In this age of technology, a person can do just about anything online. People can keep in touch with friends and family, pay bills, and even shop online. This tool is not only convenient for shoppers, but for the businesses themselves. Everyone knows of the infamous “black Friday” shopping day. It’s the day after thanksgiving in which stores have their greatest sales of the year. Now with technology, they have created an online shopping day that they call Cyber Monday.

On November 28, 2005, the very first Cyber Monday made its debut. People do a good bit of shopping online on an average day, but Cyber Monday has become one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. Having customers be able to sit in front of their computer and take advantage of great sales instead of waiting in long lines, running over people only for the store to be out of your item before you get there, or wasting a whole day in gas, has given retailers a 77% boost in online sales.

In the United States, Cyber Monday is the name given to the Monday following the Thanksgiving holiday. The name was inspired by Black Friday. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in which customers venture out to very crowded stores to attempt to get the holiday gifts they want at the best prices of the year. Black Friday also marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. Savvy online retailers began to take advantage of the increase in online sales worldwide. On Cyber Monday, shoppers can still get the same steals and deals as if they had actually gone out on Black Friday. And Cyber Monday has become big business not only for retailers, but for sites like http://cybermonday2013.io which aggregate all of the best Cyber Monday deals.

The reason for Cyber Monday after Thanksgiving is because people would be returning to the office after the long Thanksgiving holiday and still thinking of their holiday shopping lists. Even though customers do some of their shopping from their home computers, it was found that a large amount of online shopping was done from the workplace.

It has been found that Cyber Monday is not always the biggest day for Internet sales. Usually, Mondays closer to Christmas seem to appeal to all of those last minute shoppers. There is usually a set date in which shoppers have to buy their items to ensure they are delivered by christmas. Nevertheless, cyber Monday creates a large number of profits for almost every business that offers sales or discounts on that day.

Sales for Cyber Monday have almost doubled in the years since it was first introduced. The number of spending reached the billions on the Monday after thanksgiving. This rise in sales has been noticed by other countries who now have their own versions of the day. Countries including Canada, the United Kingdom, and many others in Europe have all taken advantage of this new marketing strategy.

Cyber Monday may not have been around for a long time, but it has put a serious boost in cash to the retailers who use it. People being able to shop in their sweats in front of their computers is more appealing than facing the crowds. The customer also has a better change of getting deals or items that may not be in the stores. Convenience seems to be on the minds of millions that have such fast paced lives anyway.

Boost Mobile is a leading provider of prepaid cell phones and service throughout the United States. With state of the art phones running both Blackberry OS as well as Android you can get the latest and greatest in Mobile phone technology all on a Nationwide network that uses Sprint for coverage. Boost has phones from major manufactures such as Samsung, Motorola, LG, and Blackberry so you have a wide variety of device choices to pick from.

Using the Sprint network means you won’t incur roaming fees with a dependable network so you should always have service with very few dropped calls. It also means you get a valuable network while still getting the excellent cost savings that prepaid plans provide. You can get nationwide unlimited talk, text, and web starting at $50 with shrinking payments as you go along and make your payments on time. This means after 18 months service can be as low as $35 a month for unlimited everything.

Couple this with award winning customer service and you have an excellent phone plan that stacks up well not just against other prepaid providers, but against the major carriers like Verizon and AT&T as well. It’s worth noting for the 2nd year running, Boost Mobile has been ranked “Highest Satisfaction with the Purchase Experience among Non-Contract Wireless Providers” by JD Powers and Associates. So you can feel good about getting quality customer service to go along with your great plans.

So if you are in need of a prepaid phone, looking for a good cell phone value, or wanting to cut ties with one of the big carriers Boost Mobile is definitely worth a look, and you can save on your purchase with a Boost Mobile promo code.

When most people consider patented products, ideas and the like, they do not see the true impetus behind this. The purpose of a patent, simply put, is to protect your personal investment. This means as you are creating, marketing and selling your product, concept or idea, it is protected from someone else doing the same thing.

As an example, an organic chemist is working in his laboratory on cancer research. While working, another chemist happens upon the lab and the work. During the polite talk of research and publications, the visiting chemist nonchalantly asks if the research is patented. Receiving the answer no; the visiting chemist leaves, patents the first chemist’s research and becomes an overnight millionaire. Unscrupulous as it may seem, it happens all too frequently within academia and the cutthroat world of business.

It is always wise, therefore, if you are creating a new product or generating an idea to look into a patent. Patents, besides the aforementioned, protect you legally in case of a counterfeit as well. Should your patent be counterfeited and found to be dangerous or leads to injury, your patent should provide you some degree of protection.

