The Future of the Internet

Given that our world is also being dominated by machines and the Internet, what would it be like 10 years down the road? Would it become more advance or would people begin to withdraw from it? My personal view is that it will just keep getting better but at a huge cost.

Pileus, the Internet Umbrella

Pileus has a large screen on the top surface, a built-in camera, a motion sensor, GPS, and a digital compass. This is such a brilliant invention of bringing the Internet out on the road! This gadget allows people to use Google Earth when they are lost, and take pictures and upload them onto Flickr to share them with friends immediately. To view the photographs they have taken, all they have to do it to snap their wrist.

However, despite all its functions, Pileus is an umbrella, thus people would not use it if the weather is fine. Besides, since most people already own phones that have GPS function, why would anyone carry an umbrella that has Internet access? Some individuals refuse to carry an umbrella out with them because they find it bulky and inconvenient, why would they carry it out with them just for Internet access? Also, it is also very dangerous because individuals using this umbrella would be risking their lives on the roads while taking pictures and finding their way as they have to keep looking up. The invention is good, but it has neglected its practicality and the safety of the users.

The Sixth Sense

This is another terrific but intimidating invention. This video will show you how it works, how it can invade our privacy, and how it can cause the fall of many businesses. For instance, by drawing a watch on your hand, you can see the time, why would anyone want a watch anymore? If you can call a friend using your hand, why would anyone buy a phone? When you see someone on the road and stop to talk to him or her, all your information, as well as his or hers will be revealed on his or her and your shirt. Is this really what we want, to be that transparent?


The Facebook

This social networking website is very popular across the globe now, but would it survive 10 years down the road. I personally believe the answer is no because of the changing needs of human beings and the continuous improvement on the different kinds of gadgets. Moreover, most people use Facebook to either find long-lost friends or to play games, but with so many friends on the list, how many of them can you really maintain a close relationship with? At the end of the day, they are just a number you can show off to the world how popular you are. Also, the games are addictive because there is competition among friends. After a long period of time, some people will drop out off the game realizing that they can never beat those who are always “protecting their crops” and “going around stealing others’ crops”. Without all these challenges, even the player with the highest score would withdraw from the games.

The Internet trend is moving from Web 2.0, a read-write web, toward Web 3.0, which is also known as a semantic web. This advance in the Internet will provide you with more convenience than you ever need, because it can understand you and it acts like a personal assistant. Is this not scary when the person who should know you the best should be your loved ones instead of a machine? The Internet may be a great gift, a great convenience. However, would you sacrifice your relationships with your loved ones for this convenience? Your answer will determine the future of the Internet.

Social networking and Bebo versus Facebook

A social network is a social structure made of individuals or organizations called "nodes," which are connected by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige

The main social networking sites include Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Orkut, and Hi5. The main similarity among these sites is to bring people from all over the world together, to enhance the relationships between people. Ironically, they have also brought people apart as they reduce the amount of face-to-face interaction between individuals. They are very popular because they fulfil Maslow’s third level of hierarchy of needs that is social, the need to feel loved and a sense of belonging. To me, these social networking sites are certainly beneficial for individuals living away from their friends and family and they want to feel connected to them. However, for people who have their close ones around them, these social networking sites might do more harm than good as they bring these people further apart.

Social networking sites can also be dangerous because you are exposing your most private life to people all around the world. Some people might argue that as long as I limit my content to only my friends and people I know, I will be safe. The question is how sure are you that you would not be sold out? If friends decide to share your photos, or worse, edit and share them with strangers, what can you do? And what if the person who claimed to be your friend and even had a picture of your friend as his or her profile picture turns out to be someone else?

Commercial companies can benefit from social networking services via advertisements. However, how beneficial is this idea? People go on Facebook because it is FREE! Who would continue if they have to pay for it? Thus, why would people respond to advertisements on Facebook when they are there to find friends or play games?

Therefore, social networking sites are definitely not useful for business unless you are pushing your goods to individuals whom you know and you have the time to explain the products and services to them.





