My laptop is saved! Thanks to Norton Antivirus! :P

This is probably going to be a repeat of a previous entry i wrote weeks back but i just wanted to let all viewers who read my blog know.... GET SYMANTEC NORTON ANTIVIRUS NOW!!! :D It's such a lifesaver as i recently caused my laptop to be infected by a TROJAN! (Yes, you read that right, i actually inserted my thumbdrive and unknown to myself, there was a trojan hidden inside! Imagine my horror upon discovering it! :O)

Anyway, upon installing the norton antivirus, as you can see in the picture below, please enable the automatic protection as that was what saved the trojan from infecting my laptop. This is because it quarantined the trojan allowing me to easily delete it from the system. 

Isn't Norton Antivirus so fuss-free and easy to use? :) I definitely think it's the next best thing as it took me a few steps to eliminate the trojan from the system. So please do install it into your system! I ensure that you wouldn't have any regrets!!! *wink!* ;)

Future of the internet

I was wondering long and hard about what the future of the internet would be for many of us.. and for now, i still do not know an exact answer.. Or rather, i would say the future holds many possibilities for all of us!(so there is no one answer!) :) I do know one certain thing: the internet will revolutionize our lives and be integrated into our lives much more than today. Increasingly, we are becoming dependent on the internet for many things and one can only wonder how the internet can serve us better in the near future.

Anyway, I was browsing through the internet today and found this interesting video from Nokia which shows how Nokia can literally connect people to people in the future if their invention was really created. Really interesting as the sunglasses which doubles as a screen to see the latest news is useful yet quite stylish at the same time.. :) Unique concept if you ask me!

Browsing further, I discovered another video, this time on cars. It's really amazing how cars of the future would probably be so smart as to be able to see if there's a motorcycle in a blind spot to sensing whether our eyes are focusing on the road in front of us while we're driving! Indeed, the future holds much promise as it would save many lives from getting into accidents that could be prevented.

And one of my favorites: for all the housewives and for any of us out there who hate long lines in the supermarket, here's the video for you!! :D Now we don't have to wait so long to scan each and every one of our products, we just need to walk right through the barriers! Now that's really something to look forward to in the near future.. ;)

After seeing all the above videos, you're probably thinking, "YAY! the future looks bright!" or  something along that lines.. well, i do have one small concern: I really do hope the internet does not take over our lives and make us SO DEPENDENT on it that if anything should happen (for e.g, a major power outrage), our lives would come to a standstill. That would be such a disaster!! :( And not only that, i have another worry: there may be a possibility that we will all be using less and LESS of our brain since we would be increasingly allowing the technology around us to do our thinking for us. In short, we would be reduced to mindless souls that just take the easy way out of matters.

Nonetheless, i will still cross my fingers while i await the future that's closing in day by day on us...

Social networking

This week's main focus is on social networking sites. If there's one social networking site that I am really familiar with, it's probably facebook. Or maybe friendster (mostly in the past though) too.. :P So that got me thinking... why not check out other social networking sites that i don't use??

The social networking site that popped right into my mind was twitter! Reason: i don't really know much about it and people seem to be so hyped up about "tweeting" and all. 

What striked me at first glance about twitter when i went to my profile, was its simple yet easy to use layout. I must admit that it has a very clean look that is not jarring to the eyes. :) Furthermore, i liked that each message that i typed (or twitter's words, "tweet") was limited to 140 words so unlike other social networking sites, i did not have to look at such long paragraphs of words. Neat stuff! 

Other interesting things i found out about twitter is that twitter has their own microsyntax and abbreviated Twitter grammar to make their Tweets more expressive. If your are merely retweeting someone else’s tweet, for example, you acknowledge that by placing a ‘RT’ at the beginning of your micro-message. If you are replying publicly to another user or just referring to them, you indicate that with an ‘@username.’ You can even add hashtags to a tweet so that it shows up in searches for specific topics. That is seriously a cool and interesting creation on twitter's part!! :) 

Searching for a certain topic is also made very easy by just typing in the topic in the search bar like seen below. Indeed it's almost idiot proof and anyone will find the ease of using twitter almost addictive! :D

 Another niffy tab that twitter has is the "follow" tab that allows one to follow and hear what an individual tweets on their home page. It's so fuss free and all it needs is a click of a button and i'm instantly updated with the latest stuff the people i'm following has to say.

