*throws confetti* We're done with the semester!

Source: Tumblr

This is my current mood while writing this finale post with regards to the Internet.

Why? Because it was such an interesting experience learning about the different tools and platforms on the Internet, which I didn't know about or didn't know much about it. 

Throughout the course of this semester, I had also learnt about really going out to look for new and interesting stuff to share on the blog. Well, this includes pictures, videos and gifs of course!

So now I present to you, what we've went through over the course of the past three months!
DISCLAIMER: LONG POST AHEAD since it's a summary...

Week O-N-E: Introduction to the Internet
We began on this journey asking ourselves to look back on our perspective and our experience on the Internet. It's always good to start off learning about something, by first listing down what you had previously known about that "something"

Click the animation to open the full version (via Penny Stocks Lab).

And apparently, I just realised, I had questioned the future of the Internet right from the first post? #foresight #mindblown
But anyways, the introduction to the Internet is probably just a tiny fraction of what you're reading here throughout the thirteen posts! Since it's an introduction, it's more of just letting you see the tip of the iceberg of the Internet, as we continue to dig deeper into what people may not know. 

 
Week T-W-O: Social Media - management tools and platforms

This has got to be one of my favourite aspects of the Internet, it was my favourite but it now turned into "one of my favourites". 

It was one of the aspects of the Internet that I could relate to more, having lived and being brought up in the new generation where social media silently takes over our lives. We probably look at social media updates of our friends, rather than asking them face2face to check on how they are doing at the moment. In this post, we focused mainly on Facebook, which is probably one of the world's greatest social networking site since the Internet age. Facebook may not be as popular as before, but it was definitely one of the few sites which has come a whopping ten years till it's current state.

& did you know, as of today, 99% of their shares amount up to like over $40 billion USD?! #randomfact

As a continuation to the Facebook Mentions example, here's something to cheer your day!

活力星期一！有人小鳥嘴裝瘦哈哈哈

Posted by 范范 范瑋琪 on Sunday, November 29, 2015

Week T-H-R-E-E: Social Media for Business
It is of no surprise that many of us would have more than one social media account, and we only have two hands and a brain to manage them. Here's where social media management tools come in handy!

Not just individuals, but I'm sure many businesses also employ such management tools to help them manage their followers on the various social media accounts. Just taking any music label you know, it could be mandopop labels like Bin Music or H.I.M International, or even Korean top labels like YG and SM Entertainment! How many of them only rely on one social media account? At the very least, they would have a Facebook and a Twitter official account, isn't it?

And if all these are managed properly, you're good to go and establish your business online!

Week F-O-U-R: E-Commerce
Here's where our favourite shopping friends all come together! With the recent 11.11 sales, I think the only one laughing their hearts out is the sellers selling their stuff, and perhaps the founder of Taobao who made it a tradition for a "taobao sale" on this particular day.

The Internet has made it so accessible for us to participate in shopping, at the expense of our allowances! Like you can even get your textbooks from someone else through the Internet! I'm still amazed how I even got my textbook for this semester by randomly searching for the title on Carousell and found it. And the best part? The seller lives in the same area as me! #savetransport #savetime #savemoney

But one word of caution for shopping addicts, seriously don't get so into it, It's going to be hard to come out of this hole which you landed yourself into! The Internet has facilitated the ease of transaction for users around the globe, with Paypal accounts and even "daigou" which acts as a middleman to bring your goods from mainland China to Singapore.

Week F-I-V-E: E-Learning
E-Learning was like our common childhood. Everyone would have used an E-Learning platform throughout their lives. For Singaporeans, it would largely be during our younger schooling years.

Well, the Internet has provided a platform for learning to take place in the virtual world.
This would also facilitate better learning as instructors are also able to add in videos or animated examples to show students how to solve problems step by step rather than issuing a typical "Answer Key". 

You'll never know when will you actually need an e-learning day for emergency cases, and that's where sites like AceLearning come into good use where students can still learn at the comfort of their home, or even look up other sites like Khan Academy to increase their respective knowledge bank.

So maybe, it's time to put away those books and get on the Internet now!

Week S-I-X: Internet tools - making a video
For this week, we looked at creating a video and uploading it on YouTube. But I would say, it was more like exposing myself on the Internet! Creating a video isn't easy to begin with, and it's even worse when you lack the necessary content to make one! But editing the video with all the cool effects and transitions, overlaying images and audio together is yet another fun experience rather than facing your books and notes all day long.

If you're a rookie like me, this is probably how you would feel when creating your own video:

But trust me, the end product will definitely be rewarding, and you'll think of how to make even better videos in the future (though you probably won't have time)

REPOST for Prof! Prof, if you wanna see me in a video, I think there's a solution! I'm featured in here (many thanks Ru Yan haha)If you wanna see what I've filmed, you can refer to the video we did for the group presentation on "How to become a spiderman on the spiderweb!"

Week S-E-V-E-N: Internet Security/Internet tools

We looked at two of Google's cool stuff, Google Moon, and Google Music Timeline. Since we are unable to fly to the moon, not in the near future at least, I guess Google helps you accomplish this by bringing the Moon to you? At least you can go and tell people I've seen this xxxxx place on the Moon before, even though they know that it's from Google, at least you sound one level up from them who didn't bother to explore? And the music timeline is like a database that we can use to reference the various genres in the different era and you can also observe trends!

Also, we need to recognise that with the Internet being so accessible, we are all vulnerable individuals that are prone to virus or server attacks. This puts our personal data at danger, considering how much information do we actually disclose online as part of our personal profiles.