The social networking website, Bebo, founded in 2005, is an acronym for "Blog early, blog often". Its founders are husband and wife Michael and Xochi Birch. It is available in several languages, such as English, Polish, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian. Like Facebook, Bebo also has profiles that contain a comment section where other users can leave a message, and a list of the user's friends. Basically, the applications in Bebo are somewhat similar to that of Facebook, however, when it comes to games, which I believe is what makes Facebook so popular, Bebo is far away from being successful. Games such as Gangster War and Knight of Honor are not user-friendly, at least to me. Compared to Facebook, Bebo is too BORING!!! And what you can do here is just too limited. Most importantly, I have no friends, using this social networking site.

Bebo does have this application which I kind of like, that is the Bebo’s social inbox. It is a way for us to organize all your messages in one easy-to-use inbox. The Social Inbox features updates from Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and AOL Mail, and media recommendations that deliver us the most relevant online entertainment. However, what is it that Bebo can do that Facebook cannot? Nothing that I can think of.

Also, Facebook allows one to find friends who are not in their email address book, an application that Bebo does not feature, as it only allows one to add friends whom they are ALREADY connected to via mail.

The Internet’s impact on the future of Journalism

As netizens, we are definitely able to feel the changes which the Internet has brought forward to us. The major one, which has the greatest impact on journalism, is convergence. The Internet has encouraged a shift in who creates, distributes, and ultimately owns the news. This phenomenon of convergence can be supported by the emergence of increasing number of online news sources.

Journalism is the profession of reporting, photographing, or editing news stories for one of the media. Traditional journalism includes news and information transmitted via the newspaper, magazine, radio, and television. Citizen journalism, on the other hand, emerged from web 2.0, are news and information provided by citizens, or rather netizens, like us. They can be found on websites, such as YouTube, IReport, Twitter, DigitalJournal.com, and All Voice.

One example of citizen journalism in Singapore is Stomp. Stompers are allowed to post pictures, videos, their views and comments on this particular website. When I viewed this website, I had several thoughts, one of which is that, stomping with personal conscience is not a virtue that every stomper has. For instance, some stompers made the effort to “blur” the faces of the person in the picture, while some intentionally enlarge it to show the public.





Stomp has brought about several advantages and disadvantages:
• Immediate reports of what happened, no delay that may interrupt with what exactly took place
• Serious news, as well as, ridiculous news which professional journalists may not be interested in
o Eg. PSP game so engrossing that this guy forgot to zip up his pants
• Like the traditional journalism, it provides a forum for public criticism and compromise
• Anonymous, thus, there is no obligation to verify and give the truth, or keep the news comprehensive and proportional. Therefore, there is no loyalty to the citizens.
• Practitioners may or may not maintain an independence from those they cover, as they might make use of this medium to divulge a secret of a friend or relative, whom have offended them
• It does strive to make the significant interesting; however, it may not be relevant.





In the near future, I believe there would not be freedom of speech or action anymore because everyone would be restricted as they are afraid of getting on the news for making a wrong comment or a wrong gesture. However, when it comes to reliable news, I believe print is still dominating, because not many people are willing to pay to read news online, and 82 percent of people in New York, with preferred news sites said they would look elsewhere if their favorite site starts demanding payment.

According to Rupert Murdoch, we should “embrace progress!” rather than resist it, to avoid destruction. However, because sometimes “progress” moves too fast for us to catch up, we are unable to decide for ourselves what change to embrace and what not to embrace.

Politics – Do we care?

Politics = darkness, boring, control, government, fights, arguments, backstabbing, etc.

These are words that show how young people view politics, power, and influence of the higher authority. That explains why they are also called the disengaged generation.



Is politics good or bad? Well, I personally believe that it is amoral. Just like money, it depends on the person in control of it. Therefore, voting is important and having good people in the government to lead us is crucial.



Young people these days, including me, feel stressed out easily. Why? Because unlike most affluent and wealthy celebrities and royalties, our circle of influence cannot overcome our circle of concern, thus we are constantly worrying and looking for solutions to problems. The lack of power and the overwhelming concerns are the source of stress.

Therefore, I believe one big reason why young people in Singapore are apathetic toward politics is the fact that, unlike America, we do not have the full freedom of speech. Any comments that we make about the government might put us behind bars. Thus, even while typing this, I am really careful about everything that I say, because this topic is about politics. This lack of power and right to speak up is also a source of stress.