I would say that twitter is a good way of advertising for businesses in the sense that it allows supporters of a certain business to be updated with the current progress. For example, with some online blog shops, they constantly tweet their newest products and by placing their link there, it makes it easy for followers to click it and immediately to see the product. 

A personal example would be myself, i'm currently following Chef Gordon Ramsay (https://twitter.com/GordonRamsay01) on his twitter page and i discovered that his newest restaurant, Petrus is almost in completion and that the restaurant has been booked for the next few weeks! His twitter page can be seen in my screenshot below:

By reading his tweets that give updates about the setup of his restaurant, it creates a sense of excitement and anticipation for his restaurant. Moreover, it also creates a sense of closeness between himself and the followers (potential future client/customers to his restaurants) as we are able to "see" into some of his thoughts about certain stuff. All these i believe would undoubtedly serve to help his business. :)

In short, i believe that as many people globally are connected through social networking sites, it is useful for businesses to bank on this aspect to reach out to this huge supply of people to promote and advertise their businesses to the huge masses. 

Internet and Journalism

With the dawn of the new era, the internet has become a huge essential part of our life. One particular significant event that has emerged from the internet, is the sprouting of what i like to call as citizen journalism. So what is Citizen Journalism you may ask?? :S

Citizen Journalism is when private individuals do essentially what professional reporters do – report information. That information can take many forms, from a podcast editorial to a report about a city council meeting on a blog. It can include text, pictures, audio and video. But it’s basically all about communicating information of some kind.

 What i discovered about citizen journalism is that there are two different categories to it:

1. semi-independent 
2. fully independent

Semi-Independent Citizen Journalism

This involves citizens contributing, in one form or another, to existing professional news sites.

• Readers posting their comments alongside stories done by professional reporters - essentially a 21st-century version of the letter to the editor. A growing number of news websites allow readers to post comments. In an effort to prevent obscene or objectionable messages, many websites require that readers register in order to post. 

• Reader blogs that are incorporated into professional news websites. That can includes blogs in which readers critique how the news organization is performing.

Example:

New Jersey.com

Independent Citizen Journalism

This involves citizen journalists working in ways that are fully independent of traditional, professional news outlets.

• Blogs in which individuals can report on events in their communities or offer commentary on the issues of the day.

 Example: 

Onlinecitizen

• Websites run by an individual or a group of people that report on news events in the local community. Some have editors and screen content, others do not. Some even have print editions.

Examples:

Daily Heights

My only concern with citizen journalism is where is it the appropriate line to draw?? If everyone is to write their opinions about a certain issue, it is dangerous when that issue is highly sensitive and result in some form of unhappiness among the public. For example, take the local website, stomp. As can be seen from the website, there are occasional articles written by "stompers". However, at times fellow "stompers" may accuse the "stomper" who wrote the article as being too nosy and taking pictures that are inappropriate and that they should mind their own business.. For example, there was a particular post that i read where the "stomper" on the train had taken a picture of a guy who had taken a picture of a girl who wore a mini skirt without her permission. People started accusing the author as being as bad as the guy for taking pictures of him as well which makes one realise that even though the author's intention was to bring attention that there are sexual predators on trains, other people may not view in the same light.

This brings back the same question, where is the line that we should abide by?

Internet and Politics

The power and limitation of internet for political campaigning

It has been a widely understood fact that the internet is a powerful method to reach to audience far and wide and yet at the same time, it is limited in its own way.. today,  i will be touching on this topic since this week's main theme is on politics.. :)

Firstly, let me touch on the power of the internet. Indeed, the internet has many multiple uses, even for political campaigning! The internet is powerful as it allows people immediate access. Since most people check their E-mail anywhere from 1 to 100 times a day, using the Internet to reach out to potential voters is brilliant. Also, each candidate has a website where voters may go to find out how to help the campaign and to see where the candidate will next be speaking. The Internet helps to quickly spread the word about the policy of the candidate.

