Forensic Accounting (Econ 132B):

This course provides an overview of the methodology of fraud examination which involves obtaining documentary evidence, interviewing witnesses and potential suspects, writing investigative reports, testifying to findings, and forensic document examination. Students will apply prevention, detection, and investigative strategies to determine why and how occupational fraud is committed. Students will analyze human behaviors that are difficult to identify and quantify (such as greed, deception, and cheating) that can be deterred, investigated, and prosecuted.

Business Law and Ethics (Econ 189):

Course provides a basic understanding of ethics and the legal framework within which U.S. businesses operate. Includes a broad overview of court procedures and in-depth coverage of selected topics including contracts, securities, and property rights.

International Finance (Econ 181):

International money and capital markets and their impact on the domestic and world economies; international financial institutions and policies.

International Trade (Econ 180):

International trade theory and policies with examples from current issues and problems.

Overall, finals went just like any other final. Mixed feelings here and there on how well I did or not do. But surprisingly, I received two of my grades already. I passed my Art History 109G - Leonardo da Vinci course and I received an A for my Economics 135 class - Monetary Economics. I found my monetary economics class most stimulating since we dealt with current issues that have been taking place in the economy such as the Fed rate cuts, the credit crisis, and the economic slow down. I am still waiting to receive grades for my Comparative Literature 154 - Sci Fi in Eastern Europe and my advanced accounting course which for both I wasn’t quire sure how I did on the exams.

My plans for spring break consist of sleep, sleep, sleep, eat, and some more sleep! I am exhausted after taking 16 units (4 upper-division classes). I have already signed up for classes for my last quarter here at UCSB. I will post what classes I will be taking later.

Update:  Got my grades for Econ 139 (Advanced Accounting) and Comparative Literature (Sci Fi in E. Europe). I ended up with a B+ in advanced accounting and an A- in Comparative Literature. So an overall GPA of 3.66 this quarter! Not too shabby.

So what can we do to fix our U.S. economy? Strengthen the dollar to regain the position as the “world’s largest” economy. This will put some confidence in our economy so other businesses, whether foreign or domestic, will begin to invest in the United States. Secondly, stop the Fed rate cuts! And stop the pumping of liquidity! Our economy was built in the illusion of a booming economy with many being able to afford homes. This artificial stimulus doesn’t last long as we are witnessing. A recession may be the best fix in this case. Although I hate being in a recession, a recession is the time to correct the economy so we can hit the ground running on a true bull run based on ingenuity in products and services, higher earnings, and efficient and well-run businesses. In the meantime we must also take care of our huge national deficit. It sits at over 9.2 trillion dollars! The Fed needs to keep inflation rates in check also. Inflation currently sits at over 4% where normally the comfort range ranges between 2.5-3%. I do NOT use the core-inflation rate because frankly, energy and food prices does have an effect on the economy. You have probably noticed the effects at the gas pumps as well as your local grocery stores.

Now on to the Bear Stearns news. If you haven’t been watching the news, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and JPMorgan Chase has provided secured financing to Bear Stearns for 28 days. After repeated claims by the CEO of Bear Stearns stating that they do not have liquidity problems, 48 hours later, they call upon the Fed to lend them money. The Fed is often known as the lender of last resort and this news had a huge impact on the stock market today as Bear Stearns is the 5th largest bank. This questions the integrity of the CEO of Bear Stearns and the company itself. So much for business confidence, consumer confidence and transparency. The CEO especially should be well-informed at all times and had no right to go on public television and possibly lie about his company’s financial position. And if he was not aware of his company’s liquidity problem, then he should still be fired for not knowing this. Sure the market have may have over-reacted with their stock decreasing over 46%, but this definitely signals trouble and a possible takeover from JPMorgan Chase?

As Jim Cramer from CNBC and Mad Money puts it, “there is always a bull market somewhere”. And as shown by my Forbes.com portfolio, my year to date earnings is 9.595%. Not bad considering the condition the market is in. If course my index portfolio is suffering due to the credit crisis in the financial markets, but that will surely rise once the economy is booming again, and my short-term stocks will likely make a profit within the few months, so that will only increase year-to-date earning percentage.

Overall, the Fed rate cuts were too little and too late when rate cuts first began. I feel that we may be overreacting with the pumping of liquidity and Fed rate cuts since the financial markets aren’t stabilizing right away. Thus, if we are indeed over correcting the market, this may put us in a bad position again. If so, the Fed cannot act late when we over correct the economy. The Fed must quickly respond by raising the Fed rate.

