In the future, plain blogging will no longer be an assignment for COM 125 courses (If there is still one). At the very least, it will be modified.
In the future, there will be no such thing as typing down and posting your daily events, or even our opinions.
In the future, bloggers will be able to purchase a device, called the iblog, and whatever Microsoft wants to call it.
This device is extremely portable and it can be carried around with bloggers anytime, anywhere and everywhere. It automatic records down and saves any activity the blogger goes through, and even any thoughts or opinions he/she has about a particular issue. All these bloggers have to do is to choose, and of course, censors before putting up a blog post.
In the future, there will definitely be a clearer convergence between blogging, participation, and brainstorming.
If one is dirty minded, it is advisable to set his iblog to the safe mode. This is to save himself from troubles.
And of course, save himself from the penalization of grades by Dr/Mr Abel Choy due to an accidental explicit post. (:
Monday, April 25, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Different forms of communications. (Free Post)
As the saying goes, “It’s not about what you say; it’s about how you say it.”
Non-verbal communication is indeed a powerful way in expressing yourself. As all of us should have known by now that non-verbal communication involves sending a message to the receiver without words conveyed. Have you ever said something stupid to your other half and he/she merely rolled eyes without giving a verbal reply? Or have you ever told a bad lie to your mummy and she raised an eyebrow? Well, these are just typical examples of non-verbal communication which occurs frequently in our lives.
With some thought, I came to realise that non-verbal communication can be categorized into two different forms; intentional and unintentional. Well, which category of non-verbal communications do you think each of the earlier examples fall into? This, I would say is another story. It is psychology, which I do not want to delve into, especially when I am rushing my COMMUNICATION assignment. ): However, this little pondering that I just had did give me another realization; certain types of non-verbal communications can actually fall into both intentional, and unintentional. One of them would definitely be body language. In some circumstances, your body language does truly express your thoughts and feelings. For example, if you are one who is extremely afraid of the supernatural world, you will definitely cringe, or even scream loudly if you see a ghost. This is when body language falls under unintentional non-verbal communications. Such cases usually occur to children, whose adolescence caused them to be more self-centered. They therefore tend to not hide their feelings and whatever usage of body language would most likely be the true interpretation of their thoughts and feelings at that point of time. However, body language does fall into intentional non-verbal communication as one grows older. This is when maturity steps in, which complicates one’s character and thoughts. As one grows older, there will be more circumstances where his/her body language is not a true representation of his thoughts and feelings, as it could act as a tool to achieve certain purposes. For example, when a young man goes to a nightclub, his body language would suddenly become that of an “alpha male”. He may purposely walk at a slower pace or suck in his tummy in order to achieve his purpose; maximize his sex appeal. Such is an example of body language which falls under the category of intentional non-verbal communications.
During this time when different forms of non-verbal communication fill my mind, I suddenly thought of The Morse Code. It is a type of character encoding that transmits telegraphic information using rhythm and it uses a standardized sequence of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a given message. To me, it is a form of non-verbal communication as words are not being used to convey messages. And it definitely falls under intentional non-verbal communication. (You cannot “unintentionally” apply the Morse code?) The Morse code is definitely a very powerful and sophisticated way of communication and it is usually applied to achieve a purpose of huge importance. It is usually used to convey a secret message to another party.
From the movie, “Infernal Affairs”, the mole of the police force actually joined a particular secret society in order to spy on them. However, the method he uses to give out information of the activities of the secret society has to be extremely discreet in order not to put himself at risk. He can’t possibly just take out his cell phone and calls his superior in the police force, especially in the midst of certain dangerous gang activity. Therefore, he uses the Morse code to communicate with his superior and sabotaged the gang in many instances. That came to be very useful in many occasions of the movie. And eventually, not only did he manage to survive in the gang for a long time, he became the right hand man of the gang, trusted by the leader, and earned great respect from his fellow gang members. At 1:26 of the video posted, the Morse code is being used.
P.S. This is an awesome movie! A Must watch. (:
BUT, in the communication notes, it is written that non-verbal communication uses the right brain, while the application of the Morse code involves the left brain. However, again, the Morse code definitely does not involve any words. So is the Morse code non-verbal communication or verbal communication? Or is it neither?
Non-verbal communication is indeed a powerful way in expressing yourself. As all of us should have known by now that non-verbal communication involves sending a message to the receiver without words conveyed. Have you ever said something stupid to your other half and he/she merely rolled eyes without giving a verbal reply? Or have you ever told a bad lie to your mummy and she raised an eyebrow? Well, these are just typical examples of non-verbal communication which occurs frequently in our lives.
With some thought, I came to realise that non-verbal communication can be categorized into two different forms; intentional and unintentional. Well, which category of non-verbal communications do you think each of the earlier examples fall into? This, I would say is another story. It is psychology, which I do not want to delve into, especially when I am rushing my COMMUNICATION assignment. ): However, this little pondering that I just had did give me another realization; certain types of non-verbal communications can actually fall into both intentional, and unintentional. One of them would definitely be body language. In some circumstances, your body language does truly express your thoughts and feelings. For example, if you are one who is extremely afraid of the supernatural world, you will definitely cringe, or even scream loudly if you see a ghost. This is when body language falls under unintentional non-verbal communications. Such cases usually occur to children, whose adolescence caused them to be more self-centered. They therefore tend to not hide their feelings and whatever usage of body language would most likely be the true interpretation of their thoughts and feelings at that point of time. However, body language does fall into intentional non-verbal communication as one grows older. This is when maturity steps in, which complicates one’s character and thoughts. As one grows older, there will be more circumstances where his/her body language is not a true representation of his thoughts and feelings, as it could act as a tool to achieve certain purposes. For example, when a young man goes to a nightclub, his body language would suddenly become that of an “alpha male”. He may purposely walk at a slower pace or suck in his tummy in order to achieve his purpose; maximize his sex appeal. Such is an example of body language which falls under the category of intentional non-verbal communications.