For example, let's take the most well known president of the world in this current time, Barack Obama. He too, understands the value in reaching to the technologically savvy demographic. One of his donation campaign was conducted in part via email. Rather than a contributor sending $20 and never hearing back, the campaign managers cleverly set up a system that allowed people donations to be matched by other donors. Each donor could contact one another and write why they supported Barack. As a result, this donation campaign was a success, mostly thanks to the accessibility of the internet to the public. 

You Tube also has an impact on politics. This more recent addition to Internet usage provides instant coverage of political events, news clips that relate to candidates, ads that are making the rounds of Internet users, and spoofs of the candidates. If a politician does something embarrassing in public you can be sure it will be on You Tube within 24 hours or less. Morever, youtube videos target young people to participate in online opinion and may bring more youths to the polls in upcoming elections.

The Internet also makes it easy to mobilize political activism. Political groups are able to stage huge protests and events with a simple mass E-mail. Impromptu gatherings are also possible via E-mail alerts. If a candidate is in a public space during private time he or she may find a crowd who has been alerted via the Internet awaiting them outside on their departure.

The Internet also allows voters to use Google or Helium to find articles about and texts of speeches by each candidate to read about their political strategies. The Internet makes keeping up on each candidates opinions quite simple. It is an invaluable tool for voters.

However, despite the above factors that i mentioned, i feel that the internet is limited in some ways.  Personally, i feel that by using the internet, the political campaigns loses its personal touch. People who watch the videos of the speeches that candidates make may not get the full impact of the speech if they were not at the campaign "live" which may affect the voting. Besides that, using the internet may sway people to vote for someone just because they see a mass majority of people giving opinions on the internet to vote for a certain candidate.

Ultimately, political campaigning will inevitably make use of the internet to promote the candidates, therefore, it is always good to keep in mind the above while reading/watching the speeches made by the candidates.. :)

Reflections on com 125 Project Groups & my own com 125 project

The focus for this week's com 125 classes were presentations from the other groups. It was quite enlightening to watch other groups present as through watching their presentations,  I found myself mentally taking note of some key aspects that my project group and i would have to keep in mind during our own presentation. :) Probably one thing i did learn from the presentations is to make the presentation a little more engaging and have something in store for the audience which they can take away from the presentation after watching it... 

Currently, for my own com 125 project, it is due in about 2 weeks time.. Work has been distributed and while looking for resources to back up some of the data in our project, personally, i feel that i have learnt quite a bit from searching on our topic, some of which i probably would not have realised unless i had bothered to research it out of my own interest. I feel as if i i'm learning something new every time i deal with the project work material. :) I'll be crossing my fingers that the project will be a success! :)

Multimedia on the internet

Last week's lesson was really MINDBLOWING. I loved the tech gadgets that professor showed us as they looked really out of this world! I especially like the Xbox 360 Project Natal Game console. Really cool idea of making the individual the controller instead of using a physical controller  :P Thumbs up!

Anyway, i went to surf the net and found other cool multimedia gadgets that are also really unique.. :) Check the video out below for Virtusphere:

 Pretty cool right? :) It's actually a hollow sphere, which is placed on a special platform that allows the sphere to rotate freely in any direction according to the user's steps. Transmitting a virtual environment to the wireless head mounted display, users can move freely 360 degrees creating the most immersive virtual experience. Personally, i feel that this may be great for gamers as it allows more hands on for gamers who like to move and feel the action when they play rather than having to stay rooted in the spot. Besides that, i was exploring the possibility that it may allow people to exercise while they play the game and in that sense, allow gamers to so stay healthy while they're playing? =P

Another cool techno gadget that i MUST share with everyone is this: PIXELBOTS. They're by far one of the coolest things i've ever set my eyes on. If you ask me, they're like a swarm of robots that have intelligence and they are able to notify you of anything under the sun. AND BEST OF ALL, it can become a moving motion picture at certain intervals! How COOL is that!!! :O I can't even put into words what they are in all accuracy so please watch the video below instead :)

Curious Displays from Julia Tsao on Vimeo.