module 13

               When I first started reading "The World is Flat" I never realized i could look at the world

like that.  When I look at technologies and innovations of today I did not see them like Thomas

L. Friedman,  I saw them at just being inventions to to make everybody's life easier.  Of course all

of the inventions and innovations do make things easier they also made things better.  I used to work

Wal-Mart unloading the trucks full of product and I never once thought about how the product got to

my store,  I knew that it came from the distribution center and that people picked the orders but

I didn't know how they got those items in their order.  When someone take an item off the shelf

and it gets rung up at the register the computer lets the distribution center know so they can refill

and keep that item in stock.  I always thought people went through the store and ordered whatever

they wanted.  I never realized in depth of how a lot of these companies work and how they

outsource a lot of their departments to different parts of the country and world.  I have experienced

most of these innovations but never realized that I did at the time.  I have called tech support, paid a

bill over the phone, sent an item to be repaired, worked for distribution centers and retail stores,

and many others,  I never knew the inner workings of these innovations that these companies

use to make their business flow.  I feel I have learned a great deal by reading "The World is Flat".




              When I think about science fiction I think about things that authors, movie makers, and

other talented people dream up to make their stories great.  I did not consider the they could

be a look into our future.  A lot of the sci-fi movies that I have seen in the past, I think have

shown some variation of what our world looks like and operates today.  Someone has to dream up

all these great ideas that are in movies, games, books, and T.V. shows and if you can think it

I think you can make those thing become a reality.  When I watched an older science fiction movie

now its fun to point out some of the thing that we have now in real life.  The book " The World is

Flat" and the rest of this course has taught me to look at things with differently and has shown

me in depth how  a lot of companies work.  

module 12

               Bill Joy fears the genetic, robotic, engineering, and nanotech inventions of the world. You

can fear these things and you can also be happy that these thing exist.  These thing make the world

a better and easier place to live in. 


               I can see where someone can be afraid of these things.  These inventions can take over

everything that we do if we are not care full and monitor the way they are built.  We need to

control technology not let technology control us.  A lot of the technology we have today already

us like our smart phones.  Smart phones have made everything so much easier for us that we

can not leave the house without them in fear of what we would do without them. 

The more technologies that we invent to make everything easier is eventually going to take over

everything we do to the point where we don't have to lift a finger to do anything.  Now you

need someone to provide maintenance on the machines that do our work in the future there

will be another machine that will maintain the machines.  Of course like in the article there

will be personal technologies like cars and computers and TV's that we can still operate but

in the future and probably now those inventions can update themselves with new files and

abilities.  Pretty soon the updates will be able to repair our products and the updates will

be so advanced that it will seem like our products are brand new.  The only thing that the

future will need from us is to enjoys these products that genetics, robots, engineering, and

naotech create.  Instead of humans enjoying the perks of new technologies in the future

it will be the artificial intelligence that we create enjoying them.

mod 11

               When I think about movies with computers as their base I always thing about the movie

Hackers.  Hackers came out in 1995 when the internet was unfamiliar to everyone.  The movie

follows a group of computer hackers that are out to take down a giant corporation.  During the movie

the group of hackers have a competition between themselves.  In the competition two of the group go

head to head to see who the better hacker is.  they go on to control things like credit card

information, traffic lights, ATM's, and the lights on an office building.



               All of the thing that the hackers do in the film hackers can do today and more.  In the movie

it does not really show the hackers writing code, it shows them traveling through the inner workings

of the computer.  I think the movie does a good job showing what hackers can do and how much

damage they can do.  Today can accomplish a lot of damage, one incident that I am familiar with

is the crash of the Playstaion Network.  The Playstation Network was down for about two weeks

and everyone was worried about their credit card information that they use to purchase items

in the Playstation Store.  Sony found out that the crash was due to a hacker group.

Since the crash Sony had to rework their security for their network and apoligize for their lack of

security.


             A lot of movies that focus on what computers can do in the future like Minority Report,

I don't think Minority Report is a look into our soon to be future.  I think it will take a long time

to get to that kind of look in to the future technology.  The film The Matrix also has a story line

that I don't think we will be seeing in our future.  Although it would be cool if we were able to

 be sucked in to a computer world and learn anything with a port attached to our necks.


               With the movie Hackers I think it is a more true to life look into the future of what

hackers can do.    

module 5

what is the triple convergence and why is it important
in the story india and indiana who is exploiter and who is the exploited party
what is intellectual property and why is it important


                Triple convergence is based on the three convergences.  Convergence number 1 is a global

playing field the allows the collaboration among many countries and people.  it allows people to

share their ideas and knowledge without the barriers of language and that they are in different

countries.  The second convergence breaks down the traditional store or workplace by letting people

work from home with their computers and letting people shop on the internet with the use of a credit

card.  The third convergence allows a much bigger global playing field in which people can compete

and share even more of their innovations and ways to  make everything easier and more excesible.