Week E-I-G-H-T: Multimedia

Augmented reality, something that has caught on within recent years, as humans become more and more innovative! Step aside, traditional advertising. Cause the new wave is here, and it's titled Augmented Reality. 

It changes how we view our current world. Augmented reality brings things to life! Everything seems so real, and yet you are able to interact with something that doesn't exist physically but you see them right in front of your eyes!

Gosh, what is this.....!

Week N-I-N-E: Internet & Politics

Politics, mehh. Many years ago, I only knew the ruling party. Five years ago, I knew the ruling and the opposition party contesting in my constituency, in which the opposition won a GRC for the first time? And now, I actually know more than half of the 10 political parties in this election? Maybe I should give myself a reward for knowing so much for something that I'm not tested on.

But has it occurred to you, how the Internet has been taking a domineering role in politics in recent years? Election campaigns spread on social media, rallies livestreamed through the Internet, coolingoffday even applies to postings on the Internet. And one more thing, loads of nonsensical comments on the Internet during the election season.

Week T-E-N: Internet & Journalism

Journalism, double mehh. We've grown out of reading our traditional printed copies of the newspapers nowadays. News on the Internet can be comparable to traditional print news to a certain extent. It is definitely more timely, yet able to to have the same extensive coverage and it keeps one up to date with the things happening in the world rather than waiting for the papers to arrive every morning. However, we also should beware of the rise of citizen journalism, where everyone can be a journalist and write their own articles.

With citizens being able to publish news at the swipe of their mobile devices, many of them often slip into the "currency mentality" and publish content without verifying information from another party/source. While this is more evident in politics, this doesn't mean that untruths can be reported in other aspects as well!

Maybe, Haru is writing a feature about her rapper Dad?

Source: Tumblr

Week E-L-E-V-E-N: Internet & InnovationOnce again, we start asking ourselves what does the future of Internet holds for us, what new innovations have surfaced on the Internet that we may not have known! We looked at KICKSTARTER, a rather new crowdfunding platform that extends to Internet users worldwide.

It's a platform where your ideas have a chance, to become reality! Well, I said a chance...
But first and foremost you must have a project, then deadlines, then a minimum funding goal, then the different categories of pledging with their benefits, then share on whatever accounts you have on the Internet to pull people in to your project!

And then you look at successful innovators who may be damn young and start thinking:
"now what was I doing when I was his/her age...."

Week T-W-E-L-V-E: The future of the InternetSo we've finally reached the end and once again try to envision our future of the Internet. We've already walked through Web 1.0 quite some time ago, and then Web 2.0, and we're probably walking towards 3.0 now! The Internet of Things, a new world that awaits us, with more intelligent technologies, more codification of meanings with the semantic web.

We also looked at RFID, one old technology that I discovered two years back when attending a concert which had lightsticks that could change colour all at the same time. 

This is like another level of RFID being used here, word formations ohmygod.

Perhaps there is much more for us to discover about the Internet, and we can't really say for sure what we think the future of the Internet will be. For the world is always changing, the people are always coming up with new ideas, and we are open to new ideas and innovations as well.

Just had to share this cool stuff that may or may not replace WiFi in the future..

And that's all I have for you! It's been sucha wild ride posting about the Internet, till the extent that I'm taking forever to churn this summary post even!

But yes, the Internet remains a web for us to reach out to, and for us to become like spiders mastering the web that we are all tangled into?

Till we meet again next time!

The Future of Internet - Are we ready?

Internet. Internet. Internet.
We've sure come a long way, from Web 1.0 to 2.0 and I think we're already headed towards 3.0?

So what's Web 3.0?

The Internet of Things, but what exactly is it?

Let's do a tiny little recap, Web 1.0 is 'read-only', Web 2.0 is 'collaboration' and 'content sharing'.
Web 3.0 is like another level higher, with semantic Web technologies.

Imagine your fridge talking to you the moment you step into the kitchen, asking for what you want to eat!

Imagine receiving a text regarding the latest offers in the shopping mall that you are currently at! How cool is that! It even saves you the hassle from searching it on Google!

As the Internet becomes more intelligent, more connected and open, it will become another life-changer, just like when the Internet rose to its current state.

To be honest, I have no idea what will the future of Internet be, other than one fact that humans might become more lazy and observant to our surroundings. We rely on our devices so much nowadays, if we were to even rely almost completely on what we call our “smart" technology, the ones getting more dumb would be us, humans.

One of the definition of the Internet of Things states that:

By embedding short-range mobile transceivers into a wide array of additional gadgets and everyday items, enabling new forms of communication between people and things, and between things themselves.

And this is most evident in the Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID)

RFID is the wireless use of electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects. The tags contain electronically stored information. 

I'm sure all of you would have been in contact with such tags before! As I was enlightened, these tags are really, really common, like the part where you scan your library books also has an RFID tag. Though that wouldn't really fulfil the definition above.
I've experienced one that enable communication between themselves, low and behold for....
the changing colour lightsticks.

Seeeeeeeeeee! It's so awesome! Such cool technology being applied here

From what I know, the lightstick contains the RFID tag, and it is controlled by the production crew.

1. The production crew sets a fixed frequency for a specified colour
2. The colour comes on, altogether, when the crew sets it to that particular frequency. This is why the whole arena changes colour instantly, WITHOUT the control of the fans.
(Although some remains the default blue, either because of defect or counterfeit issues apparently)

I own one of these lightsticks, and that really kept me intrigued till the point I even went to look up about it and realized it had to do with RFID. Here's what experts have to say about it (Can't find a video that demonstrates and explains this in English, so I shall make do with Taiwan news coverage!)

Though this isn't in English, it's basically what I've mentioned above!

