Oh No They Didn't: Weather Forecast In Elvish
Come on, New Zealand, I know you have more commercial exports worth mentioning than being the location of the Lord Of The Rings films. Can't you talk about the toothbrush fence? Or your lovely sheep population? Maybe some awesome Maori art? No? OK then I guess we are just stuck with a weather reporter giving the forecast in Elvish. NERDS.
Legal challenges of the next generation
Current and future law school students who go on to become attorneys will face a large scope of unprecedented legal challenges stemming from a wide array of newly developed –and yet to be developed- technologies.
Socially accepted technology that courses through the Internet providing connectivity and information to users worldwide like e-mail, social networks and search engines are constantly evolving. These Internet technologies iterate with rapid-fire speed and often create disruptions in their mass-appeal among users.
However, Internet companies like Yahoo, Facebook and Google won’t be the only technology targets of social and legal scrutiny in the years to come.
A recent panel discussion presented by the National Press Club at the Law School of Catholic University of America spoke on the issues surrounding newer technologies being developed in the fields of electronic surveillance and personal tracking.
Legal experts on the panel centered their discussion around the framework of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of illegal search and seizure by government forces.
Noting that the current legal doctrine on what constitutes a protected “search” revolves around the idea of reasonably expected privacy, the panelists dove in to a fascinating exploration of present and future conflicts between individuals, governments and companies and their use of GPS and facial recognition technologies.
If you want to know what governments and companies are doing with surveillance and tracking technologies now, and what applications they will likely soon have at their disposal, then watch the full presentation.
A few of the most interesting topics are highlighted below.
- Constitutional protections for individual privacy are virtually non-existent. Only the 4th Amendment takes a stab at defining a citizen’s personal space and property rights.
- These limited constitutional rights are applied exclusively between individuals and governments – Not between individuals and other private parties or businesses.
- “Intrusion upon Privacy” is not only a novel concept, it is a very fickle one. In the U.S. particularly, the notion of individual privacy is fast eroding in the public and consumer arenas.
- Both federal agencies and most members of Congress take an increasingly relaxed view of individual privacy, because…
- Tracking and facial recognition technologies provide them with highly effective, desired results for minimal costs.
- As smart phone use reaches critical mass, more companies will develop more advanced systems to track individual users.
- Already, a few companies are pioneering the development of “Biometric Tracking” technology …
- And governmental agencies are already using it. Biometric tracking is largely developed around Facial Recognition Software.
- Facebook is one such pioneer and user of FRS and Biometric tracking.
The debate continues over how far these technologies will go, where and when they’ll be applied, the frequency and volume of their application, and whether a breaking point will be reached over their legality.
Pop Culture Happenings: Charlie Chaplin Wants Us To Unite
Charlie Chaplin's speech from "The Great Dictator" is an inspiring speech against fascism and dictatorship. Melodysheep is one of YouTube's better auto-tune masters. Together, they are a Friday inspiration to work with your fellow man. Let us all UNITE!
Pulling at My Heartstrings: NYPD Officer Gives Homeless Man Boots
After this image blew up over the Internet, the officer in question was tracked down and interviewed. Listen to this truly heartwarming account of a public service servant truly and literally protecting and serving the people.
Don't be afraid to sell yourself
I wrote a post about sales skills on the Money Fest blog and this is what motivated me to do something similar here. Life is all about your ability to sell. You can have a great product and a wonderful market, but it is the selling part that is so crucial.
One of my first jobs out of college was sales. I want to say here that I hated it and would not tell most of my friends what my real job was. An ex-girlfriend found out somehow and ridiculed me for being a 'salesman.' I was considered a math genius and as an economics major from a top school, I had expected great things out of myself after graduating.
A few months in a tough job market and nothing productive happening with my highly selective job search, I decided to give it up and give sales a try. It wasn't really a choice as I needed to pay the bills every month and there was no other way.
I hit the ground running and was given a lot of encouragement and tips from a veteran. I have to say that dreaded sales position taught me a lot and I have already shared the business side on Money Fest. Here on this blog, I want to stress a couple of relevant things.