I think triple convergence is important because it has allowed us to do alot more thing in our world

quicker and easier due to the innovations that people are coming up with to make the world flat.


               In the story India Vs Indiana I think the exploiter was the government that shut down

the deal and the exploited was everyone that would have benefited because of the deal.


               Intellectual property is somebodies product or invention.  A lot of times when I hear the

term intellectual property is when game developers come up with new franchises and they talk about

their new IP that they want to talk about.  Intellectual property is important because people want to

protect want they have come up with.

             

short story

            When I started to read the short story I had to keep reminding myself that it was written

and published in 1946.  The story seemed like it was written today but with all new terms for

computers and its accessories.  Terms like the name for the computer tower itself  was called a tank

and the big computer was called a logic and his name was joe.


            When I remember that the short story was actually written in 1946 it makes me think that

the person who wrote the story must be able to see the future.  The author writes about being able to

type any question that the user wants to know about or learn how to do into the logic and the logic

will reply with the answer.  Today we do the same thing with our computers, if we want to know the

answer we can look it up in Wikipedia, Google, Answers.com, or any other search engine.  In the

one man asks his logic how he can rob a bank and one man asks how he can get rid of his wife.

No matter what the question whether it be for good or for evil the logic will spit out the answer.

The same is true today with our internet.

            The story also touches on the security issues that we also have today.  When people start

asking about specific people the logic starts to find out about that person and tells you everything

you everything you want to know.  Again the same thing happens today,  you can Google almost

anybody and your computer screen will pop up all the answers you want to know.  Reading this

story is like reading into our future with a science fiction feel to it because of all the different

terms the author uses for the computer world.

dell

describe the building of the dell laptop
does al-queda have a supply chain
what is the curse of oil

               It takes a lot of people and a lot of companies to put to together one Dell computer.  Once

you put in your customized order and your credit card is confirmed your order goes to one of six of

Dell's factories.  The factories are in Ireland, China, Brazil, Tennessee, Texas, and Malaysia it first

goes to Malaysia where the parts are ordered from the suppliers.  Every two hours the factory sends

out an E-mail to the suppliers telling them what parts they need.  Dell also uses multiple suppliers

just in case one supplier does not have a part in stock they can call on the next supplier to fill the

order.  Once all the parts are together someone assembles them and the computer is supplied with all

the popular software and is boxed up and sent to you.  When I think about it it would be really hard

to just rely on yourself to do a job like this.  It takes a lot of people and companies and factories to

together a product.  A lot of people need to collaborate and keep in touch to be able to get the product

out.  With all the technologies that we have now this makes this process much easier and your

product can get to you faster.

               Al- Queda does use a supply chain the difference between their supply chain and wal-marts

and dells is they use it for murder and destruction not for profit nut for evil.  they use outsourcing

to gain new recruits and supply chaining to deliver the tools of destruction to them. 

               The curse of oil is dictators and power money hungry people control the states and

countries with oil in them.  As long as they are tapping the oil wells they are controling the people

and keeping all the power and money to themselves they are weakening themselves by doing this.

               When my dad brought home our first computer it was awesome. The only thing I can

remember doing with it is making it talk in a weird computer voice. Further down the road we

upgraded our computer this new computer came packaged with a program called Encarta

and I thought it was the best thing ever.  I used Encarta all the time to learn about whatever was on

my mind at the time.  When the internet came along it was a game changer.  I used the computer

for all my school work.  If there was a research paper due i jumped on to the internet to get some

information. 


               When I got to high school I had a computer typing class I can remember doing ok

in that class.  I was not the best, to this day I still have to look at my fingers to see what I am

typing.  I also took a computer programming class that I was horrible in mainly because I was put in

AP class and I thought I could do it, I was wrong.  The next year I took the beginners class and did

much better. 


               Now I use computers all the time I am currently using it now to get all my online classs

done.  I jump on wikipedia daily for research in everything.  I think having computers has made

education easier and more fun.   There are many things you can do, you can make game to help you

in learning, there are a lot of software out there you can use for any kind of  education.

              
                  I can't wait for the day when all we have to do is think about something and it will

just appear on whatever screen we have in front of us.  Education we be even easier in the future
 
with all the innovations  in computers.


