Final Blog Posting!

For my Final Research Poster Presentation I researched Google Voice. Google Voice is newer to the market where you can teach your phone new tricks. Just a few of the things to brush upon with Google Voice is that it includes voicemail like e-mail, call routing, voicemail transcription and is all for free. You can use your existing phone number and get features such as transcribed voicemail online, custom greetings for callers & low cost international calls. If you use your existing phone number it forwards all of your calls when going onto voicemail to a Google number so, it's like Gmail, if you have an existing e-mail that you tell people & get a Gmail account it can forward on the e-mails to the Gmail account. Although, you can just get a Google number & tell people that one & change it to one account that way you don't have two which then becomes confusing. When using just a Google number you can do more with Google Voice & it more simple all around. With a Google number you have one number for all of your phones, get SMS messages via e-mail and block unwanted callers. These are just a few things mentioned that you can do with Google Voice, if you click on the link below you will find out all options that you can come across when using this tool in both ways of using your existing number and a new Google number.

Here is a link to watch videos and see visually how Google Voice actually works: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

My experience with the audience at the Final Poster Presentation was very enjoyable. I was tweeted about 5 times yesterday and was very pleased with what they had said about me. I interacted with the audience a couple of times more than those 5 times I was tweeted about & talked to as many people as possible there. I explained all about Google Voice & was asked a few questions by some people about the technological tool. It seemed as though their weren't as many people there on Friday as their were there on Monday. I had my picture taken with my poster at the beginning & wasn't graded until the very end & had to stay later than the 50 minutes of class time. Overall, it was a great experience, I learned more of and about technology tools that are being developed and new to the market.

Facebook

Facebook is probably the website, social network and communication tool Online that I use the most. I recently read an article online on CNN.com about Facebook that has 5 tips for cleaning up your Facebook. Graduating in May 2010 as a Senior in College & looking for jobs, I need to be up on what I should be exposing of myself Online through Facebook & what I shouldn't be. It is very important that you keep the frivolous posts, pictures & everything else that could make an employer wonder about you for any odd known reason, out of reach. It is also important to keep your Facebook clean, for as complicated as it's getting, it helps to steer clear of all the crazy things it's adding the longer it's around and the more people join. The 5 tips include...

1.) Hide your friends posts

2.) Reduce Newsfeeds

3.) Hide Actions

4.) Show More Newsfeeds

5.) Control Photo Access

After reviewing this article: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/12/fixing.your.facebook/index.html

I can only hope it will help more people out there to be more cautious of Facebook. It can be dangerous if you don't watch or learn the ins and outs of this social network.

Apple!

After purchasing an Apple computer last Christmas, I think that Apple has the best computers & technology with ipods, itouches, ihomes & everything that they create. I think that the way they publicize is really cool, their customer service is good & the way their products are made to work are very effective. I originally just had an ipod, but have expanded to have an ishuffle, ihome, now Mac Computer I'm actually using now & plan to buy more Apple products in the future. I think it's cool that it is pretty hard for Apples to have viruses & they take care of their virus protection on their own. It saves the computer user trouble and time by not having to worry about Anti-Virus protection & the work that goes into everything dealing with that. I would for sure recommend Apple to other consumers & suggest it to others to switch to because it's that good in my mind.

LinkedIn

Last year for my CSR 417 Class, I was required to make a LinkedIn Profile. At first, I had no idea what it was or was about but, after creating one last Spring I realized how popular it was & how much people actually use this Professional Company Social Network. A lot of people find jobs off of this website, talk to people in their company through this or just even find people that they might know from their past and use it like a Facebook. I didn't pay much attention to it after I made it last year & received a grade for making a profile, but after applying to a few jobs this past Fall I have heard of it more & more & decided to clean up & update my profile after hearing of the popularity of it. I think I will use it more in the future for jobs & to communicate with the professional world. I didn't believe the popularity until now when I'm about to face the real world in 6 months and what it entails. I like LinkedIn, it is not as fun as Facebook obviously, but it is a nice social network to use in the professional world.