During this time when different forms of non-verbal communication fill my mind, I suddenly thought of The Morse Code. It is a type of character encoding that transmits telegraphic information using rhythm and it uses a standardized sequence of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a given message. To me, it is a form of non-verbal communication as words are not being used to convey messages. And it definitely falls under intentional non-verbal communication. (You cannot “unintentionally” apply the Morse code?) The Morse code is definitely a very powerful and sophisticated way of communication and it is usually applied to achieve a purpose of huge importance. It is usually used to convey a secret message to another party.
From the movie, “Infernal Affairs”, the mole of the police force actually joined a particular secret society in order to spy on them. However, the method he uses to give out information of the activities of the secret society has to be extremely discreet in order not to put himself at risk. He can’t possibly just take out his cell phone and calls his superior in the police force, especially in the midst of certain dangerous gang activity. Therefore, he uses the Morse code to communicate with his superior and sabotaged the gang in many instances. That came to be very useful in many occasions of the movie. And eventually, not only did he manage to survive in the gang for a long time, he became the right hand man of the gang, trusted by the leader, and earned great respect from his fellow gang members. At 1:26 of the video posted, the Morse code is being used.
P.S. This is an awesome movie! A Must watch. (:
BUT, in the communication notes, it is written that non-verbal communication uses the right brain, while the application of the Morse code involves the left brain. However, again, the Morse code definitely does not involve any words. So is the Morse code non-verbal communication or verbal communication? Or is it neither?
Monday, April 11, 2011
Internet and the rise of Obama
Arianna Huffington, editor in chief of The Huffington post once said, “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.”
It is very true. Obama competed with candidates who were seemingly way more promising. Those nominees were of higher social status and power, and of course, not to forget, they were white.
But the significant role of the Internet has indeed greatly aided him in his way to presidency. At the same time, what Arianna Huffington had said also proved Barack Obama to be an expert in this form of media, as it is definitely not as easy as it seemed to be to work with the new media with his level of efficiency. Moreover, it was not as if the other candidates had no access to the Internet.
So, how exactly did Mister President do it?
Well, that you got to ask him yourself! It’s not that I am unable to analyze what and how he had effectively made use of the Internet, but I simply believe that putting it down in words is not enough. In simple words, he was able to reach out to the online community, which consists of many young people, and eventually captured their hearts. Just like how former president John. F. Kennedy did with the television then.
Well, I am able to let you (and myself) have a glimpse of how Obama extensively used the Internet. Not only that he took advantage of YouTube for free advertis let ing, where it was argued that the videos were more effective as viewers chose to watch them themselves instead of having their television shows interrupted, he even started a website called MyWhiteHouse.gov to talk to the citizens.
We all know that he was successful in capturing the attention of voters via the Internet, but do we know how successful? Let me give you a glimpse of that too!
His campaign’s official video on YouTube was watched for 14.5 million hours! (That would have cost $47 million on the TV.)
And of course, he made use of social networking sites as well!
Below is the list showing some facts of how Obama was "all over the place" in social media during his campaign:
• Obama has gained 5 million supporters in third party social networks.
• Obama maintained a profile in more than 15 online communities, including BlackPlanet, a MySpace for African Americans, and Eons, a Facebook for baby boomers.
• On Facebook, where about 3.2 million (during the campaign) signed up as his supporters.
And Facebook users did vote: On Facebook's Election 2008 page, which listed an 800 number to call for voting problems, more than 5.4 million users clicked on an "I Voted" button to let their Facebook friends know that they made it to the polls!
• About 200,000 offline events were planned
• About 400,000 blog posts were written
And more than 35,000 volunteer groups were created - at least 1,000 of them on Feb. 10, 2007, the day Obama announced his candidacy.
Are you impressed now?
You can even go and take a look at the full presentation here
All these facts also showed a substantial amount of efforts by him during his election period too.
Barack Obama on his blackberry during his election period, possibly working out something for his campaign via the Internet.
Last but not least, feel free to take a look at his YouTube channel! And you can go be one of the 202898 subscribers.
It is very true. Obama competed with candidates who were seemingly way more promising. Those nominees were of higher social status and power, and of course, not to forget, they were white.
But the significant role of the Internet has indeed greatly aided him in his way to presidency. At the same time, what Arianna Huffington had said also proved Barack Obama to be an expert in this form of media, as it is definitely not as easy as it seemed to be to work with the new media with his level of efficiency. Moreover, it was not as if the other candidates had no access to the Internet.
So, how exactly did Mister President do it?
Well, that you got to ask him yourself! It’s not that I am unable to analyze what and how he had effectively made use of the Internet, but I simply believe that putting it down in words is not enough. In simple words, he was able to reach out to the online community, which consists of many young people, and eventually captured their hearts. Just like how former president John. F. Kennedy did with the television then.
Well, I am able to let you (and myself) have a glimpse of how Obama extensively used the Internet. Not only that he took advantage of YouTube for free advertis let ing, where it was argued that the videos were more effective as viewers chose to watch them themselves instead of having their television shows interrupted, he even started a website called MyWhiteHouse.gov to talk to the citizens.
We all know that he was successful in capturing the attention of voters via the Internet, but do we know how successful? Let me give you a glimpse of that too!
His campaign’s official video on YouTube was watched for 14.5 million hours! (That would have cost $47 million on the TV.)