Perhaps this isn't quite related to the Internet, but it definitely counts as one the the developments of technology that lays the foundation for the Internet of Things. One day, we might find ourselves going to shopping malls where the goods will start talking to you! Maybe we don't need promoters anymore (Ohgosh, job retrenchment coming up?)

I can't help but feel a tinge of negativity about embracing IoT though, it's like humans trying to be smart with all these new technologies, but in fact we might be the ones getting more dumb? 

And it will be quite overwhelming if the products all came after one customer, then the next one walks in then you'll hear the overcrowding of voices again and again?

As innovation progresses, managing these innovations is crucial and a challenging process for governments. There's so many potential implications out there, threats waiting to unfold. Well, if goods can talk to you, I believe people can make use of such technology to do evil too, or spread hoax messages, and create a state of panic.

Coupled with the recent events happening around the world, even if we are a small little dot on the map, the lack of collaboration and governance will have terrible consequences. Perhaps the fact that we are small, makes us even more vulnerable to the many challenges of IoT such as tracking each and everyone of you down 

So, do you want your future of the Internet to be like this:

Maybe it's really time to think about the future of our Internet.....

How do we convince users that the IoT technology is able to protect their data and privacy? How can we ensure that users are safe? 

What is OUR future of the Internet? Are we ready to accept it? 

I think. I create. I INNOVATE.

So... what is the future of the Internet?

Hmm, not quite.
Throughout the past few months, we have been looking at the "humble" beginnings of the Internet, to what we now can picture as a "spiderweb" where everything is connected on the web.

But what exactly defines the future of the Internet?

The dominance of Google, our all-time best friend?
The striking back of Microsoft with their cloud technology?
or The continual expansion of Apple?
or.... the rise of new competitors in the market?

Because talking about this big three competitors is too mainstream, I'm gonna talk about something relatively new -  KICKSTARTER

Err... that wasn't what I meant, but the kick is the gist of it.

I guess we're all familiar with the term "crowdfunding", we've probably seen so many of these crowdfunding campaigns, or might have even participated in them!

There are many ideas in this world, some have surfaced, some have not. Why have they not been developed into real-world innovations you might ask, and the common answer will be: 

Not Enough Funds

Not everyone starts off lucky with a pot of gold in their houses, not all people are backed up by the big companies like Apple, Microsoft or Google. But this does not mean we undermine these innovations and let them exist only in the dream bubbles of those who may be life-changers with their innovations.

Kickstarter was founded in April 2009, and till date.....

They have 96647 successfully funded projects, and over $2 billion dollars pledged to kickstarter projects.
At this point I must say, I'm really impressed. Well this couldn't have been done without the vast online community anyways, considering it is accessible on a global scale.

It's easy to start a kickstarter project, it can be anything. A brief glance on the website will find you cubes made from recycled plastic trash, to a local project called the SmartEgg (omg this is so cool, but I can't even afford to fund myself, oops sorry!)

But you get the drift. Innovations like these are being heard on such platform, and this basically draws in potential investors or customers who are willing to pay for the product beforehand. There are different levels of pledging, with varying amounts and varying products to be given.

Then you'll be like, so how do these platforms even survive, like it is just a website.
After so many weeks, there is one key thing that cannot be unseen, which is the rise of social media, and the power of the Internet.

Bad things, spread fast. Good ideas, spread fast too. Everything is just a click away, you're just one "Share" button away from expanding the reach of the project that you are supporting, or one that you might be the creator himself!

Here's what CNET has to say about the power of social media for Kickstarter:

Social media is a startup's best friend
Social media shares can be the difference between Kickstarter success and failure. The firm found that funded projects received 250 percent more shares than unfunded ones, with most of the activity occurring on Facebook. Dance, photography, art, food and fashion projects all did particularly well on Facebook, while comics, theatre and craft projects found followers on Twitter.
A key to shareability, the report says, is a well-produced video, such as the one game console Ouya used to help raise over $8.5 million, or a simple and stylish infographic.

I think everything has to work hand in hand, to make ideas work, to make ideas come to life and become part of our reality. 

You can start your own project too! (But whether your idea will be well received and supported by the public, is another issue altogether.....)
Here's how you can go about it!

1. First and foremost, you definitely must have a project in mind, perhaps a well-thought out one so that it is more convincing? On the whole, projects that are greatly funded tend to reflect enormous research and quite a bit of hard selling which works. But the project can range from anything, really. Like funding for a theatre production, a new product, a new game! 

2. Set a project deadline (just like all projects do) and a minimum funding goal (In life, a goal is a must #thinkingdeep) I guess if you just wanna try things out, maybe you could start small, though it is dependent on the cost of your project if it were to be transformed into reality.
Note that if the funds collected fall below the minimum goal that you've set, no funds will be collected from your potential customers/investors. Which kinda means, you really have to pull people to your product, and eventually give the finished product to them who have supported you.

3. There are different categories of pledging (as what I've mentioned previously)
Taking the Singaporean lingo, it is just: You pay for what you get.
Obviously you will give your big investors more benefits than those who just pledge probably one-tenth of the amount that the investors pledged? You definitely want to impress your potential customers more by throwing in more stuff for contributing more to your project, isn't it!

And then once you're done with these three steps,
don't forget. THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA, (& maybe whatsapp, & maybe the traditional word of mouth too)

Don't forget to share them on whatever social media platforms that you have, or maybe post them to groups with related stuff, to get the attention of people who might jolly well be your potential customers!

Then, you can just sit back, but consistently "promote" your project to ensure that you get the funds, and perhaps start thinking about how to actually get the product out onto the market, to your customers when the funding has reached its goal. After all, this is a legitimate business, and you pay for what you get. When you don't, especially in Singapore, trust me, things will turn ugly....

