August 2008 Archives

Today is move in day here at the house, and we're all really excited to see each other and to get back in to school soon. We all have been on vacation for the whole summer so the house has been almost totally empty the whole time. To keep our lease, since this is a great house, we have made sure that there has been at least one person in the house at all times. We all went our respective ways and I personally had a great time.
The first half of the summer I spent with my parents so I could save some money and visit for while. I helped my dad build his new shed for his woodworking and I helped my mother make dinner every night. I still have my online job so I kept doing that, basically editing articles, and that kept coming all summer long. Then for the last month or so I have been out on an internship for the business department trying to beef up my resume and experience for the future. I know that I am only going to be a sophomore this fall but I am smart enough to have realized already that this whole college and job thing really boils down to a contest of resume fat. Then to top it all off I helped the company with their booth at a tradeshow. My job there was actually finding new places and effective means of distributing promotional products and corporate gifts in order to boost interest and sales in the company. At the fair I was of course put in charge of tradeshow giveaways and figuring out which logo merchandise would work the best for each target audience.
All in all this was a good summer for expanding myself through some new experiences. I mean looking back I did a lot. I learned through experience how to build a shed and build a working advertisement campaign through the use of free products. I think that the experience I gained was great and the big name on the resume is really going to help later when it comes up that I was basically still a freshman when I did the internship.

As students today it is very important for all of us to have a good knowledge of computer systems and programs. The more effective our use of the internet and computer technology, the better off we will be when we eventually hit the job market. The amount of skills we have in this area can turn a boring job in to a high paying adventure. Though it can benefit us greatly later in life, these skills can help us with a lot right now as well.
Firms all over the world are turning to the internet for their hiring base. In this job search, there are plenty of jobs that obviously require some degree of tech knowledge, but there are also some that require very specific knowledge. For students there is a great opportunity here because most of these jobs are meant to be flexible and done at a set pace, but on your own daily schedule. For me, this is how I am personally paying for college. I do some editing online that require me to use very specific programs and to make sure that I keep up on those skills. There are plenty of these kinds of jobs out there and if you manage to find one that works for you and is of interest in terms of the task being asked of you, then please do not hesitate because they are perfect for students. My other online job that I have done before is just as a salesperson for tickets to campus events. This required me to either work from their computer or my own, which I did of course, and to aid phone call orders for concert tickets, sports tickets, theatre tickets, and of course football tickets. The job was very rewarding, but it would not have been possible if I didn't have a good knowledge of their operating system before I began the job.
The moral here kids; learn as much as you can about technology as you can while you are here because it will only help you in the long run and may even help you get some extra dough in the short term.

It is really hard coming back to town when summer has just been so much fun. Though I don't start class for another three weeks, it is still difficult to wrap my head around the fact that I have got to just fall back in to normal life after a whole summer in Hawaii. That's right I said it, Hawaii.
My parents moved to Hawaii when I graduated from high school last summer and I told them that I would be spending every summer of college with them. This year I made that promise in to truth and it was probably the greatest summer I have ever had. I had never even been to Hawaii before so it was a huge shock at first. The second big shock was the fact that my parents had a full house built and arranged before I ever got there. Of course their style of decoration was still the same but it was just a tiny bit surreal to see them living there. From there back porch I could hear the ocean off in the distance and there was almost no noise but that all the time. Every once in a while a car would go by outside on the road, but it was usually almost completely deserted. Honolulu was a completely different story though.
I definitely experienced plenty of the nightlife of Hawaii to keep myself interested and excited about being on the island with only my parents. Since there was an endless supply of tourists to the island, the parties every weekend were endless and always awesome. My favorite places were the dance clubs because they could do the luau party theme while still throwing the glow sticks and glow necklaces around. I must have spent all but one of two Saturdays all summer at a club somewhere and by the time I was read to leave I had used up all of my party supplies and spending money. Now I am here and it is certainly going to get some getting used to. Not only is the climate going to be an issue, but the parties here may not be able to stand up to what was going on over on the island.