And of course, he made use of social networking sites as well!
Below is the list showing some facts of how Obama was "all over the place" in social media during his campaign:
• Obama has gained 5 million supporters in third party social networks.
• Obama maintained a profile in more than 15 online communities, including BlackPlanet, a MySpace for African Americans, and Eons, a Facebook for baby boomers.
• On Facebook, where about 3.2 million (during the campaign) signed up as his supporters.
And Facebook users did vote: On Facebook's Election 2008 page, which listed an 800 number to call for voting problems, more than 5.4 million users clicked on an "I Voted" button to let their Facebook friends know that they made it to the polls!
• About 200,000 offline events were planned
• About 400,000 blog posts were written
And more than 35,000 volunteer groups were created - at least 1,000 of them on Feb. 10, 2007, the day Obama announced his candidacy.
Are you impressed now?
You can even go and take a look at the full presentation here
All these facts also showed a substantial amount of efforts by him during his election period too.
Barack Obama on his blackberry during his election period, possibly working out something for his campaign via the Internet.
Last but not least, feel free to take a look at his YouTube channel! And you can go be one of the 202898 subscribers.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Google: "Let me help you with your running regime!"
Now that I am going to take my reservist IPPT in a month’s time, I am starting to see the need to go running regularly. As I put on my running gear for the first time after god knows how long last week, the ignorance of distance I would be covering came to me as a concern. Without knowing the distance I would be covering between 2 points, I would not be able to accurately gauge my improvements of subsequent trainings.
The first possible solution that came to my mind was to ask a friend who is a professional marathon runner, hoping that he would happen to know the distance between the 2 points that I plan to run.
So I called him up.
“Hey come on dude, how the hell would I know?! You can check it yourself at Google distance calculator though.” was his reply.
I have to admit that I am a mountain turtle when it comes to the virtual technologies. I didn’t know that there was such a thing before that day. But it is never too late to learn I guess.
From then on, I never have a problem in gauging the distance between any 2 points that I plan to carry out my trainings.
Have you guys ever been too ambitious and underestimated the distance between 2 points? The moment you started your run, you realized that it was a huge mistake. You ended up taking a bus home.
I had.
But with Google distance calculator, I can now gauge beforehand whether the distance between a certain 2 points is too far for me to conquer at my current fitness. How awesome is that!
Of course, this is definitely not the sole purpose of Google distance calculator. You can even find out the distance between 2 different cities if you are planning to go on a road trip or a backpacking trip!
I shall not speak too much about it and let you guys explore it on your own. Let me end off by showing you guys a screenshot of an example of my running plan, and of course, provide you guys with the link!
Diseases in the virtual world
We all know that if one practices unprotected sex, he/she may suffer the risk of contracting a disease or virus. That disease may sometimes be fatal, and most of the times extremely difficult to be cured and removed totally from one’s body. However, this does not only happen in the real world!
Watching and downloading sexual content from the Internet to your “unprotected” computer would risk it from contracting diseases from the virtual world too. And similarly, such “diseases”, once contracted, can be extremely difficult to get rid of from your computer as well.
Here’s a video to show you how such viruses can even auto-generate and multiply!
Just like condoms were invented in the real world, anti-virus software act as contraceptives to your computer in the virtual world too. But just like condoms in the real world, again, these software can never provide a 100% protection to your computer against viruses as well.
Now, this question that many of us have always been asking pops out once again!
Why do People Create Computer Viruses then?
Well, there are basically a few main reasons viruses are created.
1) To take control of a computer and use it for specific tasks
2) To generate money
3) To steal sensitive information (credit card numbers, passwords, personal details, data etc.)
4) To prove a point, to prove it can be done, to prove one’s skill or for revenge purposes
5) To cripple a computer or network
It will take forever for me too explain all of these reasons. Hence, I am just going to give a brief explanation of 1) and 3), the more relevant reasons for viruses to be found on pornographic websites.
It is indeed smart of the creators to create these viruses on pornographic websites. They tackle the human’s lustful nature to make sure that a large number of people, or rather computers would become the victim of their viruses, and eventually end up as slaves to their purposes.
To take control of a computer and use it for specific tasks
- This sort of viruses is known as the Trojans and they are one of the most commonly seen around.
- Once being infected, the particular computer becomes a slave to a “master” computer (the virus creator) and may become a scapegoat to perform certain tasks to another rival website so that the “master” computer can remain anonymous.
- The “master” computer can command each of these infected computers to send tiny bits of information to a web server and due to the very fact that there are thousands of computers doing this at the same time, it often overloads the server.
To steal sensitive information
Well, this probably does not need much explanation from me.
It is basically viruses created to detect the traffic going in or out of a computer for interesting or precious information such as passwords or credit card numbers and send it back to the virus creator.
These are basically 2 of the many reasons why viruses are created. If you people are interested in the rest of the reasons, you can go get some...virus!!!
Nah I am just kidding, you can go ahead and click on it! I am serious. (;
Of course, having said all these, there’s just one last similarity that I have spotted between the real world and the virtual world in this particular realm.
Prevention is always better than cure. (:
Friday, March 18, 2011
Congratulations, victim.
“Congratulations Mr Chik!
We are very happy to announce that you are one of the 6 grand-prize winners of our annual lottery draw!
To retrieve your cheque of 850000.00 Pounds, simply reply to the above email to acknowledge!
We look forward to presenting this magnificent reward to you, our valued participant of the draw.
Once again, congratulations to you!”
Does this look rather familiar to any of you?
I was extremely excited when I saw this email that I have received about 1 year ago, and immediately went on to reply to it!
