Parrots, the universe,and everything

A few days before his death in 2001, Douglas Adams, was invited to speak at the University of California Santa Barbara. In this talk, he uses the same humor that is found in his books, and speaks about several animals that have not known predators, are being eradicated since the introduction of predators. He speaks about the kakapo, a flightless bird from New Zealand. Before the introduction of predators, the species was thriving, but is now endangered. The kakapo is unable to adapt to the changing environment. Another example of this that he uses is the yangtze river dolphin. Which can adapt to the changes that have been brought about by humans.

He uses these examples as a warning of how we are treating the environment and the effect that we have without even knowing it. In his book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the main character, Arthur Dent, finds out that the earth was in fact a working computer, built to solve the question of life, the universe, and everything. As his adventures continue, he latter learns that there were warning signs of the destruction of Earth, but humans were too focused on themselves to see it. We all need to be aware of how our actions are affecting the environment.

Companies using social media

  Social media is becoming more prevalent in our  every day lives and companies are turning to it to promote their products and brands. This is being done through media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The companies can focus in on their target market and announce new products and events. Two such companies are the Green Bay Packers and House Party.

  The Green Bay Packers use social media to inform fans of what is happening with the team, by informing them of the latest news and provide them with video of interviews with players and coaches. They also provide comments during the games of the highlights. An example of this was when Aaron Rodgers was injured during the game against the Bears on Monday night. The packers informed their fans that Rodgers had injured his shoulder and latter that he would not be returning to the game. many fans and fantasy football players will be following the news as he recovers.

  Another company that is utilizing social media in different ways is House Party. House Party is a marketing company that allows consumers to sign up to host a party where they are sent products to test out. The company uses social media to announce upcoming parties for consumers to sign up for. Consumers are sent the product to use and are encouraged to talk about the products on social media, creating a buzz for that product.

  These are only two examples of how social media is being used by companies to reach their target market.

Why I chose MATC

    I have been in the IT field for over ten years, doing desktop support. As a Level II Support Specialist, in order to advance any further, I would have to either go into management or into network administration. I started searching job sites to see what other opportunities there were in the IT field and noticed a lot of programming positions. This started me searching for a degree program. Since I work full time and I have a family, I needed a program that I could complete all my courses online and MATC met my requirements.

  Some people have questioned me about going into programming, as most people would move into Network administration. Part of the reason that I chose to go into programming at MATC was because it was available entirely online, but that was not the only reason. When I was young, I would program the computers at home, this was the days of the TRS 80 Model III.

  At that time, there were magazines that we would purchase through school and each month would be a new program. I would spend hours typing in the program, then save it to cassette tape, only to find out that there were errors, so it was back through the code to find the error. After spending days working on the program, it was finally error free, and a stick figure ran across the bottom of the screen and jumped hurtles. It felt great when I completed the program, knowing that I had worked hard to solve the issues I came across while programming.