Right now as students we are supposed to be finding out everything we can on a specific topic that we call our major. Regardless of what our major is, we all must also have a drive to learn as much as possible as well in order to make ourselves better people and our world a better place. I am speaking today in favor of things that are being developed or arguments being had over climate change. I wouldn't imagine that anywhere near a majority of students today want to do something on a large scale or career basis to combat the problems associated with climate change. Though I believe it would be nice for all of us to try and tackle this as a unified society, that would require taking away free will and that is just not part of what is progressive. What really needs to happen, as I have said, is that students that are outside of the career tracks for green jobs, really need to try their best to stay informed on the issues surrounding climate change and what is being done to help the problem on the local level.
One of the biggest, and I think easiest, areas to look in to is that of energy efficient products. Because most people are not really willing to give up their cars quite yet for the bike, or to switch their homes over to solar power, there are options available to make the best of what you have. An example-le being that of the efficient computer or the efficient washing machine. These products are designed to function within the constraints of the situation that we find ourselves in right now and try to make the best of it by reducing the amount of energy it takes to wash you clothes or your dishes. These products also come in the forms of cars like the Hybrids we hears so much about but can't quite afford yet. These are things that every student should keep their eyes on even if they are looking for a career in forestry or coal mining.

One of the most important things for any student whether new or returning to campus this month can do is to safeguard their computer against the new breed of predators. If there is one big lesson that we have learned from the internet it is that there are always going to be some people out there who want to take you for what you've got. The hackers out there today are constantly adapting and changing their viruses and tactics to match what is going on in the world of legitimate internet use. That is why college students, who use the internet quite frequently and for many different uses including financial transactions, computer virus protection is very important.
Early in the school year there are a lot more people around and lot more opportunities for loss of identity or control of your own computer. As the past has shown, it is typically the bigger sites and the higher frequency spots that get hit the most by the worst. That is why there are plenty of resources out there for those of us who really need to protect our assets in terms of technology. Not all of us can afford to replace a computer that has been compromised or an identity that has been destroyed. Many school will provide an ongoing list of computer viruses to watch out for when those emails come in or when you're visiting unprotected sites. For those of us on a really tight budget there is free computer virus protection software out there on the net for anyone to use. Though if you are going to be using a lot of the pay sites where you're handing out your financial information a good deal, you may want to spring for the more expensive stuff just to be sure you're not going to lose it all in an instant. There are plenty of options out there you just have to look. The main point here though is that you really are not safe out there and no matter who you are you have got to be careful and take the proper precautions.

Phone services are all so different, yet all the same. Each service, whether it is providing a line for your home or for a cellular plan, has their own little pitch to get customers in. Even though Chicago phone service is roughly the same as Philadelphia phone service, the plans and promotions being offered in these two cities probably seem completely different. All cell phones seem to work the same (or at least that is the way it looks to me) so how come every different service provider has a different pitch? I just don't understand how different providers selling basically the same thing can have such different prices sometimes. It just baffles me when gas stations have different prices for the same type of gas or different stores have different prices for the same thing, like a loaf of bread or a jar of jelly. The same thing goes for phone service providers. How come Verizon wireless can give me a phone or a service plan that is basically the same as U.S. Cellular, but the price is way off? Thank God I will be taking econ in the fall, because that is going to be my first question. I guess being a pre-pharmacy student has its drawbacks, like all of my classes are labs or science and math related. I should probably throw more econ classes into my schedule so I can learn more about how the real world operates. It just doesn't make sense to me at all. Something that has always been way over my head is the dollar store. I remember when I was in 8th grade I drove past a dollar store with my dad on the way to dinner and I asked him about it and he really didn't know much about it. Then when I was at school my freshman year of college a few of my friends were looking for something so they tried the dollar store. That was the first time I had ever been in one and I just don't get it. I'm not sure if I'm just dumb, but how can everything be a dollar? Some of the stuff was name brand and the same items at the local grocery store or even at Target or Wal-Mart would be more than a dollar. So how come this particular store got to sell things for only a dollar? It all just seems way over my head.

