Microserfs

"Microserfs" is a very interesting story that covers the lives of young Microsoft employees. Almost all of the 'coders' were very young people; usually in their mid-twenties. They work very long days trying to meet the shipping deadline, which Dan says they will never make it in time. Also throughout the story Dan, the narrator, talks about how wonderful Bill (Gates) is. It is almost as if Bill is some magical person who watches everything that goes on. At one point in the story, Michael (a normal coder like Dan) has lunch with Bill and is told he is leaving 'campus' for a different project. It is very interesting to see the different levels of popularity in the company, and how the employees interact.
In "Microserfs" we also learn about Dan's life. His little brother drown at the age of 12 in a boating accident. Then his dad loses his job at IBM, which he handles very poorly. His dad is very depressed about his job situation and the fact that his son is dead. It is a tough situation for everybody involved.
As a whole I thought this was a very good read. It was very unique to see how a company is run through the view of a normal employee. Being able to understand the personal lives of the Microsoft programmers was also a nice aspect to the story. It goes to show that life is not easy, even for millionaires.

Interview Photos

For my interview, I interviewed Patrick Rowen of RowenSpeedMotorsports. My interview of him was done over the phone and Patrick's business is run at home, so for my images I have some pictures of his successful eBay store, and some products he is selling. The top 2 pictures are his eBay store. He sells used auto parts, and so far has an impressive positive feedback rating of 100% on 224 total ratings! Customer care is very important to him, because he wants them to get good service and quality products.
The bottom two pictures show two of his prducts; On the bottom is an engine block for a Honda Accord at an affordable price of $450, On the top is a 2-pack of sockets which are specially made for being able to get access to bolts in hard-to-reach places. These are two typical products he would sell, both in the eBay Motors section.

Facebook Friends Statistics

After carefully analyzing my list of friends on Facebook, I have discovered some very interesting statistics about my friends. Including male to female ratio, ethnicity, where I met them, and where they live now. It is very interesting to see my tendencies when it comes to making new friends. I think everyone should do something similar to this, just to get an idea of what type of people they hang out with. It could also show people that they need to broaden their horizon when it comes to meeting new people.

Good and bad PowerPoint slides - "ISMS"

There are good and bad slides in PowerPoint. This picture is an example of a good one, or at least I hope so. The font is large enough to read, and mixes well with the background. The picture is large and demonstrates the overall point of the slide by giving an example of materialism. The slide is simple, yet it gets its point across to the audience. An acceptable amount of words arranged with a very well chosen picture will often result in a good PowerPoint slide, and one that is effective to its audience.

Google Wave

Google Wave was a very interesting way of communicating with other people. Overall I did like it, it was fairly easy to use and it provided a professional environment to communicate electronically with others. The way you can post “waves” is similar to posting your “status” on Facebook. A major difference is the more professional website is Google Wave. On the Wave you don’t have to worry about ads, or pointless invites to join groups and whatnot. The Wave is simple, straightforward, and user friendly. It is also nice that there is the ability to pick and choose who can see the wave of posts, you only have to let people that need to see the wave, actually see it. All of these features are great to have when communicating through the internet, but seeing as Google Wave is in a beta phase, it could always be improved.

One part of the Wave that can be a little annoying is when it shows the new messages for each wave, the problem is that the number of new messages will not change unless you click on each one them. Just reading the messages is not enough, so even if you have read them all, there still may appear to be more new messages in your wave. Similarly, when replying to messages, when you click “reply”, the response will go directly under the message you clicked on. It’s not that this is a negative feature; you just need to be careful when replying to messages in order to get it in the right order. One last thing I noticed is that there is no clear way to delete a wave. You can “unfollow” a specific wave; however I’m not sure that it gets deleted completely, especially if you were the one who created it.

As a whole I do like the system and the unique features that it provides. For example you can see other messages as the person is typing it, so you can watch what they are typing while they are typing it, rather than just reading it after they click done. That is one unique feature that Facebook, or similar social networking sites do not have. This has the potential of being a very popular system for communication, especially for those looking for a professional environment for communication.

Doublespeak - Language Perception

Doublespeak is language that is intentionally misleading and is often used to avoid taking responsibility for an action by using indirect language. It is used to make the bad seem good and the negative appear positive. While intentionally misleading people may not be the morally right thing to do, it is often how people choose to communicate, because they believe it is in their best overall interest. Although there are several different types of doublespeak, I will focus on language and perception through words that are similar in meaning.

The words "African-American" and "black" are used differently depending on the context of the conversation, even though they can both be used to talk about a person who has black skin. For example, when used in a political context, almost everyone would use the word African-American, because it sounds more politically correct. This is also the case when a Caucasian person refers to someone with black skin as being African-American. The Caucasian person doesn't want to appear to be racist, as if saying that the person is "black," would be offensive. A person with black skin on the other hand, can call anyone by the color of their skin and still not seem offensive. Would it seem at all strange to you if a black person called a Caucasian "white"? It is socially acceptable for anyone to call a Caucasian person "white", but it is not always socially acceptable for a white person to call someone "black". That is why the term African-American is so widely used today, to avoid the socially awkward situations when interracial communication is necessary.

Which of the two words is used, is determined by how others will perceive what we say. If a black person referred to another black person as being "African-American", it would seem strange because of the social context. The way language is perceived plays a huge role in how we interact. Nobody wants to say something that could be perceived as being offensive and rude because the repercussions might not be worth the trouble. It is very interesting how something as simple as deciding which word to use can be such a big deal, especially when the two words mean the same thing.