IBM Chip breakthrough!!

Every year company's try to compete against each other to develop the latest technology, bigger,better,faster is always what they think about. Well once again IBM is on top with their latest chip that has advances that will allow electrical signals on chips to flow 35% faster, or for the chips to consume 15% less energy. " Analysts think that this is new technology is a big deal. . "It's the most significant semiconductor technology innovation in a decade. IBM doesn't think that they will start using it in their products till the year 2009 but is already talking about sharing their new chip with their partners such as AMD, Sony, Apple,and Toshiba. This is going to help AMD for it had got bad reputation and lost over 611 million dollars for having a slow processor and people knowing it has this new chip it might re boost them again. IBM is about a yr in advance over all the other companies and will remain like that for awhile. I'm glad that they came up with a new chip and are willing to share it with their partners, because i have a AMD processor and i didn't know to much about what it was until after i purchased it. I realized how slow the processor is. If AMD gets and upgrade on their chip, i would def want to change the chip in my computer to give it a extra boost.

Massacre at Virgina Tech University

Yesterday all anyone could talk about was the shooting that happened at the University in Virgina. They came to find out it was a guy by the name of Cho Seung Hui a 23year-old senior majoring in English and after a day of bloodbath left 33 people dead, including Cho, who killed himself as police closed in. What made him do this, how long did he plan on doing this. Fellow classmates said there were signs everywhere but nobody did anything about it. I guess he would write plays and there were very disturbing and he was referred to counseling to seek advice about his writing. After the murder scene they had found a note in his room that was discriminating him as "anti-woman, anti-rich kid." Therefore he did have a certain target he was going after. He was very quiet, always by himself he never reached out to anybody or talked with anyone. He was always the one in the back of the room not responding. He was a citizen therefore he could buy a legal firearm. Roanoke Firearms had sold the glock along with some practice ammo to Cho 36 days ago for $571. They though He was a nice, clean-cut college kid. But what turned out that this kid had been planning this shoot out for awhile. Supposibably couple weeks ago they got a couple of bomb threats towards the engineering dept and they didnt do anything about it, and that's where he did most of the shooting at. I think this is such a tragedy most of these students had ambitions to succeed and graduate and now they have nothing. School is supposed to be a safe enviornment where people want to be. I think they should of done some follow up on the bomb threats and maybe they could of caught him. This type of tragedy makes people around the world be more cautious to their fellow peers.

http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/on-close-knit-campus-gunman-was-loner/20070417115809990001

STRIKE

As of April 3 the strike was officially over, for students this was a disappointment for they were looking forward to not having classes for a couple days. In mid-March, the 11,000-member California Faculty Association voted to authorize a strike,with two-day walkouts rolling from campus to campus.This strike would of been on of the biggest strikes ever. For San Jose state faculty the biggest issue was the salary, since the cost of living here is much more. They came to an agreement all faculty are guaranteed a 20.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment in their salaries during the course of the four-year contract. Also a $28 million will be provided in the form of merit and equity increases that will provide raises for senior faculty who have reached the top of the pay scale, as well as boost junior faculty compensation. I'm glad to know after treading this article that our tuition shouldn't go up just because employees are getting paid more. That there is enough liquidity in our system for them to get paid their money. Although i was looking forward to the strike it wouldn't of really benefited the students that much because missing those classes would of taken away from other things, which we are close to end of the semester.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_5584658?source=rss&nclick_check=1

Gas cartel

I dont know about any of you but to me i feel that gas prices every day keep going up a couple cents and its driving me crazy. Gas is not cheap these days but it might be coming back down in awhile because of a gas cartel. A gas cartel could both ultimately lower gas prices and push importers to develop alternative power sources. The world has vast, untapped natural gas reserves. if a cartel forces prices up artificially it will only spur innovation in extracting hard-to-reach reserves. New innovations will give power in the market, and prices overall will sink as more supply moves to market. Also Natural gas is more easily substituted than oil, countries not wanting to pay cartel inflated prices will develop alternatives, from coal to nuclear to wind power. But now that global warming becoming a concern with the carbon dioxide emission they might not want to subsistue coal and nuclear energy for natural gas. Although gas burns much cleaner than coal and natural gas is less expensive then nucluear power. Even if they do decide to create a cartel the supply and demand could easily be fluctuated. I really hope that they do come up with alternatives instead of natural gas. If it works like gas and it cheaper thats all that matters to me. I constantly commute back and forth out of town and with gas prices going up like this i wont be able to afford to do it as much as i do now.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/apr2007/db20070409_886425_page_2.htm

