Reflections

After gaining so much from com125, I am glad to say that I am a better user of the internet right now. I now know of the various tools that is provided at our finger tips, be it Google trends or Google earth. While learning, I got to experience what these tools can actually do for us.

Also I have learnt the proper terms the different types of e-businesses online. I know e-businesses exist, but to learn the different terminology and functions of it intrigued me as I am now more well versed in terms of e-business.

Most importantly, I have gained much insight about the growth mindset. It taught me how to learn better and be more productive. Learning to look at things with an open mind will help me learn better in my life as well. Cultivating a growth mindset will be highly beneficial. Such a lesson learnt will not be forgotten. Thank you Mr. Choy :)

The chapter about Internet and Politics opened my eyes to a new world beyond the usual usage of the internet. I have learnt that the internet can actually help politics win campaigns e.g. Barack Obama. This amplifies the power of the internet and what is can do for us now and in the near future. The power to connect with so many people amazed me as Obama directed his campaign in both the real world and the virtual world.

Overall, com125 has been a learning experience. And even though the internet is something that I am in contact with everyday, the growth mindset has taught me to embrace new things in life and I should be open towards issues that are presented before me. I enjoyed Mr. Choy's class a lot! Although the mid terms were tricky, I believe Mr. Choy did it for our benefit to learn.

Thank you Mr. Choy!
God Bless (:
COM125 has been an awesome journey with you!

Future of the Internet

Technology has had a very long journey, and is still continuing that long journey ahead. Technology has now evolved beyond our imagination and it has crossed many boundaries that we once thought were inaccessible. Who would have thought that it would have been possible to communicate with people around the globe at your own convenience and of course, shopping online at ease.

There are so many aspects of the internet that has evolved in the past decades and this is only the beginning, how about the near future? Microsoft has already invented the Microsoft tablet and is working on how to make it better, computer geniuses in London have successfully replaced silicon chips with plastic chips and even the screens of televisions / computers can be 11mm thick.

Talk about advancement. The internet changes faster than human habits.
This table shows how people in London feel about the internet in 2020.

With so many technological advances in the WWW world, it is no wonder that people from all walks of life are becoming more dependent on the internet for information, communication and etc. Heavy dependency on the internet can limit one's creativity as all the information one needs is available online, and children in the near future will be high dependent on the internet (aren't we all?). Increased usage of the internet can lead to the future generations all wearing spectacles (random I know)

Mobile internet will be dominant. Louis Nauges, president of Microcost, a French information technology firm stated that by 2020, most mobile networks will provide one-gigabit-per-second minimum speed, anywhere, anytime.

With such accessibility at our finger tips, everybody will be going online not by a laptop or a computer, but using a hp. Plus it is free, so, since it is free, the more users are encouraged to use it. One of the reasons why mobile internet is not dominant now is because of its high cost.

The future of mobiles

Another worrying factor regarding the future of the internet is
society switching to virtual reality. Many have envisioned the
future of the internet to become a civilization. Virtual reality
will become the world we live in and instead of living in the real
world, the virtual community will be the one that we all reside in.
Relationships and family time will also be greatly reduced.

However, with the expansion of internet, the ability
to share all the information available will lead to an
advancement of the human race. Education will be
more pervasive and it will reach countries that are
deprived of education. With the advancements of the
internet, the world will soon be able to fully connect
with each other, although the battle between the haves
and the have-nots persists, it is safe to say, even a tiny bit,
that the have-notswill be exposed to what the internet is
and they will be given a chance to advance as well.

The future of the internet can reach both ends
of extremities; good or bad.

In my opinion, whether the internet benefits the
human race depends on the users and its creators.
Without the proper censorship and balance between
the real world and the virtual world,
the world will become a world where its population
are no longer called earthlings, but
they will be called: Netlings.
For now, the internet can still be controlled
with a plug and electricity.
But what about the future?

Politics & The Internet

“Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not have been the nominee,” said Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of The Huffington Post.

Were it not for the Internet, Singaporeans across the globe would not have been rejoicing with The United States of America when Barack Obama was voted as President.
The internet has led to the rapid widespread of news that Barack Obama has been nominated President and that many Americans have their hopes placed n his shoulders.

The internet has helped Barack Obama to win this campaign. But how did he do across such a large country when he was only one person?

He used The Internet.

