Dot.com to Dot bomb to Dot

The dot bomb era was the period of time following the dot com bubble of the late 1990's and into 2001. During the dot com era, Internet based businesses flourished. They were mostly funded by venture capital and banks looking to cash in on the Internet trend.

When the dot com bubble burst in the early 2000s, stocks sunk and hundreds of companies went completely out of business. Thousands of other companies laid off a large portion of their workforce.

I learned in the class that, it was a painful time in the technology industry, particularly for those who had planned their mortgages and/or retirements based on the prices of the technology stock they had been awarded or held in their stock portfolios. “Wealthy” investors lost their fortunes, and millions were left wondering what had gone wrong.

Some of the main reasons were:-

• A general economic recession during this period.
• Findings of corporate corruption, and the subsequent bankruptcy, at several large companies, including a few large technology companies.
• Stocks being overvalued and companies lacking enough of a sound business plan to back up those numbers and turn a profit.

In 1994 to 1998: Large, Internet-based companies were founded one after the other, among them Amazon, Beverly Hills Internet, Craigslist, Pets.com, MSN, Flooz.com, Go.com, and more. In 1998: Interest rates fell, contributing to increased start-up capital.

In 1998-1999: Taking advantage of the increased momentum, more companies started up, including Kozmo.com, Google, WebVan, MVP.com, etc. In 2000: Bubble reaches peak as the NASDAQ reached a value over double that of the previous year. In 2000-2002: Companies fold and go bankrupt.

The 4-Hour Workweek book

What the book is about?

It is a story of a guy named Ferriss. After college, Ferriss took a soul-sucking sales job at a tech firm. He left to start a soul-sucking business of his own. He went from working 40 hours a week for somebody else to working 80 hours a week for himself. He hated it. The pay was good, but the business left him drained.

After learning about the Pareto Principle (more commonly known as the 80-20 Principle), Ferriss had a revelation: he streamlined his business, eliminating distractions and automating systems until it was not only more profitable, but also took less of his time. Much less. He took a “mini-retirement”, and then decided to write a book about “lifestyle design”, about creating a life that balances work and play, maximizing the positives of both.

The 4-Hour Workweek describes the specific actions Ferriss took to implement these steps. This book actually is the complete embodiment of the 80/20 principle into an individual’s professional life. The 80/20 principle is the idea that 80% of your productivity comes from 20% of your time, and the other 20% of your productivity eats up 80% of your time.

Ferriss argues that by eliminating that 20% of productivity that eats up most of your time, you can live in a much more efficient fashion, and the entire book revolves around that concept in various ways, hence the title the 4-Hour Workweek. In some ways, the book itself reads like a blog, as it’s broken down into lots of little pieces: some of them step-by-step advice, some of them anecdotal. I think it has a lot of very inspiring parts. Overall it is a really good book.  

Guest Speaker : Erik Hanberg

Last week we had a Speaker Erik Hanberg in our TINST 207 class. Erik Hanberg works as a marketing consultant with Side x Side Creative, a marketing and design company. Erik Hanberg has been a writer all his life. Novels, screenplays, plays, even a stray poem or two. He lives in Tacoma, Washington, with family.

In addition to writing novels, he was elected in 2011 as a park commissioner on the park board of Tacoma. His most recent novel, The Lead Cloak, is now available on Kindle and in paperback. He is also Helping Small Nonprofits organizations. Based on his years of nonprofit fundraising and leadership, Hanberg published The Little Book of Gold, a fundraising guide for small nonprofits.

When he was just 23, Erik Hanberg was hired to run a non-profit arts organization. Since then he has worked in development at multi-million dollar non-profit, and has volunteered on many boards.

Here are the list of some books that he wrote

1.      The little book of gold (2009)

2.      The Saints Go Dying (2010)

3.      The Marinara Murders (2011)

4.      The Con before Christmas (2012) are about Arthur Beautyman, a computer hacker turned detective.

All three books can be easily enjoyed as stand-alone mysteries.

3 things that you refused to buy online

By just clicking a mouse or touching a screen, shoppers can buy nearly any product online -- from groceries to cars, from insurance policies to home loans. The world of electronic commerce, also known as e-commerce, enables consumers to shop at thousands of online stores and pay for their purchases without leaving the comfort of home. For many, the Internet has taken the place of Saturday afternoon window shopping at the mall. Consumers expect merchants to not only make their products available online, but to make payments a simple and secure process. However, the same things can go wrong shopping online as in the real world. Sometimes it is simply a case of a computer glitch or poor customer service. Other times, shoppers are cheated by clever scam artists. Sometimes it’s smarter to make purchases in person rather than online. It can be easier to judge quality, for example, rather than relying solely on what you see on a screen. For me I specially refused to buy things online. The three main things that I refused to buy online are: Prescription Medications, Electronics, Luxury Goods.
The first thing that I refused to buy online is Prescription Medications because prescription medications are as plentiful online as other fake goods. They are much more dangerous. More recently, a Colorado doctor is facing criminal and civil lawsuits for filling a prescription for antidepressants over the Internet to a 19-year-old student who later committed suicide. The civil suit alleges that the doctor signed off on the prescription without a consultation. These kinds of news proves that sometimes is not good to buy all the things online specially the things that related to your health. So, I personally think it's not good the be a online shopper.
The second thing that I refused to buy online is Electronic goods. When you buy a flat-screen TV from your local electronics store, you expect that it'll be handled with care by store employees every step of the way, from the store to your living room. But online, you have no way of knowing if that delicate screen will be schlepped to your doorstep on a truck that's also carrying a carton of loose bowling balls. The retailers don't make it easy, either. Most foist responsibility on the shipping carrier, rather than handle it themselves. PC Connection, for example, requires you to refuse damaged goods from the carrier, or note the damage when you sign for the delivery. Online buying also means you're making an expensive purchase sight unseen, which isn't smart when it comes to electronic goods.
The third thing that I refused to buy online is luxury goods. It is true that you can find good deals online, but how about a Rolex for $50? A Prada handbag for $150?
If you believe you're getting the real deal for this much only, then you are totally wrong here. Because those things are fake they are not the real ones. You don't even have a clue by selling fake luxury goods they are just trapping people and making money because they knew that people can't see online if the product is a real or a fake. These are the main reasons that I refused to buy these three things online.

scavenger-hunt

I love the TINST 207 class that I had this Monday, especially the quiz collaboration group activity. I like that activity because the questions on the quiz were really interesting and hard to find, especially what was the middle name of Andrew fry's middle sister? Honesty that was the one question that was really hard to find.

By doing this scavenger hunt activity I was totally amazed that how we can get the all the information just in few seconds. I personally think there are some good and bad advantages about the information that we search on web. The good advantage is that you can find information about anything that you want to find like museums, and product prices. The disadvantage is that the information about you on the webpage can be misused in a wrong way without even your permission. So, I personally think that use there are some good and bad point about webpages.

Second thing that I like about this activity was I met with new people and got an opportunity to work with them and learned  some good techniques to find stuff on computer.
The biggest Benefit to work in a group was it makes the work lighter for every one of us. Second, it saves time. And the third one is that it help us to develop stronger communication skills.

I really love the class on last Monday. My both group members were really nice and we help each other when we were stuck. I had great  experience by working with them.