our financial future, and want to be debt-free, there is hope. As this news article shows, investing is paying a high return. Is it risky? Sure. But, so is going to the mall to buy on a line of credit. I only wish I had more money to invest at this time, as I struggle to get by as a college student. I would like to think I would put it to good use, and invest it wisely, but I’m also afraid that I enjoy fast cars too much. If I had a lot of money, I would probably end up buying a nice car, getting a few speeding tickets, paying huge insurance premiums, so much to where the whole thing would work against me. For now, I’ll enjoy my Integra, which is only fast enough to get into trouble in.

The Fifth Discipline

For today's blog, I will be discussing my view on a book I am required to read for a class: The Fifth Discipline. I was pleasantly surprised at how useful the information was, both for personal and professional use. I have to be honest and say that I've only read the first and ninth chapter, but I am finding it hard to put the book down. It is one that is well-worth your time, no matter your profession to check out; whether you are a grocery bagger or regional manager, this book provides useful insight. I am not one to do book reviews, so I will narrow the focus to how these chapters can apply to me.

For those of you who don't know, I am a Shift Leader at Northwood Pizza Hut. A Shift Leader is the first step in the management process, which I am currently working towards. This book can help me deal with how to motivate team members. It is easy for us to focus on the bottom-line as an ends, because if we control that, we then have a productive unit and there are rewards for the management. Even knowing there are financial rewards, it is still sometimes hard to focus on the bottom-line. I like to think of myself as one who isn't only concerned about money; therefore, I need something else, some other type of goal to strive for, a higher purpose. It seems to me that lately I've been focusing on getting through the day or week, and trying to manage levels of stress that encompass what I am doing at the moment, or my vision. Sometimes, I focus much too heavily on the vision, that I forget about my purpose. If it is this easy for me to lose track of my purpose, imagine how easy it is for team-members at work to lose that focus.

I think we do a good job of setting short term goals, or visions for the crew. For example, we are currently working on lowering our food cost so that we can compete in the top 10 out of Freeland's Pizza Huts. This may have a lot of meaning for the management, but I feel that the crew just doesn't care sometimes. This is because we missed the important part!! We haven't been keeping up on our reading of Senge as managers!! We could solve this problem by creating a purpose; something measurable, attainable, trackable, and agreed upon, that we can all be motivated to achieve. Sure, the crew wants us to make more money, but that isn't very relevant to them, or even us sometimes. I think we can learn a lot from reading Peter Senge, both for personal use and for professional use.

Customer Service Number One in My Book

For today’s blog, I will be venturing away from the normal of writing about an interesting news article. Instead, I will be writing about my experience Friday afternoon at Buffalo Wings’ restaurant over off of Maysville Road. After class, we met some friends up there for some wings before going to work. The food was great, which would bring me back again; but the service was not so great.

First off, when paying 6 or 7 bucks for an order of wings, you should expect to get a couple sides (say honey mustard or hot sauce) included in that price. Nope! So, now we’re paying closer to 10 for a basket of wings. They’re good, but are they that good? It is annoying when companies do not emphasize customer service. I work in a place where we strive to do what’s right for the customer, with a slogan of “give ‘em the pickle!” Which, can be translated as, if they want extra sauce on their pizza, put it on! If they want a side of ranch, give it to them! Maybe working in a customer-focused company has caused me to be over-critical of others, but maybe we as consumers should be. Maybe companies should strive to make their customers happy, instead of trying to get every penny out of them they can.

Wal-Mart's Holiday Marketing Plan

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart10nov10,1,763467.story?coll=la-headlines-business

I think Wal-Mart finally has a good idea! A pet peeve of mine is when stores have a holiday isle, but won’t call it a Christmas isle. I mean why not? If you’re going to sell decorations, call them what they are! I hate it when society places so much an importance on not offending anyone, that they totally miss the meaning of the season. They are so worried about some freedom from religion that they forget about our freedom of religion. Besides, most of the people that I know celebrate Christmas, and believe that Jesus Christ is the reason for the season. Even some Muslims I know celebrate Christmas for the purposes of Christ. They may have some other beliefs that separate us spiritually, but they aren’t offended in the slightest way by Christmas. Society has become so unattached with the real meaning of Christmas, that it has become one big marketing scam. This actually might be good from a business side of things, to totally materialize everything important to people; but, I am taking a stand! I am proud of Wal-Mart for bringing back the name of Christmas into their items to the extent that I may shop there sometime this year (as opposed to other stores who are too chicken to call things what they are).

Hidden Cues; Are your Eyes Really Bigger than your Stomach?

I don’t want you to think I’m a big health-nut or anything, but I stumbled upon an interesting website a week or so ago as I was searching for something else. As I am now 21, and my body begins to slow down its extremely high rate of metabolism, I may become more interested in this field in the near future.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15579093/

This link offers useful information as to how our mind gives us cues what to eat, and how much to eat. Professor Wansink of Cornell University is making an effort to explain why people eat what they eat. They give a concrete example of this: If there is an assorted color of M&Ms in a dish, people are more likely to grab a larger handful than if there are a couple or only one color.

He also used an interesting experiment where he made a self-filling soup bowl. In this experiment, as the test subject ate soup, the bowl would fill itself to the same level as they consumed out of it. The funny part is that some people ate up to a quart of soup! This shows how sometimes we will eat more if the food is on a larger plate, or if it does not disappear before our eyes. The saying “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach” just may have more meaning than we previously thought.

