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With as many people who use email as their primary communication tool, I think that delivered postal mail better known online as “Snail Mail” is no longer necessary. I cannot remember the last time that I sent a written letter, while I send at least 2 e-mails everyday! Even important mail like bills can now be paid online with a credit card! The Internet can be used to send both card and share pictures, which are, even more things that do not need to be sent by postal mail. Money can be transferred or gifted via Paypal or any other similar service. The other advantage of communicating over the internet is that messages are received instantly while, postal mail takes at least 2 days to be received.

One service that needs to continue is for physical packages because that cannot be done any other way currently.  But, that will have to continue still!

As I mentioned in my Best Sites to buy Tech article, I buy as much as I can online because the prices are so much more reasonable and as long as I can wait for it to be delivered it is a much better deal. The problem is, now that E-commerce has become so prevalent, less people buy from retail stores and buy more online and makes it much harder for retailers to stay in business. E-commerce offers almost anything you need and for lower prices because they do not need to pay rent to keep a physical store or pay people to operate the store.

In my opinion is that in order to keep people from buying most of their goods from the Internet and support retail stores, the stores need to reduce their profit and cut back so that they can stay competitive with the online retailers. The other change they need to make is to offer more options because online retailers offer hundreds of thumb drives and provide a wide range of pricing options. Meanwhile, retail stores might only have 3 to 5 options and a much more limited price range.

Retail stores that I think will survive are places like pharmacies that cannot operate online due to the risk of people fraudulently attempting to get pills. I also think that retail stores that are more experiences and not just walk-in and buy. The best example is the Apple store, which is a great environment to try out and buy products. I also think stores that have day-to-day necessities like food, clothing and shelter will remain open because people do not want to wait 3-5 days for a carton of milk. All-in-all retail stores need to make a major change in order for them to compete with online retailers.

Originally, I did not see why people would spend $25/year for Flickr Pro just to post pictures online. That was of course, before I began using Flickr originally as a Free user and discovered how powerful it was and how enjoyable and simple it was to share your pictures!

At first I decided I could try Flickr out at first and use a free account and see if it would be necessary for me to pay for the Pro account.  However, because I had a free account I was limited to only uploading 100 Megabytes each month and because of that I would have to stagger the pictures that I upload to get the best pictures online and hold off on the lower-quality images until the next month. I also could only make 3 sets, which group pictures from similar events or similar subject matter. This was not too much of a problem until I got my new Cannon Powershot 1100IS, which takes much higher resolution, pictures to significantly larger, file sizes. These two factors were huge in my decision to get Flickr Pro.  Sets were essential for me because I like to have everything organized and easy to find.  I thought about if for a long time but, then I realized it was totally worthwhile for me with as many pictures I take and would like to share with my friends and family.

For anyone who is considering getting Flickr Pro I recommend trying the Free account first and see if you want the extra features and if you do then go ahead and buy Flickr Pro.  For $25 /year you get unlimited picture storage which I think is an unbelievable value to you.  Flickr is great for casual photographers and if you are a more serious photographer, then you are probably better off with paying for Flickr Pro!

By utilizing internet-based services that I have mentioned in this blog, you as the consumer are able to get a major savings and in many cases, you are able to have access to even more features. Below is a chart of the services that can be replaced by web services. Internet Services can replace utilities in your home as well as computer applications and much more.

1. Phone- Skype
2. TV and Movies- Amazon Unbox
3. Cds- Amazon Mp3 Store
4. Microsoft Office- Google Docs

Wikipedia is a informative website that allows anyone to provide information on any topic making a web-based encyclopedia that is a collaboration of everyone’s knowledge. However, many educators and other skeptics do not believe that Wikipedia is a viable source of information and do not allow students to use it for research papers.

However, I believe that because the fact that anyone can post, edit and add information that wikipeida allows informationm to be fact check by anyone and edit it so that the most accurate information is posted. I believe it is ignorant for educators to not accept the new trend in information and not allowing students to utilize it. Personally, I use Wikipedia evertime I need information quick because it has alot of information on a wide variety of topics from a wide range of perspectives.

Every computer user has important data on their computer that they would be in trouble if they loose in the case of a hardware failure or software crash.  Every computer expert recommends that you should backup all your crucial data to an external device like a external hard drive, thumb drive or optical disk. However, what happens if there is a natural disaster or fire burning down your residence and making your backup totally useless. Plus, you would have to setup backing up even if you have a program, you would have to set it up yourself and pay for the media to put it on. This whole process is a total chore and still is not a perfect backup method.

However, if you sign up for a online backup service, you can set your computer to upload everything as files change and be sure that it is safe even if your residence is destroyed. The two services that I have used are Jungle Disk and Mozy.  Jungle Disk uses Amazon’s S3 service and charges a mere 15 cents per Gigabyte. However there are also some setup fees and uploading speeds also. Mozy on the other hand, has a free account that has 2 GB of free storage, and then an unlimited storage account for only $5/month per computer.  I decided that was the better service because as it backs up, it puts all the data online and secure from harm. The one disadvantage, is that with Jungle Disk you can upload from as many computers and mount the storage as a disk drive on your computer. However, Jungle Disk requires you to buy a backup application for an additional one time fee of $20, however there is a 30 day trial to start you off.

I have replaced localized backups with using Mozy’s unlimited service, and their included applications makes it so easy and I don’t even think about backing up my data but, I know it is safe!  I reccommend everyone using online backup because, the data is always safe and takes no thought or effort!

