Reflection

I feel that although i know alot about the internet, this class has showed me a whole lot more about the internet. I learnt many new things in the course and found many new and interesting things about the internet as i was doing my blog.

I made better use of google and its applications after learning about it in one of the classes and am able to better explain how ebusiness works to other people. At the same time, I learnt more about internet security as I was doing the project for the class. I learnt that we have to be very careful when we go online and that we should always be mindful of the activities that we do.

I feel like I learn quite a few things about the Internet and the possible future of the Internet. I am glad that I was able to take this class and be exposed to so many new and interesting things. If it was not for this class, I would not have done so much digging through the internet and i would not have known the things I know today.

I started out thinking it would be a dull and uninteresting class, But it turned out to be something novel and interesting.

Thank you Mr Choy for opening my eyes to the internet and this is indeed a very informative class.

Not so fiction science fiction.

Imagine, one day we do not have to hold phones anymore. Or people can have hologram of themselves to interact with people when their body is in a deep coma. Or we can use the internet and monitor for possible criminals. Or have digital assistance that can help us with our daily lives. Or robots that we control from the safety of our home to fight wars or mine in dangerous locations.

These ideals probably sound really far fetch to some people. But these ideas are taken from various sci-fi movies or action movies and some from Japanese animes. All of which are talking about the future. Some might sound familiar. Like the digital assistance, think of JAVIS from Iron Man or the robots we control from the safety of our homes an idea that originated from SURROGATES that movie.

And really, they are not so far fetch at all. There are many inventions and innovations now that has created technologies that are getting closer and closer to that of si-fi movies and animations. One such technology is Google glasses.

With this invention, gone are the days that we have to walk around looking at our phones and fumbling with several things on our hands like bags or books, just to answer a phone call. With such a technology, we can easily pick up the phone and hold a conversation with someone without having to use our hands. We can skype someone on the go or talk on Hangout with a group of friends while eating a steak with for and knife. Its the literal meaning of hands-free. 

How about OKGoogle? Its design to be a voice recognition software that aids in a user's use of the Internet. It is something thats getting really close to JAVIS is it not? All the user had to do is say 'Ok Google so forth and so forth' and google would do the said task. Albeit not as functional as JAVIS or integrated into our daily lives, but its a start in the right direction. 

There are many technology out there that are bringing us closer and closer to the future as shown in si-fi movies and other futuristic movies. 

However, like every movie, there is always a plot twist. If anyone remembers terminator. Where the world of the future was run by an Internet intelligence that was created to serve humans. And this intelligence created robots to hunt down humans because it wanted to control the world.  What if one day our creations turns against us and we become to entertainment source for them? This might seem a bit far fetch now but there is always that possibility. 

Of course, at the moment we should not look so far. Instead we should be focusing our attentions on something more nearby. Google has plans to implant a microchip in our head to aid us in better search capabilities. It can send information of our thoughts to the server and pull back results about things we are unclear of. Sounds useful does it not? But ever since the Snowden leak in the middle of the year, there are concerns that have been raised. Would this chip also allows governments to spy on us?  What if hackers got hold of the chip in our head. Would they not be stealing our private thoughts? This brings with it a whole new pot of questions and critics. Most surrounding the bridge of privacy that such a chip can cause. Questions have been raised about privacy of the individual in the future. 

Personally, I do not think I would really want a chip inside my brain monitoring me. What about you ? Would you want that?

So who have the upper edge?

When I was younger, I always wanted the white macbook. To me, back then, it was the most beautiful looking laptop ever. When I got into Poly, we had to buy a laptop for school and they were selling the MacBook as one of the option. But because it was not compatible with the softwares that I needed for school, I was forced to buy a PC instead. The level of disappointment was so high. Why did i wanted a MacBook? Well the answer is rather simple really. It was so sleek looking and the interface was so beautiful. Not to mention it always seem very exclusive. No other laptop runs the Mac OS and owning a Mac just feel so elite. Of course this is one of Apple's strategy to sell that products. By making it scares and limited, it makes people want to get it more. This is in line with one of the weapons of influence that I learnt this semester. People do not like to have their freedom restricted. And when their freedom is restricted, they would want to get rid of that restriction. By making the product scares and limited, Apple is making people want it because they cant get it anywhere else.

They did this with the iPhone as well. when the iPhone first came out, so many people when to buy it. Why? Because it was the only phone on the market that offers such a sophisticated interface. No other phones out then were close to the iPhone. I remember my first iPhone was the 3G model and it was the most phenomenon thing to me. There were no buttons and the touch screen was incredible. Unlike the pressure touch screens that were dominating the markets back then, the iPhone had one of the most smooth and effortless touch screen capabilities. Not to mention that the marketing was created to portray the iPhone as one of the sleekest and simple smartphone around that can do everything that a user requires. The interface was so easy. There were no complicated folders and sub-folders that users have to navigate to get to the things that they want. There were no complicated steps to get something done. Everything was on the scree, and the already existing app store boost so many apps that users can download and use to make their lives so much more simpler.

