Accessibility

In this modern age, cell phone accessibility is reaching new heights. Countries that never had the fiscal ability to have cell phones are now getting them. The Egyptian revolutions was fueled by cell phones. The Egyptian government blocked many forms of mass communication, so the revolutionaries took to Twitter. The individuals were able to send text messages to Twitter which were subsequently posted on their accounts giving locations of protests and meetings. It gave people a sense of community and belonging in an oppressive government. As things get more advanced and as more countries get access to mobile phones and social media I think this is a trend we can expect to continue.

App review: Waze

The app I chose to review is Waze. Waze is a crowdsourced GPS app that takes information from users to update the best route possible. In a town like Pullman, this app doesn't have much use, but in cities like Seattle where traffic is insufferable, it comes in very handy. When I am in Seattle I always use Waze, even if I know where I am going. Waze knows where traffic is, it knows exactly how slow the traffic is going, and it knows how long it will take you to get through it, and it knows alternate routes. Other users also update where roads are closed, where there is construction, where there are red light cameras and speed traps, and where cops are hiding out. It has become a must-have app for anyone who lives in a metropolitan area.

The evolution of mobile technology

When I was growing up in the '90's the only people who had cell phones were stock brokers and prominent businessmen. I remember how excited I was when I got a pager in middle school, although, for the life of me, I can't remember actually using it. As I got into high school, cell phones became affordable for the average person. At that time, however, the idea of unlimited talk and text was just a pipe dream. At one point my parents took away my phone for racking up a $300 phone bill. A few years after I graduated high school the smart phone wave struck. Data was added to phone bills, and the price of calls and texts decreased. So the question we have to ask ourselves is, what will be the next breakthrough in mobile communication technology? I don't think any of us have the answers yet.

About me

My name is Brian Bell. This is my final semester here at WSU, and I hope to start a new career overseas in Europe somewhere. Hopefully London. I'm 30-years-old, so older than the average Coug. I don't care too much what I do, so long as it's in television somewhere. I love to travel, although I haven't done it much. A couple summers ago I went to England, Prague, St. Petersburg, Moscow and Bucharest. I am returning to Bucharest for spring break this year.

I worked in direct mail marketing for eight years prior to coming to Pullman. The job was awful, we essentially were creating and distributing garbage. Our primary market was in real estate advertising, and when the housing bubble collapsed our profits took a huge hit. Eventually hours had to be cut, and that's when I went back to school at Bellevue College. The first time I almost quit was when I was required to mail out pamphlets attempting to recruit people to the local Catholic church. As an atheist, I have many moral issues with this, from the attempts to bring people to religion, to bringing people to an organization who has been protecting priests whom had been molesting children for years. Eventually, the final reason I applied to WSU and quit that job was the lack of pay. I started working there in 2005 and had no received a raise since 2006. The owner of the company had also decided I wasn't doing enough work, despite that I had taken over the position of someone he had laid off, saving him over $30,000 and giving me no extra pay. So the moment I received my acceptance to WSU, I told them I was quitting.

Here at WSU I am involved with Cable 8. I am the director of "Wazzu on Film," a movie review show that I brought in last semester. We are starting our second season this semester. The show features two hosts, who review two new movies every other week. We have a man on the street segment as well, where another host interviews students and challenges them to games. Cable 8 is a great way to build up relationships and bond with peers.

I've also been involved with the Secular Student Association here. Atheism is very important to me, and building towards a secular society is something that I think is the right thing to do. At the SSA we discuss all things religion, weighing pros and cons, trying to figure out things like if religion is inherently harmful to society. We also have presentations about the histories of religions, Bible and Koran passages, and many other subjects. In many parts of the country atheists are trusted less than murderers and child molesters, and this is something I try to work on changing. I think that if people got to know atheists they would see that we are moral people. George H.W. Bush once said that atheists should not be citizens of the United States because we are "One nation under God." This is what I am trying to change.