Storyplay: Nokia & Sesame Street

For our Technology Pitch, we talked about creating a video conference book by Nokia and Sesame Street. It's called Storyplay & Nokia teamed up with Sesame Street to create a video chat with children being able to be read to by the person on the other end of the video chat. Say your Grandparents live far, you are able to see your Grandparents through the video & be read to with a book by Sesame Street. That is the basis of what you can do with this instrument, which is not yet on the market but, they are still working out the minor problems it has right now before it is okay for consumers to buy. The presentation went well, in my mind, but their were a lot of bases to cover that I'm not sure that we did. I hope we got a good grade because we did work hard on it but it seems that their was a lot of competition. We will just have to wait and see how we did.

My New BlackBerry!

The BlackBerry Flip is officially my new phone! I just got it on November 1st, 2009, which was 3 days ago & I really like it! I used to have the BlackBerry World Edition, which was a rather large phone & was my 1st BlackBerry ever to have used & I can say that I'm a pretty addicted to the BlackBerry. I did not want to get the touchscreen because I don't like touchscreen anything but, I love that I can get e-mail on my phone, now have a camera on my phone since my last BlackBerry didn't come with one, can receive picture messages & the technology of the BlackBerry Phone. The BlackBerry Flip is more like a real phone to me because it is a flip phone & it still has the ball like my old one but, is more suitable for me. I think they came out with this phone over the Summer about 2 to 3 months ago, but did not want to wait until Christmas to see what new BlackBerry they came out with so I got this one & I can say that I'm pretty pleased!

--My new phone after waiting for my 2 year upgrade from my BlackBerry World Edition! I love BlackBerrys because of BlackBerry Messenger which is like text messaging & AIM combined & is for free all over the world! That is part of the main reason why I love this line of phone so much because of the technology of BBM!

8th Week of Classes, Almost November!

I cannot believe how fast 1st Semester of my Senior Year is going! I have had so much going on it's hard to believe that this much time as past! I have had an exam in my Health Science class Radiological Health & received a C which I was happy about because it's a very hard class. I had an exam in my CSR 404 Class, which is a Class for my major Selling & Sales Management & received a 77% which isn't bad considering everyone thought it was a tough exam & not many people did well. In my Wine Class I received a 70% on my exam last Monday night, which again is good because everyone thinks the exams are pretty tough making it a tougher class. Overall I haven't failed any exams which is the bright side but, I would like to be getting A's. I'm still waiting on my exam in this Class & I am TAing a Class, CSR 100 for a credit, English 420 their aren't any exams in just projects which I have received A's on everything in the Class thus far & I'm taking Health & Fitness for a grade worth a credit yet, in which, their aren't any exams. It has been pretty rainy here in West Lafayette & we only have 4 weeks until Thanksgving! I need to get on applying to more Companies for a job & figure out what & want to do with my life! It's a very intense year, but I'm having fun & enjoying myself & just glad I got through the 1st round of exams thus far this semester.

The Week After Fall Break

It is now the 8th week of Classes here @ Purdue, which is pretty much the middle of the Semester of the 1st Semester of my Senior Year here. I cannot believe how fast it is going. I just got back from my Fall Break last night that I spent visiting my best friends from home that go to Arizona State University. They are 3 hours behind there, which I was thrown off with the time while I was there & now I am thrown off for the time again returning to Eastern time. I am jetlagged & tired from my trip for we went out 2 out of the 4 nights I was there and kept myself pretty busy 2 out of the 3 days I was there as well. My best friend from home as well that goes to the University of South Carolina came on her Fall Break as well but came a day earlier and left a day earlier so it was great seeing my 4 best friends from home all in one location at the same time. I have never gone to visit my best friends from home before at College so it was a really fun experience and really exciting visiting them. The plane ride was around 3 hours, going there it was longer since you were going against the wind and coming back it was shorter only we sat on the runway for a good half an hour after it was already delayed a half an hour coming back so it was a long weekend of travels for me. I have somewhat of color from laying out just 2 days ago at their pool in their backyard and now I have to prepare for my 2 exams I have this week. I have one in this class on Friday morning and one in my CSR 404 class tomorrow morning @ 7:30 a.m. which will keep me very busy for the next 48 hours. I can't believe how fast time is going!