As we all know campaigns need money, and if you aren't filthy rich you did have to get the money from somewhere. Well, Obama used the Internet to raise small amounts of money from hundreds of thousands of people. The ability to spread such a message across to so many people in the shortest time, the use of Web 2.0 tools definitely changed Obama's campaign. Imagine every person that donates at least 2 dollars. That would have amounted to $200,000 if Obama's campaign reached 100,000 US citizens. With the use of the Internet, Obama's campaign was able to organize supporters, advertise to voters, defend against attacks and communicate with constituents in the cheapest and shortest amount of time.

The earth shaking Internet interfaces such as Youtube has provided Obama with free advertising. And as stated in my earlier posts, New Yorkers state that it is much more convenient to surf the internet. Videos online are not like television which get interuppted by advertisements, as a result, YouTube videos have proven to be a much more effective method of advertising.

To buy advertising hours on television networks cost a bomb, and why pay for it when you can do it for free online and the effect is greater. Mr Trippi, who was in charge of Howard Dean's campaign in 2004 stated: To buy 14.5 million hours on broadcast TV s $47 million.

That's a lot of money!

YouTube does not only help the campaign in delivering uninteruppted advertisements, but also, fellow citizens are able to use YouTube to do fact-checking. The YouTube and the internet can be used to find past speeches, dirty secrets, etc and use the internet to alert others around them. The word of mouth is a very powerful tool and can either help you or bring you to the pits of hell.

The Internet also allows citizens and people across the globe to listen to the speeches on repeat mode. The more people listen to it, the more people are persuaded and convinced that Obama is the man for the seat in the White House. According to Mr. Huffington of the Huffington Post, 6.7 million people have watched Mr Obama's speech about race on YouTube.



Adding on, the Internet allows Obama to make connections with the people and strengthens it as well. The way most of the population in America communicates using the Internet, and by connecting with them via the way that is most convenient to them and the way they most care about, Obama could easily talk to the people of America with no worry. It's kind of like establishing a common interest/mode of communication.

Soon enough Obama will start a website by the name of MyWhiteHouse.gov to talk to his fellow Americans about issues that the country is and will face in time to come.

As you can see, the Internet has definitely shaped Politics. Barack Obama won the campaign and is now the President of the United States of America. The use of the internet to reach so many thousands of people has played a huge role in his winning of this Presidency.

Let us hope Obama will continue to use the internet to stay connected with his fellow citizens and of course, the World as well.

How Does Internet Shape the future of Journalism

Wikipedia defines Journalism as the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and comment via a widening spectrum of media.
Throughout the past till today, newspapers have been the main medium of journalism, conveying news and information all across the country.However, recently, the internet is slowly taking over the role of newspapers and newspapers are no longer the cash cows that they used to be in the past. More and more readers are turning to the internet for their news.



A reason for this is because when one is online, you are not confined to just one point of view the newspaper presents you. Instead, you are able to browse around other sites and see what different online news papers have to say about a particular issue. Furthermore, New Yorkers stated that it is much more convenient to sit in front of a screen than to buy a paper and read it cover to cover.

Of course, with the increase in online news reporting, the traditional newspapers lose out as the explosive of videos allows readers to directly connect with the issue both mentally and visually. The traditional newspaper of course requires a bit of imagination. Also, studies of the past will be much easier as online interfaces allow readers to go back and forth as and when they like; they don't have to worry about missing last wednesday's paper because they know it will be available online.

However, with the rapid growth on online newspapers, there are ethical concerns. The internet is a virtual world where any point of view or comment can be posted, as a result, there has to be a standard that online newspapers have to follow. Blogs, MySpace, WordPress, opens a new door to journalism as well. People across the globe can give their point of view and comments about an issue at any point in time.

But these views have to be objective and disciplined. Traditional newspapers practise disciplined verification and editing as it will go public, but online, there is no one editor who will screen through the entire webpage to look for errors or any damning piece of information.

The future of journalism is bright thanks to all the new frontiers available on the internet. But at the same time, humans are able to connect more with the traditional piece of paper as we are not void of emotions.

As Patrick Dixion of www.globalchange.com said: Paper becomes part of human beings as compared to a piece of writing on a computer screen.

I love Multimedia

Wouldn't you agree with me that the use of multimedia has made the internet so much more enticing and interesting? Multimedia makes use of text, animations, audio and still images to appeal to its targeted audience. The use of multimedia has been adopted vastly across the virtual world; be it appealing to a gaming audience to an audience of photographers.

This is Audition; an online game by Asiasoft. I've been playing this game for quite awhile now. Its homepage spells Multimedia all over. From the background to the various banners at the side which allows you to either sign up with Asiasoft or download the game client.