“Oh my God! I thought you are smarter than that Chik!”
“What the heck Chik! Haven’t you heard of the saying that there’s no free lunch? You are so dumb!!”
Yes, yes, I see that coming, people.
But come on! Do you really think that I did not know that such emails are scams?
Is that what you think?
It doesn’t matter what you think! Because I know what I am doing!
Before any of you start to mock at me for being too darn naïve to fall for a scam like this, allow me to continue with this story. (:
But for those of you who are lost, this is probably the best link I have for you.
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/lotteries.php
Well basically, I replied to that email solely for experimentation. We have all heard of stories about how countless “winners” have been scammed by such organizations. Hence, I decided to proceed to experience myself (with caution of course!) to see how this entire system works, and possibly spot some loopholes.
To my surprise, I got an enthusiastic reply almost immediately from them requesting for me fill in certain particulars of myself so that they can verify that I am the true winner, or rather victim. I must say, honestly, that they seemed truly experienced and professional in handling the operation till now. They even stated that I have to reply within 2 working days or else the prize may be forfeited. This tactic would probably urge those skeptical “winners” to decide fast and reply to their email quickly, just in case that they may get busy and forget about it.
Finally, after all the verification work to be done by me, they sent me a final email confirming, and at the same time congratulating me that I am truly their long awaited and anticipated prey. At the same time, they gave me a description of how the parcel will be like just in case of the fact that I am not able to receive it. They even informed me in the email that I would be receiving a call from their company in UK for a final verification.
Now now now, the trap can finally be seen! In that email, they gave me 3 choices of how I want the parcel containing $850000 to be shipped to me.
Option 1: COURIER AIR EXPRESS ( 24 Hours )
£530.95 Pounds ( Equivalent to $1,050 US Dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Option 2: COURIER AIR EXPRESS (2 working days)
£500.95 Pounds ( Equivalent to $992 US Dollars!!!!!!!!)
Option 3 POST OFFICE MAIL (3 working days)
£470.95 Pounds ( Equivalent to $932 US Dollars!!!!!!)
Well, these figures may seem astronomical, but there are really still people around who are ignorant enough to think that such shipping prices are nothing compared to the huge prize money they will be receiving later on. Not. (:
Yes this is the whole point. In my case, they basically aim to tackle my greed and trick me into paying that shipping fee as I anticipate the arrival of the big prize, which will never ever come.
Did I mention that they really did call me? Apparently, this British guy really did so to congratulate me, and of course not forgetting to tell me to make my choice of shipment type fast. He sounded really sincere and willing. (Who wouldn’t if he is trying to get money from you?)
And of course, I took this opportunity to have some fun! :D
Me: “Can you transfer my prize money to my bank account?”
Him: “Oh there’s actually the prize money, as well as other fabulous gifts and vouchers as well. That’s why we need to ship it over in a parcel form for you, sir.”
Me: “Oh I see. Hmm how about that? Forget the gifts and vouchers. I know it’s my loss, but no worries. Just transfer to me the money?”
Him: “Ok sir, we hope that you can understand, but it’s our policy that when we give, we give our best. We want our winners to receive the best. Trust me, Mr Chik, you won’t regret it.” (I’ve got to admit that it’s quite a good answer.)
Me: “Oh wow. Ok in that case, I shall go and select my choice right now and reply to the email. Thank you very much.”
Him: “You are most welcome Mr Chik. Once again, I just want to say congratulations to you.”
Me: “Oh no wait. On another thought, I don’t think I deserve the prize…”
Him: “No, you do Mr Chik…”
Me: “No, I have made up my mind, please donate my prize to the UK National Kidney Federation instead. The patients deserve it more.”
Him (Sounding surprisingly disappointed and worried): “Mr Chik, look…”
Me: “Thank you very much. Goodbye.”
We are very happy to announce that you are one of the 6 grand-prize winners of our annual lottery draw!
To retrieve your cheque of 850000.00 Pounds, simply reply to the above email to acknowledge!
We look forward to presenting this magnificent reward to you, our valued participant of the draw.
Once again, congratulations to you!”
Does this look rather familiar to any of you?
I was extremely excited when I saw this email that I have received about 1 year ago, and immediately went on to reply to it!
“Oh my God! I thought you are smarter than that Chik!”
“What the heck Chik! Haven’t you heard of the saying that there’s no free lunch? You are so dumb!!”
Yes, yes, I see that coming, people.
But come on! Do you really think that I did not know that such emails are scams?
Is that what you think?
It doesn’t matter what you think! Because I know what I am doing!
Before any of you start to mock at me for being too darn naïve to fall for a scam like this, allow me to continue with this story. (:
But for those of you who are lost, this is probably the best link I have for you.
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/lotteries.php
Well basically, I replied to that email solely for experimentation. We have all heard of stories about how countless “winners” have been scammed by such organizations. Hence, I decided to proceed to experience myself (with caution of course!) to see how this entire system works, and possibly spot some loopholes.
To my surprise, I got an enthusiastic reply almost immediately from them requesting for me fill in certain particulars of myself so that they can verify that I am the true winner, or rather victim. I must say, honestly, that they seemed truly experienced and professional in handling the operation till now. They even stated that I have to reply within 2 working days or else the prize may be forfeited. This tactic would probably urge those skeptical “winners” to decide fast and reply to their email quickly, just in case that they may get busy and forget about it.
Finally, after all the verification work to be done by me, they sent me a final email confirming, and at the same time congratulating me that I am truly their long awaited and anticipated prey. At the same time, they gave me a description of how the parcel will be like just in case of the fact that I am not able to receive it. They even informed me in the email that I would be receiving a call from their company in UK for a final verification.
