The Future of Internet

Have you guys seen Wall-E? I think that is the future of our lives as internet users. Obese, on a chair, in front of a multi-touch screen all day.

I'm not Kidding! The internet is going to take over the world. I mean now, I have already started purchasing my groceries online, I have yet to make a trip to Cold Storage for months ever since I discovered this awesome site www.thebutcher.com.sg . I also buy my clothes online, I watch movies online and read online, I even speak to my friends online. I am in front of my computer the whole day on the internet! Can you imagine if the internet starting inventing taste over the internet, I could even eat and drink over the internet, I wouldn't ever have to leave my chair!

I am glad to tell you that companies have been trying to recreate the sense of taste over the internet though. Go check our DigiScents at digiscents.com to find out more.

I think I should get off blogger and head to the gym now.

Internet Business

Grupon comes to mind when I think of Internet business. If you don't know what grupon s, well, it is a website that offers daily deals on food, leisure activities and entertainment. you can access their site at www.grupon.com.sg

Grupon has gained so much popularity that Google recently offered them 6.6 billion to buy over their company, but Grupon declined. According to Forbes, grupon is the fastest growing internet business as compared to Amazon and ebay. Grupon has also recently bought over a Singaporean website called Beeconomic.com which is structured similarly to Grupon in terms of business model at 24 million from a Singaporean, Karl Chong in his late 20's.

I wished I thought of that idea!

Journalism and The Internet

Citizen Journalism is on the rise with social media sites. What citizen journalism offers is a more realistic account of events around the world. News companies are turning to citizen journalism for a variety of reasons: third party perspective, realistic account, no financial resource to send a news anchor to the other country.

While there are certainly positive aspects of citizen journalism, there are negative aspects too. For instance, the reliability of information. These news by citizens like us are posted by people who do not have journalistic background or proper training of journalistic reporting.

One example of Journalism over the Internet would be reports by Al Jazeera. An internet-based or rather YouTube centered news reporting company. This company have over 200million viewers because of its truthful reporting versus news companies such as CNN or FOX. Here is an example of their news report:

Because Al Jazeera is a YouTube centered reporting company, they have lower production costs, as such they do not have to act as a mouthpiece to the state or to investors of the company such as CNN.

Do you think FOX will adopt such news report?

Politics and the Internet

Singapore and politics? I think its best if I keep my opinions to myself, I don't want to be thrown in jail like Chee Soon Juan. With that said, I think that youths of Singapore are not apathetic towards politics, we have just been taught since young that when it comes to politics, its best if we not say anything.

But this doesn't mean that our Singaporean leaders feel the same about keeping their opinions underwraps. Have you guys heard the LKY on WikiLeaks? Well you should.

What Steinberg was told:

"The North Koreans are “psychopathic types with a ‘flabby old chap’ for a leader who prances around stadiums seeking adulation”.

Entertainment & Multimedia on the Internet

Being female, I don't have a thing for online gaming or animations. As such, the only multimedia content I access over the net are pretty much illegal video streaming of popular U.S TV shows. Come on! I'm sure you know of people who do it too.

My favorite sites to access these videos are tvduck.com or watch-series.com, the best part of these videos are that they cost nothing! & Since sitcoms are usually featured in the U.S first before reaching Singapore, I can stay significantly up to date with these shows faster than anyone and earlier than 8 days can make a review of it. I can also re-watch older series which I love like Sex and the city or Friends but too cheap and Singaporean to buy the original box set.

So in this post, I advocate free multimedia content. Use tvduck.com ! All you can watch for free!

Security and The Internet

For today's class, we had a serious discussion on threats on the internet. Spywares, viruses, Phising. And I would like to say that even though I am amongst those who are very susceptible to these threats because I often download movies or use my credit card to shop online or for internet banking, I feel that I am pretty safeguarded against these threats.

Reasons being, because I use Norton anti-virus, secondly, my Firewall is never switched off, thirdly, I am using a MAC, Apple promises that Mac's never get viruses and lastly, nothing unfortunate has happened to me before, such as people stealing my credit card info or my laptop dying due to some virus.

However, with that said, perhaps the closest experience I've had with Phising is a scam email about a rich Nigerian guy who wants to give away his fortune. But seriously, who would ever fall for that!

It is easy to spot such scams & I believe the only people who will fall for it are those greedy fools! These scams have so many loopholes! Firstly, no one would be crazy enough to give you their fortune. Secondly, if these Nigerian businessmen were so rich they would not be using hotmail accounts. Lastly, they wouldn't make so many spelling errors on the email.

Colbert Vs. Wikipedia

Today we covered common internet tools. Search engines, Remote access, Dynamic web interactions and Sharing resources on the Internet.

Well, besides Google, my other favorite internet tools has got to be Wikipedia. I depend on Wikipedia most of the time for my school research or utilize it to gain an in-depth explanation of things I am unaware of. I find it to be an extremely insightful and a reliable tool and I am often unaware as to why my lecturers refuse to allow us to cite materials off Wikipedia.

That was until I saw this hilarious video of Stephen Colbert, a comedian which I love, dissing Wikipedia. This is his video, it may give you a whole new perspective to Wikipedia. Enjoy!