Module 9

                In chapter sixteen, Friedman explains how his dell laptop was built. He explains how dells supply chain works and I had no idea that it was as redundant as it was. The laptop he ordered had the possibility of getting parts from over 30 different suppliers and shipped from nearly anywhere in the world. This gives Dell the advantage of literally never being supply blocked. If one supplier is unable to deliver the product they need, there are multiple other suppliers ready to ship the parts needed to complete the laptop. I found it very interesting how Dell is also able to control their supply chain through the use of promotional offers. The example the book gives is so many people order a 40GB HDD (Hard Drive) that the supply chain cannot keep up. Dells response to this is to offer 60GB HDD's for $10.00 more for a limited time only. This changes how many 40GB HDD's are ordered and ensures that the supply chain will not hit a stopping point. Whenever I by a computer part or I am just simply looking at the deals online, it never occurred to me why certain deals exist. It makes more sense to me now, I can imagine the majority of the deals we find online are a result of something similar to Dells HDD example.

                Chapter sixteen also covers how the terrorist group Al-Qaeda uses global supply chains in order to recruit more people and spread their ideas and thoughts throughout the world. The flattening of the world has not only made it easier for businesses and manufactures thrive, it has also allowed other organizations thrive as well. Al-Qaeda uses the flat world to recruit new people and spread their word through the use of the world wide web. This unconcerned medium allows them complete control over the message they want to deliver without having to get any attention from local media and news casts.

                "The Curse of Oil" is the term Freidman uses to describe the problems and issues countries have with their government and economy. Because of the demand for oil, governments often let the power run to their head when they are the ones who are in charge of it. The curse of oil comes when the ones in charge of the oil focus solely on themselves, knowing that they can get anything they want through selling their oil at a high price. They don't rely on the people to produce products and export them to make their economy thrive. A direct result of the curse of oil is under developed communities, cities, countries, etc. They are neglected because they are not needed. The money from the oil is not used for the people as it should be.

Module 8

Computers have been absolutely vital to my education. I can't think of anything I've ever learned that wasn't somehow aided by the use of computers. I don't believe I've even taken a test on paper since the 9th grade. In my opinion, Google is the only resource anyone needs in order to learn anything. It's the ultimate source of up to date information. If you know how to type a sentence into a search engine, the world is yours.

                My first real fond memory of using computers in my education actually goes back to 7th grade. I had just started my entry level percussion class. I always wanted to learn how to play the drums ever since I can remember but my mom couldn't afford lessons or the instruments so I had to go without. The entry level class was not what I had expected, we were required to start with a bell kit... If you don't know what a bell kit is, it's much like a xylophone but smaller and more annoying and lame. I envied the level 2 class because they at least got to play drums, mostly snare, but real drums. I remember feeling cheated but realized my rental bell kit included a practice pad snare drum and a fresh pair of Vic Firth SD1 concert band drum sticks! The first thing I did when I got home what set up my practice pad and pull open YouTube. Every night I would spend 3 to 6 hours watching tutorials and online lessons. This obsession continued on for the next 4 years. I had saved up the money to buy a full drum set and learned to play it from YouTube videos as well. Now I don't like to brag, I just love to play and in my first year of high school I had become the youngest drummer ever to get into the jazz band. All thanks to YouTube.

                My next real obsession actually happened to be computers themselves. Everything I've learned about computers was learned, ironically, from a computer. This was around 11th grade when my mom's old POS Dell was just, well, old. My task was to find a computer on ksl to replace it. What I found was a custom built AMD Athlon 1800+ system. If you know your computer history (which at the time I didn't) you'll know that the Athlon 1800+ was the king of its time. I scored that system for $40.00 cash and when I turned it on for the first time the sound didn't work and it needed hours of windows updates. I had no clue how to fix it but I turned myself to Google. The next thing I know I'm researching computers until 3am. I got really into modding and customizing the system to optimize performance. One day though I pushed it a little too far. I had read about overclocking and thought I could do it. Overclocking is the process in which you slowly, in 5Mhz increments, turn the speed of your processor up. It involves changing voltages, and settings in the BIOS, it's not recommended you attempt unless you know what you're doing. I didn't follow any rules and didn't realize the amount of heat computer produce. In one step, I cranked that CPU from 1800Mhz straight to 3000Mhz. It lasted 10 minutes. I was very upset that I ruined my computer and desperately wanted a replacement. So I continued with my research all online, learning about different components and parts. I finally got the knowledge to purchase all the parts to build a custom computer of my very own. Since then I have gone through many systems, replacing parts every 6 months for better parts, and building systems for my friends and family. I've grown such a passion for computers that I decided to follow that career path and here I am today. The Personal Computer itself, motivated me to further my education.

