Friday, September 23, 2011

Google vs. Facebook

The great debate is on. Which business strategy is better?

On one hand, we have Google. It started as a search engine. Then added some stuff that people liked. You have a personalized homepage, Google Chrome, Google maps, Google docs... just stuff people like. Now they have Google+ to add to their arsenal. To add to it, if it likes what someone else is doing, they just buy it. Blogspot, for example. Yeah, you need a google account to get a blog on this website. What else? Youtube and Android, to name a few, but in all, Google has acquired 103 different companies to take or incorporate their technology. That costs a lot, but now it's all Google branded, and infinitely more easily managed. They can change whatever they want - they own it.

Facebook, on the other hand, is only a website. It has bought its fair share of stuff too. It has 16 companies and two domain names - facebook.com for $200,000, and fb.com much later for another $8.5 million. All of the things it bought fueled its core website - it brought in talent, and the technology powers everything from the friend finder to the mobile app. But it was still all just facebook.com, as opposed to the dozens of websites Google has under its umbrella. Sounding one sided? Well now facebook wasn't done yet. Instead of flat out buying everything it wants, it has taken a different route. It partnered with other companies. This isn't quite as reliable as buying them out. They are still their own companies. Oh, by the way, facebook just announced a few days ago that they have new partnerships with more than a dozen music platforms, as well as video providers like Netflix, Hulu, and Blockbuster. This provides an interesting opportunity. If facebook plays their cards right, they'll have much more than Hulu and Rhapsody. Their goal is to make facebook a place people never actually have to leave on the internet. Yes, their goal is essentially to become the internet. Or, at least, become an internet browser, but from the other side. It will be the website of websites.

Unlike Google, who seemingly wants to buy the entire internet, company by company, Facebook just intends to use its user base (they have over 800,000,000 users, and recently had over half a billion - with a B - of them log on in a single day) to bait other companies into begging facebook to let them have a presence on facebook. Just think, if you're on facebook and want to watch the most recent episode of Weeds, or South Park, or Glee for that matter, do you really want to go to google, search for it, try to see if Hulu has it, go pirate it somewhere? Not if it's already on facebook. Facebook will have companies lining up to have that kind of advertising. Companies will look at that number of users, which exceeds the US population by a fair margin, and see market potential. They'll line up to try and be the one facebook lets onto their website. They aren't buying companies, oh no. Companies will be paying them instead.

But what happens when facebook's user numbers peak out and decline? All their partnerships fall apart and they're left all alone, just another social networking site that comes second to Google, who probably has the same integrations Facebook does, at this point, but there's a key difference. Google's movie providers, music engines, news, etc. is all OWNED by Google. They can't leave.

So which is the better way to achieving the end goal of owning the internet? To being equated to the internet? To being that company that people someday say, "hold on, lemme get on Google really fast," INSTEAD of saying, "let me get on the internet to check". What if Google's future moves include buying Microsoft? Could there be a Google operating system? Google computers? Google could have it all. Could Facebook do the same?

On a different topic, what I'm envisioning with the Microsoft acquisition is to one day have Google Portal. This creation in my mind is not a program by Google, but a hardware device. Maybe even in public places in addition to hand helds. This thing has one goal: to give you google. Whatever you can do with Google, you can do on this thing. It's a direct connection to the Google internet. But no one will buy that, you say, when you can do all that AND have the rest of the internet with any computer or smart phone. Yes, but what if its a flat rate of a few hundred dollars? What if there aren't any monthly bills? All Google has to do is buy out Verizon, and bam, it can be a phone too. Hell, they could charge a few thousand, and if people thought they could get their money's worth before it broke, it would be a hit.

That's my short little sci fi feature of the night, but back to the original question.... could facebook take google's place in that scenario? They already have that facebook button on the HTC Status; aren't they already closer to the magical device? Either way, I feel one of them will be victorious. I don't know whose side I think will win, but personally, I feel Google has the upper hand. What do you think?

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

back pain.

Top 10 most annoying things to do with god awful lower back pain:

10. Standing still
9. Marching band
8. Dropping anything too big to pick up with your toes.
7. Sleeping
6.. Walking up stairs
5. Standing up
4. Sitting down
2. Putting pants on
1. Sneezing.

