I subscribe to Google’s investing email subscription and saw someone posted that Google is now the 5th highest-valued company in the U.S.

It’s time once again to step back, pause, and marvel at the growth of Google. As of the close of trading today, 10/30/2007, a company that is roughly a decade old and that has been a publicly traded company
for only a little over 3 years is now the *5th* largest company in the US by market cap.

A couple months ago we were roughly 15th. Companies this large don’t
usually shift around Consolidation Immediately, especially in the upward direction. We’ve grown and much of the rest of the market has shrunk recently. In trading today we went up over 2% and closed with a market cap of $216.86B (according to Yahoo Finance) while Proctor and Gamble, the previous #5 went down 4%, closing at $215.18B (after hours the gap continued to widen). Some of the other companies we’ve passed recently include Walmart, Johnson and Johnson, Chevron, Cisco, Citigroup, and Bank of America. The only larger US companies by market cap are now AT&T, Microsoft, GE, and Exxon.

Worldwide, Google appears to have just broken into the top 20 based on data from a recent article, but I don’t know how far in. (It’s harder to get a good up-to-date list of top companies by market cap worldwide. If someone knows a good site to do this, let me know.)

Wow!

Just experienced my first earthquake in California!

http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.htm, thanks Kyung

Version #3: This report supersedes any earlier reports of this event.
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

A moderate earthquake occurred at 8:04:54 PM (PDT) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007.
The magnitude 5.6 event occurred 8 km (5 miles) NNE of Alum Rock, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 9 km ( 6 miles).

Magnitude: 5.6 – regional moment magnitude (Mw)
Time: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 8:04:54 PM (PDT)
Distance from: Alum Rock, CA – 8 km (5 miles) NNE (31 degrees)
Milpitas, CA – 11 km (7 miles) E (91 degrees)
San Jose City Hall, CA – 15 km (9 miles) NE (45 degrees)
Sunol-Midtown, CA – 17 km (10 miles) NE (45 degrees)
Coordinates: 37 deg. 25.9 min. N (37.432N), 121 deg. 46.5 min. W (121.776W)
Depth: 9.2 km (5.7 miles)
Location Quality: Excellent

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale

Perfect! My parents and I have been talking about going on a cruise especially to Alaska and there’s a tour for Deaf people!

Alaska Deaf Cruise Tour 2008

I’m gonna play for a team called the Gold Rush. The tournament is this weekend, starting with 4v4 on Friday and 8v8 on Saturday. Hope we all play well. I’m gonna be like Deion Branch. We’re same height, run sharp patterns, swifty and have good hands.

And Bobby Knight said this, “The key is not the “will to win” . . . everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.”

Seth’s blog:How to get traffic for your blog

Wow, the list is good. 56 of them but I’m picking some for here.

1. Use lists.
2. Be topical… write posts that need to be read right now.
3. Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
5. Be timeless… write posts that will be readable in a year.
6. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
9. Write short, pithy posts.
19. Do email interviews with the well-known.
24. Post your photos on flickr.
28. Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
37. Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
38. Write about blogging.
39. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
40. Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
45. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
46. Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
48. Be patient.
49. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
51. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.

If you have a phone with camera, you don’t need to read this any further. This is more for users with blackberries (because I own a Blackberry Curve).

Facebook has a rule that you cannot upload mobile pics by emails, only from your phone but alas, blackberries can send emails. So, if you have been trying to send pics from your blackberry, Facebook will send you a confirmation code each time. Which eventually becomes annoying.

To prevent from getting confirmation codes over and over, you need to use MMS feature on your blackberry and send pics through that. Voila! no more confirmation codes! this is because the address comes in the form of phone number or phone number directory, not email address, which Facebook obviously likes better. Happy uploading. :-)

Learned something new. 10 questions you don’t need to worry about answering.