Global warming

I was going through the new york times and i came across this article about global warming and it made me want to read more about it. Last semester i took a meteorology class and we talked about global warming alot. This article talks about how each year the earth gets warmer and warmer from all the carbon dioxide built up in the air. Countries like Africa accounts for less than 3 percent of the global emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel burning. But they face biggest risks from drought and disrupted water supplies. As the oceans fill with water from melting ice sheets, it is the crowded river deltas in southern Asia and Egypt, along with small island nations, that are most at risk. Eventually all the countries will be under water. The richer countries like United States don't have to worry about it so much now for at least couple more generations but they have started to build desalination plants, can work far from the sea, purifying water from brackish aquifers deep in the ground in places like New Mexico. Bush signed a treaty stating that countries will help others for cost of adaptation if they have to because of climate changes. It is clear that the rich countries are far ahead of the poor ones in adapting to climate change. But they can never be to sure. I learned that if they dont start taking percautions now and start worrying about it then sooner or later we can all end up under water.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/science/earth/01climate.html?pagewanted=2&ref=todayspaper

87 Traffic

I don't know about any of you but my commute to school is a drag. I live of the 87 and i take that freeway everyday to school. Ever since they have been doing construction on this freeway it has been nothing but traffic. Just recently going north on 87 they added another lane and made it into a car pool lane. It was suppose to help traffic but it hasnt. Once i get on the freeway I live about 2 miles away from the 280-680 exit and it takes me about 20 min to get to that exit. I have to leave me house at least half an hr early to make it to class on time. Also what i hate the most is the new lane they made from the 280 N freeway onto 87 south to go back home. It is so ridiculous they have made 3 merges into one. People merge in this one lane from three different freeways. One from people exiting from 87 to the Alma avenue exit, then people coming from 280 S trying to get on 87 and also of course people coming from 280 N. If you have any classes between 3pm-7pm and wanting to take that freeway be sure to know that it will take you at least 15-20 min to get on to 87 . This makes me so frustrated, when your out of school you just want to go home but it takes you that much longer to get home because your stuck in traffic. I can not wait till the fix this freeway and make more lanes. They said by early spring if not by beginning of summer that the freeway should be fixed, lets hope so.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/16758155.htm?source=rss

My approach to writting papers!

When it comes to writing papers for my classes i try not to procrastinate. There are a few steps that i take before actually starting the paper. One of the first things i do is brainstorm about how I'm going to approach the paper. If its a research topic i usually go online and fine information on the topic to give me an idea where to start. I usually have a hard time stating an opening paragraph and a closing paragraph. Therefore i usually just go right into the body of the paper and just start writing whats on my mind. I really don't outline which sometimes is not a good idea because the paper might not come out as smoothly as you want it when you just start writing. I also tend to catch myself that i talk in my papers as if im talking to a friend who knows what I'm saying, instead of actually giving detail of what I'm trying to say. Therefore its always better to outline. After i have finished the body of the paper i go back to the beginning and try to grab the readers attention by having a really good opening paragraph. Then closing the paragraph by reinstating what i have said in the body. Once the paper is complete i leave it alone for a day or two and come back to it. I try to read it out loud to catch any grammar mistakes or see if i need to add to it. After i have done that, i let my cousin read it to catch anything that i have missed or that doesn't make sense to her i try to change. IT really does help to have somebody else read your paper before handing it in because it makes sense to you doesn't mean that everyone else reading your paper understands.