Week 10 Future of the Internet and Reflections

I predict, as many have that the Internet in future, is unpredictable.

But some things are clear, given our speed of advancement in technology, by the year 2019, things that are commonly used today may just disappear just like how CDs and VCDs are facing dwindling sales. Internet is here to stay, that is for sure, just that it would be further ehanced to make our lives easier and faster.

The amount of information out there will be countless, perhaps reaching a stage where the number of pieces of information will eventually outnumber the stars in outer space. However, with so much information, we ask ourselves, why the bulk? Where do they come from? And what do they do? It is predicted that already a majority of population in the world has their information uploaded somewhere in the web, be it MySpace, Facebook or whatever, soon the internet will have everyone's information whether the person uses Internet or not. And as such, our privacy is compromised, and the information may be benefical to us perhaps in a job interview, or it may very well backfire on us.

There goes security. Because of the bulk of information available, and more are coming each day, security remains a big issue. People are getting smarter each day, and some modify what is available. With each new security measure, there is someone out there to counter that by developing a malware to infiltrate. And the vicious cycle just goes round and round each day. Without the threat, there is no need, and when there is no need, advancement becomes stagnent. Which is why it makes prediction of the future hard because of the unknown future.

At least, some things are set and stone even today. Education and E-commerce are two aspects of the Internet that will continue to be popular. But I believe at some point, their advancement will start to decline, as there are some things that cannot be replaced by the virtual realm. The factor of human touch is enough to void all arguments with the Internet, because we as humans will die without social interaction, and Internet is one big devil that deprives us of it.

Whether Internet in future turn for the better or worse, it is hard to say now, because we as humans are capable of turning things around, whether for good or bad. The only predictable thing about life is its unpredictability. So why not just sit back and enjoy what we have now, and be grateful for it. When the time comes for a solution, we are better prepared to deal with it because we know there is a need, and not worrying about something that we don't have enough evidence for.

Throughout this course, i'm glad i have learnt quite alot about the Internet, as compared to before i entered this course, all i know was internet can be used to buy things, chat with friends, play games and watch shows. I'm glad to have known more about the platform that i use so much everyday, and how it impacted my life in ways that never crossed my mind.

Week 9 Internet and Journalism

The other day in COM 242 class, Professor Armstrong distributed 3 articles on the same day, remarking that it may be coincidence, that newspaper is facing danger, and journalism is taking a new frontier.

http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/2009/03/13/local-newspapers-won%e2%80%99t-be-missed-by-42-of-americans/

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE52E0SY20090316

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/189934-Pew_Research_Center_Report_More_Troubling_Signs_for_Broadcast_Networks.php

the future of Journalism may well be centered on the Internet, as major newpapers and broadcasters have their own websites that offer very up-to-date news.

And since the use of Internet has become so prominent, it is not surprising that people turn to it for news, since it is significantly faster than printed newspaper or radio.

also, civilian journalism has gradually increased as bloggers are reporting on events happening around us. however, credibility is the major concern as the same story can have different versions on different sites.

at that point, we ask ourselves 'who do we trust'?

civilian bloggers who may have seen the incident first hand?

or the long established newspapers whom we trust to deliver news since a long time ago?

Week 8 Internet and Politics

No doubt the internet played a huge role in ensuring Obama's success in the recent elections happening in the US, and surveys have shown that Americans are turning to the internet as another outlet of politics.

It is not surprising at this, as many people, and previous posts have advocated that Internet is all-too-popular now and any updates will be online before any other form of media, except live broadcast of course...

Because of its scope and availability, citizens are able to participate more in the campaigns and elections. Given that the U.S is a huge country by itself, internet certainly helps brings people together and for candidates to reach out to more people while being in another place.

Unlike U.S, Singapore is fairly small. But certainly if internet were to be a medium in which politics are populated through, participants will increase and a more successful campaign can be obtained. Likewise, other factors like cost can be reduced greatly. Low-cost and wide target, which candidate wouldn't want that?