So that's all I have for you today about innovations on the Internet!

See you next week, for we're wrapping up the future of the Internet very soon!

Mothership is the new straitstimes.... say whaaaaaaaat?

Before we get down to the YAY and NAY of citizen journalism, I would like to share something from the lecture about journalism.

We were introduced to "The Elements of Journalism" by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosensteil,

which so happens to be our prescribed textbook for those taking Journalism this semester.
Allow me to share some important things that a journalist should note:

As a journalist, your first obligation is to the TRUTH 

Journalistic truth is a process that begins with the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts. Then journalists try to convey a fair and reliable account of their meaning, valid for not but subject to further investigation.

and then you ask yourself, 

DO YOU SEE THIS HAPPENING IN THE NEWS WORLD AROUND US?

Since there are huge displays of STAR WARS at our very own Changi Airport...

How often do you even see yourself reading a news article without exclaiming: "Oh gosh this is just nonsense! This is so biased! This is obviously not true!"

But there you have it, all there, commonly found in our local newspapers, especially The Straits Times (the number one mouthpiece). To be honest, the interesting bits come in the comments section rather than the articles itself (especially when it is associated with politics, its like a keyboard war evolving)

So, are we really controlled by the media that feeds us information? Under the influence of the government body, with regulations of various broadcasting and publishing acts?
Not quite.

In this new age, we are allowed to look for our own information or even write information.
I present to you MOJO.

Wait... did you say mojo....jojo?

No, not him.
MOJO = Mobile Journalists, where people can publish new articles on-the-go with their mobile devices. I guess all you need is just the Internet, isn't it.

And because it is so easy to publish stuff from our phones nowadays, everyone can be a writer on their own, giving rise to....

Citizen Journalism aka. not mainstream media

And one widely read example would be......

It would come off as no surprise that people are actually turning to sites like Mothership, The Middle Ground for news. I wouldn't say that our mainstream media is really THAT terrible, but these sites are more fun and balanced to read!

Like you'll get things like this:

12 moderately cheem and atas foreign phrases S'poreans don't use because we have Singlish
November 11, 2015
Because Singlish is the most shiok to the ears and the heart.
Source: Mothership.sg

It isn't exactly a "news" news article to gain information about the world, but it is still information that you would be interest, and would benefit from read. So much more fun reading things like these as compared to typical news! Although you may spot uncanny resemblances to the comments you see on TST or CNA's facebook postings, like the one below:

What it means in English: Committing suicide

How we make do with Singlish: Khaw Boon Wan-ed
Source: Mothership.sg

(To be honest, I learnt about the Singlish association before actually knowing of the word in English)

Sites like mothership provides a platform to talk about anything and everything. The good, the not so good, the bad, the horrible. And they did a pretty good coverage on the recent General Election in Singapore in September, everything was just.... so on point.  (They have a tab titled "#GE2015" on their website you can go look at them!)

And the articles are rather neutral as compared to *ahem*
Politics and Journalism has to go together, they're tied to each other for life.
So here's one rather informative article about the reasons why the "strongest" opposition party lost in the polls, retaining only one GRC and one SMC with significantly less votes from last time.

Seems like a serious article? Don't worry there's so much more on the site! BECAUSE EVERYONE IS A CREATOR OF NEWS. 

And we have articles that capture funny moments during the entire election period

Poor reporter is tired from covering the news, mind you this is at like 1,2am in the morning?

Nonetheless, one of the epic moments from the elections.

Forget about elections.
Talk about common things. And see how different are they being reported in mainstream media and citizen journalism sites.

For instance, the closure of the last HMV store in Singapore. 

HMV to close last remaining Singapore outlet in Marina Square; plans future new store
Source: The Straits Times 

Versus this:

Goodbye HMV, it was nice knowing you.
Source: Mothership.sg

I think you probably know which one will you read first if you had a choice (and you definitely do in this new age)

So is citizen journalism really a good thing?
I mean like, even mainstream media are incorporating citizen journalism into their news, just check out their letters in the forum section will you? But at this point in time, I would like to alert you to one super ridiculous letter published on The Straits Times website on the 19th of November.

In the letter, the concerned citizen wrote about how dangerous it was for a woman to be sewing on a MRT train. And the fact that The Straits Times actually published it (though not on print but only on web) it speaks a lot about the level of professionalism they are allowing on their side. Once again, the comments are evoking laughter with their imitation of this article with their own spins.

For instance: 

Recently, i came across a schoolgirl laughing with an open mouth in the train. And i thought this was very dangerous. The train lurch sometimes and if she is laughing at a commuter in the direction of the lurch, she could be propelled towards the commuter and sink her teeth into his neck, this may cause extreme bleeding and waste all that blood, which unless if she is from twilight, that would be fine, but nevertheless that might cause bloody mess and inconvenience to the other commuters.
By the way, is there a button where i can eject people out the train if it is always too full?- Rei Poh

I guess it's up to you to decide what you should be reading, and what you should be WRITING as well. Never write for the sake of a slownewsday or nonewsday. Verify your facts, make sure it has some news value before even attempting to create your story.
The eight news values are: Impact, Timeliness, Unusual, Proximity, Conflict, Prominence, Currency, Necessity.

Don't say citizen journalism sites only bring out the worst of people not covered in mainstream media, for they are not the mouthpiece of the national body. Sometimes, the best of the opposing voices are clearly shown here.

Remember last week I ended off with a video with M.Ravi making a blunder, he made up for it here:

"7 moments of GE2015 that made us go HAHAHAHA, what the?"- Mothership.sg

Pursuant to the Parliamentary ... Oh wait, GE isn't over?