Audition's homepage allows you to view videos of players playing online and there are screen shots available as well. The use of videos and still pictures further enhances the webpage and not to mention adds to help persuade you to play the game.

Since Audition is a game that incorporates dance moves, there's definitely got to be music. To further persuade you to play, a sample of songs are readily available for you to listen to as show above!

But what really makes this website a successful website? The multimedia plays a huge part in it and the ability to add so many perks to it definitely sends its message out loud and clear. However, another important aspect of multimedia plays a part too. And that aspect is: Hypermedia

Hypermedia is used as a logical extension of the term hypertext in which graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks intertwine to create a generally non-linear medium of information. This way, Asiasoft is able to link up as many pages as it wants to to its homepage instead of cramming all the information they want to convey to the targeted audience.

Take instance the screen shot above. Just by placing my mouse over the word "Info", a whole list of options pop out. "News. Notice. Events. Characters. Stag. Arena. Level."

Well, as you can see, Asiasoft fully utilizes multimedia to its full potential. Multimedia isn't just on homepages; Multimedia is Everywhere. From blogs to television to games to even advertisements. The tool of multimedia is simple awesome.

What will we ever do without Multimedia?

Our lives did be dead boring.

Computer Viruses

Viruses are everywhere; germs, dirt, bacteria can be harmful to a human body.
But, all the above stated can be harmful to computers as well. Computer viruses are harmful and expensive to repair for all computer users. Viruses can strike at any time without warning. A virus can enter your computer either by an email or a program you have downloaded.

Common viruses are the Trojan, Worms, Spyware and Keylogger.

These are the viruses that are commonly seen in computers/laptops such as Acer, HP, VAIO etc. Such viruses attack the masses; but there is one particular brand of computers that seldom gets attacked by viruses, but with such an advantage, the possibility of getting rid of a virus will also be very challenging.

It is the iMAC by Apple.

The IMAC's unique design prevents common viruses from attacking it, which is good. However, there is a certain virus that caught my eye when I was doing research, this virus is called:

The Newton virus

The "Newton Virus" was aamed after the father of modern mechanics. The 'Newton Virus' introduces the concept of gravity causing your desktop to behave exactly as it would in the real physical environment. Desktop icons become susceptible to Newton’s invisible force and fall, roll and tumble in whatever direction gravity pulls them delivering a little bit of reality to your virtual environment.

Viruses that are being spread by thumb drives are extremely potent. I was a victim of it once. A friend of mine passed me a thumb drive to retrieve information, but I did not know that her thumb drive was infected. As a result, my laptop had to be reformatted and I lost a lot of precious data. As I did not know that my computer was infected, I plugged in my Ipod to update my songs and before I knew it, even my Ipod was infected. The virus destroyed my Ipod and I could never ever plug it into my laptop again as the virus is still swimming in there.

It was seriously tramuatizing :(

Back to the Newton Virus, the Newton Virus isn't a harmful virus according the its creators. It adds a spice of life to the virgin territory of viruses that can be found in an iMAC. As silly as it sounds, this virus was the first virus created to poke fun at iMac users. But I suppose after awhile, the virus will become annoying. Sooner of later, more viruses will emerge just for the iMAC.

As the old saying goes, "prevention is better than cure"
Get an anti virus NOW. :D

Google Tools : Google Trends

While people meddle with Google Earth, I rather experiment with Google Labs.
Google labs allow one's creativity to run wild with the different possibilities that Google provides. It allows one to study the trends that are out there and of course trends that aren't out there yet.

Wanna know if Gucci or Louis Vuitton is more popular? Where do you get such statistics? Well, you can go to the streets and conduct surveys, but that will require a lot of time and man power. Wasting resources is the last thing on your mind!

So what do you do? Google Trend it!
your answer comes in less than 30 seconds

Key: Blue - Gucci
Red- Louis Vuitton

there you have it! according to Google, Gucci has been a more popular brand amongst world users. Plus, Google tells you where it got its statistics. Check out below:

You might not want to base your assumptions based on Google Trend's results, but at least, there is a guide line that you can follow :D
well apart from looking for guidelines, if you are really bored.. like REALLY BORED like I was a few days back, you could use Google trends to find out if Elmo from Sesame Street or Tigger from Winnie the Pooh is more popular.

This was really random :p
Have fun!

Looks like Elmo is a more popular character!



3 cheers for Elmo!

Google Lab- Trends is a fun tool to play around with yet it can help you greatly with research purposes.
3 x 3 cheers for Google Trends!