Really. Sneezing. Number one worst thing to do with a bad back. I sneezed today and it floored me for 2 hours. So what did I do when I couldn't stand? I had to lay down. Then I had to get up, to go to marching band. And yes, putting pants on made the list. Socks? Shoes? No, you can sit down for those. It's hellish to try and put pants on. Standing, bending over, standing on one foot... just nothing good about it.

Best part of my morning? The moment I feel the advil kicks in. Ugh. I really really hate this back pain shit. I need to get this looked at or something. But that requires walking to the SLC and going up to the clinic, which, of course, is on the second floor of the building. Stairs.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Oh dear, I've nearly forgotten this website, haven't I?

Okay, well to be fair, school started, now didn't it? Which means, between band, accounting, management, marketing, more band, management info systems, stats, and band, my schedule is pretty full. Not to even mention taking care of the dog and my physical social life (get your mind out of the gutter, I just mean life off the internet)...

Right, well, I've been busy. Really busy. Like, no alone free time busy. In fact, I should be doing homework right now, but the old habit of procrastinating has finally returned, now that the first week's hype is over. Think of it like New Year's resolutions..

Speaking of which, I have a couple new school year's resolutions that I hope work out...
  • a real diet. Not like, dieting, just proper meals. I don't want to fall in the rut of ramen and easy mac on a daily basis. 
  • keep working on organization. I can always put this on my priority list. I need to find something that works, or else I'm gonna be forever lost in my own life. 
  • get my financial shit together. If I'm gonna get out of college and play with stocks for a living, a decent personal portfolio is gonna look pretty good on a resume, and besides, I need money. That means making time for research, which could pose yet another there's-only-24-hours-in-a-day problem.
  • exercise. This one's the typical new years thing, but I mean it. I live 2 blocks from Baylor's free gym. I don't have an excuse at all. It's 3 minutes away, if I walk slowly. I think I can spare 45 minutes or an hour to do SOMETHING. I'm trying to stay realistic. It won't be every day, and I won't be running a marathon by December, but physical activity needs to happen. 
  • expand my social circle into the business school. That whole networking concept. I'm looking into the future a little bit, and it may seem like I'm trying to turn friendship into a greedy personal thing, but that's exactly what I'm doing. I've talked about this before.. I firmly believe that connections are at least 60% of what goes into a job opportunity. Given, you have to be able to do the job well, but to get the chance, you need to know people. People need to know you're out there. 
I think that's most of it. I have a couple other small things, but that's a good start. 

Needless to say, all of those things take even more time away from my blog, which sadly comes second to real life. I have to live to have something to blog about.  Speaking of which... another list! Things I have to blog about. This is more for me, but its a little sneak peak for all of you too, I guess.
  • My classes. It's kinda the major thing I do at school, so I'll tell you guys how that's going. Maybe some of the interesting things I learn can make it on here. 
  • An interesting thing I wrote, forgot about, and found a year and a half later. It's like a time capsule. 
  • Updates on above goals. nuff said.
  • I've been thinking about making an economy/financial blog. Right now it's just a thought in the back of my mind, but I think it could be a good idea. It gives me a reason to do some real research, plus it gives me a place to organize my own thoughts and get input and opinions back from other people.
So that's a look into the future, but for now, I need to go do some MIS homework and make some lunch. I'm thinking some corn dogs and veggies (which I forced myself to buy).

(On a side note, I really like the new interface for blogspot. It's definitely copying wordpress to a degree, but it's much more... I dunno, mature looking I guess. It's nice. If you just read without your own blog, it doesn't mean anything to you, but this is my blog, I'll say what I want. :D)

Thursday, August 4, 2011

pottermania, end of the summer, and thoughts of the future..

Lots of exciting things, though I'm not in the right mood to express it right. I'm absolutely exhausted, though I'm not sure why.. I've only been awake for 13 hours, doing a grand nothing all day (yay off days), bringing it to a happy 2:30 in the morning.

But yes, excitement. See this picture here? Yes, it really is a screen shot from my own computer. It just so happens that I knew that it was in chapter 14 that the Quidditch match between Griffindor and Hufflepuff was canceled. I get to be one of a million people that get to set the stage for Pottermore. Considering how many people are Harry fanatics, I consider myself extremely lucky.

