Why is greed taking place of faith

How do you view money? Balance of greed and god, a good question for CEOs . The first principle they teach in business school is that purpose of business is to improve shareholder value, that is where we are wrong. We owe to society to make this planet a better place. First thing the consumers need to know is not to use their unearned money to spend on things they don’t need to impress the people they don’t like.

The basis of faith is giving, I pray to God and money will start flowing in that is not faith that is greed. It is a hard time for a lot of people and we must have compassion, Wall Street is paying its karmic hell. We call ourselves consumers, we are a conference of compassions, so focus on giving and love will flow in enriching our lives.

People who run Churches, people are beaten down and we need to help them so that they don’t get discouraged and not get sucked in to damage their prospects. The word prosper is to give a good life, good job, good relations, God has put gifts and talents in everyone to architect their lives. The love of money is the root of evil, where are your motives,to pay your unpaid bills, the belief that God is going to help you to reach there. What should our values be in regards to money, It is not to live in debt, live at the top of barrel. Be practical but hopeful. Don’t live to please everyone and be slave to money instead let money work for you.

Top YouTube Videos of 2009

And YouTube is out with its list of the top videos of the year. Number one by a wide margin is Susan Boyle. The Scottish singer’s star-making turn on a British talent show has been seen on You Tube more than 120 million times this year — more than videos 2, 3 and 4 combined. Boyle’s video was followed by “David After Dentist” (37 million views), “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” (33 million views), “New Moon Movie Trailer” (31 million views), and “Evian Roller Babies” (27 million views).

Cheater Woods : Is he out of the woods?

Seemingly spotless Golfer, Tiger Woods made headlines in the newspapers and media because of his series of transgressional stories. The issue hogged media’s attention and was tossed up like a tornado in a storm. Only a few felt that it is only human for someone as successful and rich to step outside his marriage to find an extramarital affair. But to indulge in as many as 20 affairs would call for extreme organizational skills. Had he shown the same dexterity and discerning abilities as in golf he could have gotten away unscathed from the messy situation he architectured. Obviously his championship in golf does not extend to save himself from the mishaps of adultery .

The whole episode cost him dearly as he had to pay 60 million dollars to his wife in damages just to stay with him, a split would have probably cost him even more. But the whores were slicing him like a turkey on a thanksgiving day, looking at the this as a chance to profit from. They showed proofs of his illegitimate affairs with them through permanent and wildly incriminating messages left on the telephone through voice mails and text messages. It seems quite naive of him to think that mistresses would at his request delete a solid proof of damning evidence of their affairs with their multi-million boyfriend  just out of goodness of heart. He obviously didn’t take into account the impact all this will cause to his marriage and kids. His inexperience and carelessness risked his family life to shake the roots of his career and family. His caddy would have come with a better strategy to resolve an issue than that.

And then confiding about his affair to a  friend from media was like adding fuel to fire. Had he confided to a friend who had been in a situation similar to him, he could have had a sympathetic ear. But handing over a juicy story like that to a media friend seemed like he offered himself as an ideal fodder to a hungry fish who would in time would hog on him and tear him him down. So he may be a champion in golf but in dealing with real life issues he proved deficient.

Now as a part of crisis management strategy from a reputed PR firm, he had to give a public apology for his misconduct and announced his decision to take an indefinite break from golf to focus on becoming a better person, a husband and a father. Here is how his latest statement was: “I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children. I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I’ve done, but I want to do my best to try.” Whether he wants a break to be treated of his sex-addiction, or whether he wants to save his marriage, his invincible expertise in the green battle fields of golf is all anyone wants to see. Outside of the golfing, his life issues have been blown way off-limits.

A pandora’s box Google – a double edged sword.

Do you remember the time before Google, I think my primary search engine was msn.com or yahoo. But now Google has hogged the entire search engine market, has about 80% of the market share. Google is like a Aladdin’s lantern, that brings you all you need, it’s infinitely large yet takes up no space. I can find a house in Mexico to rent, look at paintings in Prada or listen to Tiger Woods ill-considered voice mail to that bar girl.
It is a priceless resource that can fulfill your big and small information needs in no time. I can put together a research file on any subject, identify top experts in any field anywhere in the world, email them right away to ask a question or request an interview. Amazingly, they usually email me right back.