YouTube, forums, government websites are all examples of internet sources that candidates can make use to reach out.

They say Theodore Roosevelt was the first Media President.

Now they are saying that Obama is the first Social Media President.

Week 7 Internet and Multimedia

Of all the websites featuring phones, I believe Sony Ericsson's is the best.

http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/home?cc=sg&lc=en

the webpage made use of animation, flash technology, and a comprehensive and interactive search so consumers can compare any phones they want, select which kind of phones they prefer to use. their filtering system is as good as Google, at least to me. they have a good filtering system to enable quick access to phones that consumers would want.

a preview of each phone is available, where in the window, users can click on the various buttons and functions, as if interacting with the actual phone itself. users can also rotate the phones to get a overview of how each phone looks like at different angles.

videos are available to let users view the phones in action and allows a more actual presentation of the phones, accompanied music.

comprehensive texts are used in a simple way for easy reading and understanding.

they have combined the many aspects of multimedia on the internet, animation, videos, music, text in a way that is both appealing and easy for consumer's use.

Week 6 Internet Security

I doubt anyone who uses a computer today has not experienced the agony of having to deal with viruses, trojans, spyware, adware and worms, the very essences of Internet and computer that make the experience sour and frustrating.

I remember the first time i dealt with viruses was when I was still a kid. Not knowing one thing from another, computer was basically something for me to play Lemmings and other games that have long gone into the records of history. It was this particular time I kept clicking on something (I can't remember what), and it just wouldn't load. So I called for my father, who was also helpless, who in turn got my uncle to come, and shed light on my first virus encounter. But being a kid, explaining virus to me was telling me what a benzene ring is at the age of 11.

So there came my first 'real' encounter was when my computer really malfunctioned. Turning it on was already a problem. So my uncle came once again to my rescue, and yes, at that time, I learnt to hate virus just like everyone else.

But to those virus originators, it seems like fun, to watch people's system falter one by one, and pardon me for my lack of sensitivity, they are no more better than serial killers.

Then after the encounter of not being able to turn on my computer, came adware, spyware, trojans that pop up every now and then to disturb my peace. Despite the installation of firewalls and anti-virus programs, they don't seem to stop. And for once, I did not know what download is, so I really have no idea what these things are doing in my computer.

So the verdict is, programs like these do have a certain lifespan because they are smart, but unfortunately 'serial killers' are smarter. Which is why we need even more smart people to come up with better firewalls, anti-virus programs or perhaps something even better to combat these things.

How nice wouldn't it be, if we have a program that is able to trace the origins of these annoying programs, and when they do find the source, turn it against them? But i'm sure they have their own way of destroying what they create in case it backfires or something...

But until then, I guess

1. Install Firewalls
2. Install anti-virus programs
3. Update these programs regularly to protect against new threats
4. avoid opening unknown emails
5. even with known email address, still take precautions when opening them
6. avoid downloading from dubious websites
7. don't disclose passwords or identification to others

will have to do.

Week 5 Video editing

here's a video i made using Windows Movie Maker. hope you guys enjoy it.


Friends Forever - Raiin

Apologies that it will take some time to load. Imeem is slow...

Week 4 E-Learning

I only got to use the internet for educational purposes only when I reached JC level, when the school decided to use this platform on the internet called "Aspire" to post up our lecture notes, extra notes, exam answers, mock papers, and the list just goes on as far as academics is concerned.

At first things seem efficient, if we missed a few sentences we can always go back to the internet to download the notes and fill up what we've missed. And also the notes will be up there before the actual lecture, so for us we could be prepared for the lecture. At that point we thought that our school is so 'hi-tech', and the teachers started to post homework, do online quizes instead of the conventional paper and pen, marking and returning papers.

Then as time passes, I realised a growing trend. When we realise we have access to already available notes, we stop copying notes in class, which literately translate to 'i can do my self study at home', which then means wasting more time, and less effective learning. And in the end we still have to print our own notes, talk about paper and ink.

