Digital library surpasses initial goal of 1 million books

I read an article titled "Digital library surpasses initial goal of 1 million books" the url link is: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/29/digital.library.ap/index.html


The article is about how the computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University started a project with huge expectations. These expectations are to digitize the entire published works of mankind and make them freely accessible online. The builders of the library have just recently surpassed their latest objective: scanning more than 1.5 million books. Most of these books are in Chinese, but the number of texts in English follows behind with a few hundred thousands less. The scanning of these books is important to anyone with an internet connection because users now have access to a collection of books the size of a large college library. The United States, China, and India have all put forth $10 million to help fund this project. This is not the first project of it's kind Google and Microsoft have teamed up to create a similar library. However, Google and Microsoft's library is smaller and it's purpose is non-commercial.

I found this article interesting mainly because I am a college student and I often need to do research and having access to a library online could really help me. I can now research from the comfort by my computer at any time I choose instead of dealing with library hours that don't always fit my schedule.

Google at the Gas Pump

I read an article titled "Google at the Gas Pump" the url link is: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/07/google.pump.ap/index.html

The article I read this week was very interesting. The article was about how Google is teaming up with the company Gilbarco Veeder-Root to make finding your driving destination a little bit easier. At a few thousand pumps around the country there will be an internet connection that allows drivers to use Google Maps. At the pumps the drivers can scroll through many categories such as local landmarks, hotels, restaurants, and hospitals that are selected by the gas station owner. Once the driver selects a location the directions can be printed off. Gilbarco Veeder-Root plans on one day giving drivers the option to look up an address instead of scrolling through locations.

I enjoyed reading this article. I think that having the ability to look up directions at a gas pump is a great idea. Gas stations with these pumps will be favored over other gas stations.

I read an article titled "Google at the Gas Pump" the url link is: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/07/google.pump.ap/index.html

The article I read this week was very interesting. The article was about how Google is teaming up with the company Gilbarco Veeder-Root to make finding your driving destination a little bit easier. At a few thousand pumps around the country there will be an internet connection that allows drivers to use Google Maps. At the pumps the drivers can scroll through many categories such as local landmarks, hotels, restaurants, and hospitals that are selected by the gas station owner. Once the driver selects a location the directions can be printed off. Gilbarco Veeder-Root plans on one day giving drivers the option to look up an address instead of scrolling through locations.

I enjoyed reading this article. I think that having the ability to look up directions at a gas pump is a great idea. Gas stations with these pumps will be favored over other gas stations.

Microsoft's four-letter #&!? Word

I read an article titled "Microsoft's four-letter #&!? Word." The url is : http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/04/technology/wordreview_fsb.fsb/index.htm

The article is about the new Microsoft Word 2007. The new Word 2007 is different from all previous editions of Microsoft Word. These slight differences make Word 2007 frustrating to some users. Microsoft says that Word 2007 is the result of "a voluminous market research effort... we built this iteration from years of feedback on about 6,000 data points in the program." The new Word is not sore on the eyes it is nice to look at and smooth to use if you know how to work it. However, for those who are unfamiliar with the new version it can be very frustrating. New features to Word include a contextual spell checker that catches homophone errors and better integration with Outlook and Excel.

This article was intriguing to me because I know that one day I will be faced with the new Word and have to be able to use it. The new features were especially interesting to me. I don't think I will have any major problems with the new version. I will just have to be patient and practice using Word 2007.

Facebook: More Popular than Porn

I read an article titled “Facebook: More Popular than Porn.” The url link is: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1678586,00.html?cnn=yes

The article focused on internet statistics. Statistics of how Facebook falls into users everyday internet habits. The author of the article is the general manager of the global research Hitwise, so he used Hitwise to gather statistics for this article. The article focused on the internet habits of college students since Facebook is most popular among that age group. The article says that the popularity of porn has been steadily decreasing especially in the 18-24 year-old age group. For the 18 -24 year olds social networks rank first, followed by search engines, third is web based email, and in fourth place is the porn sites. However, among the other age groups porn is second only to search engines. Facebook and other social networks have also inspired its users to web based email and instant messaging.

I chose to read and post about this article because it is related to the article I posted about last week. I found it interesting to see statistics to see what my peers do when they are online. Once again it is a kind of creepy and scary to read about people watching and monitoring your online habits.

Microsoft invests $240 million in Facebook

I read an article titled "Microsoft invests $240 million in Facebook" the url link is: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/10/26/facebook.microsoft.ap/index.html

The article was about how Microsoft decided to invest $240 million in Facebook. The article states that Microsoft’s investment was more than Facebook revenues in a year. However, Facebook is the second largest social network and is only growing faster. Facebook is increasing its number of employee’s to support this growth. Sites like Facebook and Myspace attract advertising and that generates large revenue. Microsoft predicts that Facebook could attract as many as 300 million users worldwide within a few years and Microsoft will then be able to get back its investment. Also, the article insights that Microsoft could tune into people’s interests listed on their profiles to gear ads towards them. Microsoft also plans to work with Facebook in other areas that are disclosed at this time.

This article interested me because I have a Facebook profile. It's a little scary that people from Microsoft could look at my profile in order to finds ads that would interest me. The thought of having strangers access my profile is a little creepy and seems kind of Big Brother-ish.

Technology helps firefighters on land, in air

I read an article from CNN.com titled “Technology helps firefighters on land, in air.” The url is: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/10/23/wildfire.tech/index.html

The article focused on the recent wildfires in California and how technology is playing a role in the containment and tracking of the fires. Technology’s role in this is the fact that NASA satellites are used to track the wildfires almost as they are spreading. The California Department of Forestry and Fire uses laptops and GPS in conjunction to locate fires.

I think that this new breakthrough and ideology is necessary to fight these fires quickly. Wildfires not only destroy the forests and environment they also can take peoples homes or lives. This new method of detection can help minimize the destruction of forests and peoples homes.