Another reason why youth refuse to engage in politics is due to the difficulty in understanding it. No one would enjoy doing something that they do not understand.



So how do we solve this major problem of getting youth to be interested or even involved in politics? Perhaps parents or teachers can talk more to them about it, BUT using simple terms and not jargons and big political terms that confuse and turn them off even further. For instance, to some people, the destruction of wild life, like politics, has nothing to do with the youth, but why are some of them willing to spend time understanding, protecting, and getting involved in it? Animals are the reason and motivation. Therefore, we need to find a motivation for these young people, to give them a reason to feel a need to understand and be involved in politics.

Alternatively, the Internet may be used as a tool to engage young people in politics. Politicians can set up personal websites, and create accounts like facebook and twitter to get understand the youth first before getting them to understand politics. However, despite all these change, it is still important that whatever is put on the website about politics, it must be simple, if not, no one would read!

Introduction to NewsML and XML

If you think that blog entry is going to be like a CSE 111 written lecture, come on, I do not have so much knowledge about NewsML and XML to give a lecture, but I can give you a rough idea of what they are and how to create them.

What is NewsML?

• An XML format for news content
• Developed by the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC)
• Serves as a media – independent framework for multi-media news

What is XML?

• Extensive Markup Language
• Markup language = a set of words and symbols for describing the identity of pieces of a document
• Improves the functionality of the Web by letting you identify your information in a more accurate, flexible, and adaptable way.
• Extensible because it is not a fixed format like HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
• Metalanguage—a language for describing other languages
(design your own markup languages for different documents)
• Written in SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language)

For example:



This is what you will see on the Internet Explorer:

Tove
Jani
Reminder
Dont't forget me this weekend!


This video will show you how to create an XML document:

Singapore fighting against Cyber Crime and Computer Crime

What is the difference between them?
• Computer crime is also known as “cyber-trespass” that involves acts that attack the functions of a computer and access to a computer or the Internet. For instance, hacking, denying someone access to Internet usage, and sending unsolicited or virus-causing electronic mail.
• On the other hand, cyber crime includes fraud, theft, and extortion using the computer as an instrument of the crime.



What has the Singapore government done in order to counter these two types of crimes?
• Passing of the Computer Misuse Act in 1993 which prohibits:
o obtaining of unauthorized access to computer material
o altering contents of a computer
o intercepting any computer service or function
o obstructing lawful use of a computer
o impeding or preventing access to or impairing the usefulness or effectiveness of any computer program or data
o disclosing a password or access code
4 approaches in combating computer crime in Singapore:
• Pass new legislation that creates crimes where activity warrants it
• Impose severe penalties as punishment and deterrents
• Provide law enforcement agencies with additional powers
• Criminalize abetting and attempting to perpetrate computer crimes

Microsoft Movie Maker (MMM)

This week’s blog exercise include learning how to use Microsoft Movie Maker (MMM), making a simple video and put it up here, and then discuss my experience of video making. Now, before I begin my first attempt to “create a movie”, I must first do what I am best at, that is planning and researching. Here is a video I found on YouTube that teaches you and me, how to make a movie using MMM. This video is long, as it lasts for about nine minutes, but it is cool. It shows us not only the basics but also some special effects. Watch it to find out more.



The three main benefits of MMM:
1. You get to “manually” capture only the parts of the video that you want
• Saves space
2. You get to break up clips that you want to place at different places on your timeline
• Organization
3. You get to trim the ends of clips
• Perfect your video

Now, instead of taking a personal video and showing you my face, I took one of my favorite videos to learn, practise, and show you how easy it is to make a movie, or rather a presentation of your own.



All right, that was my masterpiece, but please, the voice in the video obviously does not belong to me (don’t think I don’t know what you are thinking). Making a video or movie with MMM is not tough at all. I did enjoy it because I have kind of created my own master piece from someone else’s work! It’s not ethical I know, but it is fun! Anyway, I have already acknowledged that THIS VIDEO DOES NOT BELONG TO ME, I merely borrowed it to experiment my movie-making skills. It does not look professional I know, but I guess it is passable for a beginner. Enough of praising myself, hope you guys can learn something from the above two videos and perhaps use these skills on your upcoming project!