Join Me.

I reviewed Join.me at https://join.me/ an online application that I find so useful when assisting clients with IT services like software configuration or other PC to hardware peripheral configuration. Most students in this class may not have any need for it as the use of this service make more sense for help desk type IT services. I had one responder who seemed to like it, but had no use for it.

I know that most of my colleagues at work use it. We find it easy to install and configure on the client side. Since, all the client needs to do is click once and read me a series of numbers then I can quickly connect to see their screen. And with the client’s permission, I can take control of their computer. I have learnt that there’s nothing more frustrating than having an irate client on one end, pressing all sorts of buttons, and a sympathetic IT person that cannot see what the client is doing.

Fast Pencil

 

I found http://www.fastpencil.com/ very useful for an aspiring author. It actually guides you in book writing and editing. And I guess for a few bucks, they can help you sell your book. It is very easy to use since it is designed just like an actual book. For example, you have a project area where you can brainstorm; then proceed to cover, table of contents and so on. You also have your chapters, and at the end you have your index. And as said I tried their editing feature and it works well.

I always thought of how frustrating it would be to use popular writing applications like word to write a book. Below is just a sample of what I wrote, however, I was not able reformat as original document due blog limitations.

From the hotel balcony, I can see the beautiful canopy proudly showing all of its vivid colors of summer. The brick red spruce stands out egregiously like generous spurts of oil paint on a white canvas, with a few green pines breaking out of this pictorial masterpiece. Small birds hover from tree to tree, singing with resonance and dancing occasionally as if to impress their mates. The warm breeze unfurls a soothing and pleasing floral aroma of wild roses. Soon all the red foliage will wither away, and the birds will fly away. Then the angry dark skies will coat this land white with snow. And winter will begin.

It is summer in Holyoke, Massachusetts and I am enjoying a panoramic view of the foliage. The red spruce seems to be dominant expect for a few green pines. I can also see small beautiful insects moving from tree to tree. There is a warm breeze that is circulating a nice smell of wild roses. Yes. It is not fall; it is summer - a harbinger for fall. Fall is brief and winter stays too long. But this is New England; therefore, I am going to enjoy my summer while it lasts.

Brochure Maker

I also used http://www.mybrochuremaker.com/ This is an online design software for brochures, news prints, sell sheets, business cards and so on. While am sure I can do these projects on desktop publishing software, like Publisher, QuarkXpress or Adobe Indesign, these applications are usually very expensive to buy.

I also like the fact that mybrochuremaker has free services. I made the following news print on Timbuktu as my blogging idea for the week.

Ever heard of the phrase, “from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo” that’s used to demonstrate how remote a location is? I will go on a limb here and say that you have. Anyway, Kalamazoo is a city in the state of Michigan, United States of America while Timbuktu is a small town in Northern Mali, Africa; it borders Mauritania to the west, Algeria in the North, Niger in the east, and Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso in the south.

But Timbuktu is not just a “faraway place that you cannot get to from here,” as used in 19^th century English literature by writers such as Lady Duff-Gordon, DH Lawrence, Agatha Christie, just to name a few; it is an ancient city and of historical importance. Timbuktu was once a prominent center for important trading routes in salt, gold, ivory, and other products including slaves, during the 14^th through much of the 16^th century.  

As an ancient wealthy city, Timbuktu has been a source of significant archeological finds of artifacts and information about the Iron Age’s cultural landscape. At one point, Timbuktu was home to 120 libraries; it is believed that about 14,000 books have been recovered – books on old science in Arabic and some other unknown languages.

Today however, Timbuktu is an impoverished dusty down that has seen its share of hard times compounded by its location in the southern edge of the Sahara desert. Furthermore, as recent as April of 2012, the power struggle in Mali has seen this “historical jewel” fall into the hands of Tuareg rebels. My only hope is that sanity can be restored for the sake of human rights and historical records.

Sources Consulted:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17583772

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2265.htm

As long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by the idea of using compressed air to power vehicles – you know – just like in steam locomotives.  Interestingly, I watched a show that featured a compressed air car on the Science channel that made me feel sane again.