But okay, that's only one thing. The biggest thing is that I go back to college in 4 days. I only have 3 shifts left at amc, so its really down to it now. They didn't schedule me on my last day, so I have to pick up on my free movie watching while I'm not working, since that privilege leaves with my employment. But that Sunday I have off before I go up on Monday is going to be a bittersweet day. No work, so just packing and goodbyes. I already had to say bye to Tim, who left for KU on Tuesday morning.

But we all know, when you say bye to some people you're leaving for somewhere where you can say hello once again to others. I'm pretty excited to go see all my Baylor friends again, and permanently this time. No more 2 days here and there when I have a day or two off. It's the real thing this time, and I'm beyond ready.

On a completely different note, kinda, I've seriously been reconsidering my ambitions. Do I really need to graduate from Baylor? Does it really matter where I get my undergrad? Baylor is just so expensive, especially for undergraduate school for a business major. Anyone in the business world who is somebody has an MBA, and that's really all that employers look at if you have it. But do I even need that? Do I really care that much? Do I need to be somebody in the business world, or am I content with a degree from UNT? (For all you who don't know, University of North Texas is the local-ish state university.... it's not exactly top notch, but it's cheap and it's still a degree.

What brought this on? Well, I was talking to a friend of mine who skipped a year of school after high school and is working at amc (she got me the job), and is going to community college while she keeps working this next year. She's getting a nice little house with a roomie or two and is just getting right along with life. I feel like college is keeping me back more than it's helping me get ahead, especially at Baylor. Don't get me wrong, I love Baylor so much, but I'm starting to think it's for the fun and the friends, instead of the actual establishment. And I know for a fact my family can't afford four years at Baylor. So it's down to loans and scholarships, or a different school. I would miss Baylor so much if I left, but it's an option I'm now seriously considering, just because I don't think my education is that important. It would be if I cared that much about making 6 figure at any point in my life, but I just don't know if it's all that important. I've found, with this summer of amc, that I can be happy with my job even if I don't make that much. In a place like amc, I can work my way up purely on personality and non-educationally based skill. I'm good at my job, and I could have done it without even high school.

I haven't told my parents any of this; I wouldn't want them to have a heart attack when I told them I didn't want to go to grad school at Harvard anymore. Sure, I still feel like I should finish college, somewhere. A college education gets my options much more open. I just don't think that it's essential to go to one of the most expensive schools in Texas to get it. I don't know. It's something I'm gonna be thinking about this year while I hit the business core pretty hard. In the meantime, I'm gonna keep enjoying Baylor, because it's a blast and I love all my friends and brothers there.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

So its like 2 in the morning and I just got home from work... this job is so easy, just at the wrong times of the day. In reality, it fits my schedule just fine, I just like to bitch. I can't decide if my summer sleep schedule or work schedule came first, but they're in sync now, so I don't really care either way.

Speaking of work, I put in my two weeks notice the other day. I'm actually kinda sad about it. I feel like I just made a whole new group of friends, just in time to ditch. And I guess that's exactly what it is. But hey, guess I have a real career to look forward to, where they'll be around for years, not months. But, yes, the summer is coming to a close (so fast) and I'm going back to college the second week of August. Yeah, that's a bit early. Two weeks before class starts, to be exact. That gives me one week to have summer in Waco, and then band week, and then school. And school. And more school. I'm taking a whole mess of upper level business classes that I don't feel ready for at all, but what's new about college.

I'm a bit worried about the move for Berkley (my dog, for anyone behind the times) because it's going to be a large step down in lifestyle for him. Poor guy has no idea how awesome he has it right now. Food whenever he really wants it, a back yard, a front yard for that matter, people always around, with plenty of time to pay attention to him.... now its gonna be more like two kids with full schedules and potentially away from the small apartment with concrete on both sides of it more often than inside it. I'm sure he'll get used to it, and I hope it does it pretty fast. At least I'll be back on his sleeping schedule when classes start. He'll get breakfast on time and everything. If I can find a way to afford dog food.

I looked for an AMC in Waco, but didn't find one. Google says there's one by the lake, but amctheatres.com is convinced there isn't one. And just to be sure, I drove out to the address Google gave me last time I took stuff down to the apartment, but it's definitely a neighborhood. Great. So now it's back to the drawing board for a job. I don't even know if I have time for one, between dog and KPsi and band and that whole class thing, not to mention homework. If I do get a job, they're gonna have to be okay with a super light schedule. Like... weeknights from 6 to 10. Wonder how many places are okay with that...

