Why do I have this?

I have resisted and resisted.  I told my self that I would never create a twitter, and would stay as far as way from the service as possible.  I have always viewed the service as a way for egotistical people to gloat and show everyone else how unimportant their life is.  Either way, as of May 2011, I have a twitter because of an assignment in a class at Clemson.  In an effort to be not as cynical, I have put previous view aside and try to test out the service.  In all honesty, it works quite well, and alot of posts are comical and fun to read.  Regardless, I have learned that I am not as full of one liners and cool quotes as I thought I was.  Over a week, I think I have 6 total posts, with only five dealing with people.  Hopefully twitter will create some more value for me, even though I am completely contempt with reading Bill Simmons's updates or laughing at random hash tags.  So, if you ever get bored, follow me on twitter! twitter.com/jrdavis89

Are you networking right?

At home, I have the opportunity to fix friend's and families computers and networks, handling the most common problems and systems.  One of the most common problems that I see is within network, more specifically routers.  Here is a short guide to make sure you are up to date with your home network.

1. Upgrade/Add Equipment (Most peripherals run on the Wireless N standard and have the capability of being wireless
2. Move the router to a better location (centralized in a the central most room, 4 feet off the ground, if not running on the 5GHz band, away from cordless phone, microwave. etc)
3. Change the channel! (Trying running the router on Channel 11 Extension 3)
4. Upgrade Firmware (Most routers continually receive updates that boost performance.
5. Increase Security (Get off the old WEP standard and run WPA2 security with a strong password.

Most simple network setups can be setup to run efficiently by following these five steps.

America, hide and seek world champions!

Osama is dead!  We won hide and seek! We always do, after all , this is America.  On Sunday, May 1st, 2011,  social media was swept with news of Osama's death and the biggest spike of patriotism we have seen in way too long of a time.  Twitter and Facebook ran wild with hilarious and serious messages about the victory, ranging from "Osama got no scoped #blackops" to "Obama may get some credit for this, but George gets the W."  All agreed, this was a major battle won for the United States, capitalizing a campaign that started all most ten years ago.  How did this happen you ask?  A team of 20–25 U.S Navy Seals from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (SEAL Team Six),^[162] under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command and working with the CIA stormed bin Laden's compound in two helicopters. Bin Laden, three other men, and a woman were killed in a firefight in which U.S. forces did not experience any injuries or casualties.  In support of America, show your patriotism through your social media outlet of choice.

Tapping into the Inner Nerd

Let me start off by just saying that Amazon' new cloud music service is absolutely amazing. That's right, Amazon, not Apple or Google.  I can upload 5 GB of music to the cloud and play it back on ANY internet connected computer or mobile device, for free. This happens to solve multiple problems that I have ran into in the past.  I dont have to drag around a computer or ipods to friends houses to dj at parties, or show someone a new song, without having to deal with Youtube's awful compression scheme.  I can always have songs with me, and not have to worry about cumbersome syncing or running out of storage space.  I have started the service today, and will add to this blog after further testing of the service.  My hopes are extremely high.

Why cant we just commerce about this?

Ecommerce has evolved exponentially since Tim Berners-Lee invented the first web browser, and opened a new door for businesses across the globe.  Nowadays, almost all of common items found in brick and mortar stores can be purchased online through various companies.  As we take a closer look into a particular website, stores.greygrouptraining.com, we can quickly see that the website deals within the B2C business model.  After more research, the site also uses B2G, due to the nature of the items being sold, and their availabilty/pricing that entices government purchases.  Having more than one business model allows grey group to continue selling product even if one side of their equation is somewhat lacking.

Your momma let you date yet?

Online Dating is an emerging trend, one that has been said to have been used or will be used by 1 out of 4 people in my generation.  Out of all the different dating sites that are accessible to the market, eHarmony and Match.com are by far the most popular.  They both are geared toward singles looking for the opposite sex.  eHarmony is unique in that is uses prescreening and personality tests to match people on that share common attributes.  Match.com plays on the fact that it is so big, and users have "many fish in the sea" to chose from.  Both allow users to create profiles so they can seen by potential matches, and allow chat and messaging for setting up face to face meetings.  The websites are able to harness data from user input, and match algorithms to them to sell the user products (or people).  eHarmony will run the user about $19.95 a month for a 12 month subcription, where as Match.com is about $16.99 for a subscription of 6 months.  The value is completely left up to the user, but I could see it valuable if the user was fortunate enough to find a wife/husband out of the service.  Either way, most likely before I get married, somebody will get me involved in an online dating site.