Then there was the occasional 'portal-down' issue. Sometimes out of the blue the portal is inaccessible for some reason and we'll have to go to school facing angry teachers and backing our stories of 'we couldn't log in' using class size. Then there was the lost of passwords, firewall, pop up window block, disconnection, and the list goes on again as far as internet 'accidents' are concerned.

Until the days in UB.SIM, my internet use has turned from entertainment/notes, to entertainment/notes/homework/research. Pretty much many things can be found on the internet now, since it doesn't take up a huge space like the libraries does. But then comes the problem of credibility. Since anyone can just go into Wikipedia and edit the contents of the information, how do we know who to trust and who not to?

Although not everything is as bad as it seems. Learning is enhanced with videos, slideshows, presentations, movies, all aided with digital media. How else would we know how the structure of a simple molecule differs from a macro molecule? How would we know what happens when you put a current through a complex circuit? Sure, the teacher can tell you the answer, but ultimately we still need to remember those in our heads using images, might as well save the trouble of getting confused trying to translate words into pictures, and just show them the images.

Technology is changing everyday, and new means of digital media is being introduced every now and then. Who knows, maybe one day we don't even have paper and pen anymore, no more whiteboards in class, even the projector or visualizer might be gone, replaced with something far more efficient and engaging to make our learning more fun and insightful.

Such as this, 3M digital learning board. I had the chance of using a similar board at The British Council, a language learning center which teachers used such boards to conduct lessons, eliminating the whiteboard and combining a projection screen and an interaction board. Teachers can now open up documents and write on them, at the same time scroll and nagivate around desktop.

It was great fun, using the board and a pen to write on the board, erasing with the same pen, and scrolling around, drawing, clicking...

I do hope to see more of these being used in schools where technology is greatly used, such as SIM!!

Week 3 E-Business

Two years back before entering SIM UB, during a huge break that I have after my A'lvls, my friend and I set up a small blog shop to sell accessories that we made ourselves. It didn't turn out well, as in the end we only got to sell one item...

One main concern that I had was publicity and advertising. There are tonnes of blog shops out there, and what makes me think that people out of the blue will stumble upon this blog and buy things from us? And at that point of time, I did not know anything about advertising online or how to even conduct business over the internet. In the end after a long while, we advertised on two shopping directories online.

As we were planning, I realise that partnership is also important. Collaboration with your partner involves distribution of work, handling money, planning of the website, delivery, getting the products together, and the list just goes on and on.

Another concern that I had was the prices of the goods. There are a lot of shops out there, and the prices that we quote must be able to compete with them. This is a tricky issue as we are selling accessories that are handmade by us, the materials that are used are not cheap if bought in small quantity. Unless if we have a steady business going, there is no point in buying the materials in bulk. Hence our items were priced rather high to cover our cost. However, given that we do not have to pay rental, bills or any other cost to set up the shop, all the more the price needs to convince people that they are buying quality goods and persuade them to buy.

The last concern that I have was our goods. Do we have enough goods to sell, does our quantity and quality of goods show that we are credible and reliable. How do we compete with other people who are setting up similar blog shops and how can our products stand out from theirs?

In the end the shop was left there as it was not profitable, since we only sold one item and we had our own commitments to school. Time is also a factor, whether or not do we have the time to maintain such a business on the fast moving Internet?

Now that i looked back, I realise that the issue was not as simple as it was. Insufficient market research was done to see what consumers wanted. My goods were made according to my style and capabilities. To market our own style takes a different approach than the commercial marketing of goods to make profit. Hence there is a conflict of the nature of the product, and the way of marketing.

Then is the outlets that we used to publicise. Our target audience is young teenagers to women of early twenties. The two directories that we used were not exactly places teenagers would visit to know what kind of shops are there online. We should have used blog advertising, which is going to blogshops online to advertise our own blogshop so that people visiting them would get to know about us.