Their commercial event boosts its app for everything function. It was targeting people who needs and wants all these functionality in their phone and need I say that they succeed? Not really. Everyone knows and a lot of people in the world has an iPhone. There are more iPhone sold in 2012 than people born. 

Of course following the success of Apple, other brands start churning out phones with better and better specs to rival that of Apple. Google created android in their attempted to rival Apple. Recently Nokia created a whole series of Windows phone that are set to compete with Apple. 

However, what put Apple as the leading in phone production was a very simple strategy. They had the app store BEFORE the iPhone came out. It was just a matter of putting the ability to call people into an iTouch. All the apps were already available for the iTouch and all they had to do was put the ability to make phone calls into the iTouch and TADA a new phone. So the success of the iPhone was due to their already established app store. Google had to bump it up and make their play store compatible with the app store and this they did so very beautifully. Now most apps that are on the app store are available on the play store. But windows is struggling a bit behind because their app store is a bit short of apps at the moment. 

To me, personally, the app store is one of the main reason I stayed with an iPhone for so long. Another being its simplistic approach to phone design. But ever since I got a android phone, I personally prefer an android over an iOS. The simple reason is because the android allows modification to be done without bridging the license of the software. Unlike iOS where once jailbroken, the license is void. I love the ability to modify my launcher on my android and use different SMS applications or experiment with different keyboards. And there are many phone companies that uses android platform. They even allow their buyers to unlock or root their phones. This is something I personally find enticing about an android phone. The ability to modify and change something that we might not like about the phone. I spend a lot of time modifying my phone to suit my need. As you can see, the above images are how my launcher looks on my android. It is no longer the one that comes with the phone. its something that i choose and edited to suit my taste and needs. 

And this one is how the original launcher looks like. I do not like it at all. 

I highly doubt I would return to an iOS anytime soon even though I do like the simplistic approach of the phone. I use a Mac though and am truly in love with the interface of it. As compared to a window, I find the OSX have a much more elegant and sophisticated approach that has yet to be rivalled. 

The web writers.

week 10

Every morning, I scroll through my twitter account on my phone, while on my way to school, to see what news are happening around the world. I follow certain news sites such as The Straits Times, BBC and other news source on twitter and that was how I usually get my daily dosage of news information. When I see a headline that interest me, I would click on it and the story would open in a new window.

These days, I barely touch a newspaper at all. I do not really have to, considering all the news can be found online and sometimes the most interesting reads are not found on news websites but rather on websites that host citizen journalism.

The Internet is changing the whole game play for journalists around the world. Now, journalists do not just write for traditional print but they also write for online version of the print as well. and based on my own personal observations, articles found online and in print are slightly different as they are catered to different audience. Those found online are more condense as compared to those found in print. This might be done to hold the attention of the audience for as long as possible so they finish the full article. Those found online also has additional information attached to it in the form of hyperlinks that readers can click to find more information. Although this is an interactive feature and can gain brownie points with certain group of readers, this i, in my opinion, rather distracting and sometimes can get the reader to go off topic because he or she would end up clicking links after links. Going further away from the main article.

So what does this all means to journalists? Well, it means that, for starters, journalists cannot report the same way that they do anymore. They have to adapt to the changing needs of the readers and also recognise that if they were to write the same way that they do in the newspapers or magazine articles, they would just scare off readers and thats a big no no. Also, journalists have to learn several other skills besides writing articles to maintain readers' attention. For example, some journalists has learnt to produce videos for their articles and this adds some level of dynamic to their story. This can really help them and their organisation boost readership.

Lately, besides online articles and stories that are written by professional journalists, there is something called citizen journalism. This is where normal individuals write about topics that they favours and are interested in. These people might not be professional or have certain level of expertise in their written topic but they are writing because it interest them . Sometimes, it does not have to be articles or stories that are being written. It can be video reports produced by individuals on topics that they are concerned or interested in. CNN iReport is one example of citizen journalism. This is a sub-branch of CNN where they encourage individuals to report on certain topics and submit their videos to CNN. If selected, their videos would be shown on CNN. They have an assignment desk where there are topics that people can report about. They even have a RSS feed to update people of the latest assignments.

Of course the downside to citizen journalism is that, some argue, the citizens are not paid for their reports. And that these news media is using these reporters as a cheap form of labour. Another argument is that these reporters are not experts and they can report the wrong information to the public. Thus sometimes,  we have to be careful when watching or reading reports written by these journalist.

The political network

Many knows that when it comes to politics and the Internet, a very good example is how Barack Obama used the power of Internet to reach out to the masses. The campaign in 2008 mark the end of the television presidency where candidates uses the television tot reach out to the masses and instead, begins the time of the Internet presidency.

As we all know, the Internet is a powerful tool to reach out to the masses. Using Barack Obama's case as an example, we can analyse why the Internet is a powerful tool to use in politics. 

1) Social Networking

We all know that social networking is a very powerful feature of the Internet. It allows for people to connect with one another and find people with the same interest or so forth to connect with. It allows for one individual to reach a large group of people simultaneously without having to spend a lot of money doing so. In his campaign, Obama enlisted the help of a co-founder of popular social networking site, Facebook, to create a custom networking site for his campaign. The site attracted 1.5 million supporters who can be instantly contacted to help with drumming up support. It also helped in collecting donations for the campaign.Besides that, it also allowed the candidate to post real time information and news to his supporters, unlike newspaper that were show casing yesterday's news. 

