Critique of is the smallest choice the smartest choice

In a recent article written by Dwayne he discussed the size and safety of the Smartcar. According to Dwayne the smartcar is simply to small and does not have the safety qualifications to meet his standards. However I somewhat disagree with certain aspects of Dwayne's argument. I had recently spent some time in Europe and when it comes to automobiles they are nothing like Americans. Most cars in the European towns that I visited are relatively small. Most of the drivers there seem to want small cars that could easily maneuver the tight ally ways and streets in most of the old european towns. On the contrast Americans in the past have loved their huge SUVs and gigantic trucks. If the Smartcar wants to make it in America they will have to change up the look and style and safety features of their vehicle, I agree with Dwayne there, but I dont feel that it is as necessary for the Smartcar manufacturers to adjust the vehicle for sales overseas. I feel that the Smartcar could potentially have a lot of success in its current form due to the fact that the car is what consumers are looking for in most European cities.

NetFlix's Actual competition

Speculators once argued that online video players like youtube might be the future competition of movie rental companies like Blockbuster and Netflix. However according to a recent article be Dan Frommer the real risk may be coming from cable television providers like Comcast. Personally I have tried to go the internet route and watch movies through internet sites. Most of the time the movies are of really poor quality, they are constantly interupted by advertisements, or it is simply impossible to find a movie that I would like to watch. Normally whenever I want to watch a movie I simply turn on the t.v. and hit up comcast's on-demand feature. With the click of a button I am instantly supplied with hundreds of movie titles, most of which are new titles, and I am free to watch movies at my own pace (stop pause features), from the comfort of my own home with little to no work. So after reading the article I definately agree with Dan Frommer's evaluation of the furture of NetFlix's current competition. I think NetFlix's biggest rival will be cable television providers.

Critique of Universal Currency

Well finding an article to critique took a bit longer than normal tonight. Not to many caught my eye with the exception of Unique's Blog about Universal Currency. I found this article very interesting and i definitely agree with Unique's stance on doing away with the idea of having a Universal Currency. Considering our current financial situation I feel that we would be at even more of a disadvantage in terms of trade if we used a single currency. Currently, companies can hedge and sometimes receive favorable returns due to currency risk. I think that by changing our current currency system we would put ourselves at a further disadvantage globally.

The new "age" of facebook

I remember being among one of the first, out of my friends, to join the facebook revolution. I was a sophomore in college and the big thing was that you could keep a great connection between friends who may not live close to you. I was also able to keep a photo album documenting my college years. These days it is rare to find a college student, or even a student in general who isn't on facebook. However the trend doesnt simply stop there, According to a recent article by John Sutter of CNN, "older generations are beginning to join the social networking" phenom. According to the article, parents and grandparents first started joining facebook to keep tabs on their kids and their friends, now those parents are starting to use the social tool to network with their friends.

One question that first arises in my mind is how this will effect Facebook's current users. I for one would rather not be "facebook stalked" by my parents. Will this hurt facebook in any way, possibly seeing the younger crowd dissipate in usage on their website. Over the past few years i have gradually limited my usage of facebook. Rather than checking it compulsively every couple hours I may check it once a week. I feel that my crowd of friends have gradually become less dependent on it over time. Will this have an effect on more students my age? I guess time will tell.

Critique: Are people making the crisis a bigger deal than it is?

In a recent post by Anna R., the discussion of whether or not people are making the 'financial' crisis a bigger deal than it is was raised. In the article Anna recites a conversation that she had with a woman in her hair salon over her thoughts about the financial crisis. The woman stated that she disagreed with a Fox News Report about the disparity of our economy. The woman stated that she had felt little impact in her day-to-day routines and she felt that the economy wasn't in as much turmoil as the news proclaims that the world is in. However I disagree with this woman's statements, just like anything I write on here can be considered my opinion, I feel that her opinion may be distorted due to her personal view on the world. Nothing in her life may have changed in the sense that she still has the same clientele and may preform the same daily habits, but the current economic crisis has definitely made quite an impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of lives around the US. I think as time goes on the effects of the financial strain will linger and be more potent. The market crashed roughly 6 months ago. In my opinion it will take a little longer than 6 months for everyone to be individually impacted by financial crisis.

The future of publishing

Currently the process of getting a book published can seem quite daunting. From a publishers view point there can be many risk involved with publishing an unknown writer. The process of printing, distributing and advertising a book can also be quite a financial burden. It is not often that publishers are lucky enough to find writers like J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series. With this being said publishers are quite wary of who they plan to publish because of the likelihood that a book may fail to sell.

In the current day and age of technology many readers are turning towards the internet to receive their literary fix. Newspaper companies can agree that consumers are also starting to turn towards the internet versus reading the old black and whites. As a twenty-something year old I can attest to the fact that I much rather read something off a computer screen then off a piece of paper. I am not sure whether it is the flashy colors and lights of my monitor or the simplicity of using this resource that attracts me to reading documents online.

Authors are also making the realization, that the internet may be the best new way to share their works. Websites like LuLu.com allow authors to publish their books at a low cost. In the case of LuLu the author bares the financial risk in printing as many or as few copies in whatever style they wish to print in. The websites also allows users to sell their books through media streams like Amazon.com. In the current economy, traditional publishing houses are suffering from major cut backs (CNN.com). Currently, I feel that larger publishing companies should look into creating segments in their company that allow writers to create printed material at a very low risk and cost for the publishing company. Currently Lulu business model creates very low risk for the actual business and places most of the risk on the author.

Critique of Dwayne GA 400 Article

Having once lived in the Roswell suburb of Atlanta, I became very acquainted with the tollway along the GA 400 highway. After reading Dwayne's article inciting a removal of the current toll, I began to quickly question some of the statements made in his article.

Having traveled up and down the tollway numerous times I began to notice that the nominal 50 cent fee for traveling the toll booth eventually became a non-factoring element of my daily travel plans. For those who use the highway on a fairly frequent basis the toll often times makes up for the time that could be spent trying to commute to avoid the highway. In Dwayne's blog about the GA 400 tollway he eluded to the fact that the state is currently stockpiling extra money from the tollway. I agree with Dwayne's statement that this extra toll money should go towards building new Georgia roads thus providing more jobs to Georgia's citizens and in effect contributing to the stimulation of our economy by providing new jobs. In the past, President Hoover created projects to help stimulate the economy like the building of the Hoover Dam. Projects like this have proven to effect the economy in a positive way. So like Dwayne said in his blog, the state of Georgia should use the money they are currently stockpiling to help build and fix some of Atlanta's other causeways.