Horacio Reyes'

One of the biggest transitions in our life today are the switches from physical storage to the so-called “Cloud Computing” or “The Cloud”. Many companies are moving their services making use of this relatively new model, with business such as DropBox providing the means to obtain parts of distributed work by a company.

Although efficient, “The Cloud” remains somehow confusing too many upcoming users. Dropbox has over one hundred million users, becoming the mainstream cloud product, at least to most companies, to work under certain aspects of commodity. Dropbox, as other cloud computing software, allows users to submit and retrieve files at any time and from different places, such as work, home, or practically any place with internet access.

So how does cloud computing work?

Lets say company X has 80 different computers for workers to use. As in most company, different workers need to share information such as documents, accounts, etc. For a long time in many businesses, when this was done, it was done the long way. Documents were created using Microsoft Office and, if they needed to be shared, they had to be attached on an email and sent this way. This process has a lot of obvious disadvantages. For example, every time someone opens the attached file a copy is made. This copy is independent from the other one, and someone can potentially modify or alter it, making different versions that had to be matched up in the future.

Cloud computing presents a solution to this problem. “Cloud” software, such as Dropbox, allows the file, instead of duplicating itself, to be upload to the server, where it can be retrieved and modified, but always staying in the same place and always being the same file. Cloud storage is also cheaper for users, as you are using storage from different companies (Gmail, Dropbox, Facebook), and by this you are not spending money on an external hardrive or having to deal with a slow computer.

Other advantages of cloud computing is the ability to have almost unlimited storage, backup and recovery, automatic software integration, and easier access to information.

Nevertheless, there are some disadvantages that come with this model.

First of all there are technical issues. Even though data can be access at any moment from any place, there is always a probability that the system may fall. Technology is always prone to outages and dysfunctions. Furthermore, accessing cloud storage requires an Internet connection, which as we know, is sometimes a little bit hard to get.

Another disadvantage of the system is the issue of security. With cloud computing, you are providing your personal information to a third-party company, disclosing things you might not want anybody else to see.

I believe cloud computing, overall, represents a benefit for society. I am more of a functionally type of person, and I think that this type of technology will make it easier for all of us. We just need to leave our mentality of hard drives and embrace a new one with the main purpose of sharing, as it is the motto in today’s globalized world.

WhatsApp is an application for smartphones that allows a service of instant messaging between mobile platforms. WhatsApp has been able to become part of our daily life, using the name even as a verb in a sentence (let me WhatsApp you when I get out of class). Even after being recognized by several companies as the biggest disaster known in terms of security, the acceptance of the application in the community has been undeniable. Recently, rumors have said that WhatsApp has been having serious conversations with Facebook to contemplate the probability of the acquisition of the app. Would that transaction improve the safety and security of the application? Would the application improve overall? And of course the biggest question of all, does WhatsApp want to be bought at all?

It is simple to see why Facebook, a free social network sustained by advertising and that is lately showing a big interest in the mobile market, is interested in an application such as WhatsApp. Facebook already bought Instagram, making its way into the sphere of mobile platforms. WhatsApp is a paid application ($0.99 in iOS and only free for the first year in Android) free of advertising and with a widespread presence in different markets, cultures, and languages.

If the transaction goes through, it would be a very shocking one; especially since one of the owners of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, has publicly expressed his hostile position towards advertising and companies that have as a goal being bought. Nevertheless, as we have seen several times in the past, the power of money has been able to modified strict minds.

The owners of WhatsApp have shown a lot of concern to improve and develop new techniques to solve the security breaches that the product currently has.Even after first implementing encryption in August of this year, their encryption has already been broken, and practically anybody is able to “sniff incoming and outgoing messages”. All these breaches need to be fixed before this app becomes a reliable source for the transfer of information, although many people are not aware of the dangers associated with this product.

If Facebook ends up buying the app, it would be, without a doubt, an extremely high price. WhatsApp is the third most popular paid app in the App Store and it has over 7 millions downloads in Google Play. It has over a billions messages exchange daily and an almost ubiquitous presence in the entire world. Moreover, Facebook would have to keep an eye on many eastern-based applications that are arisen such as Kakao Talk, LINE, and WeChat; all of which have already millions of users worldwide.

Maybe this deal goes through, maybe not; but whatever happens, the app needs to have an improvement of security to finally settle its power on the market and destroy competition once and for all.

In 1999, Hugo Chavez assumed the power of Venezuela, and since then , the country has been Cuba’s principal political, economic, and commercial ally.

On October 7th, Venezuelans elected Chavez for his fourth term which –constitutionally speaking – will begin on January 10th 2013 and end until 2019. The president was reelected with 54,66% of the popular vote, which is 8% less than the ones he gained on his 3rd reelection. His political rival Henrique Capriles had on 44,97%, according to the National Electoral Council.

