The media repeatedly infiltrates our minds into discerning the vastly popular social networks of MySpace and Facebook, stating that they are a breeding ground for online predators and irrelevant and inaccurate discussion between life-less teens.  Additionally, on occasion, the media further asserts that while many blogs and forums are advocates for free speech and liberalism, they lack sufficient levels of accurate data.  Such claims mask the true potential of most online networks and blogging services: they are more than just outlets for life-less teens to blab on about high-school gossip, they are opportunities for one to definitively establish their identity.  Imagine that… the Internet can actually work for you; for nothing more than the time and effort you put forth.  There are a plethora of free online resources to help build an accurate online identity that mimics your personal life and assists in helping you achieve your life-long goals.

Obviously, the intention of this installment of Kudos and Calamities is to highlight the profound availability of resources to construct your own online identity.  The idea truly spawned from the collective media attention to the web pages, blogs, and social networking profiles of the 2008 presidential candidates.  From Clinton to Paul, every candidate is demonstrating their presidential agenda on dynamic sites such as MySpace and YouTube.  If the presidential candidates can secure votes and reach a broad target audience on the net, so can you!  As we delve further into the concepts and methods for doing so, however, I have taken the liberty to list a few pointers here and there that should facilitate the process and have you well on your way to portraying your real world identity through online networks and personalized web pages.
Whether you decide to start your own blog or simply build a professional Facebook profile, it is essential to follow a few simple guidelines. 

1. Personal information should be consolidated to interesting facts and personal accomplishments – your personal grievances and favorite foods are of little importance to anyone who would be intently examining your profile for business purposes.
2. Neutral colors and content is a must – nobody wants to be blinded by psychedelic images and vibrant, unreadable texts.
3. The images and written content must be exquisite enough to not only catch people’s attention and make them come back, but to also convince the public that you are an intellectual who commands respect.

Creating a profile is just the beginning, however.  After the arduous task of constructing your aesthetically pleasing and accurate chuck of the ‘net, you have to be diligent enough to keep it updated frequently.  Old information that is no longer of interest to your target group can drastically impact how you and your online identity are received by the public: you will look like a lazy vagabond if you simply dump a truck load of pertinent personal information on your site, but never update it for months at a time.  Band profiles are perfect examples of why this is important.  If someone visits a band profile and samples some of their tunes, they will most likely come back every once and a while to see if something new has been uploaded.  Obviously, if fresh, new content, isn’t always being provided, the listener will most likely lose interest and start frequenting a different band’s profile (one who is on top of things and releases new tracks once a month).

The benefits of constructing a professional online identity are virtually limitless.  Students applying to university can use their online profiles as a supplement source of supportive information which makes the applicant more attractive (they will most likely search for each applicant’s name online to see what comes up).  Entrepreneurs can use their online profiles as surrogate business cards and free methods of advertising; not only will it help get your name out there, but it will associate your business services with a broader demographic of people.  And, likewise, those who are seeking employment can build a professional based blog and MySpace profile to function as an online resume and offer the opportunity to graphical display personal conquests (projects that you’ve contributed to, etc.).

In My Opinion
In order to be the most successful in life, I have always believed that you need to exploit every available resource that has the potential of contributing to your life goals.  In today’s day and age, technology is certainly a viable medium for presenting yourself as the professional you are.  This can be done in a melody of ways, the most prominent being the construction of an online profile that reflects your professional side.  These online profiles, in my opinion are perfect resources for establishing your online identity; despite the fact that most MySpace pages and Facebook profiles are littered with irrelevant teenage gibberish, the potential to exploit the functions and popularity of online profiles is just too much to pass up.  That’s precisely why the 2008 candidates have dedicated so much time and effort into their online identities.

So what are you waiting for?… start your own blog, build a social networking profile, and start to make the Internet work in your favor.

While this procedure is still largely in use and is practiced today, the quick diffusion of the Internet into our everyday lives has brought upon Internet shopping. With each impending purchase, instead of thinking of a shop you might go to, you might use Google, or Yahoo! instead to find the product. Or then again, you might go directly to a specified website (Newegg, Amazon, etc.) to find a product. You look around for the lowest price, but also the reputation of the reseller. But now that products are a two-dimensional picture on a screen, how do you know how the product is? For instance, if you were purchasing a car online, how would you know what condition the product was in, whether or not the facts written by the product were indeed true, and that it is ultimately worth the money you might pay for it? Well, you wouldn’t, at least for certain. And so you trade in peace of mind for convenience.