              

why are some countries or regions better at doing some things than other countries or regions
what are self directed consumers  are you a self directed consumer
does globalization mean Americanization

              Some countries are better than others by having the means to make their products than in other parts on the world.  Some countries can make things cheaper than other countries and are able to ship them to other parts of the country cheaper.  some copponents can be made or found in certain parts of the world and make it easier and cheaper to make their products. Some countries can take an existing product from other countries and make it better and more innovative. 

              For a long time the Japanese and other countries had a strong hold on the video game industry until recently when an American company stood up and decided to make their mark in the video game industry.  Some people might say that the American company beat the Japanese company with a better product and some people will say that the two companies made equally good product. I believe that the Japanese company still has a better product.

              I think globalization does mean Americanization everywhere you go you will see a Wal-Mart, a McDonalds, American movies, American singers, and American every thing.  America wants to be the top dog and in order to do that they need to be everywhere and have the best and talented people around.  My dad was in the military so I moved around a lot I lived in England and Germanyand I have visited Scotland and Holland. Everywhere you went in these places there were American things everywhere.

              Self direct consumers is when companies offer the consumer the tools for their services and the consumer decides what they want according to the tools that are laid out to them.  I think that i am a self direct consumer like in the book I do go to starbucks and customize my drink. I do go on the internet and customize my order of want i want and when I want it and How much I want to pay for it.  I think that the restaurant Subway is the same way in letting you decide how big you want your sandwich and what you want on it you can customize everything you want on your sandwich.                

             

               There are many jobs that deal with computers and networking.  Pretty soon all the jobs you

can get are going to be computer related and thing that we use to do manually are going to be done by

computers.  To be successful today you need to know all about computers because they are

everywhere.


               I have known my friend for a long time and he has always been into computers.  Since

we have graduated from high school he has been in one job and I have been in a couple.  His job

his software development and system administration.  His dad owns the business and he was hired

by him it kinda fell into his lap but he loves it and is good at it.


                His job is to write software using a programming language called C#, I never knew there

were many computing languages I knew of one other called C++ so i asked him if they were the same

and he told me they were different and he prefers C#. 


                The companies that buy their software are mostly auto dealerships and loan institutions

and a lot of them are out of state.  They also provide tech support for their software.  My friend was

pretty busy at his job and life that i actually had to interview him by texting.

               Outsourcing is when you take certain parts of a company like call centers or tech support

and have another company work on them.  Offshoring is when you move an entire factory or

warehouse to another part of the world,  when you do this you can find cheaper labor and lower taxes.


               I know that I have experienced Outsourcing,  whenever I call a company whether it be to

pay a bill or to ask a question,  I always get someone that has an accent or seems to be from

somewhere else.  I don't think that I have experienced offshoring,  I think that is a little harder to spot.


               Supply chain is when you have the distribution center and the retailer and the customer all

working together to keep the flow of merchandise going.  Wal mart uses this really well by keeping

a very keen eye on what the customer is buying and when they are buying it,  so they are able to

keep up with the demand of the product.  I used to work for wal mart unloading the trucks,  everyday

we would get two to three trucks filled with all the different items that everyone was buying.  There

was also an invoice of everything that came in.  I also worked for Albertsons distribution where

all the product was filtered to the different stores.  the stores would order everything and we would

have to pick all of the cases to palletjacks and conveyor belts.  We had to pick so many cases an hour

to get the product to the stores on time for the customers.


              Every time that I went on the internet and search for something I use google,  I soon as I hit

search a bunch of similar ads would pop up.  I find these ads very annoying and at the same time

time they could be help full by informing you of better products.  Google seems to know everything

these days when I type something in the search box I only need to type a couple of letters,  Google

then displays a mile long list of similar items that i was looking for.   

                    Work flow software is an all world supply chain. That means you can have one company

set up in one part of the world and another set up in another part of the world. One company will be

over one aspect of a project and they will be able to send what they have accomplished to the other

company. 


                  When a video game developer begins a new project they will have different smaller

developers set up all around the world.  One developer will be over the game engine, one over the art

art of the game, one over the level structure, one over the story and so on until all aspects of the game

are covered.  With the work flow software those developers are able to send their work to the other

developers.  By doing this all the developers can be on the same page.  When all the developers are

done with their assigned duties they can send the game out to manufacturers or the digital distribution

sites.

                    Open source software is when you contribute or re write a program to make it better.  I

think that open source software is important because there is always going to be someone that is

going to be able make it better.  Maybe you have a program that is not user friendly someone can

come in and redo it and make it easier to use.

                      Outsourcing is using other companies or countries that can do the work better at a

cheaper cost.  Outsourcing is important because it can better develop an under developed country by

sending them work ad that country can do it better and cheaper.