10 illegal job interview questions

Oh, I dig their short films.
Pixar Short Films Collection – Volume 1 (2004)

Been a while since you’ve been in college? have a look. @ University of Missouri

Not exactly sure what happened but it appears that the bug has been lifted off. I’m back into blogging again and I hope it will be one long streak before I break it off again later. My goal is simple: make information a bit more useful, especially on Deaf topics and I’m also trying to write more reviews.

Less talk, more actions.

Wanted to pass this along: http://www.csun.edu/~sp20558/dis/deaf.html

Rarely is a person completely deaf, and a hearing loss could fall anywhere along the continuum from totally deaf to hearing. The amount of usable (or residual) hearing varies greatly from person to person. Depending upon the type of loss, the person may or may not benefit from the amplification that a hearing aid provides. Hearing aids only amplify sound, they do not make sound clearer. The severity of a person’s hearing loss could be different at various frequencies. Therefore, ability to hear different voices will vary depending on a number of factors, including the pitch of the voice. Also, it is important to note that a person’s ability to hear a voice is different than the ability to discriminate between sounds and to understand speech.

The life activity most affected by hearing loss is communication. Colleagues and friends must be versatile in finding an effective communication method. Pen and paper are handy communication devices in some situations.

Though not effective for all people who are hearing impaired, knowing some sign language and fingerspelling is helpful. Learn some elementary or survival signs from colleagues, coworkers, or managers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

People who are deaf or hard of hearing, like people who are hearing, have different education levels. Knowledge of English grammar, syntax, and spelling varies from individual to individual. A person who uses American Sign Language (ASL) as their primary language of communication may or may not be proficient in using standard English. For the most part, English is an oral/aural language designed to be spoken and heard. Therefore, it is quite challenging to learn and understand English when you can not hear, especially when it varies so greatly from the structure and syntax of ASL. The person who is not proficient in English is not stupid or illiterate; he or she just uses a different language to communicate.

Not all hearing impaired people are good lip readers and lip reading skill has no correlation to a person¹s intelligence. Even good lip readers may miss many words. Keep in mind that only 25-30% of spoken English can be lip read. Not all deaf people know how to speak sign language, or choose to use sign language interpreters. Some prefer to communicate through lip reading and some prefer sign language.

The need for an interpreter depends on the situation and the people involved. Interpreters can be described as a communication link. A telephone, for example, is a communication link; it does not add information or alter the content of the message.

Deafness does not, in itself, affect intelligence.

Blake and I made a goal to sell something everday, at least one thing or more.

Here’s my first one: Linksys Cable Modem

I see the dancer spin clock-wise so I guess I’m right brain.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses logic detail oriented facts rule words and language present and past math and science can comprehend knowing acknowledges order/pattern perception knows object name reality based forms strategies practical safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses feeling “big picture” oriented imagination rules symbols and images present and future philosophy & religion can “get it” (i.e. meaning) believes appreciates spatial perception knows object function fantasy based presents possibilities impetuous risk taking

Lately, I’ve been thinking about money so I looked around for quotes to gain some perspectives on money.

The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money. ~Author Unknown

I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money. ~Pablo Picasso

Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and you’ve lost a part of your life. ~Michael Leboeuf

Money is a headache, and money is the cure. ~Everett Mámor

Life shouldn’t be printed on dollar bills. ~Clifford Odets

Business is the art of extracting money from another man’s pocket without resorting to violence. ~Max Amsterdam

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion. ~Voltaire

Wealth – any income that is at least one hundred dollars more a year than the income of one’s wife’s sister’s husband. ~H.L. Mencken

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is. ~Oscar Wilde

Money is power, freedom, a cushion, the root of all evil, the sum of blessings. ~Carl Sandburg

If women didn’t exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning. ~Aristotle Onassis (haha!)

People are living longer than ever before, a phenomenon undoubtedly made necessary by the 30-year mortgage. ~Doug Larson

Bill Clinton is one of my favorite presidents next to Abraham Lincoln who was the greatest president ever and Jack F. Kennedy, the charmistic president.

President Clinton has earned $30,975,598 in 192 paid speeches from Feb. 5, 2001, to Dec. 13, 2005.