People in 60s sometimes ask me how many researchers are working for me. Who needs researchers when you have Google? Google is a double-edged sword in the media world while it is a boon it is also a bane. It is the worst thing for people in the world of old media i.e. TV, newspapers and books and advertising. So to the once-glamorous old media, Google is a Googzilla. It is like a scary monster tat leaves destruction in its wake.

Google’s mission is thrilling, idealistic and seemingly benign. It is a to make information accessible and free There is a terrific story about a conversation with Mr. Bill Gates back in 1998. What keeps you up in the night? Mr. Gates replied that what worried him most is not the competition he saw all around him. It was the fear that, somewhere there might be two guys in a garage dreaming up something completely new.

There were. Their names were Sergery Brin and Larry Page. By 2008, 10 years later, there garage start up had revenues of more than $22-billion and is full-on in competition with Microsoft. All money comes from ads that you never click but obviously other people do. Advertisers love them as they only pay if someone clicks. No more waste of time or inefficiency. To add to the pain, Google own content is stealing time and audience from everyone else.

At Google the world is inefficient and engineer is the king. They can make the world more efficient. Wouldn’t it be cool to have 20 million books online; or to digitize the newspaper distribution system; or to enable people to get software for free through cloud computing; or why shouldn’t phone calls be free?

Free information is wonderful. It levels the playing field between buyers and sellers; haves and have-nots. It means that third-world students who cannot afford textbooks can still have access to information. I is a tremendous force for democracy, social justice and liberation.

Google has demolished entire industries. Nobody buys encyclopedias anymore. People don’t need travel agents, either. Anyone is intermediary business (including retailers, advertising agencies) is basically toast. It has thrown entire education industry in disarray. What is the use of learning anything when all the facts are out there on Google. Will people who have grown up with web be persuaded to pay for content they now get for free?

Google of course would not rule forever for sooner or later some two guys in garage are sure to have a new idea….
What has changed since Google?

1. I stopped bookmarking things. In fact, it will take fewer keystrokes to get there and in case something better comes along I’ll get on it right away.
2. I stopped using specialized sites. If I want to read up on some vehicle, or anything, for that matter – google will show me the specs and reviews much, much faster.
3. I stopped using sites like weather.com, yahoo movies, financial sites, etrade, fool, even calculator, dictionary and Microsoft Excel for many cases! Everything could be done by a simple text box and “Search” button. Faster.
4. In fact I stopped using the address bar all together, just like many others – Firefox has an alternative “address bar” that is powered by Google and is proper: no need to add “.com” or retarded “www” to everything and accidental misspellings will get fixed. Isn’t that sweet? Just go Ctrl+K instead of Alt+D.
5. I do not have POP3 email client software anywhere. Gmail, even though it does not have folders and uses “collapsed” conversations, was by leaps and bounds the best web-based email program. My primary address is 10 years old and does not end with ‘@gmail’ but I tunnel all my messages through gMail anyway simply because they eliminate spam. 99.999% of it, like nobody else.
6. I stopped using my personal site. I can store family photos and useful files up there on FTP, just in case I’ll need them when away from home. With ad-free Picasa and the giant gmail mailbox I don’t need those either.
7. Finally, all sorts of Yellow Pages became history: online, offline – does not matter. Google finds that stuff too. Phone companies finally (!) realized that as well and stopped bombarding everyone with those useless yellow bricks.

Web trends in 2010

Web trends in 2010
There are some conspicuous web trends showing up for 2010. As human beings tend to think in threes: the following three promise to be big in 2010: Real-time communication, Internet TV and social gaming.

Online social networking isn’t going to go away.  It’s only going to keep growing at an astronomical rate.