Video!

this is a short video that my friends and i made for a module; com 217. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQqr8WUUXws

Digital Classroom

I grew up in classrooms with chalks, blackboards and not forgetting dusters. Everything that was to be copied into our exercise books was on the blackboard.
It didn't matter if it was Science or Math or Literature; my teachers would write whatever they had to on the board and let us copy it off from there.
There were no such things as powerpoint slides or youtube videos to help us along the way. The blackboard and chalk were the ultimate tools of a teacher back then.

Bart Simpson definitely has issues with the blackboard as he was always being punished to write lines after skipping school and etc. I'm sure a handful of students were enemies with the blackboard for the various "crimes" committed in school as well.

It was only when I entered poly where technology had advanced tremendously and incredibly. Lecturers started using websites to lecture us and some even opened up programs from their laptops to specifically show us how to go about using it. Take for example: SPSS. The program SPSS is a statistics program which helps one organize data into graphs.

Soon enough, our marketing lecturer was introducing websites to us to help us with our exams. Before you knew it, our class tests were conducted ONLINE (E-TESTS) and our projects had to be submitted either via digital dropbox or email.

Everything was practically converted from a blackboard which used dusters to create write new pieces of information to a computer which only needs one button: The Delete button.

from...

to..

our lives have improved greatly from manually dusting the blackboard to the mere pressing of just one button. However, with such readily available information at our fingertips, will we be reliant on the web to give us answers?

Will Google be the internet God? well it has sort of become the internet God. Millions of people use Google or other search engines to look up information for their own purposes. Answers are provided with a click of a mouse.

Although the internet makes life easier for both students and teachers, it is inevitable that one day we might forget the fundamentals of life. With dictionary.com and conversion tools available online, fundamentals of a manual tools such as a calculator, or an encyclopedia can be easily forgotten. A digital classroom helps greatly but it is also possible to make us forget how to do things manually.

Let's hope this won't ever happen.

10 reasons why E-commerce is successful

E-commerce has been on the rise since the beginning of the Internet. The wonders of the internet brings millions of people together through social media and of course, e-commerce.
Businesses online are booming and everyday, new businesses are being setup hoping to earn revenue.
So why is e-commerce so popular right now?

Here are 10 reasons why E-commerce is successful & why people want their feet into it.

Here goes!

1. No such thing as : Time Limit.

In the world of the world wide web, time knows no boundaries. You can work anytime without worrying having to punch in your time card or about the traffic jam along the highway. Managing your business online allows you to be free of the 24 hour prison cell. Since time is flexible, anybody and everybody is allowed to visit your site at any time and in any country!
Hopefully they make purchases too :)

2. Knowledge is free

Everything you need to know about starting, running and growing a business is available online, not to mention online tutorials from prestigious universities, from books (google's scholar search helps you with that) and from people who are already doing it successfully and who you now have unprecedented access to through blogs and social networks (blog search, facebook, you name it!). And nobody cares what your portfolio anymore. :x

3. Your "employees" are affordable

Technically, your employees are your computer, mouse, internet connection, search engines, software and everything that you can find online is, well sort of nearly free. Instead of getting a loan from the bank and borrowing thousands of dollars, why not setup online when it is conveniently free? :)

4. Marketing is Free

Information about your business can be put online! with all them artsy fartsy thing-a-migics.
marquee banners and web titles, flash objects/short clips or even music! You have a chance to provide your information in any format that you want that will suit your business.
How great is that? and you don't even have to pay a interior designer to do it.

5. Spider webbed!

With your business online, YOU CAN REACH THE WORLD. Your website can be and will be viewed 24hrs a day, 7 days a week; practically the entire year. No worries about nobody hearing about your website, when it's good, the word of mouth travels faster than you can send out flyers telling people about your website.

6. Convenient for Customers.

Customers can view the website as many times as they like. It's not like you are forcing them to view your website to purchase your products but more like, customers have the luxury of viewing your products over and over again. There is very little or no coercion at all. It's good for you, and your customers!

7. Your website doesn't need to sleep.

You are only human. Eating, sleeping, and other daily activities are part of your life. However, your website doesn't. It will continue to generate income for you and all you have to do is wake up to orders and wait for the money to roll in. $_$

8. The address book

Allowing customers to fill in their information, you can always let them know about the latest updates, the special discounts of certain items, or even maybe special sprees that are only available to them. By building such customer relations, the bond will strengthen and customers will become loyal. Business repeats, so does the cash-ins!