Remember the last time you heard this:

Pursuant to Section 49, Subsection 7E, Paragraph A of the Parliamentary Elections Act, I declare...

Remember the monotonous returning officer Yam Ah Mee?
And here it is on the Internet... Wait for it...

Clearly the best of GE2011, considering how I wasn't that interested in politics then.

But here we are in 2015, with the most recent election held on September 11.
And we have a new returning officer, which rose to fame similarly on the Internet almost immediately when people noticed the uncanny resemblance to...

So much for K-variety influence! 

After so long, you would have realised how EASY it is to get something up on the Internet! Be it something good, bad, or even the littlest things like the above that get us amused. 

With the Internet being so easily available to us in this age, I think that politicians are like tightrope walkers on the Internet, where every action must be conscientiously deliberated.

Just one wrong move, can lead them into the dungeons even before polling day comes.

And we have one not-very-fine example in this very election of our own.

Here's some background:
Macpherson SMC, three-cornered fight between WP, NSP, PAP
What happened: NSP candidate Mr C said during an interview that PAP candidate Ms T had just became a mother, and her being a mother is a weakness. He explained that if voters choose her, she might focus more on her child than on her voters.
Source: Tin Pei Ling's new status as a mum is a weakness: Cheo

Hah. Seems like normal political rivalry in action right? Guess you were utterly wrong. This didn't just take aim at the PAP candidate herself, but many others (especially working mothers) felt offended to have their status of a mother and an working adult labelled as a weakness.

Ms T had also took it to social media Facebook to post her response to his insensitive comments.

Last night, Mr Cheo Chai Chen in his rally speech said my new status as a mum is a weakness (see below). I disagree.
I am committed to MacPherson. I returned to work soon after delivery (two weeks to be more exact) because I want to continue to serve. I am confident that even as a mum I can continue to focus on my work in MacPherson.

Many comments poured in from the public, and that probably lost quite a number of votes for the man who was running for election, to represent the people.
I guess people would not want their representative to be one who downplays a particular group of people who are part of the community nonetheless?

And to make things worse, he later clarified that it was a JOKE, not meant to be taken seriously.

In my mind it ran: what is he trying to say now? True enough, his words were copied and pasted all over the Internet, like the spreading of wildfires just that we're not in Australia hmmm....

I think this makes the Internet look like a pretty dark place to be in if you're involved in politics right, but there are successful examples as well!

During the campaigning period, many candidates (from the various parties) made use of social media to engage with their voters, updating their whereabouts, updating about their plans for the community etc.Through engaging in social media through the Internet, the candidates are able to rope in volunteers to help out physically, or provide keyboard warrior support for the party or the candidate in particular. We also see people sharing the posts, and even seeing loads of wefies of the candidates with a bunch a people who are just like you and me!

The Internet is also a good platform to listen to voices of the ground, regardless of it being positive of negative (which seems to be the case, in this most recent election at the very least).

However, candidates ought to know one thing.

I know right, keyboard warriors are deceiving.

Though I didn't get to vote this time round, one of the most watched constituency this election - Aljunied GRC, I saw the unfolding of issues on the Internet right before me.

Like... the AHPETC issue, the many many analogies used in response to X to Y and to Z, widely circulated on the Internet.

Yes, it might have sparked my interest in politics for once.
I was a little interested in the last election but back then I only knew my own GRC well (cause it was the topic of the town, and it STILL IS.)
This time round I found myself following the news as if I was voting everywhere hahaha! (Then the irony comes that I can't even vote in my own area)

But no, the Internet can also bring negative impacts to politics when it is in excess use. I'm serious.
When you see like day after day, reading postings about the AHPETC issue again and again (albeit it is a main thing to talk about and pull votes), it gets tiring.

And nearing polling day, I was gradually turning to the "I don't care about this anymore, I want to know the final conclusion but meanwhile this is getting a little too much" attitude.

And the last thing that you want people to see on the Internet, while looking up for your campaigns is this:

It's only nomination day, chill yo! But before you know it, everything it up on the internet, at your disadvantage.

Next week, I'll be sharing some stuff about internet and journalism!
Till then, please be wary of the things you write on the Internet! The digital footprints are here to stay!

Augmented Reality: The Future that unfolds.

So, let's get started about the topic in question: Augmented Reality.

Let me share with you all what was my first reactions towards this term Augmented Reality:

I had learnt the term "augmented" few years back when I was still taking piano lessons which had the theory component as well.

+

What I hear about augmented reality, is that it's a money generator!

So here was I wondering, so how in the world do you make money based on just these "beansprouts" that make music!

BOOM! I was obviously wrong!

[Augmented reality is] an enhanced version of reality created by the use of technology to overlay digital information on an image of something being viewed through a device (as a smartphone camera)

And so I thought such cool stuffs can only been seen overseas, like Layar wasn't a Singapore thing, nor was the Oculus Rift.

But then I ran a search on google (as always, it's our best friend!) and found some really cool stuff done IN SINGAPORE (#SG50, kidding)

In order of coolness:
1. Tiger Beer (Nope, this isn't rated)

I would say this isn't that interactive and cool, considering theres a limit of what you can do other than being amazed and taking pictures (while seeing thought bubbles pop out)!
But, I DIDN'T KNOW DHOBY GHAUT HAD SUCH STUFF two years ago!
Imagine if the wall was on the one nearer to the travellator hahaha! I think many of them would be going against the flow of the travellator to play with the wall, disrupting traffic haha!

So next up, we have a business plan presented through augmented reality!
And I checked the upload date, five years ago!