Now now now, the trap can finally be seen! In that email, they gave me 3 choices of how I want the parcel containing $850000 to be shipped to me.
Option 1: COURIER AIR EXPRESS ( 24 Hours )
£530.95 Pounds ( Equivalent to $1,050 US Dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Option 2: COURIER AIR EXPRESS (2 working days)
£500.95 Pounds ( Equivalent to $992 US Dollars!!!!!!!!)
Option 3 POST OFFICE MAIL (3 working days)
£470.95 Pounds ( Equivalent to $932 US Dollars!!!!!!)
Well, these figures may seem astronomical, but there are really still people around who are ignorant enough to think that such shipping prices are nothing compared to the huge prize money they will be receiving later on. Not. (:
Yes this is the whole point. In my case, they basically aim to tackle my greed and trick me into paying that shipping fee as I anticipate the arrival of the big prize, which will never ever come.
Did I mention that they really did call me? Apparently, this British guy really did so to congratulate me, and of course not forgetting to tell me to make my choice of shipment type fast. He sounded really sincere and willing. (Who wouldn’t if he is trying to get money from you?)
And of course, I took this opportunity to have some fun! :D
Me: “Can you transfer my prize money to my bank account?”
Him: “Oh there’s actually the prize money, as well as other fabulous gifts and vouchers as well. That’s why we need to ship it over in a parcel form for you, sir.”
Me: “Oh I see. Hmm how about that? Forget the gifts and vouchers. I know it’s my loss, but no worries. Just transfer to me the money?”
Him: “Ok sir, we hope that you can understand, but it’s our policy that when we give, we give our best. We want our winners to receive the best. Trust me, Mr Chik, you won’t regret it.” (I’ve got to admit that it’s quite a good answer.)
Me: “Oh wow. Ok in that case, I shall go and select my choice right now and reply to the email. Thank you very much.”
Him: “You are most welcome Mr Chik. Once again, I just want to say congratulations to you.”
Me: “Oh no wait. On another thought, I don’t think I deserve the prize…”
Him: “No, you do Mr Chik…”
Me: “No, I have made up my mind, please donate my prize to the UK National Kidney Federation instead. The patients deserve it more.”
Him (Sounding surprisingly disappointed and worried): “Mr Chik, look…”
Me: “Thank you very much. Goodbye.”
My views on Path
Have you guys heard about Path? It’s a personal networking site. Well, those of you in COM 125 class would probably have heard of it!
Being only able to have up to 50 friends as a user, it is indeed an “anti-social” networking site! For people who are not yet aware of Path, you might be thinking that such a site would probably be created by a group of people who are anti-Facebook or something. But no! Path was actually created by Dave Morin, one of Facebook’s early architects. He was the one who helped to build Facebook Connect and the Facebook Platform, but left the company early last year to start his own venture – Path.
Basically, Path is created to allow exclusivity to the close ones of everybody. Since only a maximum of 50 friends is allowed per user, only people who are truly close enough are entitled to fall under his/her friend list in Path. This way, users would be able to openly share photos without being afraid that there would be “people out there” seeing and judging them. Path’s intentions were to allow its users to be themselves and share their lives with their loved ones.
However, I personally do foresee a couple of problems with this personal networking site.
Firstly, just imagine yourself to be a subscriber of Path. One fine day you realized that an old friend of yours had just deleted you from his/ her friends list in Path. How would you feel? You may still see him/her as a close buddy, but it really seem that he/she has got better friends at that point of time. Moreover, it is easy to realize that someone has deleted you. (You only have a maximum of 50 friends.) In such cases, Path amplifies the sad truth, and digs it in.
Everyone has probably faced situations whereby someone whom you deem merely as an acquaintance thinks of you as his best friend. Being the nice person as you are, you just let him be and do not want to declare what you think of him straight in his face. Such cases would very possibly lead to the second point I am going to make about the Path.
Imagine the situation when such a person requests to be in your friends list in Path. As much as you don’t want to hurt his feelings and ego, you already have 47 friends out of the maximum of 50 and you would really want to leave the 3 slots for people who are truly worthy.
How would you want to reject him then?
“Sorry, but I only have 3 slots left and I really do have 3 other very close friends whom I think should take those slots.”
Or
“Oh you are a step too late! 3 friends just asked me before you! Sorry.”
Seriously??
Well, no matter what you say in the example above, it can be bluntly interpreted as “Sorry to tell you, but you are not within by top 50.”
Boohoo, and he walks away. You have just successfully hurt someone’s ego.
Now do you see the fact that Path may really put you in extremely difficult positions?
Last but not least, think again about what Facebook can do for you when it comes to exclusivity. Do you vaguely remember that on the top right hand corner there’s a “account” button, where you can change your settings from who can see your friends list to who can see certain albums of yours.
And oh yes! There’s an option called “custom”.
Being only able to have up to 50 friends as a user, it is indeed an “anti-social” networking site! For people who are not yet aware of Path, you might be thinking that such a site would probably be created by a group of people who are anti-Facebook or something. But no! Path was actually created by Dave Morin, one of Facebook’s early architects. He was the one who helped to build Facebook Connect and the Facebook Platform, but left the company early last year to start his own venture – Path.
Basically, Path is created to allow exclusivity to the close ones of everybody. Since only a maximum of 50 friends is allowed per user, only people who are truly close enough are entitled to fall under his/her friend list in Path. This way, users would be able to openly share photos without being afraid that there would be “people out there” seeing and judging them. Path’s intentions were to allow its users to be themselves and share their lives with their loved ones.
However, I personally do foresee a couple of problems with this personal networking site.