Researching Products: Review Websites

Chances are, in order to gain more knowledge about the products that you want, you’ve visited product review websites. While there are literally thousands out there, the some of the more well-known ones are CNet, HardOCP, as well as Tom’s Hardware. By visiting these review websites, you’ve probably garnered a greater amount of knowledge about the product. But in reality, you are relying on others to rate and review the products that you are considering. Reviews, though, are generally accurate on reputable websites, since they need be truthful and fairly accurate to account for their reputation.

As a case and point; when my older 802.11b Netgear wireless router was dying after several years of use, I decided to jump to an 802.11g wireless router to replace it. I did a thorough search of wireless routers and I eventually came upon Linksys’ WRT54G and WRT54GL. From research, I found out that apparently, the WRT54G has a chronic restart problem that results from lower amounts of memory and a recently implemented firmware. While power cycling a router is needed from time to time, I wanted to avoid that. The Linksys WRT54GL, which they offered with the older, larger bank of memory along with a flexible firmware, garnered better reviews than its counterpart. The reviews also went into how the “L” version could be flashed to a different firmware — “L” hinting at Linux, that is.

To that end, product review sites offer generally trustable advice. Keep in mind that certain sites may have subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) biases towards certain brands and products.

Peer Reviews: Customer Surveys

Customer satisfaction reviews and surveys are something you have to watch out for. When you buy a product, you actually have the product in your hands which may lead you to review it for other folks like you. Because it’s no longer just an image on a monitor, you may have that certain “leg up” on the situation — that your first-hand experience may be valuable to others.

As with any other personal and unlimited review, you must be careful when reading it. The person who may have written the review may have a motivation for writing it, or, more likely, a pre-determined impression of the product. You also cannot judge whether or not the reviewer is simply ignorant, or didn’t know better. There are a number of facts that you must weigh when using user reviews as a gauge for product quality. To that end, customer reviews should be taken with a grain of salt.

My Take: Evaluating Products

First and foremost, since products are no longer “tangible” as they always used to be, you must rely on someone’s review in order to find out information about the product. That said, you must know where to look for honest feedback about a product. While I do consider product customer reviews when looking at a product, you must know what to trust and what not to. There is rarely no motive for someone to post a review — rather, they do it for a purpose. In addition, you cannot trust that the user is necessarily knowledgeable enough in the field to make certain products. The anonymity of the Internet allows people to post without their “pride on the line.” They do not necessarily have to be honest.

All in all, I generally trust large reviewers’ publications. Usually, those people are very knowledgeable about the products they review and can provide the insight that consumers can appreciate. However, when researching a product, just keep digging. To some products, like a processor or software, there are tangible tests done about it that can be analyzed for the consumers. With all the tools available today, it’s just up to you to research the product thoroughly.

The concept of company newsletters is great: a cost effective method of sending out informative broadcasts to thousands of members of their target audience (people who admire the company enough to ask to be on their mailing list). In reality, it is the company’s dedication to providing quality content that drives one to even want to subscribe to their email newsletter. Take this site for example; PC Mechanic is renowned for its unprecedented ability to deliver quality computer related content and its newsletter (in addition to its daily tips) support this attribute of PC Mechanic. Despite the occasional email-based advertisement regarding the site’s products, PC Mechanic’s newsletters are informative, reliable, and entertaining. The same cannot be said for many other company newsletters, and while I’m not going to point fingers, I am going detail the ascending calamity that many company newsletters are becoming a part of.

Avoiding the obtrusive junk mail that tries to pass itself off as being a company newsletter isn’t ridiculously difficult. A vast majority of these phony email newsletters emigrate from sites that force their newsletter upon you. These are often commerce sites that, once you do a transactions through, already have your email on file (for purchase confirmation letters, etc.), or companies that have little depth to their main site. Simply resisting the “join our newsletter” pop-ups and unchecking the persistent “check here to receive site updates, promotions, and more” options that appear after providing your email to online commerce sites, will drastically reduce the magnitude of useless and uninformative mail you receive in place of pertinent company newsletters. GoDaddy, another site which does, in fact, offer a rather informative and entertaining newsletter service, allows users to choose whether or not they would like to receive email updates on sales and upcoming promotions. Despite having promotional emails that in reality are mildly obtrusive, simply having this option to select which email newsletters you would like to receive is a Godsend.

