Hulls’ Mystical Blog

My wife and I were sitting on the couch last Saturday afternoon watching the QVC network of all things.  Financial wiz Suzie Orman, who has a wonderful weekly show pertaining to finance on CNBC was pushing one of her products dubbed ”The FICO kit” Platinum version.

www.QVC.com Item Number E03137

The kit provides the user with access to all three of their Credit Bureau Reports as well as their FICO scores, which are the scores that 90% of all lending institutions use in order to qualify people for loans (vehicles, Real estate, etc) . Its a wealth of information that also provides insight into one’s personal debt and coaching in order to clear things up.

I’ve always frowned upon our educational system for not teaching financial basics at various levels of the educational process.  So many americans are in debt because we weren’t taught the basics. Suzie’s kit is a start and for less than $50 bucks is a steal! 

Wikipedia states the definition of copyright as the following: a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. In his keynote speech Lessig holds no punches with regard to his ire of escalation of copyright law. The platform of his dissertation stands on his four most notable points:

-Creativity and innovation always builds on the past.

-The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it.

-Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past.       

-Ours is less and less a free society.

Lessig argues for creativity to reign free without the subjugation of controls put in place by lobbyist of the old vanguard who want to protect their creative interest thereby suffocating the process in which they benefited from. I agree that there is a fundamental push to exercise control of ideas based on established elements.

http://afoolandhiserrand.blogspot.com/2007/02/horseless-carriages-and-other-new.html

Blogger Ian McGill provides the reader with a history lesson denoting tales of Thomas Edison and his whimsical legal team chasing creative types and producers west toward Hollywood. McGill is of the belief that it’s not technology that is the motivating factor for unlimited control, but that it is inherent in the nature of those who seek it.

http://tednelson.typepad.com/tedcoworldwide/2007/03/the_shiny_side_.html 

I actually happen to agree with Mr. Nelson’s less than taciturn post on the topic of Social network’s not being for everyone.  He does seem to go off on a rant laced with venomous sarcasm; however he’s firmly addressing the position of social networking juxtaposed with the idealism of a marketing platform for consumerism. Every media outlet is trying to duplicate the next My space and or YouTube, not for the good of expanding the phenomena of social networking, but to find new ways to make a profit from said users.It sort of cheapens the experience when corporate
America is trying to infiltrate a user base that they know nothing about but so desperately desires to exploit. Comical indeed

My younger sister’s are all over My Space! Let me state this loud and clear, My Space isn’t just for the 12-17 crowd. Both of them are lovely and in their late 20’s and are professionals who are educated and resourceful. However, they’re looking for friendship fun and love in a world that puts a premium on hard work and little time to have fun, let alone an active social life. So what does a 20 or even a 30 something do in order to find that special someone or just basically hang out? That’s right sign up to my space! I was shocked to find that both my siblings spend their evenings on their laptops, instant messengers up and running while updating and posting to their my space profiles, laughing at rouges and vagabonds that want to be their friends. So Social networking is about just that, keeping in touch with others, finding out what the latest underground music hit is, what the hottest club of the season is etc, etc. It’s a phenomena that has two of the biggest technophiles on the planet (my sibs) customizing their profiles and blogging like their seasoned vets. Who knew?

This little tidbit is from our Com 110 Correspondent Lisa:  (The name is blog. Lisa’s blog)

“With all the really important issues going on in the world today, two stories have dominated the media over the past seven days: (1) where was blond bombshell Anna Nicole Smith’s body going to be buried, a story which was only overshadowed by (2) an even greater media feeding frenzy, caused by the news that … BRITNEY SPEARS SHAVED HER HEAD!” 

Ok “takes a deep breath”. American culture has a fascination… no… a fixation with media and entertainment to the point of overt saturation. We place more value and have more empathy for individuals who truly have no relevant value to our society other than to provide entertainment, period. For that role I don’t begrudge them, our entertainers, but anything remotely out of the scope of their profession should not be news worthy.

We’re a society in a state of disarray with topics such as health care, education and this administration’s lust for warfare to be concerned with fancies and whims of our so called ‘Celebrities’

We need to get it together and focus our minds towards education so future generations can compete in the new global economy.

Viewing ‘5 minutes University’ via the Wiki UI gives the user a straight forward approach; here it is, watch it. The dimensions of the video are a bit smaller then on YouTube. Basically viewing the clip via the Wiki, provides a bland overall user experience.

Watching the same footage via the YouTube UI provides a varying experience. The user can adjust the size of the video frame. The user can expand the video to full screen further adjusting the way the video is presented. YouTube also provides data as to when the clip was posted, related content to the genre of the outtake, along with Url and Embed tags so that YouTube users can use the material on their own blogs and or websites. User’s can also rate, comment and flag content of each and every video.

Atypically i’m not a huge fan of the Science fiction ‘literary’ genre.However I have dabbled with some offerings notably ‘Pastwatch’ and ‘Ender’s Game’, by author Orson Scott Card.

There’s so much going on that it does get me somewhat disoriented. The book follows to paths,Hackworth’s: who is involved with some enteriprise oh behalf of Finkle-McGraw that I’m not clearly cognizant of

What remains crystal clear however is that the same elements that plague our own society a modern society are reflected in Stephenson’s world. Nell & Harv’s general living situation; the Leased Territories; Tequila This section really disturbed me. Nell having to go through such an ordeal at a young age and Harv’s reactions which i’m sure will subsequently forever change the dynamic of his character.