Firstly, just imagine yourself to be a subscriber of Path. One fine day you realized that an old friend of yours had just deleted you from his/ her friends list in Path. How would you feel? You may still see him/her as a close buddy, but it really seem that he/she has got better friends at that point of time. Moreover, it is easy to realize that someone has deleted you. (You only have a maximum of 50 friends.) In such cases, Path amplifies the sad truth, and digs it in.
Everyone has probably faced situations whereby someone whom you deem merely as an acquaintance thinks of you as his best friend. Being the nice person as you are, you just let him be and do not want to declare what you think of him straight in his face. Such cases would very possibly lead to the second point I am going to make about the Path.
Imagine the situation when such a person requests to be in your friends list in Path. As much as you don’t want to hurt his feelings and ego, you already have 47 friends out of the maximum of 50 and you would really want to leave the 3 slots for people who are truly worthy.
How would you want to reject him then?
“Sorry, but I only have 3 slots left and I really do have 3 other very close friends whom I think should take those slots.”
Or
“Oh you are a step too late! 3 friends just asked me before you! Sorry.”
Seriously??
Well, no matter what you say in the example above, it can be bluntly interpreted as “Sorry to tell you, but you are not within by top 50.”
Boohoo, and he walks away. You have just successfully hurt someone’s ego.
Now do you see the fact that Path may really put you in extremely difficult positions?
Last but not least, think again about what Facebook can do for you when it comes to exclusivity. Do you vaguely remember that on the top right hand corner there’s a “account” button, where you can change your settings from who can see your friends list to who can see certain albums of yours.
And oh yes! There’s an option called “custom”.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Is the internet a great teacher?
The Internet has unequivocally become a necessitous element for us in the modern world, and children are not excluded. It is undeniably the most knowledgeable tool in the history of mankind. However, beyond any doubt, it can very well pass off as one ultra powerful teacher of evil.
Where on the Internet would you most likely go to in order to start on most researches, to search for any images, or merely to clear any doubts?
I would go to Google.
Just to proof my point, I went on to ask 10 other random strangers in the library this question as I was writing this entry.
Without any biased prompts from me, 9 out of 10 of them gave the same answer as I did. Except for one who was trying to funny and told me he would go to the library.
Right.
Indeed, there really isn’t many other search engines around which can beat Google for now. Moreover, according to market research published by Comscore in November 2009, Google is the dominant search engine in the world, with a market share of 65.6% in the United States, and 57% in Singapore.
For more information on Google, you can take a look at the following websites:
http://www.gadgetmedia.co.cc/2010/12/google-search-engine.html
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/03/googles-market-share-in-your-country.html
However, just 3 days ago, Google almost made me lose my job.
I am a part-time primary school tutor, and I have this 7 years old Korean boy as one of my tutees. As he had lived in Korea for most of his life, he is not very proficient in his English. I, on the other hand, am not proficient in Korean either. Therefore, what I sometimes did to explain certain vocabularies to him is to type the words on Google images, so that he can see the exact images of them.
Last Wednesday, he asked me what is a babysitter. So, as usual, I used his desktop and typed in the word, “babysitter” on Google images.
And to my horror, almost 50% of the images shown were pornographic!
You guys have to see it yourselves
http://www.google.com.sg/images?hl=en&safe=off&gbv=2&q=babysitter&psj=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=609
Of course, my tutee saw everything. Not for long though, as I quickly clicked on the “x” button. And just a few seconds later, his mother came into the room to pass me a glass of water.
Close, super close!
It was partially my fault though; I did not check if the Google Safesearch was on. But come on, that was definitely still an unpleasant surprise at that time.
More importantly, this experience did not merely come as an unpleasant surprise, but it gave me some thoughts on the possible negative effects of the Internet on children too. Any child can type whatever he or she wants on Google, either for learning, or merely out of curiosity. And they can also be accidentally exposed to extensive pornographic content when they type in key words that seemed to be innocent into a search engine. Moreover, it is probably really common for children to type in names of singers such as Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera as the children’s exposure to their music would probably trigger their curiosity about the celebrities. They would end up seeing more than what they should see. Worse, liking what they saw.
Really, parents should start recognizing the accessibility of the Internet to their children, and of course, the negative effects as well. They should also start coming to a realization of their ignorance and underestimation of the evils of the Internet, as much as it being a powerful source of information.
Parents, it may really be an accident these days if you catch your child sitting in front of the computer screen filled with naked woman.
Where on the Internet would you most likely go to in order to start on most researches, to search for any images, or merely to clear any doubts?
I would go to Google.
Just to proof my point, I went on to ask 10 other random strangers in the library this question as I was writing this entry.
Without any biased prompts from me, 9 out of 10 of them gave the same answer as I did. Except for one who was trying to funny and told me he would go to the library.
Right.
Indeed, there really isn’t many other search engines around which can beat Google for now. Moreover, according to market research published by Comscore in November 2009, Google is the dominant search engine in the world, with a market share of 65.6% in the United States, and 57% in Singapore.
For more information on Google, you can take a look at the following websites:
http://www.gadgetmedia.co.cc/2010/12/google-search-engine.html
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/03/googles-market-share-in-your-country.html
However, just 3 days ago, Google almost made me lose my job.
I am a part-time primary school tutor, and I have this 7 years old Korean boy as one of my tutees. As he had lived in Korea for most of his life, he is not very proficient in his English. I, on the other hand, am not proficient in Korean either. Therefore, what I sometimes did to explain certain vocabularies to him is to type the words on Google images, so that he can see the exact images of them.
Last Wednesday, he asked me what is a babysitter. So, as usual, I used his desktop and typed in the word, “babysitter” on Google images.
