Below is a link to my screencast presentation on India

The biggest differences I noticed with the living stories approach was the idea of putting everything all on one page, video, slideshows, related stories, timelines, anything related to the story is all available in one spot. No redirecting to other pages or opening new windows to view information. I liked this very much. By keeping everything on the same URL access to all information is very quick and readily available. Another difference is the way google is personalizing the news to individual readers, mostly by directing your attention to to new developments and graying out areas you have already viewed in stories that you have been to before. This is very different as with other news sources when you go back to a story you see all the stuff you already read, as if it was your first time viewing the story. This format definitely "personalizes" news stories to the individual reader more than any other approach I am familiar with.

As far as bias, I dont think the format or approach to presenting the news will have any effect one way or another as long as these tools are made available to all reputable news agencies. While using only two news sources could surely create bias, but as this is only in the development stage Im sure google plans to expand its network of resources. Honestly I dont think anything will reduce bias in the media until they no longer are subservient to the powerful elite of our society.

Something I would like to see added to this news format is the addition of more sources of information. Google says on their own blog that they are taking the content from the Washington Post and New York Times only at this time. I understand this is still a developing idea, but shouldnt it be relatively easy for google to examine and add other published news sources to this format? This would give the reader more opportunity to compare and contrast the event or story they are following. Being new to this whole "Living Stories" approach to news I will have to use it more before I can really elaborate on things I would to see added.

As for online deals, I found Amazon.com had deals running all week, with different deals starting everyday beginning today the 23rd. Store.nhl.com has several deals for hockey fans that start from what I understood at 12am Friday morning. TVdeals.gizmocafe.com had several links to tv and other electronics sales being offered.

Amazon had some very attractive deals on certain things like dvd's and blue ray disc. Another interesting thing I found out and never knew before was something known as "Cyber Monday". This is the following Monday after Black Friday. On this day in the U.S. online shopping spikes to a higher level than any other day in the U.S. This is believed to be the result of people wanting to avoid the massive shopping mall crowds on Black Friday. Online sellers offer sales on this day that are just as good as sales being offered in traditional stores on Black Friday. This to me seems like a far better way to shop, as I for one am not a big fan of shopping to begin with so I definitely dont like the idea of being trampled at Wal-Mart by insane people trying to get a free $25 dvd player that probably cost wal-mart a whole $1.50, and was made in Mexico. Sure you may have wait for your items to be shipped for a few days, but many chain retailers such as Best Buy offer free in store pick up of your ordered items so you can wait for all the lunatics to be done shopping and then go get your stuff when you are ready.

1) Social bookmarking is a medium for web users to save, organize, find, and share websites, information and just about anything else they want to keep track of on the web.

2) I would say almost everyone that uses the internet is using some form of social bookmarking in some way or another.

3) Every site is a little different, the basics all seem to be the same, a website that allows you to find, share, save, and organize things you find interesting or useful on the web.

4) This is significant because its an ever improving, very efficient way of promoting, sharing, and saving/organizing information and resources found on the web.

5) Social bookmarking looks as if its future is to be used by companies to share resources with employees, used to promote blogs web pages and anything else such as ideas and views.

6) Teachers can easily share information and resources with other teachers and thier students. Students could easily share the same with each other, which could be very useful during a group project for a class.

7) Some downsides include no standard keywords, also tags could be harder to find because of human errors such as spelling.

8) Some benefits would be that it is very much easier and faster to save resources, and it could make it easier to find tags that are not yet indexed by search engines, because the tag classification is done by people who undestand it, not a search engine using an algorithim to sort things out.

9) Between Delicious, Stumble Upon, and Digg, I was most impressed with Digg, as it seems to be more geared to help internet marketers promote whatever it is they may be trying to promote. Since I am involved in this field, I was happy with what I saw, as I found countless reviews as to how Digg has been known to help so much traffic to your site that it frequently crashes servers because of such high traffic volume.

Sceencast to do list

Download Jing to home PC (done)
Shorten script to fit inside 5 minutes
Find a different Mic. other than the one on my web cam
Rehearse edited script to fit time limits
Do final voice recording for final screen cast

My screen cast is on the subject of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
For anyone not sure of what this is, this is what congress passed to bail out the Wall street investment banks last year. This will reveal some fairly unknown facts and inevitable repercussions of the bill.

4) Zohos Suite
-online office suite
-includes project management software
-basic features for word processing
-free
www.zoho.com

5) Kingsoft office
-can read & open all MS office .DOCX & .XLSX for windows 2000, xp, & office 2007
-converts documents to widely accepted formats
-features look & feel very close to windows xp
-small download size of less than 50 MB
-&59.95 for instalation on up to 3 different computers
www.binarynow.com/products/kingsoft-office/

1) Open Office.org
-can open, read, & create files that are compatible with MS office 2007
-free, use for any purpose
-use for word processing, spreadsheets, data bases, presentations ect.
openoffice.org

2)Correl Word Perfect x4
-traditional interface for word processing, spreadsheets, & presentations
-prices from around $20.00 (OEM version) up to $300.00
trinitysoftwaredistribution.com

3)Think Free Office
-alternatives to MS Word, Excell, & Power Point
-very close look and feel to office 2007
-cost of around $50.00
product.thinkfree.com/office/