Module 7

                Comparative advantage is the ability of a party or in this case a country, to produce products, items, and services at a lower cost than their competition. There are a lot of factors that contribute to this. For example, China is very big in manufacturing because they're able to produce a high yield because of their high population and cheap labor whereas if the same products were produced in the U.S. it would be much more costly. Because of this, China has a comparative advantage.

                A self-directed consumer is a consumer that uses all the tools available to them to get their exact price, experience, and service they want when making a purchase. I am an extremely self-directed consumer. I rarely ever purchase anything without some research on the product. My use of the internet has greatly enhanced my experience of purchasing things I want or need. For example, I am an avid computer enthusiast and I love building custom high end computer systems for both myself and paying customers. Because of this, I am quite fond of newegg.com. If you don't know what newegg.com is, it's a website that sells computer hardware, software, and other items. Newegg tailors to my self-directed nature extremely well. Rather than going to Wal-Mart and buying an HP or a Dell computer, I can customize my own computer with parts from brands I know and love all the way down to the color of wires and cable I desire. This not only fulfils my picky needs for my high end system but it allows me to custom build systems for clients of my own to fit their price, needs, and expectations.

                I personally think that the ideas of globalization and Americanization are both completely different. Globalization refers to the growth and unity of the whole world, merging new ideas, companies, and businesses to compete on a global market rather than a local or regional market. Americanization refers to the influence America has on other countries products, culture, beliefs, etc. One could argue that globalization is forcing other countries to live an American lifestyle but I don't see it that way. The way I see it, the new lifestyle is a product born from globalization itself because other countries are still retaining their cultures and beliefs. 

Module 6

                I'm going to start the night off with free trade. Free trade is the ability for countries to trade goods and services without any restriction. As you may know, I am quite the computer nerd. I love technology and I love to watch the progress of it as well. My personal standpoint on free trade is that it is absolutely vital to the progress of technology. Free trade provides competitors with more competition for their products. This new competition forces one another to constantly best each other's product. For example, take the rivalry of nVidia and AMD (formerly ATI). The two companies both produce high end graphics processors and they are constantly pumping out new technology. It's to the point that a new product is released every six months that will double the performance of the previous flagship model. As soon as one company launches a new chip the other has already begun development of a better one. This competition has driven technology advancement at an extreme rate. Now let's look at it on a broader scale. The automotive industry has gone through numerous booms because of the same type of competition. Take a look at Toyota Motors, without free trade they would lose roughly 32% of their sales just from the U.S. alone. The way I see it is that without the global competition, we would never progress. The competition brought on by free trade only benefits us consumers with better products.

                The "New Middler" is the new middle class employee. With all of the outsourcing of middle class jobs, employees had to find a way to secure their position or face unemployment. New middlers have proven their worth to their companies by providing exceptional people skills, something that a computer just can't provide. They're also must be adaptable. With the constant changes and jobs being outsourced, new middlers must be able to prove that they can handle any task and exceed their expectations. New middlers tie in perfectly with the next topic.

                The "CQ+PQ>IQ" equation means that curiosity  and passion for a subject or in this case your job, can be worth much more than intelligence. You see it time and time again, people staying with jobs because they pay well or they know a lot about their job that they do well at it. The thing they're missing is their love for what they do. If you have a passion for your field of work and want to learn more than you will inevitably be successful. I believe this philosophy 100%. I'm studying computer science right now because I absolutely love the field and all my free time and money reflects that. Some of the other students in my classes that I have talked to don't seem to have the same passion for it like I have and they don't seem to be grasping the concepts or really even seem to care. However, once I finish my homework I dig deeper and find myself staying up until the early hours of the morning researching and learning more. I love talking with other people as passionate about computers as I am because you can sense their drive.