Wansink advises using more than just habitual, learned cues to limit what you eat. He says that it matters not to count carbs as much as it matters to simply be aware of why you are eating what you are eating. This can be useful to companies serving meals at restaurants, trying to make a profit. If you can get the customer to think they got a good deal, then you may have better luck doing business and bringing them in next time. I hope this provides some useful information for our marketing majors of the class, and possibly even to those trying to change their dietary standards, like myself.

A Word on Blogger

The purpose of this post is to explain why I hate Blogger from a business standpoint. When looking for a host web-site, whether it be for a business, a home page, or a blogging site, there are several important things that I think a company should keep in mind.

First off, the website should be reliable. If it has a greater possibility to crash than most other sites, forget it. You can't be in the middle of an order and have half your credit card number entered and the site suddenly crash on you. You need to know that your documents will be stored in a place where they can be attainable at any given time, none of this "system unavailable" bullshit. Secondly, it needs to be fast. In today's fast-paced world, speed is not more important anywhere else than it is on the internet.

These are my primary complaints with Blogger.com. The site does offer a neat design and place to publish postings, but it does a crappy job with speed and reliability. I just wanted to post a comment on the actual blogging site I am using, so that you may all notice these sort of things and they can begin to bother you as much as they bother me. Eventually, the demand for companies with bad websites will be obsolete, and we can all enjoy fast-moving, reliable websites, in which we can get the bullshit out of the way and do business!

Satellite Radio's "Highs" and "Lows"

In the midst of all the election excitement going on around us, some of us may have lost track of other news that matters too. I wonder, will gas prices go up now? Everyday on the internet, I see oil companies making lots of money. Maybe the alternative to high prices is easier than we all think! Hopefully, with new legislation, we will see an increase in the supply of hybrid-type vehicles. I am a republican, but I also believe that sometimes it takes a democrat to get certain things done (although I would say it takes a republican President to get things done overseas that may not be the most popular, but need to be done). In addition to finding news about oil companies’ profits, I found this article about Sirius Radio’s lack of profit.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/bonds/2006/11/08/sirius-satellite-radio-markets-equity-cx_mk_1108markets05.html

Is this any surprise to anyone?? I love listening to the radio, and quite frankly, I think that most Fort Wayne radio stations suck. I want to listen to a variety where you may only hear the same song once a month at the most. There are tons and tons of untouched music out there that Fort Wayne radio stations will not play. This is irritating, because as a consumer, I am faced with a dilemma. My stereo in my car has Satellite radio capabilities, so that is not the issue. The issue is whether I want to spend $10 a month (maybe more) on radio that I can listen to for free elsewhere. Do I need the luxury of all those different choices of stations while I am driving? Another reason I hate most Fort Wayne radio stations is because of the quality of music they broadcast. I am anal when it comes to listening to music, so much that I can’t stand to listen to music with crappy quality.

For those of you who don’t understand much about music quality, here is an example. Say an audio spectrum is infinitely high and low. So, humans’ ears are capable of hearing certain sounds different from the capabilities of others such as dogs, who can hear higher on the spectrum. The solution to this problem is to record music that is slightly out of humans’ ears capabilities both high and low. The problem is the more part of the spectrum we use, the more space it will take up on a disc. So, we start limiting it by clipping and trimming off the highs and the lows of our music. The easiest way to tell is take out a popular rap CD and listen to it, then turn on the radio station and listen to it broadcast. There should be a noticeable difference, mostly in the bass line, of that song. Quality issues get more important the bigger the system is you are listening to it on. For some people, they are satisfied with listening to it on a small system, perhaps a car stereo. For others like me, we want nothing but high quality when it comes to music selection.

Fort Wayne radio broadcasts normally at about 128 kbps, which is okay for an “i-pod” or something where the speakers are very small. If you try to listen to that on a big system, you will be thoroughly disappointed. This is where satellite radio would be worth the money. It would provide listeners with high-quality music, and a nice selection. If I was traveling a lot, and didn’t have the capabilities to acquire any music I may be listening to on a CD, I would subscribe to satellite radio. But for now, I will stick to my albums with very high quality music, and deal with switching them out as I get tired of listening to them.

Ford and GM Posting Higher Sales

http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/ap/2006/11/01/ap3139024.html

Way to go Ford and GM! They have both posted sales gains, with Toyota coming in third. Their theory is that it is mostly because of cheap gas. This is a good theory, but I hope people realize that gas may only be cheap for a while. Once gas prices rise, will GM and Ford let Toyota take over as the number one automobile seller in the United States? I hope they don’t let that happen. With new technology, there are more efficient ways to get horsepower out of engines than displacement. GM and Ford need to strive to meet these new Japanese standards, as they will soon be getting blown out of the water by them if they are not careful. Gas prices may not be the only factor giving American companies more sales.

I have noticed lately that Ford’s new advertising scheme is pretty intense. They are all over the internet with their new “Bold Moves” ad campaign. With this in place, they are striving to get Americans to fall in love with their product again. If you drive by Dimension Ford in the 14/69 auto-mall, a man cannot help but stopping by their showroom. In it, there is a 150 thousand dollar purebred racecar known as the Ford GT. They brought this car back based on the older model Ford GT40, which was the winning car for many years in the race industry. Just looking at the car makes me want to go out and test-drive a new Mustang, a car that I can afford. I have noticed Ford doing much more to advertise to both the younger generation, and adults having a mid-life crisis.

In conclusion, I think that Ford is trying very hard to market their product. Through an aggressive advertising scheme, bringing the Shelby Mustang back, and putting high-end sports cars in their showrooms, I cannot help but have more respect for the company. All they need to do now is figure out a way to make a more efficient engine!!