Baby Boomers are joining the Social Networking World in Record Numbers

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Baby Boomers grew up in a world with three or maybe four TV channels that would sign off at the end of each day. Our high tech toys were Erector Sets, auto racing sets and toy electric trains. When we became parents, the marketing world targeted Boomers with new tech toys, knowing that we would buy in frenzy because we didn’t have anything like it when we were young. As Boomers grew up, the world went through so many major technical discoveries, that naturally, we all became fascinated with it all.

Boomers grew up through the 20th century and played a part in the fastest growth of scientific discoveries the world has known, and yet as computers and the Internet started to become a part of our daily lives and in our jobs, Boomers were in their 4th decade and became less likely to jump into the quickness of change with computers and the Internet. Many could not keep up the same pace of understanding and therefore resisted becoming as knowledgeable as our children, who grew up with computers being second nature, through their toys and video games. 

Boomer parents found they were being left behind and clueless to knowing what their children were doing on the Internet. This, of course, made many even more wary of the Internet, due to bad news stories of children and others being victimized. Parents found they had to begin to learn more about this “Internet thing”. 

As the main venue of Baby Boomers, television began displaying nearly everything in terms of the Internet, website addresses in news stories and advertisements, Boomers became more and more aware that they were being left out of this new media venue. Over the last decade, and especially over the last couple of years, Baby Boomers have jumped into the social networking world in staggering numbers. They have discovered how they can reconnect with family members and friends they haven’t seen or spoken with for years.

According to a Pew Internet and American Life Project survey, Internet usage among people over the age of 50 has doubled over the last year, growing from 22% to 42%.

It takes Baby Boomers a while to join into new ideas, but once we do, the resulting effects are always overwhelming, in many perspectives. Boomers still love new inventions. We grew up seeing some of the most amazing technical advances of our world’s history. Now that we are in our mature years, we may be slow to start, but as Boomers join in a movement, so goes the growth and possibilities.

Source: Wikipedia

Great site for Boomers to instantly create great videos!

If any of my fellow Boomers love sharing family pictures...and who doesn't, you will love this site! My wife and I have created several videos for family reunions and the like by scanning old family pics and putting to music for a memorable and emotional video that are always great hits at family gatherings. There are several good software programs you can use, but I have found a website that does most of the work for you and actually with one click, creates one of the most professional looking videos you can create for about the cost of one greeting card. As Boomers are dealing with being job loss, retirement or learning about social networking, creating family memories can be fun but also very time consuming. You do have to gather the pictures you want and arrange them when using Animoto's site, but the professional arrangement and movement of the pics with your favorite music is all done in the background, easily! I love the ones I have put together in less than 15 to 30 minutes!

You will love this website to great professional looking videos for family members! To create a free short video is free and a longer one is only $3, the cost of a greeting card and it's so easy to do! This is an example of one that I created for my daughter's 20th birthday!

Watch the video I created and then check out the savings deal below!

Click this link to check out Animoto for yourself. When you create your new user ID, be sure to click on promo code which will automatially enter a code for a $5 savings!

http://animoto.com/?ref=cuwbznoa

SWEET Gadgets for Boomers...

Yes, Boomers love gadgets! I have been a Blackberry user for about 5 years now as I supported the service for the company I used to work for. This is Research In Motion, the maker of Blackberry, latest hopeful against the iPhone...an obvious insurmountable task. You never know though... Blackberry has a HUGE following of devoted users and now this offers the touch screen feature!

Talk Up a Storm #3: Connected at Home & Abroad

The Effects of Outsourcing Technical Jobs.

I worked in the Information Technology area for over 20 years and we have been warning of the implications of outsourcing these jobs for a while now.

Outsourcing IT jobs has been occurring over recent years primarily as cost cutting initiatives became the primary directive of corporations in their increasing movement to please stock holders. The bottom line figures in the market have moved to the top of the list of management mindset and thus all other business methods are influenced from there.