Of course, not all situations are covered under the auspices of a patent, so it is wise to consult with an attorney who specializes in patent and copyright law. The attorney will be able to direct you in securing, filing and maintaining your patent. A simple search using an online search engine will turn up any number of attorneys who specialize in this field of law.

Best of luck to you and your concept as you seek to patent it.

I was going through some of the recent articles we’ve posted and began to ponder what inventions have yet to come. To even try and fathom what my own children will be using in their every day lives in 20 years, is simply mind-boggling. After all, when I was a senior in high school and shopping for a computer for college, I never dreamed that within 25 years I’d be able to carry a computer around in my pocket!

Thinking back those 25 years ago, my father and I had to drive two states away to find any sort of significant selection of desk top computers, bulky CRT monitors and printers where the perforated paper had to be aligned just so. Even with the drive to a major city, the computer and associated peripherals were still a small fortune and we were exhausted and sweating after lugging everything back to the car.

When I got to college and began writing papers, most research was still done in the library with the help of the card catalogs, directing stressed-out students to various hard-bound periodicals and encyclopedias. The worldwide web was available, but only on certain school computers in very specific computer labs, and really only to access Nexus Lexus or similar scholarly scientific systems.

While I certainly never imagined I would be carrying around a computer in my pocket, I probably would have laughed if asked whether the worldwide web would be as ubiquitous as it is now. And I probably would have split my sides if I was told that I the aforementioned computer I am carrying around in my pocket would be able to access the Internet.

At this point, I can’t imagine not being able to access the Internet whenever I want, where ever I want. At home, I have Verizon FiOS which I love. I’ve used Verizon for Internet access for almost five years now, but only recently switched to FiOS when I came across a Verizon FiOS promo code. I can even use my cell phone (which is yes, on Verizon!) as a hot spot so that I can use my laptop any where.

The technological and scientific progress society has made over the last 100 to 150 years is staggering. It’s hard to imagine what future generations will come up with. But like the old adage goes, we don’t know what we don’t know…..

2011 was a year of magnificent technological progress. Humans seem to be on an endless quest for knowledge. Here is a list of the top ten most interesting inventions of 2011, in no particular order.

1) The BodyGuard
Essentially a high-tech gauntlet, this armored sleeve comes packed with a laser pointer, video camera and a taser for all of your crime-fighting needs. It’s painted all black too, for maximum stealth. 

2) The Terrafugia Transition
The flying car is finally here! While not produced commercially yet, the Transition has had numerous successful flight missions and is looking like an excellent entrant into this brand new industry. Whether or not the flying car catches on remains a mystery, as a drastic overhaul of all major travel mediums would have to take place, requiring a significant amount of money.

3) Synthetic Cells
Cells whose genetic information was created by a computer are in the early stages of development, and researchers are extremely excited about the potential. With this discovery, it is likely that scientists in the future will be able to engineer ultra-efficient cells for rapidly delivering vaccines and such throughout the body.

4) The Martin Jetpack
This jetpack, named after Glenn Martin of New Zealand’s Martin Aircraft Company, is touted as being the first jetpack pragmatic enough to deliver emergency supplies and such in dire situations. It’s also large enough for bystanders to mistake you for a small aircraft, so avoid no-fly zones when possible. 

5) The Stark Hand
This synthetic hand is giving disabled people a second chance. With individual knuckles that bend just like their organic counterparts, the Stark Hand is quickly becoming the prosthetic-of-choice for the disabled. Best of all, it’s produced with low-cost materials and is easily affordable by those in need.

6) The Medical Mirror
Developed by MIT student, Ming-Zher Por, this mirror senses information about your heartbeat via a tiny webcam that measures the light bouncing off your face. Por idealizes a future where information about your heart can be instantly transmitted to your doctor, simply by looking into the mirror.

7) The Katal Landing Pad
After a nasty snowboarding accident, engineering student, Aaron Coret, and his friend Stephen Slen set out to design a landing pad that was safe for boarders and skiers alike. Their design is unique in that upon impact, the rider is given enough cushion to comfortably land without being enveloped by the material out of which the pad is made.

8) The Printbrush
The Printbrush is basically an ultra-portable printer with the ability to print any picture onto almost any surface. Created by Alex Breton, the Printbrush easily fits in a briefcase or purse and weighs less than a pound!

9) Dynamic Eye Sunglasses
During a particularly blinding commute, inventor Chris Mullin decided that a new breed of sunglasses needed crafting. Enter the dynamic eye sunglasses, with liquid crystals embedded in the lens that darken your glasses depending on where the sun is striking them!

10) Kymer Motorized Body Board
Perfect for those who are looking to putt around the lake but don’t want to go through the hassle of lugging a boat out there, this board-boat hybrid can reach speeds of over twenty-five miles per hour!