2) YouTube

Making and publishing videos has never been easier and cheaper than doing it on YouTube. The website has seen many individuals gain popularity and make money simply by creating and publishing videos of their own interest. During his campaign, Obama's party created official campaign videos and posted them on YouTube. This lowered a lot of the cost needed to run campaigns because creating and posting on to YouTube is free of charge. Unlike having the video run on televisions. People were also able to watch the videos at anytime and anywhere. Individuals were also encouraged to upload speeches by Obama onto YouTube and this generated more popularity for the candidate. Not to mention, YouTube videos can be shared to other social networking sites and this means that more people would eventually watch the videos rather then on television when only those who on their TVs would catch the videos. 

3) Website

Of course every candidate would create their own website to support their campaign and for people to go to gain more information. Obama had his own website as well. On his website, there are position papers, statements and videos that are readily available for people to take a look at. Having websites is one thing, it is also important to know how to manage it well so to gain the most support. 

In Short, Obama used several tools of the Internet to gain support and to get voters to vote for him. This was a very smart move to gain support and reach out to the masses. Using the Internet, the candidates can connect with more people at the same times, deliver information simultaneously and have a more personal contact with people. Not to mention, lowering campaigning cost. 

Entertainment online

Week 8

Entertainment used to be listening to the radio or watching shows on the television. Slowly, cable was introduced and people who could afford cable were watching shows on cable. Occasionally, people would go to the movies and watch blockbusters on the big screen. If you wanted to obtain a piece of music or an album, you walk into the CD shop and get the album of the singer. I fondly remembers buying my first CD from the CD shop and listening to in on my CD player which I brought to school so to not fall asleep on the bus.

Although people still do all the items mentioned above these days, they have another source of entertainment. the awesome Internet. Everything mentioned above can be done on the Internet. We can watch shows on the Internet, listen to radio stations on the Internet, watch movies on the Internet or even listen or watch movie videos on the Internet.

These days, instead of watching show on my television or the cable box that we subscribed from Starhub, I go onto the Internet and find streams of my shows. My grandmother learnt how to use the computer to find Korean dramas to watch when she has nothing to d at home. She has no idea how to operate the television set at home but knows how to use the computer to find shows to watch. Thats how amazing the Internet has become. Sometimes, I would tell her that there is this new Korean drama on TV and she would reply that she finished the whole series on the Internet a while back.

Funshion main webpage 

She uses several software and websites to watch her shows. They are Funshion
, PPS, PPTV and LeTV. Sometimes, she uses her iPad to watch her shows using the application form of those websites and softwares. Recently, she learnt how to download the shows onto her iPad to watch without having to be frustrated by the slow connections.

The Internet is an amazing place. It has evolved from a  place to host documents and information to a place where people can go to for all their entertainment needs. The most amazing part is that the Internet allows for people to gain access to entertainment sources outside of their own countries. By gone are the days where we can only watch what our national channels provide, listen to only what the national radio stations broadcast. Today, we can watch shows from all over the world and listen to music from all over the world. Even, we can find movies that are not showing in our own countries. Take for example, yesterday, I finished a whole series of Japanese anime that was not shown in Singapore on any channels.

The Internet also opens up new sources of music for individuals. Most times, people listen and know only about the songs that they heard on the radio, But with the Internet, people can listen and discover new bands or singers that are not typically played on the local radios. They can also do this with shows and movies as mentioned above.

Main Page of the LoTR chrome experiment 

Besides providing people with the new ways to  watch and be entertained, the Internet also allows for multimedia experiences. Recently, chrome has a new experiment that allows Lord Of The Rings fans to explore the world created by J.R. R. Tolkien. In this experiment, they recreated the map of middle earth and allow users to click on specific areas to learn more about the place. Inside the locations, there are also mini games that the users can play.



This is a good example of how the Internet can create multimedia entertainment experience for its users. Combining games and interaction and information as one to allow the user to have a wholesome experience.

Many users of the Internet are familiar with the Internet's power to make time goes faster. Individuals can just go on the Internet and time seems to fly pass almost too soon. At many a time, we large amount of time looking at funny posts or photos or saying or stuff like that on the Internet just to waste time or to entertain ourselves. A well-known website for these posts is 9gag.com. This website allows people to post random funny pictures or quotes or memes so that other people can look and vote for them. And when they have acquire a certain number of votes, they will move to the 'HOT' page and more people will look at them. I have spent countless hours on this site, just scrolling through and looking at the photos and what not. To me, its a way to de-stress at the end of the day and also to find something funny to laugh at. Besides this site, there are also many other sites available that hosts similar things.

