Mama, It's Overrrrr!!!

I did not really expect to learn a lot from this module initially, as the course description was rather boring. However, I had to take it as it was required for my major. Even though the lessons were pretty dry most of the time, the content that was being delivered was still very interesting.

There were a lot of new things I managed to find out about the internet and the computer itself, which I was previously clueless about, as it did not impact my life directly, or not obvious to be impacting me. None the less, some of the very interesting things, which I learnt, include Augmented Reality, internet tools and especially more about the threats to security, such as virus and hacking.

The show and tells, were especially very educational, as I managed to discover so many cool internet applications and tools, of which I had no idea that some even existed. The show and tell was a great way for the class and myself to actually apply what we had learnt, into everything around us that is associated with the internet.

However, whatever material that was covered in class, definitely is only the tip of the ice berg, hence, I will definitely be looking into exploring more into certain aspects of the internet, which I am very keen about, such as the whole internet security and privacy.

Future of the Internet

Technology advances with every daring step that mankind takes and only his fear of the dangers that tomorrow brings, might hold him back from a brighter tomorrow. It is almost as if the future lies in our hands, for the responsibility lies upon us, to take a step further and venture into the world of endless possibilities. The future of internet is a very exciting concept that is literally filled with millions of possibilities that are only limited by the imagination of mankind. With the ever advancing technology that keeps the list of inventions growing, it makes me wonder: What's next?

First things first, connectivity is going to definitely increase, people from miles apart with even the seven seas separating them are going to appear just standing side by side. This might entail several other benefits, such as with an increasingly connected world, receiving of information can occur almost instantly. When you can literally search for anything information with just couple of taps on a smartphone screen, and receive it literally at your fingertips, what else can you do? The answer isn't entirely clear, but the possibilities are exciting.

One thing that seems certain is that data transmission speeds will increase globally. As time passes, the costs of producing ultra-high-speed networks is decreasing. Eventually, the average consumer will be able to download a high-definition movie in a second or play cloud-based video games without a hint of lag. Or at least I hope that will happen. Cause I am getting very annoyed with the slow connection and how service providers right now are claiming to provide faster connections, but the lag time is still unbearable.

Even as wired connections reach unprecedented speeds, wireless technology continues to evolve. With technologies like LTE that are already giving us the ability to access the Internet wireless at speeds comparable to broadband connections. It has already opens the doors for portable devices like smartphones, laptops and tablets to plug into the Internet without the need for wires. Hence, if the future promises even faster connection speeds, I am really eager to find out how are they going to make them possible, for right now they are beyond imagination.

Also existing technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality are already pretty amazing, but as technology advances, the lines that separate reality from virtual reality are going to get blur. With computer games that are providing the gamers almost realistic features, by allowing them to embrace the virtual world as if it were reality, the future is going to hold even crazier possibilities.

With microchip technology to enable to track out movements, but currently only for certain purposes, such as in sports, I expect the future to be filled with those.  People’s every movement might soon be tracked and we might lose our sense of privacy. This might be something to be concern about though, for privacy might be a fading concept and something that we might only learn to appreciate after it is gone.

Online and Citizen Journalism

Online journalism is defined as the reporting of facts produced and distributed via the Internet. In recent years, the internet has completely changed journalism and it is considered the clearest evidence that this is a revolutionary technology: news editors – and in some cases, the governments that they observe – are no longer the gatekeepers to information because costs of distribution have almost completely disappeared. If knowledge is power, the internet is the greatest tool in the history of the world.

Technology has improved the processes of identifying stories that are newsworthy. Feeds from social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter provide a snapshot of events happening around the world from the viewpoint of first-hand witnesses, and blogs and citizen news sources offer analytical perspectives from the ground faster than print or television can provide. The process that happens before a story is published has also been transformed. The web has become the go-to point for the globe when it comes to getting information; it's the same for reporters. Online, they find a multiplicity of perspectives and a library of available knowledge that provides the context for stories. Increasingly, the stories are coming from the web.