There are many graduate programs in the U.S. offering PhDs in computer science. With such a degree it is easier to find gainful employment within the walls of academia or within a business environment. Choosing a top academic doctoral program generally means exposure to extensive computer science research and a significant source of funding for research and development. 

The top Ph.D. programs for computer science in the U.S can change in ranking depending on what source is doing the calculating, but the following top five are generally agreed upon: Stanford, M.I.T, Carnegie Mellon, University of California Berkeley and Cornell. Prominent names like Princeton, Harvard, Brown, Yale, University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin, University of Texas at Austin and the California Institute of Technology can also be found ranked within the top 20 programs.

Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science (SCS) is consistently ranked, not only one of the best in the U.S., but in the entire world. The school offers seven academic units of study which are as follows: human-computer interaction, the institute for software research, computer science department, the Lane center for computational biology, language technologies, machine learning and its robotics institute. 

Stanford also adds to its overall distinguished reputation with an outstanding SCS program recognized the world over and annually ranks among the elite in areas such as artificial intelligence, programming language and systems and theory. It’s no surprise that such a prestigious program claims former students like Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as alumni. 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology combined its electrical engineering department with its newly created computer science department in 1975. Known as EECS, their doctoral program is another world renowned institute of higher education offering a wide range of research topics including theoretical computer science, robotics, computer systems and architecture, graphics, machine learning, large scale systems analysis, power and energy, numerical computing and nanotechnology are just some of the research areas a Ph.D. candidate has available to them. 

The Cornell Ph.D. program in computer science is another top program consistently ranking among the top five in the country. The school distinguishes itself with a long tradition of pioneering research and its overall large-scale scope of its Ph.D. program. Over the past ten years they’ve specialized in areas such as artificial intelligence, digital libraries and computer graphics, while also maintaining top-flight study in areas of theory, scientific computing and programming. The program accepts about 25 new Ph.D. students each year. 

Another outstanding academic program in computer science can be found at UC Berkeley. The Ph.D. program offers top research study in the fields of artificial intelligence, graphics, computer architecture & engineering, human-computer interaction, integrated circuitry, programming systems and scientific computing just to name a few. The school boasts prominent former students like Steve Wozniak, who along with co-founder Steve Jobs, founded Apple Computer.

Inventions are unique ideas, devices, processes, discoveries or conventions. In many instances, inventions have changed humanity for generations. There are many inventions crucial to human history.

1. In ancient China during the 9th century, Chinese alchemists searched for immortality. However, the chemical result was gunpowder. Eventually, gunpowder became a core ingredient in fireworks. From the study of fireworks, gunpowder is the inspiration for rocketry. Gunpowder, which is no longer used in modern military applications, was the source of explosives.
2. Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press is crucial for increasing the literacy rate of European people from the 15th century forward. The main application for the printing press was to print Bibles in native languages. Classic authors, such as H.G. Wells, owe their fame to the printing press. Literature could not survive without printing technology. Today, computerized printing presses manufacture various documents, but Gutenberg’s printing press is the inspiration.
3. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the telephone. Including Bell, there are others involved in the development of the telephone. Since 1876, the telephone was revolutionary due to sound transmission over wires. Written letters were downgraded to delayed messages since the telephone provided the medium for instant communication. Today’s cellular phones draw their origin from the landline telephone.
4. The original inventor of the light bulb is Englishman Joseph Swan. However, American inventor, Thomas Edison, improved the electric light bulb and was granted a patent in 1879. With light bulbs and electricity, people no longer needed to use gas lamps at night. Today, the incandescent light bulb is the inspiration for energy-efficient bulbs.
5. Television was revolutionary in visually displaying information broadcasting over the air in the first half of the twentieth century. Philo Farnsworth invented the first publicly demonstrated television in 1927. Due to television, the home entertainment industry developed since the 1970′s initially with video cassettes, then laserdiscs, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. The video game industry owes its existence to television.
6. Jets date back to the early 20th century. There are various inventors and innovators in the development of jets. With jets, the aviation industry expanded due to achieving faster speeds and longer flight times. Thus, flight destinations increased over time. In air forces, jet technology developed quick strike forces with fighter jets capable of traveling faster than the speed of sound, or Mach 1.
7. Personal computers date back to the 1970′s. Several companies improved the personal computer since the then. Because of personal computers, people can complete tasks efficiently. In combination with software, hardware and the internet, the personal computer is the access point to information. Hence, the personal computer is the symbol of the Information Age.
8. Sir Tim Berners-Lee first proposed the World Wide Web in 1990. While the internet was revolutionary as a delivery of communication, the World Wide Web is the visual symbol of the internet. The World Wide Web is the reason for the existence of various websites.