Friday, November 30, 2007

Republicans go to YouTube

The Republicans are trying to reach a younger audience.

On November 28th, they had a televised debate on CNN. They also put it on YouTube.

I think this is an interesting way for politicians to try to reach a younger audience. This sort of reminds me of how Howard Dean went from being somewhat unknown to almost being the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 because he had a blog. People are tired of political ramblings, I think the time is coming where politicians will be more "real people" who admit mistakes, rather than hide them.

Ok, maybe not, but I can hope.

Anyway...Here is the YouTube link. It apparently got very ugly, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani faced some sharp questions from some of the other candidates.
http://www.youtube.com/republicandebate

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Greening: PC Recycling

One of the terms that has been thrown out a lot this year is going green. Basically, this term implies being environmentally sound.

One thing that many people don't know is that most computer (and electronics, for that matter) should not simply be disposed of. There are some things that can cause contamination and all sorts of other bad things.

According to the Web site I will link you to, it's estimated that fewer than 1 in 4 Americans (less than 25%) recycle their computer components.

What can you do? Many towns locally (West Paterson, North Haledon) have free drop offs for technology. You can look these things up on Earth911 - a Web site devoted to recycling and "going green".

Earth911's computer recycling Web site:
http://earth911.org/recycling/computer-recycling-reuse/
(when you search, you want to find only "Municipal drop-offs" - those are the free ones)

Earth911's main Web site
http://earth911.org/

Monday, November 26, 2007

Tenure

I just received the phone call from my Vice President, Dr. Kineavy. The PCCC Board of Trustees has accepted the school's recommendation to grant me tenure.

What does this mean for me? Well, for one, job security. Secondly, the ability to really say what I feel in meetings without having to worry about angering this person or that person. Third, the satisfaction of a job well done so far.

Looks like I'll be at PCCC for a while, and I look forward to it!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thanksgiving 2007

To all of you and yours, I hope Thanksgiving 2007 is a day to remember!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Myspace hoax leads to a suicide

People can be mean sometimes.

Apparently, some people created a fake myspace account and contacted a young woman, who was prone to depression. The young woman apparently befriended the person, who eventually told her she was a bad person, and this was enough for her to commit suicide.

It's amazing a) how cruel people can be and b) how easily people will throw their lives away in this country sometimes.

It's kind of bizarre, because there was an adult in on this hoax, doing this to the young woman.

http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/technology/2007/11/17/Internet.Suicide/?cvqh=itn_myspace

Monday, November 12, 2007

Black Friday

My favorite holiday of the year? Black Friday.

What is Black Friday? Basically, it's the day after Thanksgiving. Since many people have the day off, companies offer excellent deals. For example, I got a $400 brand new laptop last year, with a printer. The drawback? It sometimes requires being at a store at 5:00 am.

For more info, check out Wikipedia's entry on Black Friday.

Anyway, this year, Staples apparently has a color laser printer under $100, and a laptop for $350. Best Buy apparently has some DVDs as low as $2.50, a $35 MP3 player (2 GB), and many more things. Target has a 19" LCD television with a built in DVD player for $200.

How do I know? Well, you can get your Sunday paper next week to get a list...or you can find a site that has them.

http://bfads.net
http://www.blackfriday.info

I love this day.

Linking to Illegal Stuff - Illegal?

If you link your Web site to someone providing illegal stuff, is that necessarily illegal?

It's a gray area, to be sure, but one of the British sites that did that, TV-links, was recently shut down, EVEN THOUGH THEY DID NOTHING ILLEGAL.

It's a scary precedent.

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/10/tv-links-is-the.html

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Finland Shooting - Foreshadowed on Youtube

A student in Finland posted a disturbing video and comments on YouTube hinting at killing people in high school...and then did it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071107/ts_nm/finland_shooting_dc_13


The video has been removed from YouTube, but at the moment, it's on this Web site.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=369_1194449557

Always sad to see this sort of thing happen.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Vote Smarter

Project Vote Smart is a Web site devoted to giving you information about all candidates running for a position. You can find what they've voted on, what their education is, even what their parents did!

http://www.vote-smart.org/

I personally have a tendency to boycott any candidate who negatively campaigns. You should sell yourself by saying "here's why you should pick me", not "this is why the other person is a piece of garbage". This is why, even though I liked Jon Corzine, I voted against him in the NJ Governor election. I didn't vote for Forrester, either for the record. I voted for one of the third party candidates.

Why bother? Well, Democrats and Republicans wonder, "why are all these people voting for this person". If you had one million people vote for a third party candidate, you can bet they would take note. This is my own personal little protest.

Anyway, if you are planning on voting, check out the Web site. They treat every candidate, from the Corzines of the world to the NJ Weedman the same, and that's what politics are about, right?