2. SingTel 

The quality of the video isn't that great, possibly due to the technology back then being not so well-developed. Nonetheless, it seemed like

This is a classic by the way. MAGIC!

So yeah, it's unbelievable how such cool stuff were already used in Singapore five years ago and even used to promote a business proposal about cloud computing! Futuristic at its finest!

It makes imagination and perception so much easier when you have augmented reality presented right in front of your eyes!

And so.... topping the list of coolness and unbelievable-ness (if such word actually exists) would be this!

3. Augmented Reality Winter Wonderland at Marina Square.

Ohwait, did you just say... Marina Square?

The one that went on news because of having rats in their buffet trays? (Well, thats not augmented reality, that IS reality)

So yes, you heard me right!
Two years ago, Marina Square became a place for shoppers to explore, to put themselves into the wonderland of Santa and polar bears through the various spots in the mall with augmented reality fixtures.

Just look at the polar bears omg!

Why didn't we know this earlier! (Oh but back then I was having national examinations I doubt I would be there)
But on hindsight, it's great that malls are even adopting AR to attract the crowd to the malls, and leaving shoppers with wonderful memories!

So.... Singapore isn't that backward after all?

After learning and looking at so many examples, here are some important points:
1. Augmented Reality is not just about generating revenue
With it being something relatively new, it gets the attention and interests of the general public and at the same time advertisers would be looking out for these technology to make their businesses develop and progress to the next level.

2. Augmented Reality is the future you imagine it to be
You have the choice to manipulate what's on your device! Up to your own understand, your own exploration, your very own adventures! Though it might have a standard set of scenes to put yourself into, whatever you do with what you are presented it entirely your own choice and have differing outcomes from individual to individual!

3. Augmented Reality changes how we live
This is probably a downside, as we are already being very much connected with our devices at this point in time. As we continue to explore augmented reality, we rely even more on our devices. Just look at Layar, you need a phone, an app, for you to play around with what you see in front of you. That's gonna make us even more glued to our screens though!


Sidenote: even our HDB is keeping up with the times!
Check this out: HDB App reality feature

See you next week as we talk about more about the Internet!

Is the Internet really safe?

Hi there, after a two weeks hiatus, I’m back with a double dose of information!

This week, we’re gonna explore two interesting things, Internet Tools and Internet Security.

So, throughout my years living in the Internet world, I always thought that Google was a big umbrella is able to do everything and anything for us, something like… THIS:

Source: http://innov8tiv.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/alphabet.jpg

And I thought it was a “what you see is what you get” thing, and that there was nothing else created by Google other than the ones we see above (in which I took some time to recognise some the icons also...)

But low and behold, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
There’s a long list of tools that Google came up with over the years, some sunk to the bottom of the seabed and ‘retired’, some still floating along with not much recognition, and the ones we see above are those who are soaring and surviving in this era.

This week, we shall look into a few cool Internet tools from Google, that went very much unnoticed (at least for me) over the years.

Presenting to you, 

1. Google Moon
   
   Okay we all probably heard of Google Earth, Google Street View and what not. But, GOOGLE MOON?! Like seriously?
   Basically, it works just the same as Google Earth, where you can just observe the Moon from where you are, with a click of your mouse! Check out some of the images!
   
   
   
   On the ‘interactive’ map, albeit not as fully developed as Google Earth, it is supplemented with information about the various missions by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the moon, like the Apollo 11 as shown above.
   
   
   And of course, you wouldn't want to miss out snippets of information that happened before we were even born!
   
   
   
   See? The craters! And each point has some pretty cool stories to tell, provided by NASA.
   Think this would be a good place to explore virtually, even if you’re not done exploring Google Earth.
   
   
2. Google Music Timeline
   
   Being a music lover, sometimes I find it hard to keep track about the year certain albums were released. One thing good about this, is that you get to see a visual map of the different genres of music spanning across the years from 1950 till date! Each stripe on the graph represents a genre, and the thickness tells us the estimated popularity of that particular genre in that particular year.
   Like wow. 
   
   
   
   It isn't extensive, however. The list is solely based on music from Google Music, which means if your music isn't uploaded on that platform, chances are it would not be featured on this timeline map. Which to put it simply, people won't know what you're doing if your music isn't there!
   Nonetheless, it's a great map for you to explore the various genres, singers, and music that you probably have never come across in your life.
   When you don't know where's a good place to get started in music, here's the place to go!
   
   
   
3. And so, while looking at this music timeline, I found something even better!
   A DIGITAL ATTACK MAP!
   Yes, you heard me right. But first, do you think your Internet is really safe?
   

Source: http://www.trendmicro.co.uk/infographics/are-you-safe-online/

The Internet has integrated itself into our lives, and we perform a myriad of tasks on the internet, from the most trivial like chatting with friends, to the more confidential like performing bank transactions. How sure are we that the information we share through the Internet is safe, and not lying in the hands of others?

Even as we live in a safe country here in Singapore, things might be happening right now as you’re reading this post.

See? Our small little SG also has some form of digital attack going on.

The site is part of a Google Research group that explores how to make data accessible to the public visually for our own usage.
Apart from the map, useful information about Distributed Denial of Service, and preventive measures against attacks are also found on the website, serving as a informative guide for readers to learn from, to protect themselves on the Internet.

Here’s some information that I learnt from it and thought it would be good to share!
1. There are four types of attack, mainly Transmission Control Protocol Connection, Volumetric, Fragmentation, and Application attacks.

2. There are two ways in which the attacks can be amplified (which I found rather interesting)

The first method is through DNS reflection, where the attacker can send a small request to the DNS server, before sending an amplified volume to the victim, leaving the victim overwhelmed.
The next method is through Chargen reflection, which involves the reply of steady stream of random characters using an outdated testing service, Chargen.