Although the Internet has provided a new place for people to source for entertainment and has created a new form of multimedia entertainment, there are certain drawbacks as well. First, websites that allows for streaming of videos and shows are causing a dent in the pockets of the entertainment industries. People do not watch or pay for cables anymore because they can get it straight on the Internet. The same can be said for music and songs. People do not pay for albums anymore because they can easily download songs for free on the Internet. This has of course caused a huge problem for the entertainment industry whose profits comes mainly from people buying their products. Secondly, being on the Internet can really take away a lot of time. Although the Internet is an entertaining place, sometimes, we can get too ahead of ourselves and spend too much time on it. And this can distract us from other more important things. I occasionally find myself browsing the Internet aimlessly, looking at random things one after another and the next thing I know, a few hours had passed and I did not do anything productive or accomplished anything I wanted to do for that day.

Yes there are many entertaining things on the Internet, however, moderation is key to maintain a healthy relationship between the Internet and our lives.

The Internet can be a scary place

Week 7

We all know how to use the Internet and we all know how to search for things on the internet and we all download or open things on the internet. But just as we know how to access the internet and get what we want or use it for our own purposes, other people knows how to use it for their own purposes as well. Sometimes, these purposes are less then reputable and can be quite shady. For example, hackers can use the internet to try and get to our personal information and 'steal' our identity. They can easily do this by bridging our internet security by sing codes such as worms and viruses or trojans. 

0This video gives a brief explanation as to what are worms, trojans and viruses.

As can be seen, viruses, worms and trojans can gain access to our computers when we either open emails or click on links that are not reputable or seems suspicious. These links and emails may seem harmless but they can allow these worms or viruses to be downloaded into our computers without us knowing and either copies itself and target our computer system and slowing it down or even gain access to our personal information. Another way for these malicious codes to gain access into our computers is when we download stuff from the internet. When we visit unrepeatable websites and download free content from the internet, we are opening our doors to these malicious codes that can essentially destroy our computers or our lives (if they allow people to gain access to our personal information)

These malicious codes are not just used to target individuals on a large scale. It can also be used to target large industrial organisations and infrastructures. An example would be the Stuxnet worm that was used to target the nuclear plant in Iran. The scary thing about the worm was that it was design to only target the nuclear facilities in Iran and no where else in the world. This is truly terrifying, knowing that such malware can be target specific and can bring down large industrial infrastructure at a whim shows the deadly potential that it contains.

Although for the average individual, we do not have huge industrial infrastructures that we have to worry about, we have to worry about tour own privacy being bridge, These days,we store all sorts of information our computers. From our work to our personal emails and maybe some store their credit card information on their browsers because they always shop online. All this information can be access by hackers or identity thieves if they have remote access to our computers such as using remote access trojans. Therefore, it is important for individuals to make sure that they do grant such access by not opening unfamiliar emails or clicking on links that they do not know or even downloading things or programs from websites that they do not recognise. Because by doing so, they are making themselves vulnerable and an open target for people with malicious intends.

Another way for people to protect themselves is to acquire antivirus softwares that can scan files that are downloaded for malicious contents. There are many free softwares available for download and they are fine to use. However, for a more thorough protection,  individuals should acquire softwares that provide all rounded protection such as scheduled scanning of the hard drive and monitoring internet activities.

Although antivirus softwares are a good way to make sure that our computers are safe, sometimes there are also flaws in the software that can lead to malware being left on our computers or escaping the watch of the antivirus software. a quick search on google would show that there are many cases where there are flaws in the antivirus softwares that are available to the users. There are also incidents where the antivirus software would recognise a file as a false positive because of how the file is coded or written. This article on LifeHackers, How Do You Know If Your Download Really Has a Virus, explains w3hat a false positive is and how we can make sure that our file download is not a false positive and really has a virus. In the article, they quote a example from McAfee, where they released a new update to their antivirus software that ends up deleting system files that it thought was malicious which results in the computer not being able to boot. Therefore, as can be seen, although antivirus software is the solution to ensuring that our computers are safe from malicious malware, it should also be noted that sometimes, antivirus softwares can fail.Therefore, the best solution is still to be cautious on our own and be sure to not click or open links that we are not familiar with.

And to conclude, here is a link to a page that talks about the 10 scariest computer viruses in existence. Enjoy!

The Internet tool kit

Week 6

The internet started as a place for people to read documents and page of information. However, in recent times, the Internet has become something more than a store of documents. There are many tools that have been developed that has helped the Internet evolved into something that is far more powerful than what it originally was. Of course, these tools did not make the Internet better, rather it tapped into the potential of the Internet and allow everyday users to make use of that potential.

One organisation that really explore the potential of the Internet is Google. Started as a simple search engine company, Google has more than 2 million applicants for jobs per year now. So what did google do exactly. Well, simply put it, google has harvest the potential of the internet and created many different applications that use the power that the internet provides. There is the search engine that it started out with, the email client known as Gmail and other more sophisticated softwares that aids users in their daily life.

Google drive 
This is a cloud application that allows users to upload documents into its servers and access it from anywhere. As long as they have an internet connection and can access their drive account.

Google docs 
This works with google drive to allow users to create documents online and invite people to edit them at the same time. These documents are stored in the cloud and can be accessed any time as long as the person has an active internet connection.

