Ryan Thomas Goodenough

My Tuesday night class, which finished this week, causes me to continually ponder the efforts that can be done try to close the “digital divide”–the technology gap that separates the developed from the developing nations. As a tribute to my last day of that class, I’m going to propose five things that can be done to close the digital divide.

1. Focus on the content, not the technology - The number of Internet users isn’t going to make the divide any smaller. If people aren’t getting the best content from websites, then the Internet has little to no value.
2. Increase government transparency - Allow citizens to track the money that their government is using. Let people understand how the money is being spent and why it is being spent. Any money that goes unaccounted for should be a signal for corruption concerns.
3. Train people - Setting someone down in front of a computer and telling them that they can now use the Internet is not enough. Teach them how to use computers, especially older individuals.
4. Encourage independent enterprise - The advent of the “brick and click” retailers allows for people all over the world to sell their locally-made goods and crafts on the global market. Encouraging people to get their products into this market will allow them to thrive on the things they have always done well without having to sacrifice natural resources or national ideals.
5. The Internet is not English - Explain to young people who have a desire to create websites that they own a piece of the Internet–everyone does. The Internet is not American or European or Japanese. Websites should be created to appeal to the audience their creators want to reach, not the audience that they think they should be trying to reach.

Tomorrow, I turn in my last paper for grad school (Public Policy, for those of you who forget those type of things). The class is called “information technology and globalization” and I chose to do my final paper on the Internet sales tax problem (i.e. how should states go about collecting taxes on purchases that occur on websites that don’t have a physical representation in the state).

For my policy solution, I proposed that states need to do a better job educating the public about the issues involved. For instance, did you know that you should pay tax on all Internet purchases, even if the merchant doesn’t collect it? In this case, this is called a use tax. You are always required to pay use tax, but state authorities tend to only monitor use tax on large purchases (boats, cars, etc.).

Anyway, I really don’t want to talk about it too much more. Why? Because after Wednesday night (Master’s essay presentations), I’ll finally be done with classes.  Now that I think about it, I guess I’ve gone to school every fall since I started Kindergarten.

What am I supposed to do now!?

Oh that’s right–I’ve got a job to do. And golf to play. And basketball to play even more. Oh, and that whole “relaxation” thing. Ahhh…

As reported by TUAW and MacRumors.com, AT&T is offering free Wi-Fi to iPhone owners at Barnes and Noble, Starbucks and “71,000 other locations.”  When you connect to the network, you’ll encounter a nicely designed portal where you type in your mobile number and then *poof!* you have Internet access.  This is a nice solution to know about when you really need hi-speed Internet instead of the Edge network.*

*There are rumors floating that iPhone 2.0 will be a 3G capable phone (trans: fast connection).  We’ll have to wait and see if this is true.

In early March, I decided to buy a few shares of Apple (AAPL) when it was around 127. Today, it reached 180. That’s a pretty good gain!

Unfortunately, this is sort of like the first time I went to a casino. I went to Turning Stone with $20 and walked out with $100. So, I went back a few times. And I lost a few times. Something tells me that if I invested more money in the stock market, I might actually lose money. After all, if you always had these sorts of gains, everyone would invest in the stock market without even thinking about it.

The Problem

• People work long days
• No one is around during the day to sign for or accept packages
• Carrier locations are often closed early
• Packages requiring in-person signatures cannot be left at door

The Solution

• Carrier companies need to be more customer-focused: longer hours, more accurate delivery times
• Customers should be able to release liability from carrier, place it on themselves, and sign to have a package delivered, no matter what
• Customer comments concerning where and in what manner a package should be left must be strictly adhered to

This is just a start, but it covers some of the major issues.

When Cho Seung-Hi shot students at Virginia Tech, I wrote a post about how gun control is needed:

I’m not arguing that a few people wouldn’t be able to get their hands on illegal guns each year. But if such a law was passed, monitoring these sales would be much easier. It could lead to prevention of crimes like that which took place at Virginia Tech.

I received a comment by “butch” that stated:

- I’m not arguing that a few people wouldn’t be able to get their hands on illegal guns each year. -

You win the small cranium award…

The news broke tonight that Stephen Kazmierczak had bought accessories for his guns from the same online retailer that Cho Seung-Hi had bought one of his guns. Both purchases were made legally. I know that people subscribe to the idea that “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people”, but guns kill people too. Restricting the number of guns available on the market will reduce the number of gunshot deaths. It won’t completely prevent incidents like this, but I’m tired of the arguments against gun control. And by “gun control,” I mean no guns. I don’t care about waging a war against the Government. Nor do I think that hunters need handguns or semi-automatic weapons. Something has to change–we’re too advanced and successful of a country to be as stupid as we are being.

The University just sent us an email about the Northern Illinois incident:

Dear UAlbany Students:

…

* The Middle Earth Hotline (442-5777) offers free and anonymous peer assistance to students. The hotline is open from 12 noon to 12 midnight Monday through Thursday and 24 hours a day on weekends when classes are in session.

I appreciate the sentiment in this email, but I couldn’t help but be extremely curious at one point. Middle Earth hotline? No, it’s not a joke. Do you think they ever read Tolkien? Weird…

It just seems that if you truly want to offer people a hotline for help, then it might be worth finding a name that doesn’t invoke images of goblins, ogres, and wizards.

I noticed this poster at school today before my class:

One thing I was slightly frustrated by was that it was yet another example of where people discriminate against certain jobs. “Waiting on people”? It’s not just another summer job–a lot of people are career waiters and would be offended that it was included on a list of implied “bad jobs.” “Answering phones” and “shuffling paper” describes the work that most secretaries and office assistants perform. I understand that a camp may allow you to “make a difference,” but I’d like to think that the people who are performing the “bad list” jobs are also making a difference.

One thing that occurs to me as I watch the analysis of Obama’s victory in South Carolina is the shear power that a dominating victory like that can have over the rest of America. Between the endless pundits analyzing the situation and the constant media coverage, it’s impossible not to start thinking “Gee, the people in South Carolina must really like Barack Obama.” And if they like Barack, should I? By having these early primaries, the rest of America is unfairly affected by the way these few small states vote. Of course, nothing really matters until “Super Tuesday,” but there has to be some effect. I think everything should be held on Super Tuesday and avoid the charades and unfair biasing of the American public. It’s just not good for democracy.

My mom sent this along–I thought everyone else might enjoy it too, if you haven’t seen it already.

The woman in the video found this lion injured in the forest ready to die. She took the lion with her and nursed the lion back to health. When the lion was better she made arrangements with a zoo to take the lion and give it a new and happy home.

The video was taken when the woman, after some time, went to go visit the lion to see how he was doing.