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)!