The idea of a compressed engine is actually simple. The motor is powered by compressed air that is stored in tanks that can withstand very high pressures of about 4500psi. The concept car that I saw on TV had 2 huge tanks to hold the compressed air. And the logic is that you can eventually have tanks that run an engine that, in turn, runs a compressor which fills more compressed air into the storage tanks. I mean that is very simple, right? Wrong; it more challenging than you think. There are scientific theories about air expansion/contraction such as the Charles law that come into play, and thereby affect our simple model. Without getting into technical details here which I hardly comprehend anyway, let just say that we have to install a heat exchanger. And people that have tinkered with this thing admit that it is one the most challenging items in the whole compressed air car technology.

Nevertheless, a car that runs on compressed air sounds very promising. For one, it will be as clean as the source the electricity that is used to fill the air storage tanks. But the car has zero emission, nonetheless. Also the cost of running this car will be minimal since all you have to worry about is getting those tanks filled up with air.

But as much as I would like to dream of owning one in the near future, reality check demands that I put a few things into perspective. First there are not so many serious contenders apart from Tata which holds the Motor Development International (MDI) license for India. And the consensus seems to be that pneumatic combustion hybrid is more feasible, and can, in fact, compete with electric vehicles.

Although there are many real challenges to the compressed air car technology, it is important to note that this is, indeed, a leap in the right direction; for the engine has remained pretty much unchanged for more than 100 years.

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztFDqcu8oJ4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_air_car

http://www.gizmag.com/tata-motors-air-car-mdi/22447/

Will Democracy Succeed in Islamic Countries?

I think democracy is possible and can, in fact, thrive in countries where Islamic religion is a majority. I do not even think that the old guards in these countries have a choice. There’s enough evidence, like the so-called Arab spring, to suggest that the wind of change is well underway. The western world has always favored stability over the pains and the challenges that come with democratic ambitions. And this is more so in countries that are rich in natural resources like oil and natural gas. As a result, we have seen entrenched political rulers repress dissent by employing traditionalism which favors religiosity over secularism.

As an optimist that leans between liberalism and constructivism, I believe transnationalism and globalism will continue to allow people to exchange views, organize across borders, and even take political actions. A good example is the use of social media and other internet services that have been instrumental in the communication of ideas and news between dissidents inside these Islamic countries and emigrants overseas, including exiled activists. The text gives a good example on cultural globalization where CNN is viewed around the world and therefore, people in Islamic countries are able to consume western views, and western countries can consume middle-eastern views from its counterpart, Al Jazeera.

Transnationalism is forcing most people to re-examine their political identities. Thus, instead of seeing themselves as nationalists with singular identities, people can now belong to multiple identities. For instance, transnational organization like NGOs have been championing human rights and speaking against disfranchisement. As a matter of fact, Kuwait granted full women rights to vote in full legislative polls in 2007, while Qatar has allowed women’s vote in municipal elections. You can read more on this at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4874990.stm .

However, I cannot ignore the fact that progress on democracy has been painstakingly slow or even absent in many countries. I found the evaluation of globalization study by Pew research in world regions disappointing. The study shows that in the Middle East, 35% think globalization is good, 25% think it’s bad, and 40% are unsure. But as an optimist, 40% unsure is not such a bad thing; it is actually the highest of all the regions surveyed by the study. This number implies that there is a willingness by a large population to consider new ideas and views that come with globalization. Furthermore, this study was done 9 years ago, and of course, much has changed.

I think we also get carried away by the misinterpretation and the false assumptions about the radicalization of Islamic regions. As the text suggests, much of what we see in the western media is often a reaction to western policies that have resulted in invasions and exploitation of natural resources; it also highlights what most Islamic countries see as hypocritical in the way western powers execute international policies. And these shortcomings get magnified by propagandists especially those that conform to a more militant Islamic doctrine and have had success in unifying like-minded ideologues against a common enemy, western states.

To the pessimists, you may need to look at Turkey, Indonesia, Mali, and Senegal for evidence of democracy; they are by no means US style democracies, but they are high functioning, nonetheless.

NOTE:

Except where noted, the ideas in this article are adopted from a course text book (below) for general discussion purposes.

        Rourke, T. John. 2008.  International Politics on the World Stage. 12th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

The Great Rift Valley

The Great Rift Valley is about 3,700 miles long stretching from near the Middle East down to Mozambique. The Rift Valley was basically formed as a result of lithospheric plate pulling and causing faults. These forces caused a chunk of the crust to sink between parallel fault lines which in turn, forced up molten rock in volcanic eruptions. The result is that you basically have parallel raised (rifts) landforms with a wide floor that strips along for thousands of miles.