And to my horror, almost 50% of the images shown were pornographic!
You guys have to see it yourselves
http://www.google.com.sg/images?hl=en&safe=off&gbv=2&q=babysitter&psj=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=609
Of course, my tutee saw everything. Not for long though, as I quickly clicked on the “x” button. And just a few seconds later, his mother came into the room to pass me a glass of water.
Close, super close!
It was partially my fault though; I did not check if the Google Safesearch was on. But come on, that was definitely still an unpleasant surprise at that time.
More importantly, this experience did not merely come as an unpleasant surprise, but it gave me some thoughts on the possible negative effects of the Internet on children too. Any child can type whatever he or she wants on Google, either for learning, or merely out of curiosity. And they can also be accidentally exposed to extensive pornographic content when they type in key words that seemed to be innocent into a search engine. Moreover, it is probably really common for children to type in names of singers such as Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera as the children’s exposure to their music would probably trigger their curiosity about the celebrities. They would end up seeing more than what they should see. Worse, liking what they saw.
Really, parents should start recognizing the accessibility of the Internet to their children, and of course, the negative effects as well. They should also start coming to a realization of their ignorance and underestimation of the evils of the Internet, as much as it being a powerful source of information.
Parents, it may really be an accident these days if you catch your child sitting in front of the computer screen filled with naked woman.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Interesting IRC
Over the decades, social networking on the internet has undergone very extreme and rapid changes. One of the earlier forms of social network would be none other than the traditional chat rooms – the equivalent “Facebook” or “Twitter” our older friends or cousins used to subscribe to when they were teenagers. One of the classic examples of these chat rooms would be the Internet Relay Chat (IRC). It was extremely popular. Was.
Just like our MSN messenger and Facebook chat now, the IRC was designed to allow real-time, synchronous chats. Users have the option to either engage in group communications, aka channels, or one to one communications via private message.
I personally have had little experience with this classic form of social network, but I did hear a few funny stories from friends and family members who used to be loyal subscribers! Unlike Facebook or even Friendster, the traditional IRC did not have the application for users to put up their photos. Hence, you really do not know how exactly every person in the chat rooms look like. This could be the reason why it was really common for people, especially teenagers, to ask one another in the chat rooms to describe his or her appearance.
Now, this is the amusing part. From what I have heard, it seemed like there were basically only a few criteria for a guy to be deemed as “good-looking” by many Singaporean teenage girls then. So my friend was talking to this girl on IRC a couple of years back, and she asked him if he is good-looking. As usual, he humbly, and partially jokingly said that he looks really ugly. The conversation then continued as shown below (as accurate as what my friend can remember after these years):
Girl: Hmm…ur hairstyle lyk wad one? (Translation: What is your hairstyle?)
Friend: Center parting loh
Girl: Oic…do euux wear specs? (Translation: Oh I see, do you wear spectacles?)
Friend: No leh why?
Girl: Eh lyk dat shld be nort bad wad… whr got ugly? Lolx (;
(Translation: In that case, you shouldn’t look too bad right?)
Friend: HAHA
Me: HAHAHAHAHA
So what were the 2 criteria to be deemed as handsome on IRC?
1) Centre parting hairstyle
2) Does not wear spectacles
The funny thing is that my friend has actually encountered such judgments quite a few times from different people. This really let us see how naïve some users of IRC were at that time. This could very well be one of the reasons why there were cases of teenage girls being cheated into meeting some 40 years old man from the chat rooms. But again, I must also make it clear that the above example is not in any way intended to generalize or insult users of IRC. It is nothing more than a funny story.
Upon writing all these, it suddenly came to me that the story is so amusing only because of the underrated fact that technology has improved so drastically over the years. Unlike in the past, we can now easily see a photo of someone else, and we are so used to it. I realized that I almost could not imagine myself asking someone to describe his/her looks, only because there is no such need now. But again, at that time, how else could one get an idea of the physical appearance of the other party in the chat room other than asking for a verbal description? The girl in the above story could then be very well compared to those today who believe that the “handsome” guy on Facebook is putting up his real photo.
Just like our MSN messenger and Facebook chat now, the IRC was designed to allow real-time, synchronous chats. Users have the option to either engage in group communications, aka channels, or one to one communications via private message.
I personally have had little experience with this classic form of social network, but I did hear a few funny stories from friends and family members who used to be loyal subscribers! Unlike Facebook or even Friendster, the traditional IRC did not have the application for users to put up their photos. Hence, you really do not know how exactly every person in the chat rooms look like. This could be the reason why it was really common for people, especially teenagers, to ask one another in the chat rooms to describe his or her appearance.
Now, this is the amusing part. From what I have heard, it seemed like there were basically only a few criteria for a guy to be deemed as “good-looking” by many Singaporean teenage girls then. So my friend was talking to this girl on IRC a couple of years back, and she asked him if he is good-looking. As usual, he humbly, and partially jokingly said that he looks really ugly. The conversation then continued as shown below (as accurate as what my friend can remember after these years):
Girl: Hmm…ur hairstyle lyk wad one? (Translation: What is your hairstyle?)
Friend: Center parting loh
Girl: Oic…do euux wear specs? (Translation: Oh I see, do you wear spectacles?)
Friend: No leh why?
Girl: Eh lyk dat shld be nort bad wad… whr got ugly? Lolx (;
(Translation: In that case, you shouldn’t look too bad right?)
Friend: HAHA
Me: HAHAHAHAHA
So what were the 2 criteria to be deemed as handsome on IRC?