This past election in Venezuela has shown the biggest electoral turnout that the country has had in any other elections. Nearly 15 million Venezuelans voted this October to decide if Chavez’s term should be prolonged six more years, for a total of 20 years. These means an increase of almost 6 percentage points from the turnout of last elections. Chavez won the elections, with a promise of a renewed and more profound “socialist revolution”.

Although international transparency agencies were present in Venezuela, their job was made difficult due to the country’s governmental officials high bureaucracy, making a lot of non-“Chavist” Venezuelans skeptic about the final results.

Even though they are beaten by the result of the elections, opposition members took the result in a pacific way, and keep their eyes set in the future. They keep struggling to remain united and rally its followers to the regional elections on December.

Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the greatest tools to promote your business. Satisfied customers are the best kind of advertising your company can have. They are fair, viral, and powerful.

According to Rob Fuggetta, author of the book Brand Advocates: Turning Enthusiastic Customers Into a Powerful Marketing Force, Making your customers involve into a “volunteer sales force” it is one of the most powerful forces that can drive your business through the market. Fuggetta suggests that to stimulate word-of-mouth marketing you should:

• Identify your best customers.

There are some customers that are more loyal than others, and this loyalty is important to identify. Targeting the right customers for your business can lead to your business recognizition and spread velocity increase. Social mediums, such as Facebook or Twitter, are really important now-a-days. They increase the interaction with the entire world, allowing you to permeate your business in any demographic group you want. Those that respond positively are possible candidates to become what Fuggetta calls “brand advocates” who will contribute to promote your business to other people.

• Make it easy for your best customers to post reviews.

After identifying your loyal customers, you should encourage them to write reviews of your company and direct those brand advocates to different sites that post customers reviews, such as Yelp. As reviews begin to pile up, it becomes easier to attract new buyers that would be influenced by the opinions of their peers.

• Encourage your best customers to write testimonials.

Testimonials seem to be more influential than reviews. So, try to get your customers to write personal stories about how your business changed their lives and post these stories on your website. Testimonials are a powerful sales tool that would influence people to become attracted to your company.

• Invite your best customers to answer questions from prospects.

You might have a sales team answering customers’ concerns, but if you try to get your existing customers to answer those questions, new customers would be likely to take those responses more seriously

In 1967, George Gerbner, a Hungarian professor of Communication, studied the effects of television in society and proposed an idea that is today recognized as the “Cultivation Theory”. In this theory, Dr. Gerbner proposes that “television cultivates, or promotes, a view of social reality that is inaccurate but that viewers nonetheless assume reflects real life.” In other words, television is overwhelming us with information to the point where our perception of reality has been distorted. Everyday, we turn on our televisions and stare at a synthetic yet coherent reality. Cultivation Theory proposes that the more TV we watch, the more it influences in the way we perceive the world.

It is important to define what cultivation means in this context. According to the theory, cultivation is the “cumulative process by which television fosters beliefs about social reality.” This means that a single show does not have an influential effect on you, but the continuous engagement with television and other mass communication agents may have a big impact in your life.

So what’s the problem with this synthetic reality?

Well, for one thing, television portrays an extremely violent world. Fifty-seven percent of television entertainment programs include some sort physical, emotional, or psychological violence. In contrast, only 10% of reported crimes in the nation are violent in nature, and the average person has 1 in 200 chance of being involved in a violent crime during any given week. Furthermore, violence is not only shown the programs that entertain teens and older generations. Studies report that “28% of children’s show include four or more acts of violence, 75% of them do not carry the FV (Fantasy Violence) rating. In the US, the average 18-year-old has viewed 200,000 separate acts of violence on TV, including 40,000 separate murders.

At this point of the theory, Dr. Gerbner points out a singularity that he calls “Mean World Syndrome”. This phenomenon happens when the violence-related content of mass media convinces viewers that the world is more dangerous than it actually is, and prompts a desire for more protection than is warranted by any actual threat.

But why is television able to permeate in every demographic group of society? There are two reasons:

1- Mainstreaming.

Mainstreaming is TV’s ability to stabilize and homogenize views within a society. As previously stated, if heavy viewers see violence on the TV all the time, they may come to believe that violence is common. When they interact with light TV users, their attitudes may affect the attitudes of others, allowing the mainstreaming process to happen.

2- Resonance

Resonance is the extent to which something is congruent with personal experience. For example, a person who has experienced violence will likely identify with TV violence. This greater identification heightens its impact, so we participate in creating the drama and its impact on our attitudes and actions.

So to wrap it up, Cultivation Theory argues that commercial TV distorts our perception of reality, fostering beliefs and attitudes that are taken from a synthetic world through our screens. One effect that TV has had on us is the Mean World Syndrome, where we see the world as a far more dangerous place than in actually is.