9. Competitive prices.

It isn't rare that someone else sells the same products / services that you have. The competition will get rough as you fight to keep your price the lowest yet the best. However, such competitive prices keep you in check and it creates the drive to attract your customers even more! Competition is always good.

Last but not least,

10. Your commitment.

One needs commitment to make any business successful. Being on the edge helps. Read the books or visit the sites of those who have made it big. It is never too late to learn and by learning more, your business online will only reap results!

:D cheers.

To be or Not to be..

Friendster, Facebook, Multiply, MySpace, Second Life ...

All these names and many more have become household names amongst us and we have all , at least once been addicted to such virtual networks. Online games as well serve as a social network that people stay committed.

The question for today is: To be or Not to be.

Many a time, the virtual world has been a place where one can have many identities and as a result, people make sure of that. Be it your gender, the color of your hair, the shape of your eyes or even the clothes you wear; one can always alter the way you look.

But are all these for real?
or is our conscious choosing what we desire to look like?

Social networks such as second life, facebook, friendster have been around for less than a decade and already, people are creating avatars and profiles that do not even exist. There have been numerous friendster accounts with attractive female pictures but to your disappointment, the owner of such an account is sadly a male who is simply trying to get attention for all the wrong reasons.

There are many other instances as well, take for example online games: Maple, Dota, Audition and so forth. These games allow you to choose your gender, choose your hair and etc. I have male friends playing female characters and they behave and type ( yes, type ) like any other girl.
Such fake identities are splashed all over the internet and some people even get conned by it.

No doubt there are the advantages of such social networks as it allows one to create groups or even close deals over the internet. Facebook has brought millions of users across the globe together by simply allowing the creation of groups. Party invites and events are being broadcasted via facebook and the amount of people who join the group is amazing.

check out this facebook group; there are 8,245 members and 109 new members just joined the group. By the end of next week, this Ben & Jerry's group would have at least 9,000 members.
Isn't facebook amazing? :)

So, let's come back to the question for today: To Be, or Not to Be.

It's definitely very easy to be someone else in the virtual world as compared to the real world that we live in. Whether it is an escape for some of the users from the real world, or it is just merely to have fun, we all use the virtual world at our own disposal.

Hey, we can even be mushrooms in the virtual world. What else can we not be?

Let's just say everybody has their "To be, Not to be" Days.
These are real players by the way.

Introduction

I have been blogging for as long as 5 years and blogging has become second nature to me.
I have my own personal blog and through out these 5 years, blogging has pretty much exposed the virtual world.

As a teenager, blogging didn't mean much to me as I was simply conforming to society. It seemed that 5 years ago, everybody was getting really excited about setting up their own blogs and they seemed more excited about sharing their everyday life with the world.

It seemed pretty exciting; blogging about my own life, posting pictures to let others have the opportunity to see what I saw, to experience what I experienced. The freedom of speech has allowed me to reveal my expressions without the fear of being criticized as the blog is mine and mine alone. Revealing details of the day's fortunate and unfortunate events became a daily routine as time went by.

As time went by, I realized why I really started blogging. My parents had left for Africa and due to educational reasons, I had to continue residing in Singapore. The blog became sort of like a third parent to me; tolerating my anger, celebrating my joy, enjoying the same kind of music, viewing pictures that might develop different points of views from others.

My blog became more than just a HTML text where I just wrote what I felt. It became a bridge between my friends and I as well. Even though we had little time for each other, we could always visit each other's blogs to see how each other are doing :)

I spent 6 months in Africa after graduating from college. Unfortunately the Internet connection isn't as efficient as it is in Singapore. Lag became a household name amongst Internet users. I only managed to get online for about half an hour every week and as a result, I couldn't access MSN without getting lagged out and worse of all, I could not communicate with my friends in Singapore at all.

BUT....

Blogger has helped me a great deal. I stayed in touch with my friends via my blog and they had the chance to experience Africa through my eyes. With the most basic function of allowing bloggers to post pictures online, it also aided me in relating my experiences to my friends. Most importantly, blogger kept my friends and I closely connected. The feeling might be as strong as a phone call but it definitely keeps people connected. Even now, for my friends who are overseas, we visit each others' blogs regularly to stay connected

The internet has made it possible for us to stay connected with people from all around the world, but for me, blogger has allowed me not to only stay connected with people, but it has also brought the world closer to both my family and myself.

p.s. My parents read my blog every once in awhile, no matter where they are :)