1) Centre parting hairstyle
2) Does not wear spectacles
The funny thing is that my friend has actually encountered such judgments quite a few times from different people. This really let us see how naïve some users of IRC were at that time. This could very well be one of the reasons why there were cases of teenage girls being cheated into meeting some 40 years old man from the chat rooms. But again, I must also make it clear that the above example is not in any way intended to generalize or insult users of IRC. It is nothing more than a funny story.
Upon writing all these, it suddenly came to me that the story is so amusing only because of the underrated fact that technology has improved so drastically over the years. Unlike in the past, we can now easily see a photo of someone else, and we are so used to it. I realized that I almost could not imagine myself asking someone to describe his/her looks, only because there is no such need now. But again, at that time, how else could one get an idea of the physical appearance of the other party in the chat room other than asking for a verbal description? The girl in the above story could then be very well compared to those today who believe that the “handsome” guy on Facebook is putting up his real photo.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
CMC - with great powers comes greater responsibilities.
Computer mediated communication (CMC) has indeed invaded many different realms of the lives of mankind. Many facets of human activities involve CMC and it has proven itself to be extremely influential and has definitely become an essential to aid us in different ways. One powerful form of CMC that plays a big part in almost every individual’s life today is social networking sites like facebook and twitter. According to a separate report from Compete.com, Facebook has also surpassed Yahoo, as the number two most popular site (behind Google) in the U.S., with nearly 134 million unique visitors in January 2010. In fact, the Compete.com data showed that 11.6% of all time spent online in January was spent on Facebook (compared to 4.25% for Yahoo and 4.1% for Google). Another recent report from the leading technology blog Tech Crunch highlighted the expanding role social sites such as Facebook are playing in sharing widgets and applications. Incorporating data from Gigya, a company that powers widgets on more than 5,000 sites, Tech Crunch found that the distribution of shared items broke down as follows:
Facebook (44%) Twitter (29%) Yahoo (18%) MySpace (9%)
Some people, especially those from the older generation might think that these sites like facebook are merely for basic networking purposes or maybe for people to meet some new friends. Well, I do not blame them for that as it is really forgivable for them to not be very familiar with this form of CMC. But I do have to correct them in thinking that way. In fact, facebook even played a part in influencing the outcome of the 2008 presidential election in the United States of America! It was in January 2007 when Farouk Olu Aregbe, a student government coordinator at the University of Missouri, launched a Facebook group, "One Million Strong for Barack." A year later, the group had signed up half a million "friends" (in Facebook lingo) as Obama supporters.
However, as these social networking sites invade our lives in positive ways, they absolutely do have the potential to create atrociously undesirable effects as well. One of such is the rise of cyber-bullying cases. This is also one type of bullying that many parents of victims (students) do not have much knowledge of, thus underestimating the depressing effects it can cause to the victims.
To read more on this recent article, go to:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6275UG20100309
Cyber-bullying basically consists of 8 types, namely, exclusion, outing, harassment, cyber-stalking, masquerading, flaming, pseudonym and anonymity. All of these can truly result in emotional as well as psychosocial effects on the lives of the victims. And according to psychologist Eric Erikson, whatever challenges or difficulty an individual experiences in each stage of his life would carry over as an extra difficulty in later life if it is not being solved satisfactorily. This may result in those victims not be able to present him/herself as confidently as others in certain situations he/she faces in the future. And in the worst cases, some of those victims had even committed suicide due to the inability to handle the psychological effects from the bullying cases. Some of these cases were even being discussed in the recent Oprah Winfrey show. As you can see, it may truly cause extremely tragic results if nobody actually takes the effort to look into these situations and continue having the complacent thinking that these forms of bullying through CMC can never be as deadly as physical bullying.
The Internet was built on freedom of expression. Yet, society wants someone held accountable when that freedom is abused.
Facebook (44%) Twitter (29%) Yahoo (18%) MySpace (9%)
Some people, especially those from the older generation might think that these sites like facebook are merely for basic networking purposes or maybe for people to meet some new friends. Well, I do not blame them for that as it is really forgivable for them to not be very familiar with this form of CMC. But I do have to correct them in thinking that way. In fact, facebook even played a part in influencing the outcome of the 2008 presidential election in the United States of America! It was in January 2007 when Farouk Olu Aregbe, a student government coordinator at the University of Missouri, launched a Facebook group, "One Million Strong for Barack." A year later, the group had signed up half a million "friends" (in Facebook lingo) as Obama supporters.
However, as these social networking sites invade our lives in positive ways, they absolutely do have the potential to create atrociously undesirable effects as well. One of such is the rise of cyber-bullying cases. This is also one type of bullying that many parents of victims (students) do not have much knowledge of, thus underestimating the depressing effects it can cause to the victims.
To read more on this recent article, go to:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6275UG20100309
Cyber-bullying basically consists of 8 types, namely, exclusion, outing, harassment, cyber-stalking, masquerading, flaming, pseudonym and anonymity. All of these can truly result in emotional as well as psychosocial effects on the lives of the victims. And according to psychologist Eric Erikson, whatever challenges or difficulty an individual experiences in each stage of his life would carry over as an extra difficulty in later life if it is not being solved satisfactorily. This may result in those victims not be able to present him/herself as confidently as others in certain situations he/she faces in the future. And in the worst cases, some of those victims had even committed suicide due to the inability to handle the psychological effects from the bullying cases. Some of these cases were even being discussed in the recent Oprah Winfrey show. As you can see, it may truly cause extremely tragic results if nobody actually takes the effort to look into these situations and continue having the complacent thinking that these forms of bullying through CMC can never be as deadly as physical bullying.
The Internet was built on freedom of expression. Yet, society wants someone held accountable when that freedom is abused.
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