Keeping up with current affairs is very important and this can require considerable investment in time and money. My ultimate, personal career ambition is to manage a hedge fund and knowing about the ascent of Japanese stocks despite the Yen declining and tech stocks performing well this week, it is vital to portray not only my expertise but passion. Moreover, I want to look the part and that is why you can see me dressed in an Armani suit on occasion looking at Schwab stock tips on my iPad 3.
I also have my share of role models. It is important to have various people to gain inspiration from. You could see me on a Sunday afternoon reading carefully something like this that allows me to develop that tunnel vision.
I want to end by saying that we need to address the wants, needs and desires of our employers or future employers. I also feel that you might want to check out this 'Working at Home Talk' blog to really accelerate your career by giving more options and a better chance to build skills and experience in what you want to do.
The power of being able to sell
I haven’t had a post about sales here and I thought it was necessary. We have heard many times how business development is the path to riches. A lot of very wealthy people own their businesses. In business, you need to know how to sell and not be shy about it.
Here is a Forbes article that I read and reread all the time to remember where my priorities when I am selling a product or a service. I want to talk about a few things here that will ensure that you will profit by selling either products or services.
Anything can be sold
In a market, any item or service can be sold, provided the appropriate buyer comes along. There will always be those that want cheap earphones, but then there are others who want the Shures and Boses of the world. The best way to sell something is to develop a strong knowledge about a product or service and stress its selling point to a prospective buyer to show why it is superior.
You might be charging more for a Dell laptop than a nearby store. But then you might be offering better service by actually taking a good look at any problems that may prop up in the future during the warranty period. Something the competitor does not do. You want to stress this fact to the customer. You'll be surprised how many will trade the higher price for convenience and for less hassle.
Know your customer
This requires a good insight into the customer and the best way to acquire this is to ask questions and listen carefully. Pay attention and take notes to ensure that you remember customer’s expectations.
Sales are hard and requires many things. An entrepreneur or aspiring business owner should aim to get some sales experience first as it will help them a lot.
Tonsai Bay to Railay to Pranang Cave
Tonsai Bay is known to most travelers as the budget place to stay to climb amazing limestone peaks in southern Thailand. On the other end of the spectrum, Railay beach, just near Tonsai Bay, is known as the place for the rich to stay to enjoy the beautiful limestone peaks in southern Thailand. Though both are connected by paths and beach when the tide is low, the lifestyle differences between the two is immense.
With that being said though, many of the people staying at the two opposing beaches end up mixing for a plethora of reasons. For me, it was due to the fact that the run from Tonsai Bay to Railay Beach and on to Pranang Cave is incredible. To start the run, I headed out of my hostel (OK, my tent at the open air reception of my hostel because Thailand is expensive this time of year) toward the Base Camp hotel on the top of Tonsai Hill. From here, those looking to head to Railay can take the jungle trek toward this destination. This was my chosen route.
After passing Base Camp, the muddy trail began to ascend. Though the real hill running comes later on, this small incline got my legs ready for what I was about to experience. The path began to shrink, and once the guest houses started to disappear, the hill descended, and I found myself secluded in the jungle.
Before I knew it, I was starring at the big incline. The hill itself is around 600 m, and with the heat and the humidity, it is no small feat. The hill is very steep, but once I reached the top, the rest of the run was downhill or flat (until the back portion) and I got a good view of the entire Railay Valley.
From here the dirt path turned into concrete, and I found myself running next to limestone peaks, hotels and climbing agencies. The path followed along the cave, until it turned onto Railay East Beach. From here, there was a small path that was lined with mangroves and boats. When the tide is low, the mangrove roots are exposed, but during high tide, the path becomes inundated with water.
The run ended with a small circular path heading from Railay East into Pranang Cave. The path is coved by overgrown stalactites, and with a careful eye, I was able to spot monkeys stealing their morning meal from the local trash bins. At the end of the run, I was reward with a beautiful view of the Andaman Sea and a fresh dip in the water.