See, how easy it is to fall victim to DDoS attacks? 

I guess we all learnt some important lessons in class and through our own exploration, especially the fact that we think we are good in our own world, when there’s so much more happening beyond us!

The moon, the music timeline, and the digital attack was certainly a great exploration I found for this week! Perhaps you could find more interesting Internet tools out there and explore it too!

Stay tuned for more next week!

Ohmygosh, a video?!

Honestly speaking, I ain't a fan of getting myself in the screen, be it a video or a photo.
(Sorry prof, I'm not that keen of doing a video with myself in it)
EDIT: Prof, if you wanna see me in a video, I think there's a solution! I'm featured in here (many thanks ruyan haha)
If you wanna see what I've filmed, you can refer to the video we did for the group presentation on How to become a spiderman on the spiderweb!

But still, I enjoy taking photographs and capturing moments that I'm able to keep for the longest time (unless I choose to delete them).

Having took up photography as a CCA in my days in Junior College, photography became very much a part of me, in which I eventually got a DSLR of my own (though its lying in the dry cabinet for a long time now)

I've tried taking videos using it before, but I didn't quite like the outcome of it, and sometimes I accidentally got rid of them.

And so to upload a video?

(Don't laugh)

Here's the first video I've uploaded on YouTube (on my friend's account)....

I'm quite shocked that the animation was kinda on point with the soundtrack!

I did this for a Design & Technology project.. umm 6 years ago?

Here's what the car actually looked like...

#reality #nofilter

Moving on to the video of the year 2015, after a 6 year long hiatus!
It's gonna be a compilation of some of the events that I went to "look see look see" (like a typical Singaporean), mostly on mandpop singers (album showcases and paid concerts)

I decided to add videos from external sources to make it look more like a video, but the photographs are definitely original!
So here goes!

It was definitely not an easy task, as I've never done a proper video in years. (Yes, I said years.)
This isn't quite a proper video, but I guess I had some fun trying to choose the photos and the videos to put them together and overlaying the audio and stuff!

It was fun exploring this online video maker Wevideo as you can see from the watermark.
(old generation alert). It was not until now that I realised that Windows Movie Maker did not exist on Windows 8 by default anymore.... I tried searching but wells, nothing came out, so I resorted to trying it out on an online movie maker. This would probably be your reaction:

Source: http://www.roisinofarrell.com/wp-content/gallery/cache/693__400x400_homer-doh.gif

It was like VID101 for me, didn't quite help with the heavy workloads that I had, but it was kinda fun watching the previews again and again. At the same time, it kinda brought me back to the place where everything was happening, the music, the vocals, the atmosphere!

I guess here's a few things that I have learnt:
1. Take more videos
Like seriously, no videos how to make a video! It's like one of the things that I kinda regret not having. It's gonna be a dry video if it's full of photos and just music alone (though sound effects might make things a little more happening)

2. Get a good editing tool, more importantly something you're familiar with!
I would say the one that I used this time isn't that bad but I haven't got time to really explore the entire portal yet! There's a variety of sound effects, transitions, themes that you can use, or you can even create your own sound effects

3. Just get on it! Do it yourself!
I always find that exploring on your own is far better than looking at reviews and see what others do.
Though referring to others may be a good start, as you can see what good things to learn and bring over, it boils down to how well it fits what you want to present!
For me, I wanted a more soft music as the background music as my adventures ought to be a soothing one (because I'm looking back at them) rather than one that is like heavy metal or hard rock.

It's important to find out what you really want as ultimately it is YOUR video. Even though it may not be of the best quality or have the finest content, I find that through this video I've come to realise that you'll feel a greater sense of accomplishment when you're doing and enjoying what you're doing!

That's me, someone who got addicted to watching live mandopop performances since June 2013 (few days before the PSI400 haze came).
That's me, someone who really enjoys capturing moments of live events.
That's me, someone who takes photographs and never really shared them anywhere (sometimes on Facebook).

That's me, gearing up to more adventures in the holidays!

Taking learning to the virtual world

This week, I'll be touching on online learning, i.e. 

Source: http://sites.acjc.edu.sg/wpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/e-learning-11-image.jpg

But firstly, let me ask you a question!
Have you heard of Blackboard? I guess most students would have came across it at some point or another, but here's the real question:

Is Blackboard considered E-Learning?
The answer is..... NO!

It took me by surprise that it was actually a "Learning Management System"

So now what makes E-Learning?

E-learning is defined as learning conducted via electronic media.

We, have come a long way through learning and learning has come a long way too.
From the good old days of gaining new knowledge through books or even encyclopedias (the whole set which is extremely costly), to the current times where all you need is the internet and your mobile device.

Gone were the days on relying on print media to find out information about something. Now, it is just one click or even a swipe away.

I was lucky to be born in the age of the Internet, where we had early exposure to the web that most of us are “trapped” inside today. We, have the best of both worlds. In our early years of education we relied largely on print media, i.e. textbooks, worksheets etc. We also had the opportunity to learn through the Internet, where we had access to the all-time best friend Google, but more importantly e-learning websites which consolidated all the relevant resources for our usage. Well, the more well-known e-learning sites would be sites like Khan Academy and EdX but I’m going to talk about one that is closer to home. Perhaps, you would have used it during your earlier years of education, pertaining to mathematics.

Here, I present to you Ace-Learning! Well, I came across it when I was in secondary school, when we had to watch the videos and do some exercises before completing a quiz.