For this blog I want to talk about of one of the biggest magnates in the Tech World. I am going to talk about a company that has been an important part of our lives for many years, and their influence on us is growing even stronger today. Yes, you guessed right, I’m talking about Google.

Well to commence strong, let me tell you (if you didn’t know already) Google has now become the second most profitable tech-business in the whole world! Last Monday, Google overtook Microsoft as the world’s second-most valuable technology company as the firm kept on the rising track it’s been on for the past three months.

The company has been climbing steadily since July, when shares were trading at around $570 each. Right now, shares are trading around $767, that’s about a 34% growth in less than 4 months, that’s an awesome deal if, I can say. Furthermore, I think Google’s shares are going to continue on this track for a while, so if you are thinking about investing in a business, as I am as soon as I get some money, perhaps you should take a special consideration in the company.

In fact, I think that Google is the ONLY company, Facebook should seriously watch out for.

Here is what I think:

Google+ is Google’s social network. It is based on the concept of “Circles”, and making every existing Google product socially compatible. We are talking about Gmail, YouTube, Picasa, Google Maps, Google Chrome, and so on. Sign in once, and you are in all the accounts you need.

Ok its true, Google+’s 100 million monthly active users represent barely 10.5% of the 955 million monthly active users Facebook has. If we base our opinion these facts, it is unimaginable to think that Google+ might EVER dethrone Facebook, this would be trying to hit Facebook in its strongest characteristic, Facebook is already too huge to compete with them from this angle.

To challenge Facebook, Google+ needs to exploit Facebook’s weakest spot and show Facebook users that Google+ is going to be more functional and interesting in the future. So what’s Google’s weak point?

Mobile phones.

Mobile is the future, at least foreseeable future, even Facebook has admitted this. And Facebook has achieved huge amounts of revenues and improved and acquired apps such as Instagram – who added even more users to the already huge user base. Nevertheless they are still very vulnerable in one place: They don’t have their own mobile operation system on hundreds of millions of phones like Google or Apple does.

Google, on the other hand, has passionately expressed its desire to integrate Google+ into all of his products, including the very popular Android phone, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it. “Circles” turns out to operate really nice and smooth on Androids phones, and the fact that Google+ is a very personal social network allows the web noise to be reduced and more focused on content. That means not having our attention drawn to Farmville or TowerStack. It just looks more clean and professional.

However, Google still needs to find a way to emotionally connect with his users and show the quality of their social network. Even with the millions of Android phones circulating, Google hasn’t been able to hook its users with Google+, but if they can find that bond, they could bring down Facebook.

There is nothing like the feeling of sitting on the beach with a couple of beers, friends, maybe a guitar. There is just something about the sound of the waves, the sand between your toes, and the sunset on the horizon that makes life better and easier. Time seems to go by at a slower pace and people carry a contagious smile on their faces. A beautiful beach makes you want to freeze the moment so you can live a whole life in it; after all, who hasn’t thought at least once about leaving everything and moving to the beach? No worries, just happiness. It is the closest we can get to the 60’s communal love.

 

When you travel to Nicaragua, one BIG part of your trip must involve enjoying the wide range of beaches that the country has to offer. The majority of our beaches are preserved at their natural state and are kept isolated from human construction, except for a rustic hotel or two to accommodate surfers and tourists.

 

On the Pacific coast, the most accessible coastline, San Juan del Sur is the most touristy and popular beach in the whole country. In this town there are a huge amounts of hotels, restaurants, and other tourist-oriented businesses, all of them eco-friendly. Peaceful during the day and crazy during the night, San Juan del Sur offers only the best for tourists of all ages. Furthermore, many other beaches of even greater beauty than San Juan are located as close as a thirty-minute car ride along the coastline. This last summer, the biggest surf competition “World Masters Surfing Championship”, was held in Playa Colorado, only twenty five minutes away from San Juan. This competition allowed Nicaragua to get a name and reputation among the surf world and beach tourism as a whole.

 

On our other shore, hundreds of miles of white sand extend parallel to the coast of a beautiful, clear blue ocean. Although is necessary to take a small plane to get to this side of the country, the price of the ticket is not going to exceed $80 US dollars, and a hotel in the area shouldn’t cost more than $40 per night.

 

The Atlantic waters are well known in all Central America, but in my opinion (trying to be as unbiased as permitted by my patriotism) Nicaragua has the most beautiful and exotic ones. It is not only that the landscape is beautiful; Nicaragua’s Atlantic coastline feels like you just traveled to another country. The government is independent, indigenous tribes exist, and their first language is English! (Well, sort of English with a really thick accent). Between the Pacific and Atlantic shores, anyone can experience the best out of each ocean that surround us, everything at a great price.

 

I hope this allowed you to have a little bit more insight of what you are missing if you don’t have your plane ticket already. Nicaragua is a diamond in the rough waiting for you. Get it while is cheap