Identifying which email newsletter services are actually worthwhile is slightly more difficult. If a site regularly publishes content and doesn’t force its newsletter on you, you are pretty safe subscribing to their service. Other clues that indicate that a site’s newsletter is more than just trivial promotions and advertisements can be uncovered as well. If a site willingly publishes, or archives, back issues of its newsletter, you can always take a gander at the depth of the email’s content before subscribing. Additionally, if a site broadcasts that it is easy to unsubscribe from their mailing service and then promotes the fact that they don’t redistribute your email address to spammers, it is more likely that you will be receiving quality newsletters as opposed to uninformative trash. Distinguishing which sites are going to fill your inbox with junk newsletters and which ones aren’t is often a trial and error ordeal — it is tough to find sites, like PC Mechanic, which email quality newsletters with regularity.

In My Opinion

I can’t necessarily blame the vast number of sites which use email newsletters as a means to broadcast uninformative advertisements and useless banter and testimonials. All in all, it is just another source of income, and over time, the natural selection of the Internet will weed out newsletters that nothing but junk mail in comparison to some of the quality email-based content that is available. While it may be a hassle to continuously try out new newsletters and then unsubscribe from their mailing service, it is often worth it in the end if you run across a site like ours which offers superb content both on the site and through its email newsletter. One tip to subscribing is that you can set up a separate account specifically for trying newsletter subscriptions, so in case you do receive undesirable content even after unsubscribing, your main account won’t be bombarded by it.

It seems like more and more the Internet is overflowing with ludicrous and unnecessary websites and services; many of whom won’t last long in the highly competitive World Wide Web. Chances are you won’t tumble across too many quality newsletters. But, if you look for the aforementioned indications that the site you are visiting has a reliable and informative newsletter, the hunt for quality email-based information should be relatively easy.

Wait. Is email the means of communicating today? Do you still have casual conversations over email, or is THAT even delayed communication?

A New Means of Communication

When thinking about communication, a new wave of sites might come to mind. Specifically, with the social networking movement, Facebook and MySpace. As with many websites out there, it might have been appropriate to assume that this movement is a short-lived phenomenon. But to many, including presidents and founders of Social networking sites, the movement goes far deeper than that. Specifically, this movement is often labeled as a possible new main mean of communication — replacing the venerable email system as our main form of communication. That is quite extraordinary — how the way we communicate things can go through a single company on a single website. The president of Scriptovia.com, Asheem Badshas, mentioned as much: “For me even IM died, and was replaced by text messaging. Facebook will replace e-mail for communicating with certain people.” As a new means of communication, do we simply check Facebook or MySpace everyday to find out how people are doing, or to catch up on friends?

Furthermore, what are some of the ways that social networking sites have affected its users? Does it extend far beyond a simple means of communication?

When you look back at communication by telegrams and snail mail, you can clearly see a difference. Those means of communicating with one another relied on physical transportation which is much slower. There was a tendency to be able to wait on exchange of information. In addition, writing a letter as opposed to typing keys into a program injected a noted level of authenticity in conveying yourself. Granted, you convey more about what you’re talking about when meeting with someone face to face, talking to that person right in front of them. However, text in a program is a series of codes that have no emotional or conveying value. It’s just a series of 0’s and 1’s. What’s to come from that?

A Shift in Social Attitudes

In any computing site, whether it be Facebook, Microsoft’s Wallop, or MySpace, there is “instant gratification.” In short, the time you convey your thoughts to the time that you get a response is so little that you can satiate curiosities instantaneously. Now, instead of waiting for a response from a person who may be tentative about spending the time to write and send a letter, you can instead, use your mouse and keyboard to convey everything you need to. It seems, as a result of this instant exchange of information, that there is more perceived pressure to keep up with everything. You don’t necessarily have to keep mining around, hear rumors, and talk to people anymore — rather, you need to spend more time in front of your computers on any social networking site to soak up information. What used to be a word-of-mouth exchange of information is now up to bits of data on the Internet.

Be Heard

A part of any Web 2.0 branch is the ability to be heard. The individual user on the Internet has the power to broadcast his/her voice in varied formats. In YouTube, this manifests itself through the sharing of digital videos. For blogs, you can broadcast your own feelings and thoughts. And similarly with social networking sites, you can control the content that you post and read and you can be heard. The ability to make you heard is easier now that the world has “shrunk” as a result of instant communication. Some previous examples range from someone dancing to a Dragostea Din Tei clip to declaring interest in running for the Presidency in the upcoming 2008 election. On Facebook and MySpace, users have even declared engagements through profiles. Quite simply, it’s a powerful medium to be heard and is a large addition to information technology.