I still have memories of driving along the Rift Valley, particularly the Escarpment in Naivasha, Kenya. Here you get to experience one of the most spectacular views of the valley – the breathtaking panoramic land formations that include a dramatic gradient drop, lakes, mountains, craters, and green hills; all in one view. And if you love taking pictures or videos of landscapes, the Rift Valley gives you one of the best scenery.

You also get to experience the wildlife of the Rift Valley – just by driving along the main roads - no need to veer deep into the wild. The most common wild animals that you are almost guaranteed to see as you are driving along are: zebras, giraffes, gazelles and baboons. And if you are lucky, you might see a cape buffalo here and there. If you are a bird watcher, you will not be disappointed either. You may be able to see, yellow-billed and maccoa ducks, pelicans, egrets and herons, black kites, white-crested turacos, verreaux's eagles, and of course, flamingoes.

However, I do recommend that you visit the many lakes and national parks along the Rift Valley for a more exciting wildlife experience. Some examples include, Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru National Park, Lake Baringo, Lake Bogoria, Masai Mara, and Hell’s Gate National Park, among others. And by the way, Lake Bogoria is also known for its beautiful hot springs and exciting geysers.

Can Nationalism Go Too Far? The Case of U.S. Minutemen:

Yes. I think this a classic case drawn from the dark side of Nationalism. I would care less for the Minuteman Project since clearly this is a right leaning political outfit. However, the larger issue is whether this group and many others like it can lay a claim to nationalism or patriotism for that matter; I think they can, and that is where I see a problem.

The many problems of nationalism include an ideology often modeled on exclusionism, exceptionalism and xenophobia. These groups fit this model perfectly. I remember years ago when Bosnian refugees were settled in this country without much controversy. But just a few years later, the settling of Somalia refugees caused uproar from similar rightist groups. So, you have two identical situations with completely different reactions. I would argue that the Somalians were simply seen as different and hence the sentiment that “they” needed to be excluded from “us.”

And when it comes to the Mexican border, those crossing illegally (or legally) elicit all sorts of emotions that often include xenophobia. For instance, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is just as concerned about illegal crossings from the Canadian border as they are about the Mexican border, yet you hardly hear of any controversial measures such as building walls or “community” watch groups in the north. There is a certain stereo-type of an illegal immigrant that is wedged deep in the American psyche which highlights many salient features that never seem to blend in. The text puts it better, that we “ignore our many and manifest similarities and perceptually divide ourselves into [groups]” (Rourke, 2008).

The human race has always been on the move in the search of a better life. That is why the native Indians crossed present-day Alaska from northeastern Asia around 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, during the glaciation of the Ice Age. A few thousand years later, Europeans followed with their own valid reasons…you know the rest of the story. The point is that we have always moved to better pastures. And who knows, a few hundred years from now we’ll all  probably move back to Africa after ruining this place with over-mining, over-crowding, and pollution. My only hope is that our fellow Africans will let us back in.

NOTE:

Except where noted, the ideas in this article are adopted from a course text book (below) for general discussion purposes.

        Rourke, T. John. 2008.  International Politics on the World Stage. 12th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

The Power of CSS

Web designing has come a long way. When I designed and published my first website, which is now probably owned by some scammer, web design software and markup coding were still in their infancy. So the safest way to go was by basic Html coding, and therefore, that I got used to this method.

A few years later CSS (cascading style sheets) came along, however, there were many compatibility issues across web browsers that I stayed away from it. Well, that was then, today I just finished working on a small website, http://annunziato.org/student12/ for course, “Exploring the Internet.” I was skeptical about using CSS at first, given my previous experience (or in experience), but I was quickly drawn to its sophistication in handling Html’s mark-up and repetitive tagging particularly in font styling and table layouts.

Although I have been late to the party on this one, given that I lost interest in web design altogether, I can still recall the pains of having to code every tag; for every different font style; for every table style; for every image used.  Multiply that by the number of web pages required for the website, and you get the picture. And when a client thought that they now needed something with more pizzazz, you basically had to do it all over. Fortunately, with CSS in my tool kit, I can look them in the eye and proclaim, “Certainly! Just give me a few minutes and I’ll get us something we can both work with.”  Yes. For the hand coding bunch, web designing has come a long way.