Other than that, nothing at all has been going on. Tim is still in Houston (did I tell you my best friend - the person that organizes everything social I go to in the summer - is gone for almost a month?) but only until Wednesday. After he gets back, for whatever short time we're both in the same city again, I'll hopefully have something of interest to report, but for now, job, approaching move...yeaaaaaahhh... that's about it.

And if I'm not working or sleeping, I'm rereading the series, because I'm not ready to let go. Not ever. I've decided words will never be able to justify my thoughts of the end of the era of Harry, so I'm not going to write a post on the last movie. It'll just get jumbled and ramble and -- what? I do that all the time? Well fuck you, I'm not doing it anyway. I can't. But I can go reread the series and look for all the little things I missed the first dozen times. Remember the first book, in the forbidden forest, the centaurs are all "mars is bright tonight"? Well, later on Harry says, "Firenze saved me, but he shouldn't have done so... Bane was furious... he was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen... they must show that Voldemort's coming back... Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me... I suppose that's written in the stars as well." Oh, the little things you do, Jo. You starting hinting at it just a few chapters into your series, and it didn't happen until a couple thousand pages - and several years - later. Thank god for unbelievable, spectacular writers.

Now excuse me, I'm gonna go read a bit more, now that I'm in a Harry Potter mood after looking up that quote.

Friday, July 15, 2011

I have no words. It's all over. And I loved every second of it.
The books will live forever.
The movies can pass on, but let it be known, they did a damn good job with the last book. Spectacular.
Yes, I cried. And that's okay.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

The Typewriter Challenge (?)

Okay so I dunno what to aall (call) this new challenge of mine. But it certainly needs a cool nae. mame. name! Something like the typewriter challenge or something. basically, no backspace. ever. doesnt matter why you want to use it, its offlimits. like it doesn't exist at all. It's actually quite difficult. Soo many things I want to change, already, and I'm just introducing the damn idea. Plus, its just natural to hit backspace when you tih hit a funny letter. but it really exposes your typing stkills . Really, just try it once, I dare you.

I actually got this idea from a long time ago when i ghad this conversation with a friend of mine (but isn't that where all my blog ideas come from?) Anna and I had a whole instandt message conevrsation where the backspace key was off limits and whatever you typed was what got sent. It was interesting to say the least, so why not share thefun. I'm really sad i ddint save that conversation, or else I'd post it here to show you just how bad it can get. But then again... I guess you're witnessing it right now. I also do dumb things like say stupid things or float - scratch that, I mean flat - out type the wrong word, like I just did. It also makes saying something a lot harder, since you can't go back and change your mind.

I thought of typewriter challenge, obviously, because in the good old days you ligitimately didn't have a backspace, or a spell check, obviously... but yeah, its almost like having a conversation, since everyone fucks up when they're talking too. It makes it real time, and just more real in general. No more rereading to make sure everything makes you look like who you want to look like. Just pure you. typos, thoughts, mess ups, everything, all on the page as you typed it. really. try it. best part is, it doesn't even matter what youre talking about. it can be anything at all and i pormiste ...promise... you'll mess it up somewhow. somehow. and find out that you tend to type letter combinations regardless of what word you intended. if you don't get what i'm talking about right now... really. try it.

little disclaimer, sometimes it legitmately looks like drunk texting, but just go with it. :) like right there... who says 'legitmately'. say that outloud. it sounds like its missing a whole syllable. but yeah, that was my thought of the night, and its like 3 am, and i can't really sleep. i messed up my whole sleeping schedule with all this working nonsense. I always uend up at someone's house after I get off, even if i get off at like 1 or 2. and then on my off days, like yesterday, i end up at someone's house, unable to drive for whatever readaon. reason. So last night I didn't get home until 4:30, and it was totally okay, according to my sleep schedule. Then I seleep until noon and life is great.

Only problem with that whole thing is poor Berkley. He likes to twake up at 6, and I can't seem to change his mind about that. So I get up shortly after I go to bed so the silly dog can pee and eat breakfast, then sleep for another 5 and a half ohurs. hours. my foot fell asleep. I don't know why I just typed that.

gahh. so hyper. but so tired. okay. I'm gonna stpo [stop] now and go to bed. or at least try to. this no backspacke thing is so frustrating, you definitely need to try it. nighty night everyone.