Anymore, I do not see the need for having office work done on paper or manually, since the dawn of new, more reliable technologies that can make office life simpler and much more productive. Paper can be damaged, lost, stolen and destroyed, while moving digitally, could prevent the problem of if the office burns down, the business goes with it!  Computers have been more utilized in recent years but I believe that in the future, offices will go completely digital and offices would be completely based on computers.

As an example, I will list the general things that offices need and list their digital replacements:

File Cabinets- Computer hard drives, Web Storage, Internal storage server

Paperless offices are great, despite the fear involved by some people who are computer-phobic might be worried but, as long as data is backed up frequently and off-soite all your data will be safe and much easier to access.

Phones- Skype/VOIP

Skype as I have mentioned before is a much more affordable replacement to landlines and could save offices lots of money and calls can be made anywhere in the world!

Messages/Memos- Email

As for internal company messages just move it all to email, Gmail has a great enterprise solution and could be a great replacement

This is just scratching the surface of the paperless office and although it may be scarry, it is worth it for new companies starting up, along with old companies as a system update for the best.

Two weeks ago, Internet Television pioneer, Revision3, laid off nine of their workers much to the up roar of their fans.  They also let go of five of their shows, two of which were a syndication of already popular shows.  The reason given for these drastic actions was because there was not enough of an audience for these shows and because of the current economic crisis, money is tight and they wanted to make sure Revision3 could last and continue to produce high quality videos for their fans.

Due to those circumstances, the following shows met their end: Pop Siren, Pixel Perfect, and Internet Superstar, in addition, the two syndicated shows, Epic Fu and Wine Library TV were also removed from the network line-up. In my opinion the cancellation of some of theses shows were warranted, like Internet Superstar which I though had very little value especially after the reformatting. Pop Siren was in it’s earlier days a great show that  thoroughly enjoyed but, when they moved to the 2.0 format it lost it’s value and lost my viewership. Pixel Perfect in my opinion was at the core of what Revision3 was supposed to be, a Internet version of what Tech TV was, which was high quality, technology programming. By cutting Pixel Perfect, Revision3 took one more step closer to becoming another G4. As for the syndicated shows, it was really unwise to begin the syndication in the first place and they put money in it  that they really should have used that money to invest in developing more high quality shows. Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV, even said that he totally agreed with cutting the shows because it was not the right move for Revision3 to spend resources on shows they do not produce.

With all that said, I think that there are still shows on the network that are not worth continuing and should have been canceled instead of Pixel Perfect. The one show I would cancel is The Digg Reel, although it is easy to produce because it is mostly video off of the Digg Video section, mixed with the host commenting on and introducing the videos. That provides very little value to the viewer and really does not deserve to be produced while Pixel Perfect got the axe.

It is unfortunate that these shows had to be canceled and talented people like Sarah Lane and Martin Sargent lost their jobs however. my hope is that Revision3 uses these cancelations as a refresh of the network. I hope they will go back to their roots and go back to informative shows instead of some of the junk they have been producing in recent times.

Anymore, I seldom watch my favorite television shows when they actually air on cable for the first time. This is for two reasons: first, I have recently cut back on how many shows that I watch but also,  I have began watching the shows over the internet from the network’s websites and other joint ventures like the one I am going to talk about today. As I mentioned in a prior post,  I love for buying shows off the Unbox On-Demand Video Store from Amazon, but, I also like save money watching by watching TV shows from Hulu, which is a joint-venture between several production companies. This service allows people to stream TV shows and movies for free with only brief advertisements. This is a great service,  because no one wants to pay for every single episode they want to watch in most cases just once, plus the shows can be watched anytime they want, although shows do “expire” at some point but, for the most part shows usually stay up for the whole season. Another advantage of watching shows on Hulu is you actually save time, a 30 minute show is only 23 minutes on Hulu and allows you to enjoy your shows more together instead of having four  2-minute commercial breaks breakingup the show making it more much more disjointed and harder to follow.

This is a great way to try out new shows that you might be interested in or are unable to sit down and watch because of your busy schdule. Hulu allows the viewers to pick the time that is best to watch and enjoy the show at their lesiure. Also, by watching on your own computer screen, you get a better quality image because it is usually higher resolution than a television. I believe that as more and more networks put their shows online, the new generation will begin to not pay for a cable television subscription and will instead watch as many free shows on Hulu as possible and then buy shows their either really like or cannot get on Hulu. I believe that this is the future of Television and between the shift of regular networks putting their content online and the further development of Internet-based video networks cable will cease to exist

In this highly computerized world I truly do not see the point of a person having a landline phone number. Anymore, everyone has a cellular phone that they carry around with them anywhere. Plus, if they want a phone line that they can have at  home Skype is a great option as are many voice-over-IP or VOIP solutions could be a great replacement. Not only can you access you VoIP from anywhere over the Internet but, you can also save a lot of money, Skype out, or making a call from VOIP to a regular phone number is $2.99 a month for UNLIMITED calls to the US and Canada and for Unlimited calls worldwide that is only $9.99/year. Plus to get a phone number coming in to your computer for receiving calls is $60/year. That is only $96/year and you can take that number anywhere you go and if you want to call unlimited internationally, then it is still about $180/year. That is still probably a major savings over your regular phone bill and can go anywhere!

The one disadvantage, is that you cannot make emergency service calls but, cell phones are. Plus, you are now relying that your Internet service is not down when you need to make the crucial business call. Also if you have a cell phone, then you can take your phone with you anywhere.

I believe that, landlines will evolve into VOIP and will then make the move to primary use of cell phones and then when worldwide WiFi is developed cell phones will switch to VOIP-based cell phones. I believe that these evolutions have already begun and will take full-spring in the next 5 years and then the second revision will come about in another 3-5 years depending on the availability of an omnipotent WiFi network.