Then was our own capital. We do not have a start up captial to get our materials, which in the end was our own pocket money, which is very limited.

Also, we limited our payment mode by bank transfer. As we didn't have the expertise with internet credit and eligibility to have our own credit card. Hence it limited our scope to customers who can pay by bank transfer.

Lastly, the problem of our business is that it lacked the foresight. We did not have a clear idea of how long and how big our business is going to be. There was insufficient planning and clear targets of our e-business.

Week 2 Social Media

"social media is a bad idea, rise of social media has caused more and more problems like internet addiction, social isolation, and invasion of privacy, especially with the young generation.. agree?"

The internet creates a virtual space where people are able to do things that they are not able to in real life. I believe the most easiest example we can get now is Second Life's gravity defying avatars. Sure, people are having fun, getting connected with people living across oceans and lands, and enjoying the life 'made-easy'.

But what concerns me most is what problems are being generated with such virtual spaces. People are becoming less and less attached to reality and more absorbed in maintaining their virtual lives. There used to be a time when people would make a phone call and everyone would gather at the mall to chat and have fun. Now, the upcomming trend is to stay at home, and let the computer and internet connect you to your friends and hang out in virtual reality.

To a point I remember my dad saying as he walked pass my room once.

"I bet you can't survive one day without Internet."

That sentence, at that point of time was dismissed by me easily, as I was using the Internet for entertainment purposes such as reading of online manga and watching online anime which happens only once a week. Other than that time, I am just wondering aimlessly in the Internet, but keeping 'real' contact with friends at school.

A few years have passed and I look back at this sentence once again, thinking to myself that it probably don't apply to me, for I can 'survive' days without the Internet, provided I have something constructive to do. But that sentence hold true to many others outside, especially to those who are addicted to the internet, online games and chatrooms.

Take Second Life for example, they have managed to create such a 'real life' virtual space that practically what can be done in real life is repeatable in there, and what CANNOT be done in real life is possible there.

So to many people, here's the question. "Why live life here, when I can live somewhere great elsewhere?"

Having said that, I pose a simple yet puzzling question that has bugged me for some time already.

"Can virtual life completely replace real life?"

I'll bet the answer is no to many, pretty much because your avatars eat virtual food but not you. So all in all we still live in real life. So here's my second question.

"What good does it do, if you lead a glorious virtual life, but your real life is in shabbles?"

Forget those who made millions of dollars, real dollars from virtual reality. I'm talking about ordinary people like you and me. Where is the future for us if our real life is in shabbles despite the glorious virtual life?

Week 1 Introduction to Internet

It is almost impossible to think of today's world without the presence of Internet, as it has became so closely linked to our daily lives, even those who are not directly using Internet, these people have no doubt be indirectly affected by its widespread.

It is originally intended for military uses, but the founders and other pioneers of Internet saw its potential and with the further development of technology and other significant devices such as computer mouse and web did it become an essential part of most of the individuals in society.

The advantages of Internet paint a beautiful picture of how communication, learning and entertainment access can be made easier to people's convenience, such as emails and IMs make communication with people all around the world easier and cheaper, information available though the a search engine at just one click, music and video sharing with ease over a platform...

But as we think of the advantages, there are others who make use of Internet's scope and coverage for their own gains and other crimes. Unhealthy information such as pornography is easily available, hacking of bank accounts and organizations' information, copyright and distribution of unauthorised materials make people think twice whether Internet is really as advantagous as we think.

As these problems become serious, such as personal computers are infected with viruses, trojans and other spyware, people have come up with solutions to help. Virus scanners, firewalls, securities, passwords have gained popularity. Authorities have started monitoring the activities carried out over the internet, addresses being tracked and so on and so forth.

However, even with these measures taken, hackers still get their way, classified information still find it's way out of the safe, money lost and conflicts happen. It is an endless debate whether Internet is helpful or harmful, boon or bane to society. But as the debate goes on, we know well that without Internet, our lives would never be the same.