Runners can either make this an out and back, or if they are inclined, can swim back to Tonsai from Pranang Cave. Enjoy your time in Tonsai or Railay, and definitely take a chance to run the jungle path connecting the two.
The key to multiple streams of income
Working at home has been a great source of income for me. My motivation for posting on this blog is to ensure that those of you reading this will be able to draw from the pleasures of working at home, apart from making a few bucks too!
The work-at-home option has become more attractive and is relatively easier to attain nowadays. There was a period when just typing work at home jobs brought up a list of scams (they still do, but at a much lower level).
One of the key things to develop is multiple streams of income. Isn't that ironic? After all, we want to work at home as it gives the 'multiple' streams of income in the first place. Now we are looking at multiple 'multiple' streams. The more the merrier, I guess.
There are a couple of things I want to share with you here before I bolt.
The first one is another one of the oDesk type sites. It is called Team Store by Exvo.com. I've heard great things about it and should be on board soon. I am already crazy busy with the work I've received from the oDesks and Elances of the world.
The second thing is to go to this website 'I will Teach You To Be Rich' and subscribe for the e-mails. He is really my virtual guru Ramit Sethi. There were a couple of webinars that he recently did. All for free, mind you. It was the perfect advice on how to make more money by being strategic about generating streams of income. In his case: consulting, book royalties, product sales, etc.
Other than that, I have now been busy learning C++. Expect a post on a good book on either the technical book club or the technology book club or maybe both. Programming in C makes me see Benjamins already! Anyway, programming is such a complement to any career, especially mine.
I hope you reading this post brought you that much closer to Internet riches! So long for now.
Toys aren’t just for children
Thirty percent of a person’s life is spent waiting. Take a second for that statistic to sink in. Now let it slip away because I made that statistic up, but even with it being just a random number, a lot of time is spent waiting in each one of our lives. Maybe it’s waiting for a bus, a loved one, or rain to secede. Regardless, wouldn’t it be a grand idea to take advantage of some of this lost time?
As children, we traveled everywhere with toys. We would hide toys in our school bag, bring something to play with at a long, boring dinner, or if you had a big family and sat at the end of the pew, even tried to sneak your Game Boy into church. Though these days may have passed, the sentiment behind the action is something we shouldn’t overlook.
While traveling in the developing world, things always go wrong. You learn quickly that one hour can turn into 24 in no time. From this, I’ve learned to travel with something I not only can do, but really want to do, to make sure my time waiting is time spent well.
Though I’m quite content to write or read, the possibilities are endless for items one can bring to keep themselves occupied. It doesn’t even need to be something tangible if you are charming and keen to make conversation!
Don’t let precious time go to waste. Carry a bag and bring whatever it is you need to enjoy time that most people just see as miserable. You’ll feel better for doing it and find that there are even more hours in the day then you previously believed.
Shit people in Tonsai Bay say
He used the world, “gripe,” as he told me those griping about rising prices in Thailand can just go home. He followed this by bitching about paying $5 for a large Chang, and then saying he is so sick of temples when asking for suggestions of where to go in Malaysia. It’s needless to say the conversation didn’t go much further than this.
I always get weird feelings when I go to niche travel places. Those whose lives are devoted to one over-arching hobby (though they’re fantastic at their trade) and I have never tended to meld. I always find myself feeling out of place and self-conscious, but I think this conversation shed some light on the situation.
Besides this interaction, I had been told earlier that day, when asking about a book exchange, that maybe only people in Railay do that. With Tonsai being where the backpackers stay, and Railay full of resorts, I realized quickly the insult the speaker was trying to portray. I took this as my queue to exit the conversation.
Tonsai Bay is a beautiful place to drink beer, smoke weed and occasionally climb, but not a great place to go for much else. It is quite tribal, though, and those traveling solo can find clicks, similar to those in high school, hard to break into. In fact, much like many saturated tourist destinations, this is a common trend.
After three days of awkwardness, I did find myself included into multiple clicks, but decided the effort wasn’t worth the social situation. I prefer to spend my time with those who don’t charge to have a conversation.