My fellow workers in the technical field have long been aware of the dangers and impact that moving these types of jobs from employees of the company to the less expensive outsource company. Workers who do not belong to a company will not have the same passion to support the business and the factor of distance, not having technical resources on hand at the local business, only makes for communication errors and delays in help.

One important area where issues are already showing up is in security. This Associated Press article shows how Verizon Communications shows how security leaks of credit information are occurring due to outsourcing companies not being as rigid on security.

Outsourcing aids many data thefts, Verizon say

Oct 1, 2008 11:55 PM EST
NEW YORK - The reliance of restaurant chains and retail stores on outside companies to handle credit-card processing and other information-technology functions is partly to blame for a rash of consumer data breaches over the last few years, according to data sleuths at Verizon Communications Inc.

Even a chain with thousands of restaurants might have only 100 employees in information technology, so it uses outside vendors for many IT functions, said Bryan Sartin, director of the investigative response team at Verizon Business.

"What happens is there's a lack of accountability on the third party," Sartin said.

Verizon's unit investigates a quarter to a third of the big, publicly announced data breaches that occur each year, and hundreds of smaller cases.

In recent years, restaurant and retail businesses have accounted for more than half of Verizon's 230 to 250 cases per year, according to a report Verizon was set to issue Thursday. It often finds that insiders at service vendors are part of the heists.

Organized data-stealing gangs "go to the call centers, the Web development companies, the content development companies, the business partners, the people who pick up the backup tapes," Sartin said. "They say ... if you hate your boss and you're in financial straits, we're your solution. Give us access to your customers. Better yet, give us your data."

In a typical case Sartin was involved in, the team was approached by a large oil company in Canada, with thousands of gas stations. Customers were finding spurious charges on their credit cards after using them at the stations.

The team soon figured out that someone at a technology vendor was responsible, but couldn't pin it down. So the investigators set a trap in the system, to see who accessed customer data.

"The trap went off on Saturday morning," Sartin said. "Hackers always think nobody's looking on Saturday mornings."

A police car headed to the vendor's office, and the culprit turned out to be a 21-year-old who supported the software that operated the gas pumps. He had sold lists of customer data to organized crime.

Many breaches don't happen through outsourcing. In one of the largest cases in recent years, the gang that stole 41 million credit and debit card numbers from chains including TJX Cos. obtained access through unsecured wireless networks, not through subcontractors' systems.

Still, Verizon's report advises companies to keep a tighter rein on contractors, including by limiting partners' access to only the data they need.



By PETER SVENSSON AP Technology Writer
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Speaking of Value...

This is the first car I have purchased that did NOT lose value as soon as I drove it out of the dealership. I'm glad we are going to see a lot more of these and other better technologies coming real soon! The article speaks to used Prius cars value.

@Toyota: Behind the Wheel

Just one more technological evolution occurring during our Baby Boomer's lives!!!

I really don't know much about how to describe this, but the video will astound you if you are at all interested in what humans can do. There are some very very intelligent people in this world. Good or bad, discovery of what is in the universe is deep within the human condition. There will always be those of us who fear what thinking can lead to as there is just no getting around the fact that humans are both good and evil, but nothing will stop the human mind from wondering and asking why and how.

The video, from Telegraph.co.uk is about the Large Hadron Collider project being done by CERN. CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 20 Member States.



Go to the CERN site and look around. These are the things that humans do that make me wish I could live to see where it all goes.

Today, September 10, 2008 is when the first actual experiment is occurring. These are the planet's greatest minds working at what human beings do...imagine and discover!

The website of the world's first-ever web server

I really had no idea of the impact of the year 1990 on our world and each one of us. This post is really just to make my readers aware of the year's significance and point to the actual FIRST EVER web site. What humans can think of and create never ceases to amaze me! Let's take a few moments and think about the impact that this discovery has on each of us. Enjoy!


Welcome to info.cern.ch