My Space

MySpace is a social network & website that I have not used thus far in my life. I do not plan on using it though because I don't have a very good opinion of MySpace. I don't think it's safe and I think that it is more juvenile than a Facebook or LinkedIn social network. Everyone I know that has a MySpace is younger, middle school or high school age and grows our of it eventually after making one. I think that MySpace hit a peak and is not as popular as it once was a long time ago. It was more well-known in my opinion about 3 years ago when Facebook wasn't as popular, Twitter wasn't created nor LinkedIn. They keep coming out with better and better things Online to communicate with and so on and so forth that I don't think MySpace will keep up. This is my opinion on MySpace that probably will not change unless they renovate it or it makes a comeback sometime in the near future.

Twitter

Twitter is a cool new site I have been checking out. My friends have accounts that I like to check out on Twitter. They like to tweet often about certain things or post pictures about certain happenings that they have been apart of or want people to know about. You can post about your mood, about what your up to that night, your weekly plans, vacation plans and what your up to on your daily talking about your every move. You can have a funny name for yourself as your account or just have a plain old name that is generic as can be. I would like to get a Twitter but, I feel as though I consume my time with Facebook enough and to be even more preoccupied with something else might be too time consuming. I am pretty addicted to Facebook as well thats why I doubt getting a Twitter because their are already statuses on Facebook that are like a Twitter that I already use. Maybe I will get a Twitter someday, we will see, I think we actually have to get one for class so probably more than likely.

Club Tennis

This year is my 1st year playing Club Tennis for Purdue University. I have been playing tennis since I was in Elementary School around the age of 8 years for fun in the Summer and since 12 years old competitively year round. I tried out to be a walk-on for the Purdue Women's Tennis Team in a Tournament on September 11th, 2009 & got to to the Semi Final Round where I lost in 2 sets. They recommended me to play Club Tennis here at Purdue, in which, I had no idea that their was a Club Team until this year. I had missed not playing tennis since my Senior Year in High School & very badly wanted to try playing this year because I think playing a sport in College is a great experience Varsity or Club Team. I practice 3 times a week and have matches on the weekends about twice a month. Their are also sometimes tournaments that come along every couple of months one coming up in November that is in Madison, Wisconsin. I really enjoy playing on the Club Team where I've met a lot of new people and stayed in shape much more this year than years past due to playing tennis. I hope to be successful with my matches, win as many as possible and enjoy my time playing tennis on the courts.

Brett's Link

http://itsbdam.blogspot.com/

Hump Day

This week is my 4th Week of Classes here @ Purdue University of my Senior Year. I am in COM 435 Blogging for an assignment. Last night I tried to go to bed decently early since a busy weekend is coming up ahead. Their is a home football game, in which I will probably getting up early with all of my friends and having fun with our Football Buddies. I am a Chi Omega here at Purdue so I am involved on Campus with Greek Life Events and different things with my Sorority. I also started/joined the Club Tennis Team this year so I had practice last night & Health and Fitness Class before this Class so I am pretty worn out. It has been a busy past 3 weeks on going the 4th with the beginning of the School Year, Classes, Tennis, Chi Omega, Sorority Rush & moving into my apartment with my 3 best friends. I live an apartment next to all my Sorority Sisters in a section of Apartments so I live around all of my best friends from Chi Omega as well. I can't wait for the weekend and to have some fun because I haven't really gone out lately at all due to a Tennis Tournament last weekend, Shopping in Indianapolis for a dress for a Wedding & catching up with Class Work. Hopefully the Football Team will give us a win this weekend unlike last & I will be done with all of my class work by the end of the week to have some fun. It is already in the middle of the 4th week of Classes, time is going by so fast!