Are all internet connections the same? I am really technologically stupid, for lack of a better word. So when I typed a restaurant into Google the other day (one that is nationwide) and it came up a local address near my house it made me wonder how the internet knew where I lived. I didn't type in my address or any other personal information. Is the internet service the same in Chicago as it is in Indianapolis or as the Philadelphia internet access? How does the computer know to give me the restaurant near my house? It just doesn't make sense to me how it knows the location of the computer. Unless someone has already gone in and programmed it (obviously I know nothing about computers, I probably can't even turn one on and off the proper way, I'm still just pushing the power button, I just learned that you are supposed to actually shut it down a certain way). I feel bad for the computers I have had or will have in the future.
It just amazes me how smart computers are. With a selection on a menu you can change your computers language from English to Spanish to French. It just goes back and forth like nothing's happening. One day computers are going to take over everything. I saw an article about a computerized surgeon. It's just programmed already and just goes about and does the surgery like it's not big deal. I know humans make mistakes all the time, but what if the computer malfunctioned? Or the battery died and it just stopped? And also what about those doctors jobs? It is such a recognition and high status to be a doctor, what if there weren't doctors anymore in the future? What would happen to people's jobs? Would people just become obsolete? Could human beings become extinct? If you think about it, so many jobs already have been taken over by computers, now that we have ipasses we have cut down on the people running the toll booths for example.
It is nice to live in a world with all this information at your finger tips at the drop of a hat, but you also have to think about the consequences of all of this technology. Will this have a negative effect on our future at some point instead of a positive one? Who knows maybe computers actually will take over the world.

I have been working from home for about a year and a half now and I have loved it. I am a mom and a student and working from home gives me the flexibility I need to be able to balance my responsibilities while bringing in some much needed cash. Anyway, I got this job through a friend of mine and I do medical transcription from my home. If you don't know, the way this works is that I call in on the phone and get my jobs and I type what they read in my ear, basically it is that simple. Anyway I am a really good typist and so this is a great opportunity for me and the more I type the more I make. Now the company that I have been happily working for is closing and I really need to find a source of income quickly. I am not really sure where to begin my search, however, I do know that I really want to keep working from home. I don't want to have to go out into the work force. I like being able to keep my daughter home when she is sick, or go on a school field trip, or take a day off from work to work on a paper or study for a test. These are all benefits that I would definitely have to sacrifice if I went out to work again. I have been trying to find another medical transcription company that I can work for, but so far I have been relatively unsuccessful. While typing my fingers to the bone on Google trying to locate some from of typing online job that I can do from home, I came across a job opportunity typing for a SEO company. They do online marketing and search marketing for companies and they need a lot of typed content and I know that typing is definitely my thing. I contacted them and they described the job and it sounds like a really great opportunity to make some good money. It will be a lot different than my current job in the fact that I will have to create the content I type, but I think that I am creative enough to do it. I am sending them a test run tonight to see what they think. I guess if they like it I am in.

Today I finally got all of my new credit cards and my new driver's license sent to me. I haven't gone to get my new student ID card yet, I think I'll do that next week. All of this is sort of the end result of my recent run in with the darker side of the internet. Looking back now, I don't think that I had ever really considered safety to be a real issue when I would go online. I think that I have always been one of those people that takes the relative ease of accessing the spoils of the internet and creates this idea that nothing bad can happen online. Unfortunately for me, this is not true at all. Now I understand that web application security is a huge issue.
The whole incident began when I was trying to purchase some clothes from a small website online. When I went to checkout I entered in all of my information and when I clicked confirm the site jumped to an error page. I went back and checked that my order had been received. My card showed that it had and so I just went on with my night. It wasn't until a couple of days later that I got a call on my phone that was confirming some massive and strange purchases on my card that I had never been a part of. Apparently there had been some kind of a PHP security issue with this little site and a hacker had just sat there waiting for someone like me to buy something. When the page jumped to the error message, that was really the hacker redirecting me while he or she took everything I had from me.
Since then I have been really paranoid about the internet and I make sure that any sites that I even look at are somewhat protected. I also have to keep a good eye on my credit score because they could go out and use my information in some other way without my knowing and ruin my financial future. I think that this is one of the less represented views on the internet and I feel that we all should watch ourselves while using the internet.