Google calendar
Like many other calendar applications or software, this calendar lets users save important events and set reminders and so forth. But this calendar can be access anywhere and sync with a lot of native calendar applications. Therefore, it makes it easier for user to gain access to their calendar and have one that is up to date on all their devices without having to manually key in on every single devices. One individual can have more than one calendar for different purposes such as personal, work or even just to keep track of their kids or family activities. Calendars are colour coded and online calendars such as holiday calendars can be added to ones account through subscription. Also another feature of the calendar is that you can share the calendars you created with other people. For example, as part of your work, you create a calendar that shows all upcoming office events and meetings. You can share this calendar with everyone and they will be able to keep up to date with all the happenings.

Google contacts 
Unlike by gone years where we saved all our contacts onto SIM cards when we change phone, now we can have them all in one place and access it anywhere. Google contacts allows users to store contacts of other individuals into the cloud and sync it with the phone books of any devices as long as it can access the internet and log into google.

Google group 
This is like creating a place where people can join and share information or documents and post comments and replies to posts by other individuals in the group.

These are just some examples of the applications that google offers that taps into the infinite power of the internet. These applications are very much used in our daily lives and we do not even know how powerful it is. I personally have used every dingle one of these applications in my daily life to help make my life a little less complicated and manageable. Using google calendar has made keeping my schedule organised. I can easily view them on all my devices as long as I set the setting prior. I subscribes to calendars that display the public holidays in singapore so to keep track with what holidays is coming up. I have all my contacts saved on google so changing phones is no chore to me because I can easily log into my google account and obtain my contacts from there. I use drive and docs to collaborate with my project mates on assignments and projects and this has proved very useful because we can all edit and look at the assignment as it is being edited and comment.

This is just a small example of hour powerful the internet really is and what tools are there to harvest this power. There are many other tools other there that can enhance the usage of the internet and showcase the true potential of the internet. It is just a matter of time before people learn about them and put them to good use.


And here is a video of me playing with my sister's cat

No more bags just an iPad

During the period of the SARS breakout, many of us do not have school for sometime because there was a fear of spreading the disease from people to people. The schools were closed and many of the students were told to stay home to reduce the likelihood of them becoming sick. To many of us, that was a good time to play and relax and because there was no school, it also means that there was no homework. I remembered that there was an extension of the closure that was announced on TV and that means even more fun time and play time for most of us. However, I had this Chinese teacher that did not want us to lose out in school and he manually sent us  each an envelop that contains assignments for us to do.

These days, something like that happening would be almost unheard of. No one is going to spend time and effort to send their students assignments by snail mail just so that they would not lose out in their studies. Definitely not in this age of technology and the internet. Back in the days of SARS, the internet is not as widely used as now. Many people have emails and do go on the web but not everyone does it. These days, even little kids know what the internet is and they know how to go onto the internet. Even pets have Facebook pages.

These days, schools introduce e learning into their curriculum by having a standard e learning day where their students stay home and go on to whatever platform that their school is using and do assignments that their teacher has put up for them. Other schools have used the power of computers and the internet to assess how their student’s learning is coming along by conducting quizzes online and other assignments online.

Having their students do assignments online and/or quizzes online has reduced the workload for lecturers and teachers considerably. When lecturers uses MCQs to assess their students online, they just have to set an answer sheet and a software would validate if the students has selected the right answer. This reduce the need to manually mark papers and results can be reflected back to the student at a quicker pace.

Back when I was in poly, this was what the lecturers would do. They would set quizzes and assignments that we have to complete online that are part of our grades and we can do them anywhere and at our own time without the lecturers having to mark the papers and we get back our results almost instantaneously. Sometimes, the lecturers would let us have multiple attempts to score on a quiz or assignment and this helps us pull our grades up.  

Also sometimes, the lecturers would conduct in class quizzes where they use a software to lock our computers and we would not be able to go to any internet sites to search for answers. This uses the school network to submit the answers and a score would be reflected to us right after we finish the quiz. The lecturer can also immediately see who score what at her terminal in the front of the class. 

These form of assessing students has made it easier for both the lecturers and the students and its also saving the environment because less papers has to be used to print the question paper and students and lecturers gets immediate feedback about how a student is doing in class. 

Some universities uses the power of the internet to a whole new different level. Some university record their lectures and post them on their school e learning platform for people to access when they are unable to attend classes for that day and this helps their students not miss out in classes if they are sick or feeling unwell.

Besides having recorded lessons online, some universities have online courses that students can take accompanying their current lecture based courses. This helps people work more courses into their schedule without having to stay in school for too long. Also online courses allows people to take the course at their own pace.

Outside of the school setting, e learning can come in the form of videos or tools that aids people in understanding something. When I was in polytechnic, I had a hard time understanding mathematics.  I admit, that this subject is not something that I am strong in. So many a times, I really have no idea what the lecturer at school is talking about. And because of this, I learnt something new. I learnt that sometimes when  I have no idea what is going on in class, the internet can be my next best friend.

