Second Life is a website that provides companies to use a virtual world to benefit their companies. It hasn't worked that great in small stores and traveling ideas such a cruise lines but education is one idea that has used the virtual world to a great advantage. "The Second Life Educators (SLED) community has an e-mail list that included more than 4,700 working in or interested in education in Second Life." Many universities have made exact replicas of their campus so that students couldn't feel as if they really traveled to get to class. I feel this is the best perk for students because they won't have to spend money on gas when they could just wake up and communicate through a microphone to their instructors. One thing that is surprising is, Second Life is free to join for students and teachers. Its important to keep up with the fast growing technology and this is the perfect way.

Almost everyone has a smart phone now and days. Apps are used for almost anything and this article gives evidence to how much you can do with an app. The article focuses on Las Vegas and how many hotels have different apps for every occasion. Vegas Mate caught my attention from how it has things such as "a listing of resort fees, top suites, information for travelers on getting around, conventions, gambling and more" that other Vegas apps don't have. I believe it takes great time and money for these companies to keep up with the ever changing schedules for each hotel. I'm a planner and I was really intrigued on how this certain app pulls up the latest update and weather from around the city and even "keep all those show tickets, dinner reservations and hotel bookings in order." I mean who can beat that? There's no excuse to why hotels and many other tourism spots don't have an app for all the amenities that are offered. It'll surprise guests and make them really pleased with their stay.

Many people first think of Google when it comes to search engines. In reality Google just "crawls the Web looking for websites" and it shows evidence that only 1% of information is actually searchable. This article presents a new website called Shodan which was made a little more than three years ago. It "navigates the Internet's back channels.... It's a kind of "dark" Google, looking for the servers, webcams, printers, routers and all the other stuff that is connected to and makes up the Internet". Its unbelievable the things this website can get a hold of, including the power to turn on and off a car wash to even the control over an ice rinks temperature. It say that IT departments are to blame because they want to control all these things through the internet for their convenience, when in reality they shouldn't be connect there at all. I believe this can all be solved by proper training and people need to really be more careful about what they put on the internet. I sure am learning that not everyone needs to know everything about you're life, especially through the internet.

Advancements are growing enormously throughout every field of the working industry. Hotels have now adapted to using cloud computing in many hotels and it's really shaping how data and analysis are being kept and processed on day to day basis. Some pros of this idea are that companies save money because they only pay for the amount of cloud they use, they save money on training, and it's safe from any physical damage. I feel this is a very good investment for any company because what company doesn't like saving money in many areas? A weakness in the hotel industry is, companies don't know how to give, customers that are on a budget, the same amount of attention and personal service that they do for a high priced customers. The cloud can solve this and many other problems by knowing what the people like and giving it to them by not spending more money. Cloud computing can even kept customer happy when they are not even checked in the hotel, which is a plus on both ends. All in all, cloud computing expands any company, whether it be with other companies for networking or just helping inside of their own company by saving, it's definitely the way to go.