Tribute to Mr. Ray Bradbury

I chose to write about a blog by Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg, of the Atlantic, titled “Ray Bradbury Struggled for Years before He Got Famous.” The blog is a small tribute to Ray Bradbury, a great science fiction writer and author of the “The Martian Chronicles” and “Fahrenheit 451” who died recently. More importantly, the blog contains a 25 minute documentary video; a short biography where he talks about his thought process as he embarks on a project, and about his own philosophy on work.

I love reading biographies of great people who leave a “footprint” in my path. And Ray is, undoubtedly, one of them. Ray was a much disciplined man. At the age of 17 he already knew what he wanted to do. He was extremely focused, passionate, and excited about his work. He believed that we must be excited about what we do in order to succeed. And he meant it, in deed, the first and the second year of his career he made nothing; the third year he made 10 dollars. He continued to make a meager income and by the eleventh year he made 8,000 dollars. When asked about how he survived on such a small income, his answer was clever and swift, “Just get a part-time job! Anything that's half way decent! An usher in a theater ... unless you're a mad man, you can't make do in the art fields.”

Ray was fascinated by technology and of the contradiction it presents. He laments, for instance, that atomic energy beats cancer but also kills [humans], and airplanes carry passengers or bombs. In other words, there’s a darker side to technology – a side that much amused Ray. In fact, he says that he never starts out writing a story; it comes to him through observation and association – like during a walk or a ride by the river. Or what he likes to call, “giving the subconscious time to think.” It’s during one of those bike rides along the Venice that he observes a telephone box on the telephone network. And so he develops a plot for a story, “Dial Double Zero.” The plot is about a grating voice of an intelligent being that lives in the telephone network – almost like a computer virus that propagates when you call from an “infected” phone.

As we mourn Mr. Ray Bradbury, the take home lesson from this short video for me is: “It doesn’t have to be the greatest; it just has to be you.”

References:

Baldegg,. K., C., M. (2012). Ray Bradbury Struggled for Years before He Got Famous. Business Insider, Retrieved June 5, 2012, from http://www.businessinsider.com /financial-advice-for-struggling-artists-from-ray-bradbury-2012-6

Watch a 25 Minutes Video Documentary of Ray Bradbury

The Effect of the Internet on Established Media

The internet has greatly affected how the established media does business by forcing it to change how it gathers and distributes news and information. In the past, traditional news media relied on advertisers’ dollars; they sold their news prints cheap in order to attract bigger audiences, and in turn, the advertisers rewarded them with a good stream of revenue - life was good (Koen, 2011).

Enter the internet and readership shifted. More and more readers began to shift their focus on a wider array of media platforms. And younger people especially, who grew up with internet and mobile phones, are a major factor for this big shift in media consumption (Gibson, 2006). This shrinking audience continues to be the major reason why many advertisers pull ads or cut ad spending on traditional media. But Larry Kilman, of the World Association of Newspapers, thinks that there is actually an increase in audience if we account for all platforms. He affirms, “It’s not an audience problem – it’s a revenue problem” (quoted in The Economist, Koen, Victor, 2011).

Established media has been forced to grapple with the realities of the internet. They are learning, rather quickly, how to make revenue on all platforms. They are beginning to treat the internet for what it is; a dynamic and interactive type of medium. For example, those companies that simply transfer static content of their traditional news prints to the web are not faring well. But those that treat the internet as a separate entity with its own unique qualities and challenges are doing very well. Media companies like the Tribune have lost this battle, while others like the New York Times and Dallas Morning News are adopting pay content models on targeted audience. Apart from the added subscriptions revenue, these models seem to work well since advertisers are able to track and actually see what is working for them and what is not. For example, Google’s revenue model for “clickthroughs” although not new, has worked well compared to pay per impression which offers little or no meaningful data on targeted advertising.

The best examples for new media borne of the internet are the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The effect of these new media was apparent in the “Arab spring” revolutions that have seen the ouster of various dictators in countries like Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Yemen.  Due to the “blackout” of foreign journalism in these countries, protesters have continued to rely on these social networks in sharing and distributing information beyond their borders.

References:

Gibson, O. (2006). Changing Media. The Guardian, Retrieved June 5, 2012, from http://www.lexisnexis.com.libproxy.uml.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=8422&sr=lni%284JHN-6760-TX37-G286%29

Koen, V. (2011). Reinventing the Newspaper. The Economist, Retrieved June 5, 2012, from http://www.economist.com/node/18904178