The internet has everything.
By this, I really mean everything. From wordy explanations of how a particular formula works to videos showing how to solve certain equations. One of my go to you tube channels is the KhanAcedemy channel, where this guy explains how certain mathematical formulas are applied and how to perform some complicated formula or solve some equations.

Explaining partial fractions 

This is a very useful channel to me because it helped me understand more about my school work. Besides helping with school work, youtube videos can also teach a lot of other useful, education related stuff. One channel that I follow is this artist who teaches people to draw and paint with different mediums. Mostly drawings. I learnt how to draw a realistic looking eye from  that video.

E learning comes in many forms and has aid the process of learning significantly. its ability to help in facilitate learning is continuously expending and more tools are being developed to help in this progression and hopefully one day, we can do away with textbooks and just go school with a tablet. And save trees. 

The E-mall

Week 4 

There are many things that we can do on the Internet. Shopping and acquiring products and services is one of many of things that we can do on the Internet. And really, who do not do any shopping at all in their life? Buying daily necessities is also a form of shopping, albeit its not the slow, browsing, slow walking kind of shopping but it is shopping nevertheless. 

Shopping is something that is really fun to do but it involves changing and leaving the house and taking transport to the mall. And sometimes after all these troubles, you never got what you want because its out of stock at the mall or the outlet that have the item is in another mall. And occasionally, the item that you want is not even in Singapore, or whatever country you are in at that time. It may be some special edition that is only available in another country. Its really frustrating to physically shop sometimes. 

And this is where the Internet comes in handy. Now, a lot of shops or product owners have set up shop online. They have their own websites that showcase what they are selling and offers online purchases and shipment to the purchaser without the need to meet physically. And the best part of this is that since international shipping has become faster with the invention of the plane, most online stores ship worldwide. The ability to track our packages has also made it easier and safer to ship from another country. Many companies has set up their own online websites that allows for a bigger audience than those that are in their immediate proximity. 

 This is a company based overseas that offers scratch prove (Warranty) full body protector for your device. It is (to my knowledge) impossible to buy such a product in singapore. However, they offer the option to ship to another country besides their own and this was how I managed to get this protector as a gift once.  

This is a company that sells full body designed protector for devices ranging from phones to tablets to laptops. It also allows for people to customise their own designs and create it into skins for their devices. There are similar services in Singapore such as this one. But the difference is the price and the designs. (Personally, I like this one more) 

These companies are not based in Singapore, yet people in this country knows about their existence and the services that they provide. This is how powerful the web is and how the web can help companies and businesses expands beyond their own shoreline. 

Besides helping established companies to blossom over the seas, the web has also enable the set up of new platforms to help people sell their products. These people have no companies or physical outlets. Many of them are looking to make some extra money selling their products online. These platforms, such as Qoo10, eBay and Etsy to name a few, helps individuals sell items without the need to set up a webpage or buy a domain name and what not. It also makes it easier for people to locate what they want as search bars pulls up similar searches in one page, easy for the consumer to see. 

This is Etsy, a platform for individuals to sell their handmade items. They have shops from the states to China to Romania. 

In recent years, a new trend has occurred. Something call mobile commence. Simply put, its when products and services are brought to the people at their fingertips. Meaning? Applications and online shopping from our phones! If one think about it, alot of services and products have also moved onto mobile phone platforms. It used to be mobile phone browser compatible. Now most services and products have their own application to be downloaded into mobile phones. This allows for their users to have a more convenient way to purchase goods or services from the companies and also to browse their content. 

Etsy letting their patrons know that they have an application available on these mobile platforms. 

Our own Singaporeans also use the web to establish themselves and their business. Many become really successful and some of them even manage to open their own shops. 

This was first established as a website and now they have their own store at Orchard Central. 

With the web, many new services also become available. Because of the dynamic interface and possibilities, many new service can be created and cater to the people of the world. 

Food Panda delivers food to your door step from restaurants near you so you do not have to leave your house and still can get food from the restaurants that do not have their own delivery services. You simply enter your postal code and they will tell you what restaurants are available in your vicinity and you can choose from the list and have food deliver to your door step. 

The benefits of the internet on goods and services: 

1. create awareness 

2. expend to other countries.

3. allow for individuals to create and sell items without much capital.

4. take away the frustrating feelings one feel when unable to obtained something they want in stores. 

5. create new businesses that were almost impossible physically

The internet has created not just a place to share information and find friends and network, it has also create a place for people to expend their businesses and cater to a larger audience. It has also create a place for individuals to obtain the goods or services that they might not otherwise be able to find in their own country. Plus allowing companies and sellers to expand out of their own shorelines. 

Face Book or Facebook

Week three

Networking or making friends and keeping in touch with them has been a part of our lives from a very young age. We first learnt how to make friends then how to keep in contact with them. The ideal of making friends and keeping in contact with them has not change but the means to do so has changed over the years. Before Friendster or Facebook, we relied on technologies such as telephones to keep in touch with one another. Some even wrote letters and postcards that they will mail to one another to keep in contact. When I was in primary school, there was a hype at one point where we would keep pretty little journals in which we get people to write a bibliography about themselves. It contains the basics such as our name, age, date of birth (abbreviated to  D.O.B) and some other details such as what we like to eat, our favourite movies, our favourite shows, our favourite books, etc. 