1… Real time web: The term represents the growing demand for immediacy in our interactions. Immediacy is compelling, engaging, highly addictive … it’s a sense of living in the now. Social networking sites like face book, twitter and Linked In make it easy to instantly update status, post pictures, write wall posts and respond to interesting facts presented by friends spontaneously and in no time at all. You can share your personal experiences.. review a restaurant, recount your trip to zoo or a Japanese park and share info with your friends who are quick to respond to your experience by commenting on it or liking it with a press of a button.

You can also portray your talents like paintings or articles or blogs and exhibit it before hundreds of your friends and open groups attracting contributions from all. Why wait until you get home to post a restaurant review, asks consumer trends tracker Trendwatching, when scores of iPhone apps let you post feedback as soon as you finish dessert?

Cloud computing

Cloud computing was very much a buzzword of 2009, but there’s no doubt this transition will continue. The trend, in which data and applications cease to reside on our desktops and instead exist on servers elsewhere (”the cloud”), makes our data accessible from anywhere and enables collaboration with distributed teams.

The cloud movement will see a major leap forward in the first half of 2010 with the launch of “Office Web Apps,” free online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote released in tandem with Microsoft Office 2010.

Internet TV and movies

Is 2010 the year the majority of our television starts coming to us via the Internet? No more waiting for the next sequel of your favorite TV show, you can watch what you want, when ever you are free through Internet TV. Looking at time for your must-see shows is a concept of bygone times. Now Internet allows you access to latest TV shows and movies for free and it is available to see when you are. Could things get any better for the movie and media lovers.

Social gaming

There’s little risk of social gaming proving a bad bet in 2010 — Zynga’s FarmVille game on Facebook now counts more active users than Twitter, claims a Facebook executive. Meanwhile, rival Playfish was recently acquired by Electronic Arts in a deal valued at up to $400 million. You can practice stock trading for free with the help of free cash and mock situations. You can even build another life for yourself on Second Life along similar lines as is exhibited in the movie Avatar. However you have to be careful if your spouse in real life finds out that you have an affair with cartoon from Second life their could be a transgression suit waiting for you.

Of growing interest in 2010, however, will be the virtual currencies these games have spawned: In the allegedly unmonetizable world of social media, virtual buying and selling may be the route to riches for some social media sites — a concept can be outlined in a topic “Is Facebook the future of micropayments?

Mobile payments
I’d wager that 2010 will be the breakthrough year of the much-anticipated mobile payments market. While much of Asia has embraced the technology, the U.S., in particular, has lagged. There’s reason for optimism in 2010, however: From PayPal to Amazon’s mobile payments platform for developers, the big players are seizing the mobile payments opportunity. Mobile banking is an extension of internet banking and the phenomenon started getting very popular in US a couple of years back. A lot of banks in US have already started using mobile banking (using the WAP technology) in a big way. Some of the prominent ones are Citibank, Bank of America, SunTrust and Wachovia.

• Cell phones can be used to make payments
• It is simpler and easier than online banking
• Their will be a standard interface waiving off the use of unnecessary graphics.
• It is secure incase the instrument is lost as data isn’t stored on the phone and information cannot be obtained without an access code, which must be entered each time. The only real danger might be from shoulder surfers (privacy issues).
• It is quick. It is only 3 clicks away to see your account information.
• It is secure as mobile service has 128-bit data encryption, the same level as the existing Internet service.

Reality Stars :

Fame is now abundant. Social media has birthed a galaxy of stars in thousands of niches: We’re all reality stars now, on Face book, Twitter and all the myriad online outlets where we hone our personal brands.

We’re seeing the ongoing voluntary erosion of privacy through public sharing on Face book and Twitter, the rise of location-based services and the inclusion of video cameras in a growing array of devices. Some of the bad practices of the social media is exposing your private life unabated in social networking sites which can tarnish your career plans or show you in a poor light to employers, family, etc.

The incredible efficiency of Web-based communication and our Google-fueled appetite to know everything about everything (or everyone) leads to continued erosion of privacy — this is expected to be a hot media topic of 2010. With private information so easily accessible, it makes sense make yourself  just a little hard to get in order to void becoming a target of  frauds.