My Thoughts: New Communication or a Social Shift?

In the generation where the Internet allows instant communication, I think that many more Web 2.0 services are possible. More specifically, the concept of the new web where you can be heard allows for people throughout the world to be the audience of a service. To me, the movement goes beyond a simple new means of communication. Surely, I still check my email often and communicate frequently using it and social networking sites. However, the simple concept of a world-wide audience allows for many more opportunities to be the “next great movement.” Social networking happens to be one of them right now. And this definitely has implications throughout normal society and life more than just simply your Internet personality. To be armed with the amount of power the Internet has to offer today, any movement is possible.

I’ll leave you all with a quote from the late Peter Drucker: “The new information technology, Internet and e-mail, have practically eliminated the physical costs of communications.”

The quickly evolving online community is a growing outlet to the hassles of phone support lines.  While the benefits of phone based tech support often include solid and accurate responses to your technical troubles, variously online communities accommodate your requests in a timely manner without the auxiliary interfacing with automated phone services, extended periods of waiting on hold, and being passed around from tech to tech re-explaining your problem without persistent answers.  There are definitely pros and cons to both online support communities, like the PC Mechanic forums, and direct technical service phone lines.  Progressively, however, it is becoming easier and easier to find assistance through the many active and well moderated online support sites.  Such truth was presented thoroughly to me just a few days ago.

At work this week, a customer brought in a seasoned Kenwood graphic EQ that supposedly was working previously, but no longer will turn on.  Both my boss and my associate, in addition to myself, were dumbfounded by the apparatus: it wasn’t like any of today’s EQ devices and it certainly wasn’t labeled well enough for us to determine whether there was simply an issue with how it was wired into his vehicle.  I searched online for more distinctive wiring guides while my associate called the Kenwood support line.  Within a few minutes, I found definitive and helpful information that suggested the device wasn’t wired correctly into his vehicle.  Sufficient evidence existed on online communities to solve our customer’s issue and finding it didn’t even require setting up an account on the forums and making a new thread.  Meanwhile, my associate was still being passed around from technician to technician.  Fortunately, after about 25 minutes, he was able to talk to someone who relayed the same conclusion that I found on the Internet; he, however, wasn’t able to provide an accurate wiring diagram via the telephone.  In this case, not only was time and money saved, but the same conclusion was reached through the use of online communities. 

Later this week, the regional technical specialist for Pioneer came into our store to show us the brand new Mobile Electronics Live (MEL) community that Pioneer has launched.  This service not only hosts forums that are exclusive to authorized Pioneer dealers, but it also hosts a variety of official installation guides and technical videos.  The resources of MEL parallel those available through Pioneer’s phone service, but offer the ability for installers to communicate and share installation information with each other — something that the technical phone service doesn’t.  MEL also permits stores to show off the custom work they do with Pioneer products.  The immediate popularity of MEL demonstrates the growing popularity of online communities and the steady progression away from phone based support lines: the forums and features available through Pioneer’s MEL permit a greater level of information sharing that isn’t possible via telephone.

In My Opinion

As online communities continue to grow and manufactures, like Pioneer, begin to host more dynamic forums and online services, people’s reliance upon phone-based support will continue to diminish.  While both mediums may vary well lead to the same conclusion, experience dictates that online searches and forum posts yield accurate responses in a more time efficient manner.  Additionally, the ability to use the Internet to display installation videos and images alleviates the need to contact tech support with individual queries regarding how to install a unit.

My predictions indicate that manufactures will more frequently promote online support services rather than phone based support.  Not only will the technicians be able to respond to posts on forums (instead of phone requests), they can actually post videos and images to help their customers.  The evolving online community is steadily growing in popular in comparison to phone based support lines.  If you’re looking for specific information regarding electronic units, I would highly suggest looking on the Internet before calling the manufacturer.  Chances are you’ll find what your looking for somewhere on the ‘net before you’ll be successful in getting a hold of an actual human on the company’s tech support line.

Like any aspiring computer techie, I eagerly look forward to learning of today’s latest and greatest gadgets, how each tiny component in a computer functions, but most importantly how to make it work for our good. For us, it’s easy to comprehend with our unrelenting interest leading the way — hear about a given product, research it all you can, and finally have a chance to use it. Maybe the drive will carry us to even improve the product. It’s an exciting three-step process. As governed by time, products become more and more complex and as a result, there is an increasing demand for knowledge and understanding of the product being used. Perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves too much — not everyone is the prototypical budding neighborhood tech specialist. With products becoming more feature-filled, it is well to conceive that these products become more of an obstacle to use. For everyone, from users all the way to the manufacturers, it’s vital to keep in mind the key.

