blog

i read an article in the san jose mercury news the other day about the issue of flaming in blogs. The article talks about people writing very violent blogs and are scaring users away. one user said that someone wrote a blog and threaten to kill her and slit her throat which scared her away. the article insists that there should be some control over blogs.
in my opinion, i think blogs are a good way for people to give their opinion about certain topics. It is helpful to see what others have to say and what they think about the topic. Over the course of the semester in 100w class, i think blog entry is a good exercise to get people write about their thoughts on certain topics. However, i think there should be some control over it. there should be restrictions to what people can say.

crafting key messages

i was reading the article,"crafting key messages and talking points" by Cornelius Pratt. The article talks about if messages should only contain positive information only like one sided messages, or should they contain both the positive and the negative points like two sided messages. The article goes on about a research that was done on the effectiveness of one sided versus two sided images. Studies show that there are certain situations where one type of message is more effective than the other. For example, two sided messages can be effective persuasive devices. while one sided messages are more suited for lower educated readers.
in my opinion, i think one side messages sometimes loses credibility and truth. two sided messages conveys more information and balances the positives and the negatives of the message. Overall, we should craft our messages depending on our audience. Understanding the audiences expectations is very important in crafting effective messages. To ensure message effectiveness, you must analyze the audience to guide your message development. Then you must make sure the messages are fair and balanced.

2.13 million dollar comma

after i read the article, "comma quirks irks rogers", i realized the importance of punctuation in sentence structure. Before this, i have always thought that a comma is used to join two sentences and fix run-ons . Everytime i want to join two incomplete sentences, i just use a comma. i never knew that it could change the whole meaning of the sentence. Just because of a simple mistake of the use of a comma, the company lost 2.13 million dollar. That's a very costly mistake for a punctuation error that could have easily been fixed with a little editing.
After reading writing that works, i learned that commas are used to link, enclose, and separate phrases. if we use it right, it can clarify and emphasize how ideas fit together. However, if we use it incorrectly, it can lead to confusion and the reader might misinterpret what you want to say. I've learned that puntuation errors can have a big impact on my writing. So from now on, i will start checking my punctuation in my writing to make sure it is gramatically correct and make sure it doesn't alter the meaning of the sentence.

World Hunger

this week in my nutrition class, we discussed about world hunger. Before the discussion, i thought that world hunger only exists in third world countries. To my surprise, i found out that world hunger is also a big problem in developed countries like the United States. There are many people in the U.S. that are homeless and don't have food to eat. There are many non-profit organizations out there that help fight world hunger by providing food and shelter for the needy.
During my spring break, i spent time volunteering at a san jose family shelter organization that provides food and shelter for up to 144 people. When i was there, I helped prepare and serve food for the people living there. The whole experience was good and it also made me feel really good about myself for helping the needy. I think these organizations are great at what they do. These non profit organizations are helping put an end to hunger by providing homeless people with food and an opportunity to make a decent income. By offering our services to these organizations, we can help reduce the population of people in hunger. I definately recommend that everyone should try and volunteer once just to see how it is like to help out others. i , myself thought volunteering was a waste of my time. The whole experience changed my view.

IBM's introduces the high speed chip

IBM is coming out with a new product that will change the way data is transfered. The company introduces a new high speed chip that can download information eight times as fast as current available products. The new product uses optical networking which speeds up communications by sending data as light pulses.
I think this new high speed chip will be great for personal and organizational use. It will change the way people share and access data and information. We are always downloading music and movies over the internet. This high speed chip from IBM will allow us to do this at a very fast rate. We could download a whole movie in about a second. Also, organizations can send and receive data and information at very fast speeds. In an organization, data and information is constantly being transfered. With this new high speed chip, it will help make data transferring more efficient and also communication will be more effective.

Microsoft tackling telecommunications

Microsoft is planning on taking over the corporate telephone system by introducing a new software called Response Point. The software maker is teaming up with device maker like d-link, uniden, and quanta computers to make the actual phone. The phones are designed to be user friendly and has a voice response system. Rather than having multiple buttons for transferring calls and checking voicemail, the response point software allows the user to just speak into the phone to identify the function they want. The software will know all the names in the company directory and will be able to link with outlook desktop and exchange server software.
I think this new software is very helpful to small businesses and making things easier and more simple. People won't have to remember which extensions go with who's phone lines. All they have to do is speak directly into the phone and the call will be transferred. However, i think there would be a couple issues with this software. First, this software will require a lot of new equipment and most small businesses might not want to implement such a costly system. Second, the software might be difficult to setup and manage. Finally, there might also be some security issues with the new software. Overall, i think this is a great idea that microsoft came up with and it will definately make communications more efficient for businesses.

Powerpoint is good

After reading the article powerpoint is evil by edward tufte, there are some things that i agree and some that i don't. I agree with the fact that powerpoint being utilized in elementary schools is bad. i think elementary students should learn the basic ways of writing a report first before using presentations. However, i don't think powerpoint is all evil. depending on the presenter, powerpoint can be very useful. If the presenter knows how to elaborate on the slides and provide the necessary content that accomodates the slides. then powerpoint is really helpful. In my opinion, presentation slides should be a supplement to the presenter rather than replacing the actual presentation. Tables, graphs, and pictures can help illustrate concepts and relationships more clearly than words. For example, instead of writing a whole paragraph to explain something, presenter can just use bullets to point out the main idea and then go into details in the presentation. All the content will be there if the presenter decides to elaborate on the slides. So, the issue is not with powerpoint slides but rather the presenter. A presentation does not lack content due to the fact that powerpoint slides are utilized. It is bad when the presenter just reads from the slides and not elaborating on it.