A screenshot of a brief overview of the chapter before moving on to examples
Source: http://sst2013-s305maths.blogspot.sg/2013/01/partial-fraction-summary.html

On hindsight, this was really useful especially for something very logical and yet rigid like mathematics, teachers can only teach them in a certain way and it’s “either you get it or you don’t, or you find out a way to get it somehow”.

For me, I’m a person who learns by looking at examples, so it really aided me greatly when the site provided examples of problem sums of the relevant topics and showed a step-by-step thought process on how I could work my way to solve the problem. I guess it works better than having an answer key!

Ace Learning's Progressive Mastery Programme, something similar to what I had used back then.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=74&v=EUNTt6lyrQ0 

Furthermore, with the advancement of technology in recent years, videos have become a commodity for us. We prefer watching YouTube videos on how to bake, rather than attending baking workshops. With digital media, it makes learning more interactive and more interesting for the user. Through the use of animation and videos, it piques the interest of the students, which spurs them on to explore more through attempting sample problems to see if they are able to derive the answer using the same method shown in the interactive media.

In addition, we ought to recognize the fact that the younger generation are relatively more tech-savvy and thus digital media would appeal to them more rather than the thick textbooks and worksheets they have to complete, seeing it as an academic assignment rather than an opportunity to explore and learn.

Touching on a more psychological perspective, I would think that through digital media, the idea of “making a mistake” isn’t embraced with a negative connotation, which allows students to be unafraid to learn, to build up their knowledge bank, and to continue having the thirst for knowledge. In comparison to typical lessons, a mistake would most of the time be straightforwardly pointed out by the teacher, and cause the student’s self-esteem to go down. Through digital media, where it provides an interactive platform for students to “play around” with the resources and try out different problems using a step by step approach, it would definitely be more effective than trying to get them to wholly understand a concept within a lesson or two.

As we grow older, our thirst for knowledge are constantly on the decline. However, we must not stop learning, and with more and more new tools in place to aid us in learning, I don’t see why we are preventing ourselves in moving forward. As the Chinese saying goes, 活到老学到老 (For as long as one lives, one learns)!

Doing business at the comfort of your homes!

Shopping online? Shopping on taobao.com when you’re right here in Singapore? No problem!

All this is made possible, with the invention of “E-commerce”, and also the increasing trend in online shopping in Singapore.

According to a research by Paypal, the size of the Singapore online shopping market reached S$1.1 billion in 2010 and is forecasted to hit S$4.4 billion in 2015. Of course, a prediction back then in early 2011 would not be a good representation, for it could be less or even more with the rise of many E-commerce startups in Singapore over the last five years. 

Source: https://www.techinasia.com/the-stats-and-facts-of-online-shopping-in-singapore/

With increased Internet access over the past few years, many shoppers like you and me have been taking it to the Internet for deals, or would I say “lobangs” in our local lingo.

Source: https://vulcanpost.com/14559/online-shopping/

Here’s showing how much we have “invested” in E-commerce over the past five years, and it is continuing to grow!

We are constantly on the Internet for various reasons, to surf, to research, to explore, and to shop.

E-commerce covers a wide variety of goods and services, from travel tour packages to buying clothes online. The key feature of e-commerce is that, ALL transactions are done ONLINE (without paper documentation).

Source: https://vulcanpost.com/14559/online-shopping/

We cannot deny the fact that we now find our air tickets and accommodations online, rather than going to tour agencies to sign up for packages over the counter.

Taobao.com and qoo10.sg has become our best pals, functioning in a similar manner through a B2C (Business to Consumer) model where businesses sell their goods to consumers like us.

But what about our local rising peer-to-peer E-commerce platform Carousell. While I assume most of you would have heard of it or probably have used it to buy or sell items, it was a surprise to me when I found out it was a Singapore creation. (It was founded in 2012 and the first item sold on it was an Amazon Kindle e-reader)

Even though it has been in the market for three years, I had only heard and used it only at the beginning of this year.

 Guess what! The first thing I got from Carousell was…. a textbook for Communication Theory (Not the usual ‘wow’ stuff that people usually get from Carousell)

Though branded as a P2P e-commerce, I feel that B2C is possible on this platform.
I’ve seen instances of brands with physical shops having item listings on Carousell (though I think the place of transaction would most likely be in the shop itself), where they actually use it as a form of promotion for the products that the brand has. Though transaction does not occur over the Internet, it reaches out to consumers and through the “Chat to buy” functions or the prices listed on the item listing, consumers are able to make informed choices about getting the product or not, just like the usual e-commerce websites Taobao and qoo10.

While Carousell is perhaps the next big thing in e-commerce. It is definitely not a guaranteed viable options for businesses to tread on if they want to make it big in terms of sales and figures. Carousell, ultimately, is suited for peer-to-peer where (usually single) items are sold to or bought by individuals. Here are some drawbacks for Carousell if businesses want to use it to further rake in profits.

1. Categorizing of products
We all know that the number of products on Carousell is something we both cannot imagine. What more to actually look through them, in the case that we do not have the specific name of the item that we are looking for. And looking through the searches one by one is like telling you to look through google results whenever you type something on the search bar.

2. Typically low pricing
Though the prices can range from thousands to a few dollars depending on the value of the item, prices of items sold on it can are relatively low and similar products may sell at a relatively competitive price. The price war game is strong here!

3. It goes item listing by item listing

This goes to say that you can only deal one item at a time. Compare that to your usual shopping pals Taobao and qoo10, where you have a shopping cart to check out at the end of your (impulse) purchases. That goes to say NO for bundle deals, unless you really ask the sellers for it. Such a hassle. And the deals may not be all done through bank transfers, most of the time through meetups.

Guess we still have to give our local budding Carousell a little more time to develop a relationship with us, to become close pals like Taobao and qoo10!