This is an example of one such journal that I have kept over the years. back when there was no Friendster or Facebook, this was how I kept the information of my friends and what i turned to when  I wanted to keep in contact with them. This is equivalent to the 'About' section that we have now, on out Facebook profile. The information that it asked for are also the same as those on the 'About' section. The typical name, age, birthday and so forth.

Of course, these days, young kids do not have such a journal anymore. Why would they? Everything that they need is easily accessible on Facebook. You do not need to bring a book to school and ask someone to fill it in while you seat there and wait for them. Wanna know more about a person? Add them on Facebook. How hard is touching a few icons right?

Back then there are letters and notes that we write to one another to keep in touch or calls we place to see how the other person is doing. When I was in primary school, we wrote notes to one another to 'be in the loop'. We pass them around in class or to one another after school and would reply to them and pass it back another time. If it was during class time, it was a challenge not to be caught by the teacher. I think the scariest thing to hear when you are sneaking a note to your friend was 'what are you doing? Hand me that note" and you see the teacher coming towards you all stern and angry. That was terrifying.

But then something happened and we could send each other testimonials to keep in touch with one another. That was what friendster offered us. There was no more paper or pen and there was no more trying to sneak notes to one another during class. All of us went home and type long testimonials to one another over the internet. That became how we maintain friendships outside of face to face conversations. We send testimonials to one another for all sorts of reasons. We even send e cards to one another during birthdays and what not.

When facebook showed up, there was even poking that could be sent online to one another. I know someone who would poke this other person over facebook and the other person would poke back and this would continue the whole day. Just poking and nothing else. This was how they communicate to one another and maintain their friendship, or progress their friendship. Besides poking, Facebook offers other features like status updates and sharing of photos and videos and 'emotions' in the form of emoticons. In many sense we no longer have to physically pick up a phone and call someone to let them know how we feel and/or tell them something that happened. We can do this digitally, and share it with everyone in our network. Everyone that are our friend can see how we feel, what we have been doing and so forth without having to be told.

And that leads us to the problems with our current form of social networking. In the past, we have to deliberately make an effort to keep in touch with people in our social network. We have to take the time and effort to call someone, to write down their contact details and make an effort to stay in the loop on the going ons in our friends' lives. Comedy dramas such as How I met your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Rules of Engagement, Friends, all show friends gathering at one location and sharing their happenings and lives. Although not everyone actually meet everyday and talk to one another, but this was what we did in the pass. We make an effort to sit down and talk to one another, write to one another or call one another. There was a more human-ish approach to keeping in touch. And we know who is at the receiving end of the information.

These days, we scroll through our news feed to see what other people are up to. We know roughly what everyone are up to without having to even say a word to them. I know where some of my secondary classmates are in the world without even having to talk to them or meet up. And this is all because of the power of Facebook and sharing. I know who is dating whom, who is doing what, who is studying what not because I talked to them or heard it from someone but because I tapped an icon on my phone and an application popped open with post after post of feeds telling me all these. Personally, I feel that this is a rather cold way of keeping in touch. There is human telling me what happened or no painstakingly written letter address to me to tell me all these. Just technology and the internet. This new technology has one flaw which, I feel, people should understand. Some people treat Facebook as their personal dairy and chronically post their daily happenings and moods on it. I know people like that and sometimes, I personally get annoyed because their posts keeps showing up. And its not short posts too. Its really long ones that summarises their day. I have taken the step to 'unfollow' their posts on Facebook. I have done this for pages that I have liked as well as they constantly spammed my news feed with very irrelevant information.

For those who wanna do the same but do not know how to (Although I suspect most people knows how):
1) go tho the person's page.
2) hover your pointer above the friends icon on the cover photo
3) A drop down list would appear. Uncheck 'show in news feed'
4) TADA!
its the same for pages that you have liked. Instead of the friend icon, its the liked icon.

Although to be fair, the new and 'improved' way of keeping in touch has its perks. For one, it allows for people to keep a larger group of friends. With social networking sites, we can maintain in contact with people from our past that we do not really see anymore and at the same time still know what they are up to. This can have great benefits such as job opportunities. With social networking sites as Facebook, we can keep up to date with where everyone is working at and if need be, we can ask for help on getting a job at a company that someone in our friendlist is working at. We can also look out for people that are in a particular field that we currently require. Say we need to film a video for a project and we know someone on our friend list who always upload home made professionally done videos. We could seek out their help in making a video for our project. Another benefit to social networking sites is that because people post what they are up to and what they are doing and stuff on it, if an awkward conversation ever comes up when you bump into that person outside, you can use the information you got on Facebook to make the conversation less awkward. Like 'Oh I saw that you went to Japan on Facebook that day. How was the country?'

Social networking has not change. But how we go about doing it has, From making calls and writing mails to scrolling through news feed, the way we have keep in touch with people has changed over time. There is no right or wrong way to social network. Both the traditional and modern form of social networking has its perks and its flaws. 

unSocial Media

Second week of COM 125 

Disclaimer: The images do not belong to me and I in no way claim that they do. All images and videos are obtained online. 