Simplicity.

When uttering that word in the context of computers and technology, perhaps one image comes to mind — one company, whose motto to "Think Different," ironically simplified their business approach and the products they release. For me (and certainly for many others, I hope), Apple Inc. came to mind. While their products do not boast the high-tech glowing case fans, or the ultra-modern look, they’ve kept it simple. And perhaps that’s what makes them so successful. Products can be feature-filled, but to consumers who may not have the aptitude or the extensive background as the makers might, simplicity is paramount.

Simplicity. Again: simplicity.

Problems with Complexities in a Simple Task

A couple of days ago, I was tasked with a short film project. After filming the conference, I was asked to edit, and prepare the product. Editing the film is a multi-faceted process. From a normal mini-DV camcorder, you must import it, line it up on the time progression, actually edit it, render, save, and convert the final product. So I imported it, opened up Apple’s Final Cut Pro, and started lining it up and editing the footage. About four minutes in, the system halts. All my files are saved, but the mouse that now resembles a colorful wheel (equivalent to the Windows’ sandglass timer) was stuck in place while focused in Final Cut. Using the Force-Quit command does not force it to quit. After rebooting the workstation, I consulted the system administrator, who faulted the crashes on the "aging" nature of the PowerMac dual-G5’s. Somehow, I didn’t buy that but then again, I’m not the expert. I worked for another hour. After I get on a roll and forget to save for over thirty minutes, the inevitable strikes home — the colorful wheel spun freely as I watched growingly irritated.

Fortunately, just then another "aging" PowerMac opened up. Since the previous user seemed to have no problem using the workstation for over two hours, I decide to hop on over. However, the footage was saved on the original computer’s local hard drive. Because of the way the computers were secured and the size of the file, I could not use file transfer over the internet. So naturally, the first instinct is to grab onto an external hard drive and transfer the files from one computer to another. That’s as easy. Right?

Not really. Because I lent my 80GB USB external hard drive out, my only option was two 160GB Firewire self-built hard drive, one of which emitted the clicking sound of hard drive death when powered up. I power the working hard drive up and connect it to the Firewire port. OS X picks up on it and it shows all the files saved on that hard drive. Great. So I tried to create a directory in the hard drive. There were no available options to do so. Weird. I tried dragging the 13 GB .fcp (Final Cut Pro) work directory onto the hard drive root. "Error - unable to write to hard drive."

My first instinct was to check file permission settings. Maybe the original owner, from whom I borrowed the drives, had strict permissions set to it. No dice. After fiddling around with it, I discovered that, like most hard drives formatted in Windows XP, the drive was formatted in NTFS. For those unfamiliar, NT OS was developed by Microsoft and its file system, NTFS, is used exclusively in Microsoft operating systems. NTFS was developed to succeed the cross-platform universal file system, FAT32. If the drive is not formatted in FAT32, it is natively impossible to edit files on a Mac.

A Simple Solution: Connect one to the Other

After fiddling around for a while, a thought came to mind. All this talk of getting around the NTFS-FAT32 barrier, all this thought going into forcing the system to read the hard drive — it’s too complicated. No sooner had the concept of the crossover cable come to mind — just connect the two workstations and drag and drop. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a crossover cable, but I did have another, much faster data transfer cable in hand.

IEEE 1394, AKA, Firewire.

Having done a bit of research, Mac OS X has a software component called Target Disc Mode built into their operating system. This essentially allows a master computer to read the subordinate computer as a mass storage drive. In short, all but the connection from the Firewire ends to the hard drive cease in the subordinate system. The steps were quite clear and I went through them step by step.

Save all the necessary documents, then shut down the subordinate/client workstation. Connect the Firewire cables, then boot up the client system. As the system boots up, hold down the ‘T‘ key until a screensaver-like display appears. After running through these moves unsuccessfully at first, I determined that the Firewire ports on the chassis must be used as opposed to a Firewire hub. Using the chassis Firewire port, the master computer recognized the two local hard drives as a "mass storage drive." I simply dragged and dropped the file I needed to transfer, a 13GB .fcp extension file. Because of the nature and architecture of the Firewire transfer, the files were transferred in well under thirty minutes.

