ESPN 360

I recently saw a commercial on tv for ESPN360. It is a website that allows you to access any of the tv shows that the ESPN channel broadcasts and more. This really interests me because I always go to espn.com to check sports scores, recruiting, schedules, and watch the few videos that they have available. I decided to go to espn360.com and check it out. I found out that it is a free service but it is only available to people that have certain high speed internet providers. Your ISP has to become an affiliate before it becomes available to you. I checked the list and neither my home ISP nor my school ISP is an affiliate. There are only a few major ISP's that have not become an affiliate yet. They had a place to send a request form to your ISP on the espn360.com telling them that there is a demand for it. I decided to fill it out hoping that I will be able to get it either at school or at home someday.

Toys

I went home for Easter yesterday and we had my whole family over. My three little cousins came over and they brought over all of their toys. There was one toy in particular that fascinated me. It is called the phlat ball. It is a ball that you can squeeze together to make frisbee. There is a suction inside the ball that makes it hold together. Although it would always come apart when you threw it. I know we definitely did not have those around when I was a little kid, but I'm not too disappointed because it was actually a really crappy toy. Good idea but built very poor.

Myspace

I recently got a myspace account because I heard it was better than facebook. I have had facebook for almost 2 years now. I have only been with myspace for a week but I think that I like it better than facebook. Although they both have their respective advantages. The thing I like about myspace is that you can customize your page where facebook you can only use the default page. The only thing that I do not like about myspace is that it is tough to find people because people are not always listed by their names. I can see how myspace can become very time consuming to someone and if you don't want to spend much time on design then facebook would probably be the better choice. Another advantage is that facebook has a larger amount of people...atleast my friends, but then people that are not in high school or college cannot get a facebook account. I will continue to have both because I have friends that are not on both.

Baseball

I was watching the Washington Nationals play the New York Mets today while eating lunch in the Union between classes and I got an idea. I was thinking about how I love the game of baseball but I can't stand to watch it on TV. The reason I don't like to watch it on TV is because it is too slow. Here is where my idea comes in. Why can't the TV stations replay the baseball games but cut out the time between pitches which constitutes for about two-thirds of the game. So you could see everything important about a baseball game but its only an hour long compared to the three or four hour game we are used to.

Internet

Over spring break I also learned how dependent we are on the internet. I think that I have become "addicted" to the internet. I feel like I am missing something when I am unable to check my email every day. I would really like to check my email about every 2 hours when possible. It is also so hard not to have AIM to instant message friends. AIM has become a great way for people to keep in touch with their friends without having a reason to call. The biggest reason I wanted the internet was to print out a NCAA tournament bracket. I looked everywhere for one and I couldn't find one when I knew if I had my computer with me that it would only take about 30 seconds to find and print one out.

Room Cards

So I actually learned a little something while I was down in Panama City Beach, FL for spring break. With every room they give each person a room key. They activate the room keys at the front desk and through magnets it unlocks a specific door. We had a key that worked earlier in the week, but then all of a sudden it stopped working. I took it to the front desk of the hotel and they told me that there are several things that will actually deactivate the cards. They said that the most common way that the magnets get messed up is by having it in close contact with a cell phone. I just thought it was interesting that a cell phone would deactivate the card when it seems most people going out to the beach would carry their cell phone right by their room key. Not quite the best technology I've ever seen.

Price Discrimination

My economics teacher was talking about this experiment that he and a colleague did. They both logged onto orbitz.com, which is a website that you can purchase plane tickets and hotels on. The experiment they did was to check to see if they could both get the exact same ticket price for everything. They made everything about the trip exactly the same but the results came out differently. They both tried to get a flight to Florida. Both had used orbitz.com several times before. The difference between the two people was that one flew to Florida everytime he purchased a ticket and one flew to Canada everytime. This means that orbitz.com uses recorded information from their previous purchases from the two orbitz.com users to try to appeal to them differently. They knew that it would take a lower price to get someone that doesn't usually fly to Florida to get him to fly there. This story just interested me because this company is using technology to discriminate their pricing and it is a really good idea.

Virus Protection

I'm kinda mad about my computer getting viruses from the internet. It seems like they aren't even really viruses, they are just advertisements that won't go away. The lateset virus that I got keeps warning me that my computer is going to blow up and all of this other crap like that. Then it advertises these virus protection programs that will help get rid of the viruses. I think these virus protection companies are putting viruses on people's computers and then trying to sell them a way to get the annoying warnings to go away. This needs to stop. I love computers and I don't think I could live without them but they are so frustrating sometimes. They need to find a real way to stop viruses. I have 3 virus protection programs and they don't even do anything.