However, one of the biggest grouse with internet journalism is the lack of accuracy that mainstream journalism proves to have. For example, back in November 2011, twitter was flooded with news that David Guetta, a house music DJ, had passed on. This eventually proved to be a big hoo-ha about nothing as David tweeted that he was fine, and that he didn't know where the news had sprouted from. This is not the first instance of death 'reported' on twitter. There have been many others, such as Tiesto, a trance music DJ's supposed death (http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6249901-is-dj-tiesto-dead). This shows how shoddy and dodgy information taken off the internet can be.

Yet, online journalism is the main fuel of citizen journalism. Citizen journalism is when private individuals do essentially what professional reporters do - report information, they report . That information can take many forms, from a podcast editorial to a report about a city council meeting on a blog. It can include text, pictures, audio and video. But it's basically all about communicating information of some kind. The other main feature of citizen journalism is that it's usually found online. In fact, the emergence of the Internet - with blogs, podcasts, streaming video and other Web-related innovations - is what has made citizen journalism possible.

Citizen journalism is increasingly becoming depended upon, in today’s era, with an increase of news agencies displaying content provided by citizen journalists. Even for the case of the Little India Riot that occurred earlier this year, the story was first published via citizen journalism, in the form of twitter updates. People at the scene posted pictures and videos, even before the camera crew of the news agencies reached the place. Hence citizen journalism is indeed playing a vital role by reaching out to places that news agencies do not or cannot and broadcasting news from such places.

However, as useful as citizen journalism might be the question of reliability always arises, for the content is produced by the general public, who has no education on the ethics and necessities of journalism.

Internet and Politics

The Internet is an amazingly powerful tool when it comes to information sharing.

Politicians worldwide (such as United States President Barack Obama, United States Presidential Republican Candidate Mitt Romney, and even local politicians Lee Hsien Loong) have decided to reach out to their supporters across the country/globe via social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is a really good way for politicians to reach out to the masses as their supporters worldwide will be able to receive real-time updates about their thoughts and feelings about major events. Their supporters will also be able to ‘share’ updates by these politicians, which can help to bolster other peoples’ respect in them.

Online campaigns help you reach anyone with Internet access. You don't need people's addresses or phone numbers to reach them. The Internet also exposes your campaign to more demographics, particularly young people who have traditionally been difficult to reach. There are many ways to reach people electronically, including through campaign websites, email newsletters, social networking websites and blogs. Online campaigns make it easier to reach out to people, for instance, below is a screen shot of Obama's Tumblr, which was constantly updated before and during his campaign, and he not only updated people he also interacted with users on Tumblr, and personally, I thought that was pretty awesome. 

One of the many ways that the election of Barack Obama as president is his use of a new medium that will forever change politics. For Mr. Kennedy, it was television. For Mr. Obama, it is the Internet. Mr. Obama used the Internet to organize his supporters in a way that would have in the past required an army of volunteers and paid organizers on the ground, “The tools changed between 2004 and 2008. Barack Obama won every single caucus state that matters, and he did it because of those tools, because he was able to move thousands of people to organize.”

Mr. Obama’s campaign also took advantage of YouTube for free advertising. Videos that were put on to his channel were much more effective than television ads because viewers chose to watch them or received them from a friend instead of having their television shows interrupted. “The campaign’s official stuff they created for YouTube was watched for 14.5 million hours, and to buy 14.5 million hours on broadcast TV is $47 million."

Honestly, I really am impressed with Obama's style of campaigning. It has foresight and vision to recognize the usefulness of the internet as a platform to reach out to a much wider audience. 

Augmented Reality

This week’s lessons were particularly interesting as they talked about Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR, AR). After Dr Abel showed us videos on Ikea’s AR catalogues and how customers hand to just scan the QR code on the catalogue and were able to actually view the actual furniture being placed in front of them via their mobile devices. He also showed us the AR app, Layar, which I found was extremely cool, but it cannot be used as much in Singapore, for not many things are registered with Layar. Hence, I decide to google more into AR and find out if there were other even more cooler products out there. I then came across the BMW’s AR glasses!

To tackle the fixing process of modern electronics in BMW vehicles, the Munich-based engineers designed a pair of augmented reality glasses that enable users and mechanics to obtain step-by-step instructions on how to fix an engine, simply by looking at it.

The best part is that the highly-advanced glasses can also help anyone, especially those with no previous mechanical experience.

