Sunday, August 30, 2009

Increased Written Communication, Less Face to Face Interaction

I read an interesting article from WSJ talking about how Generation Y is deprived of opportunities to understand non-verbal body cues because this generation is too busy texting, im'ing, etc. In other words, too much short written communication has replaced full face to face personal interaction. The comments section indicates a healthy disagreement (appears to be mostly divided between Gen Y and other generations).

Instead of debating about whether the use of technology is good or bad, my sense is what is lacking today is educating folks about good manners, decorum, and proper conduct. It wasn't so long ago that people knew when one person is talking, it is considered rude to interrupt. If you must, people apologized in advance and interrupted for good reason. How many times have you encountered someone who apologized (or even said "excuse me") for having to use the cell phone while you were out on social outing? Or to text? Or to call someone back? There appears to be the sense and urgency that because technology allows people to respond immediately, you should instantly look at your cell phone or your computer no matter what social setting you are in. But the truth is, people (older generation mostly) with good manners will apologize in advance or not check their cell phone or computer under same circumstance.

Good manners don't necessarily have to be tossed out the window because of advancing technology. And good manners have to be taught. Instead of bemoaning Gen Y's lack of face to face interaction, perhaps that could be addressed by instilling good manners to kids in school so that they understand an interruption, even one that comes in the form of technology, is rude.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Interesting Sites.. Which Ones Last?

So when I read an article or blog or something where someone mentions a new company/website that seems interesting, I bookmark it. Sometimes I would go back and really use it quite often. (www.librarything.com). Other times, I would go back once in a blue moon to see why I bookmarked certain sites.

Inevitably, I find quite a lot of sites that got a lot of splash initially are now dead. There were sites promising better "bookmarking" capability. Markaboo.com was one, and it appears it's not live anymore because I can't get to it. Online karaoke (www.singshot.com) tugged my heart (being a singer and all) but alas, it also seems to be dead. And what about teleflip.com? Seemed like a good idea...to be able to text from your email for free. And I used it a couple of times... tricking people into thinking I was texting from my phone (and cause quite a lot of confusion apparently when they tried to text back). Alas, also dead.

What is not dead, however, is www.zoho.com. This is started off as free online word processing website and it appears to have grown. WAY before Google doc's and Microsoft's own minimal online version. And now the editing function for the word processor appears richer than when it first came out. There's footnote/endnote function (it didn't when I first reviewed it quite a few years back). The buttons are intuitive. And yes, it can be shared online with others so you can have collaboration. Zoho has pretty much all office products online. I'm so glad it's still alive... because it kicks butt and it is one of the original creator of online word processing software (www.ajaxwriter.com appears to be dead... ).

A lot of music sites appear to be still around too. amiestreet.com is still around, which is awesome. Unlike Amazon.com or iTunes with set prices for each mp3's, buyers price the music. Well, technically, demand sets the price for the music. If lots of people purchase the music, the price goes up. If not a lot of people purchase, well, it starts at $0 so I guess it remains free. So NO set price! If you pay $0.98, that means people really like it. It's true demand and supply forces at work to price the item. I think I'll go check out some music and buy some good undiscovered music... at bargain price (hopefully) ;)

Sunday, August 09, 2009

What is Wrong with Our Health Care?

So the flavor of the month is health care. But in order to fix "health care" it would be helpful to understand what is wrong with it. I asked a few people but there doesn't seem to be a clear answer.

The main concerns really focus on the cost/finance/economics of health care. So what do we have? One, the "cost" of health care is too high (presumably the premiums that either employees and/or employers pay). Two, there are lots of uninsured people who presumably may or may not get medical attention; if they do get medical attention, then they end up raising the "cost" of health care.

When I ask how these problems arise, we get to no clear answer. I was told it's because the pharmaceutical companies raise cost of drugs to insurance who in turn would raise cost to everyone else. Another person told me it's because all the uninsured somehow raise the cost of insurance (but if the insurance doesn't cover, and hospital doesn't get money from insurance for the uninsured, how do they raise cost for the insurance? I would think it would raise the cost for hospital but this is an aside.). Another person pointed out that it's all the frivolous lawsuits that raise malpractice insurance which raises health care cost (once again, if that raises malpractice insurance rates, how does that translate to health insurance premiums rising? I thought those were two different insurance companies, but again this is an aside). Someone else thinks it's because we are a nation of obese people and just generally unhealthy, raising the cost of health care because we require more complex procedures (diabetes associated with obesity, heart problems associated with obesity, etc. etc.).

I guess what I'm trying to understand, in this health care reform issue, is do we know what the underlying problem is? In order to solve a problem, it would be helpful to understand the problem. And right now, I don't have a sense that I clearly understand the root (more likely roots?) of the problem... and maybe it's because I haven't researched thoroughly. But when I get different answers from different people, I get the sense that most people do not have a clear idea of the problem either. And perhaps that may be the problem to solve first... to get America to clearly understand what the problem (and the underlying cause) is. But that's just my humble opinion.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Moving My Law School Outline Website

So Yahoo!'s Geocities is shutting down. Unfortunately, all my law school outlines are at Geocities. Why? Because it's free. So now, I have to look for another web host and transfer all my files. The thought of moving all those files just bum me out. It took 3 years of work (mostly right before finals) to upload all those files. Not that it's the prettiest of sites, and I'm sure some law is outdated. But my basic premise was for law school outlines to be readable once you click through a link.. instead of downloading a file to view the outline.

I started searching for web hosts but if you know of a good one (preferably free... because I am frugal), please leave me a note.

On a related, but not really related topic, I took my mentee, who just graduated from law school, out for lunch on Saturday. She just took the bar and made a comment about using computers to take the bar. That made me quiz her about the law school finals and use of computer. When I was in law school, having my laptop in class to take notes was a novelty -- I was one of 3 or 4 students who did that. She told me that now, everybody has a laptop and that there is a software to take finals with laptops. With free wifi, apparently people are surfing the net in class, and professors compete with internet for attention. On the flip side, people IM answers to you if professor starts questioning you. I found all of this fascinating. And my mentee was quite bemused by my questioning... of what was to her a very basic thing in school now.

Like my outlines, probably, I felt a bit outdated. ;)