Again, going back to the theme here — simplicity is key. I could have spent hours and a possible migraine finding a way to transfer the files using a storage media. Instead, the simplest solution was to simply connect the two computers using a simple cable. Don’t bother with the complexities involved with over-the-network file sharing. Just use a simple cable. It’s safe, it’s fast, and it’s easy.

After three weeks of "sharing" monitors with my parents, I decided it was about time to purchase a new one.  I made the obligatory post on the PC Mechanic Forums and I browsed meticulously throughout ZipZoomFly’s monitor selection.  Yet, I just couldn’t commit to a monitor purchase without physically seeing and testing the monitor out in person.  What’s wrong with wanting to get the full monitor experience before buying?  So, I hit the strip with every intention of finding the perfect monitor.  Were my adventures successful?  Unfortunately not; and it wasn’t because there were a lack of applicable monitors — it was due to a much deeper issue that struck a chord with me.  This generally not-so-picky shopper uncovered the awful truth that salesmen are no longer experts in their field.  This week’s Kudos & Calamities focuses primarily on this very misfortune that is spreading through the digital retail world: salesmen, in general, are not well versed in the products they sell. 

So as I sit here in front of my parent’s monitor (once again), I try to compile my rage against the three  large retail stores of which I walked out of without a new monitor, filled with disappointment.  I’ll give you the play-by-play from my eyes — through the point of view of an individual who has a pretty good understanding of computers and is ready to spend money.

My first inquiry was a pretty basic question; I wanted to start a conversation and test the waters.  "Will older video cards such as the nVidia 6 series support these wide-screen resolutions?"  To my surprise (and frustration), all three were pretty dumbfounded and either admitted directly that they didn’t know for sure or faked a response that covered their butts if they were wrong: "Don’t hold me too it, but I believe that this monitor should work."  Now, it wasn’t the fact that they didn’t know the answer to my question that made me mad, it was the fact that they didn’t offer to research my query or verify with someone more knowledgeable. Of all that a monitor salesman should know, one of the most important things would obviously be compatibility. 

My second question was one that was really important to a student working two jobs and barely bringing home enough to cover weekly entertainment.  "Of all these models, could you describe their warranties and which one permits me to bring defective units back here for a new one?"  Apart from knowing a few basic details (such as the length of the warranty), which were probably inscribed on the product’s spec sheet, none of the associates were versed enough in their products to detail the differences between the warranty plans.  At this point, I was not only frustrated with the employees, but I was ready to walk out the door with my money in hand and buy a monitor online without seeing the product in person.  It’s not like the salesmen are answering my questions or demonstrating their product knowledge anyway.

By this point, I wasn’t expecting any of the salesmen to know the answer to my third (and final) question, but I went ahead and asked.  "What are the terms of the mail-in-rebates and how long does it take before I get my money back?"  To no surprise, the sales associates didn’t know and didn’t show any enthusiasm is looking this information up.  On that note, I promptly thanked the salesmen for their time and left the store with steam shooting out my ears and my tail between my legs.

Perhaps poor product knowledge is simply a regional issue, or merely bad luck on my part, but I honestly hope that this isn’t becoming a nationwide plague.  As I mentioned earlier, this deficiency in product knowledge really struck a chord with me.  I, myself, am a salesman.  I started working in sales for a specialty mobile electronics store. I’m one of a few employees there and I am in the process of becoming fully acquainted with the products we sell.  I am far from knowing every last detail about every product we sell, but I am upfront and honest with my customers.  I tell them that I am still familiarizing myself with my products and always offer to research prices and features.  I do not hesitate to ask my fellow associates or my boss when I am stumped by a customer’s question and I never tell the customer something that I am not 100% knowledgeable about.  Unfortunately, the three salesmen I encountered on my quest to purchase a new computer monitor behaved in a very unprofessional manner. Not only were they uninformed about their products and store promotions, they didn’t offer to do any research for me.  They didn’t convince me that they wanted to make a sale and they failed to demonstrate any desire to do professional business with me.

I certainly hope my failed attempts to purchase a monitor shine light on a growing calamity in retail stores.  I find that I am asking myself more frequently, "What happened to product knowledge?" before leaving the store with my money in hand.  All I can say is that you are going to need to do some research of your own before going into a retail store and purchasing products — chances are, the sales associates are equally uninformed on the products available.

It is common practice to protect expensive equipment such as TVs and computers from electrical surges with surge protectors.  I practiced this very well.  All the desktops in my house were connected to surge protectors.  All the TVs in the house were likewise connected.  However, there were two things that were not protected: one Ethernet switch, and the cable lines.  The results of these two devices not being connected may surprise you.