Using augmented reality, the glasses display the guide and instructions to the user through a 3D color display that is laid over the top of the original engine view. Animations explain exactly how to dissemble car parts and to diagnose any trouble with the car itself.

The relevant engine part is highlighted and a written instruction is displayed in the top left-hand corner of the screen. The glasses come with headphones that also read the instructions out loud. In the bottom left-hand corner, the glasses will show a picture of the tool needed to carry out the job.The list of instructions can be recalled by pressing the data button.

When using the glasses, apart from the real environment,  the user can also see virtually animated components, tools to be used and hears instruction on each of the working steps through headphones integrated inside the goggles.

Honestly this is such a cool invention and the future of AR seems to have limitless possibilities.

Fishing or Phishing?

After this week’s lesson on Internet security, I was very interested in finding the whole concept behind phishing. Initially I had only heard about it but I had no idea what it was all about.

So what is phishing? Well phishing refers to any form of scams that attempt to trick someone into revealing personal information, such as bank account numbers, passwords, payment card numbers, or Social Security numbers. These scams can be done by phone, email, regular mail and even via text message. In addition to seeking bank information, phishers may also try to obtain your ATM PIN or any other bits of data that can help them build a more complete profile from which they can operate in your name and “steal” money from you. It is a very elaborate scheme that requires the victims to be caught off guard.

It is highly common for phishers to target unsuspecting users with fake Internet sites or email messages that seem legitimate. This is sometimes referred to as "spoofing." Scammers also may leverage social networking sites, where users are already accustomed to sharing information with others. The website might seem almost similar to your i-banking website, but you have to be vigilant to spot the fake one.

Phishing emails and websites typically use familiar logos and graphics to deceive consumers into thinking the sender or website owner is a government agency, bank, retailer or other company they know or do business with. Sophisticated phishers may include misleading details, such as using the company CEO's name in the email "from" field. Another common phishing tactic is to make a link in an email (and the fake website where it leads) appear legitimate by subtly misspelling URLs or changing the ".com" to ".biz" or another easily overlooked substitution.

Some phishing scams even lure victims by telling them that their information has already been jeopardized. For example, potential victims may receive an email that appears to come from a major bank warning that their account has recently been exposed to fraudulent activity. Users are asked to click a link within the message so they can "confirm" their bank account information. Instead of going to the bank's legitimate website, however, victims are taken to a clever lookalike, where their information actually is routed to the scammer.

If you receive any message asking you to confirm account information that has been "stolen" or "lost" or encouraging you to reveal personal information in order to receive a prize, it may be a form of phishing.

Therefore, I’ve actually become very wary of any emails I receive or websites I visit. I make it a point to be very cautious and not reveal my personal information easily.

Shoot, Shag, Still Must Edit!

This is a video that I shot last year. I’m actually quite proud of this cause I managed to shoot it and edit it with no past experience of doing so before. After reading up on the software online, I basically self-learnt the entire process of editing. Frankly, it is not that difficult.

Here's a sample of my video>>>>>>>>>https://vimeo.com/89086465 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<

We begin by planning out the shoot. In order to that, we need to draw up the storyboard of the entire shoot. The storyboard envisions the entire flow of the video and goes down to details by showing a zoom in on every scene. Every scene is represented by a box and every scene is depicted in boxes in the form of a rough sketch.

Next would be to plan out the props and equipment needed for each scene.

Once the logistics side is settled, next is the shoot itself. Be sure to plan out the length of the shoot and the type of lighting required. You have to plan the order of the scenes to shoot and they do not follow the order of the storyboard. The shooting order of the scenes might be different, according to availability of location and settings.

Be sure to have a proper camera and backup power supplies. Go all creative with angles and take multiple takes for a better variety to choose from during editing.

Then, comes the editing stage, which is the most hassle part until you are very familiar with the editing software that you are using. I used the Sony Vegas Pro 12. After you transfer all the recordings onto your desktop, you start to create tracks on the software. I edited the video by scenes. Hence, I dragged every recording relevant to a particular scene and then placed in on the event arena. Subsequently I edited the videos with transitions, special effects and overlaps.

Only after I have edited an entire scene, then do I progress to the next scene and I repeat the whole process again. Also, be very sure to save after every scene that you edit!