essential tidbits

Don’t forget to bring your SM green bag!

June 15, 2009

Yes, it will not only save you from stacking up plastic bags at home, it will also help you save the planet. Ok, this may sound too heroic, but yes, bring your SM green bag when shopping at SM. If you’re like me who’s not so fond about keeping plastic bags at home, then buying an SM green bag is a good idea. Give it to the cashier before she busies herself with the barcode scanner on your purchases. If you’re an SM Advantage card holder, you get two points per bag.

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Bing Travel: Microsoft’s decision engine for travelers

As we all know, Microsoft recently launched its search engine with a simple name “Bing” to compete with the search engine giant Google. Landing on Bing’s homepage (www.bing.com) is a totally different experience than that of Google. You would immediately notice the visually appealing background of Bing which features scenic views from places around the world.

For travelers, there’s Bing Travel (www.bing.com/travel) dubbed as a ‘decision engine’ for those planning their holidays or trips which immediately displays travel tools courtesy of Farecast, a company acquired by Microsoft. Users can input their travel details and flight information such as departure and destination, travel period, number of persons flying or flight class. There’s an option to compare search from other online travel sites such as Hotwire, Expedia and Priceline.
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Utilizing technological advancement on medical records

US President Barack Obama plans to improve America’s quality of health care with his push to computerize all medical records. According to him, “This will cut waste, eliminate red tape and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won’t save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs; it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system.” This move is very much supported by the experts as a system to minimize medical mistakes, although the implementation cost may be high.
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Free digital textbooks instead of printed books: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s educational thrust

As a move to reduce the annual budget on educational materials, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to provide free open-source digital textbooks accessible for high school math and science classes all over the state. This idea has been met with doubt by some critics regarding factors such as cost savings, technology investment and teacher training. While more college campuses are now using open-source materials, implementing digital textbook technology on traditional textbooks such as math and science subjects is still subject to debate. 

Via ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Economy/story?id=7827997&page=1)

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