Luckily, my four years here have taught me a great deal where I can somewhat relax during these exam times. I learned that getting 8 hours of sleep is important, working hard throughout the quarter and getting top grades on exams and homeworks, and studying  early for finals gives you a great advantage.

As I walked around campus today, you can tell the atmosphere is changing. Starbucks is full of students studying, the library is packed, and the look of tired faces as people pass by. Overall, I am fairly content with finals. It is just another ordinary day for me. I do have a final this Wednesday for my Art History 109G (Leonardo da Vinci) class, but that is simply memorizing art works, and being able to analyze and compare them.

I will provide more updates and take more photos around campus of these insane times during finals.

And below, we have the game Snake that can either be controlled with the swipe of your finger or manually click the directional pad. If you notice on the bottom left, I have “Challenge a friend…” which will allow you to challenge a friend of course through social. Two snakes will appear on the screen and the user who has the longest snake at a designated time, length, or until their friend dies wins.

Here, we have Tetris. Nothing really unique, but it would be nice to have the ability to play against one or more friends. Those who last the longest or have the highest score wins–similar as the above concept games for the Zune.

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Change Log:

Fixed top crashing bugs submitted by users
Fixed bug where Zune software thinks the device memory is full (but isn’t)

Key Marketplace fixes

Allow users to view top music videos in marketplace
Misc improved error messaging including splitting sign-in issues into 4 separate errors for customer and support benefit
Resolved most cases where retrieval of subscription download history stalls
Better handling of accounts that have expired credit cards
Podcasts with spaces in their name can now be subscribed to
Marketplace no longer blocks explicit content purchases when parental controls are set to allow
Points balance label is now updated when user purchases new points

Key Player UI fixes

Allow zooming in/out (2x, 4x, fullscreen) during video playback to prevent stretched playback
Ability to switch Zune to GDI mode through command-line parameter
Key Podcast fixes

Allow subscriptions to podcasts larger than 10MB
Fixed some parsing errors that prevented some podcasts from syncing to the device
Fixed bug where podcasts were unsubscribing themselves

Key Setup fixes

Fixed numerous bugs affecting build to build upgrades
Improved installation for users accessing from corporate networks
Fixed driver uninstall failures
Included device 2.3 firmware in client download
Failure in creating system restore point no longer blocks client installation

Key Sync fixes

Fixed issues with reverse sync
Fixes issues with sync meter UI showing incorrect information as to what is on the device
Fixed issues using wireless sync with multiple devices to the same PC
Fixed a few different issues setting up wireless sync
Device is no longer being reported as full even after deleting large file from device
Device content is no longer being turned into guest content when it shouldn’t be
Content with bad metadata now shows properly so it can be removed from device
Turning off “autolaunch when a Zune device is connected” no longer prevents “Sync Now” from working from a wirelessly connected device
Podcast bookmarking is now transferred/saved to the device
Wireless sync connection continues to work after rebooting host computer
Unsubscribe podcast from device now works properly
Changing album art in the client now updates the device as well
Duplicate tracks are no longer synced to the device twice

Key Xbox Streaming bug fixes

Xbox Streaming now monitors the rip folder if user changes default location
No need to reinstall client to fix Xbox Streaming when upgrading from XP to Vista
Key Infrastructure fixes

Vista x64 customers can now get to web help from error messages
Client no longer crashes if database is corrupted

Key Library fixes

Changes in pictures or video metadata made outside client will now get updated in the library
UI is now smoother during file groveling
When a track is added to an album we will now always update the track on disc
User can now update album art for marketplace tracks
‘Unknown Artist’ metadata is no longer written to files when writing out user edit of album name
Renaming an artist now more reliably keeps the change
Two different copies of the same album no longer get duplicated down to one when it shouldn’t
Access violation no longer occurs when checking song properties in the burn list
Multi-disc albums imported from iTunes no longer show in the client as a single disc album
Thumbnails for video content now extract on XP properly

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Take a gander at it and let me know what you think.

Click the image above to visit it or click here: http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~shadowfox/

Here is my wishlist for the Zune 2.4 firmware update:

• A way to organize videos into categories such as TV Shows, Movies, Music Videos, etc…
• Games (such as Snake, Pong, Tetris, etc…)
• Ability to use Zune as an external drive
• Fixing the bug in the “Social” menu, so you can actually turn on wireless via that menu.
• East Asian Language support (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc…)
• DivX support a must
• Better organization for pictures
• Lyrics -the ability to flip the album art to view the songs lyrics (as well as having an automatic lyric download service)

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