First off is the Ethernet switch.  It was used as a patch panel in my basement; connecting one room upstairs to the router in my room, as well as another switch in the family room.  It cost me a $10 when I purchased it.  This doesn’t meet the requirement of "expensive," so I never thought anything of it and I left it unprotected.

The cable lines were something I never considered protecting.  Sure, Coax cable can carry electricity, and sure, it could probably catch a surge, but I had never heard of it happening, so I never even considered protecting these.

Big mistake.

I wake up one morning and discover that my router and modem were powered off.  Strange.  I check to make sure everything is plugged in, and it is.  I unplug the router and plug it back in.  Still no power.  I go into the garage to check the breakers and discover that three are tripped.  I flip them back on, and return into my room to see if that fixed the problem — which I soon found it did not.

This isn’t good.

The next place I check is in our furnace room, the location of the aforementioned switch; again, no power.  I walk out to the family room and discover, to my disbelief, that my wireless access point is also dead, along with my cable box.  I walk upstairs, and soon find that the computer in that room is dead as well.

This isn’t looking good at all.  What happened, you might wonder?

That night, we had an extremely electrical thunderstorm, and our power line happened to get a direct hit from lightning.  Everything in the house that was valuable was ok, because they were all on surge protectors.  Everything but that one computer was just fine.

An unprotected surge began on the switch down in the furnace room, which (to my surprise) carried over the 4 switched Ethernet ports, which carried to my router, access point, and the computer upstairs — frying all of the above.  Also, another surge went over the cable line, causing damage to the first split of it (our HDTV cable box).

That $10 switch in our basement caused almost $300 worth of damage.  Needless to say: the moral to the story is to be sure every electronic device in your house is on a surge protector.  Those $10 surge protector units may be expensive up front, but they shy in comparison to the cost of repairing your equipment.  I would even go a step further and get ones with cable surge protection as well, to completely safeguard your TVs.

Late in May, Google launched a new application properly titled [Street View] (http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/).  As many of you may or may not know, Street View is an extension of Google’s overhead map service that offers full 360 degree panoramic scenes (taken from a special camera device attached to a van) of large cities including San Francisco, Las Vegas, and New York.  At its core, Street View permits full navigation of cities from the street level.  The buildings, street signs, cars, etc. are each represented accurately from all available angles and while this seemingly handy tool has its benefits, privacy advocates are in high protest to Google’s potentially obtrusive Street View application.

The main controversy arises from the fact that people are photographed and placed on Google’s Street View service unbeknown to them.  So far, various embarrassing and potentially socially threatening actions have been captured, including a disturbing photograph of a man urinating on the road side and a lady accidentally revealing her undergarments while getting into a truck.  But these are just a few of the many Google endorsed privacy invasions.  License plate numbers are shown to the world, addresses of apartments and homes are broadcast publicly, and plenty of people are recognizably photographed outside their offices and homes.  Many fear that people’s private actions could end up on Street View and others fear that criminals could use the service to associate people with their addresses and vehicles to plan robberies or stalk their victims.  At this point in Street View’s short career, it certainly appears that privacy advocates will continue to argue that Street View is simply too invasive.  However, due to the outcry, some clearly offending scenes such as the ones mentioned above have since been taken down by Google.

Google, along with those who support Street View, retaliate to these accusations claiming that the photographs taken are no different that images that could be captured by any individual with a camera.  Others support the Street View service claiming that it comes in handy when scouting out new areas of the city, finding restaurants, and even locating new places of entertainment.  Many argue that it’s a lot more convenient to use Street View to determine whether or not a specific night club is in a safe part of town than to drive or walk there.  Despite obvious privacy issues, Google’s Street View is loaded with various time saving and convenience features.

In My Opinion

I have to admit that I was pretty amazed when I first visited Google’s Street View.  The high resolution images and outstanding navigational abilities of the application shocked me and, like many, I was soon overcome with disgust.  It is my opinion that Street View is simply way to invasive and obtrusive.  I’m a huge advocate for individual privacy and believe strongly that Google’s Street View crosses the line between accidentally capturing someone at a gas station pump in the background of a newspaper headline image and blatantly publishing personal information (license plate numbers, address, etc.) of people without their consent.  My original fascination with Street View was soon banished and I joined the ranks of the millions who are opposed to this profound privacy breech by the ever-so-popular search engine service, Google.