This week was all about the Internet and the new and upcoming thing, the social media. my first exposure to the social media was this little cool networking site: 

of course after that there are more networking sites that popped up like little bunnies all over the web. Recently, not too long ago, the most happening social media is this little gem: 

Although it has been a few years since the introduction of Facebook to the whole world, it is still growing relatively strong. Facebook has become a place for people to share their thoughts, photos, memories and what not with all their friends. Every user, at one point or another has uploaded something onto Facebook such as videos or photos or statues updates. And when most people upload their content onto Facebook, they do it so automatically that they do not think anything about it. 

  

100 billion photos, thats more than the number of humans there are on earth! And not to mention this was a year ago. Who knows how many photos there are on Facebook today!

All these photos uploaded to share with the world. However, there are certain risks associated with uploading photos onto Facebook, or any other photo sharing site for that matter. The video below explains how people can use photos that you uploaded onto Facebook or photo sharing sites or anywhere on the internet for that matter, to track the exact location to where it was last taken and arm with these information, they can easily locate you and track you down.

The take away point of this video is that we should be more aware of the power of the Internet and be more careful with the things and content that we upload onto the web. This awareness should not be extended to just photos, Facebook has this location feature that if turned on, would let people know where you were when you upload a statues of when you send messages through the messaging function. We have to be very careful of the things that we upload onto the Internet so as to make sure that we keep ourselves safe from potential predators. 

Alright, lets move to the something more light hearted then the potential stalking abilities of social networking sites. The Internet is something of a common language. Everyone knows what the Internet is to a certain extend and for those from countries with easier access, the Internet has several common webpages that most visit. And these common webpages can help people showcase their talents and share self created contents. One such webpage is YouTube. Today, I like to share with you a group that make good music and got popular through the Internet. 

Introducing, The Piano Guys:

Song: Michael Meets Mozart 

This group started out in Salt Lake City and made videos of them remixing songs with a piano and a cello. They uploaded them on YouTube and slowly, they started having a growing fan base on youtube. On the 2rd of September, they held an indoor concert in Singapore and they had 4000+ audience to cheer them on. They were a bunch of nobody who became somebody thanks to the power of the internet and its massive sharing capabilities. Now with over 1.8 million subscribers on their YouTube Channel, the Piano Guys are touring the world, holding concerts and sharing their music with everyone on the globe. 

Captioned: Hanging with 4000 of our closes friends in Singapore. 

In this new world of sharing and social networking site, it becomes easier for people to showcase their talents and abilities, making a name for themselves by simply sharing their created content on the web. 

The Internet is a very powerful tool. Added with the capabilities of the Web 2.0, interaction and sharing, the Internet is one of immense power. But with great power comes great responsibility. In this case, the responsibility lies with us to make sure that we keep ourselves safe from the predators on the web. Beware of the contents that you post on the web. 

the internet is a BIG BIG place

The first week of COM 125. 

This week, was the first week of COM 125 and the start of the fall semester. Although its the first week, I have already learnt something new. And that is what Web 2.0 really means. i always thought that the name was just a fancy way of naming the internet because anything with 2.0 sounds cooler than its predecessor. 

The Internet is an very interesting thing indeed. Considering that it was created only a while back, not even a century, it has grown into something that many of us cannot live without. It has become a means of communication, acquiring information, sharing new form of content and so forth. 

As the image clearly shows, in less than a century, the amount of domain names has increase exponentially. There are so many webpages on the Internet and we as humans cannot possibly finish reading all the pages or would probably never even see half the pages there are on the Internet. 

That kind of makes the Internet a rather intimidating place. Even the world's thickest book published had only 4032 pages as compared to the internet! 

Considering the growth rate of the internet, it is actually quite amazing hat something that was started out as different entities have eventually bloomed into something that the world shares as one. In the modern day, the internet is something almost everyone has access to and almost everyone, especially in the developed countries, find it hard to live without. 

The technologies available today has made using the Internet so much more easier and friendlier than before. It is now so much easier to create content on the Internet than before. There are many software out there to help people create the contents that they desire with just a few clicks. Other tools are also available to make the Internet a much more friendlier place. Such tools that has made the Internet easier to use are tools like domain names, which are essentially virtual addresses for sites, that allows for users to easily locate the page that they desire by keying in the address in the URL bar. There are other tools that help people access the Internet better, such as bookmarks that \remembers\ certain addresses so that someone can easily access a page. There are also servers that allows people ti host their own page for free, allowing them to share content that they have created. Blogger and yOutUbe are examples of such servers. These tools and servers and softwares has created a portal for people to create, share and explore the Internet and bring the it to a whole new different platform. Like I mentioned before, the term Web 2.0 has a meaning and it means a web that does not just display documents and so forth, it allows for the users to interact with it by creating their own content and viewing other people's content. We are in the current age of web 2.0 and the constantly advancing technology of the Internet has allow for that to happen. And very soon, we will enter the age of the Web 3.0 where further advance in technology would create a web that is smart like us.