While the history of the internet is certainly one to look at, that is far from where I want to go here. And many of you certainly know what the internet is today without my telling you. More importantly, however, many people are arguing that they are witnessing the end of the internet’s "golden age" as the real-life reality blends in with it. The United States Congress is in a fury of debates as whether or not the international medium, the internet, should be taxed. Local and state governing entities, specifically, are looking to force the national body to channel revenue from it. What does this mean? What exactly is meant by "internet tax?" And what could we expect as its implications?

Before I start off here, I would like to make it very clear that this article is not meant to debate the rights and wrongs of taxation. That is far too political and a subject that would derail us from the real topic at hand — what are its implications?

Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first time that the topic of internet taxation has garnered national attention. In fact, the topic crept up only a few years after the introduction of the internet to the mainstream public. In a way, the topic was deferred and not addressed properly in its first public appearance. The Internet Tax Freedom Act was instituted in 1998. In short, it barred all levels of government from collecting any sort of tax based on general usage of any sort of online commerce. The ITFA, as a result, systematically barred e-mail taxes, bit-taxes, as well as general bandwidth tax. This, however, did not bar taxation of consumer sales accomplished through the internet. As was the accepted policy, the ITFA was twice extended from its expiration. The most current version, enacted in 2004, was entitled the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act. It is set to expire in November 2007 unless an extension is in place.

When the most recent extension, the ITNA, was signed into law, the general consensus was positive. A spokesman from the Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) released a statement which seemed to echo the general sentiment at the time. "With today’s signing of the Internet Tax Moratorium by George Bush, Americans can remain confident that the Internet will flourish as a powerful consumer and business tool," CompTIA group director of US Public Policy said in a statement published in PC World, "Though temporary, the moratorium’s benefits are clear. Internet access will not, for the most part, face taxes." The internet was seen as a valuable tool for consumerism and businesses. As a result of this law, consumers could use the internet as much as they wanted for as long as they wanted for as fast an internet speed as they could afford through the provider.

If we look specifically into sales, any sort of tax on the internet would likely result in internet sales being treated differently than normal physical sale of items. Today, under the ITNA, any normally taxable items (consumer electronics, household items, etc.) are taxed through internet purchase. However, as defined in the legislation, both points of sale, the seller and the buyer, must be located in the same state. That is the main reason why many of you enjoy buying on popular online stores as Newegg or Amazon. Newegg holds is main offices in The City of Industry, California as well as shipping branches in New Jersey and Tennessee. If you are from, say, Massachusetts, you are not asked to pay the county and state sales tax resulting from the purchase. However, if you live in California, you are charged the regular tax amount. Likewise, Amazon, with its main offices in Washington, will not tax you in California (though you are required to voluntarily submit tax through annual state tax returns).

My Take: What Would Taxing The Internet Do?

If there were internet taxing, what would change? Perhaps internet would grow much less than its explosive pace today as a fluid medium for business and opportunity? I would assume, perhaps, that the internet would then be used much more like we used our celluar phone minutes — in moderation. We are in an age of high-speed access to the internet and that has channeled a number of us towards unlimited and unrestrained use, day in and day out. But noting that it would cost you per time no matter what package you subscribe to through your provider, you would be more conscious of your usage. If anything, and if bandwidth taxation is substantial enough, I’d say that we would see surfing habit resembling 56k internet surfers. And as a result, it could seriously impede the tremendous growth we experience in e-commerce.

Taking it a step further, a typical internet surfer may purchase numerous products online — of which he/she may or may not be taxed for depending on where the points of sale are. However, the internet is not limited to direct purchases of products. Remember that on a very basic level, the internet is a medium for information. If a person, say, were researching a product today to buy something in person, that person is using the internet to indirectly purchase a product. If information flow is limited as a result of low usage of the internet, this could certainly impeded real-life economies as well.

In a different, but completely relevant topic, by very nature, the internet is hard, if not impossible, to control. With wireless access points everywhere today, with seemingly anonymous internet surfing we enjoy today, perhaps internet taxing is easier said than done? And since the internet is, by nature, non-geographic, would that not further make problems in uniformly taxing it? One thing, however, is for sure — if this bill were to pass, it would be a major project in terms of simply implementing it. Is it worth all the trouble or is it the absolute evil that many have spoken out against? Perhaps it’s a mix of both — but surely, how things unfold as the November expiration date approaches would be of great interest to a great number of people as its implications may be felt not only in the United States, but throughout the world.