Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Consumed by the new

It's official. Facebook has taken over my life. Commenting on notes and pictures, posting on walls, staying in touch with people from all over the world, getting constant updates, tagging people in pictures as they join facebook, and getting in touch with my oldest friends through this "SNS" or Social Networking Service has been incredible.

Friendster's interface never appealed to me, and then I never had enough friends on it from the US - the only place where it's popular. Orkut is good as far as Pakistanis and Indians are concerned, but it is also very limited and way too public [with only 12 pictures allowed to be uploaded that can be viewed by virtually anyone]. Facebook allows you to decide whether you want to make a photograph or an album public - or if you want to make it public but hide it from just one specific person. It allows that too!

It is a whole new era - it's web 2.0! And what's web 2.0 you may ask? Web 2.0 is all what new media is about - a technology/service that will improve with time as it is used more often. Wikis and RSS feeds are a great example of web 2.0, and so is the virtual world game called Second Life. You know, one company called Text 100 - a Public Relations firm that has 29 offices worldwide has already opened it's 30th office [youtube] in Second Life? It's a virtual office! They hold meetings, conferences and seminars there with live video and audio feeds and slideshows, and they promote their brand while providing valuable service. [So far Second Life doesn't run that well on my computer, but wait till I get my desktop back from repair!]

To understand more about web 2.0, I recommend the following video on youtube by Professor Welsch. It really makes me think and I just love it.



So well, I have immersed myself into this new, immersive, web 2.0 media, and now I feel it's consuming me. Sometimes I hate it when I have to go all the way to the faculty to attend a lecture or a tutorial - I mean, it can be done online, right? Then why not?

We could hold tutorial discussions and group meetings in Second Life, stream the video from our lecture webcasts, watch television online and read online newspapers, maintain our social life via facebook, and hold video-chat and voice conversations with our loved ones using Skype. We could hook-up 2-3 screens with each of our computers and multi-task excessively; staying on top of email, entertainment and work all at the same time. Add to that a chair that flexes/massages your muscles without you moving [virtual Squash, a possibility?], a home-delivery service for food [also online, using web 2.0 platforms], and all your life you will only need to move to the washroom to excrete and clean yourself, and then back.

It's not a dream. It's bound to happen. Finally.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

***You Are 70% Boyish and 30% Girlish***


You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch.
Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes.
You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them.
You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.


How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

5 hours before an exam...

...are you supposed to be:

playing poker at FullTiltPoker.com?
catching up on your friends' blogs?
deleting sms messages on your cell phone to free up space?
looking for work during the upcoming vacations?
checking and replying to emails?
facebook-ing?
showering?
shaving?
cutting your nails?
strumming a guitar?
cooking?
cleaning?
organising the files on your computer?
checking the links people followed to get to your blog?
doing AIESEC work?
watching two seasons of Seinfield?
listening to music?
watching videos on youtube?
sleeping?
avoiding medicine to kill that headache?
taking steroids that make you sleepy?
making this blog post?

I don't think so.

Monday, March 19, 2007

LC Gathering with the new SNs

Past Monday, the 12th of March, LC NUS [LC = Local Committee] had our monthly LC gathering, the most special occurrent being the announcement of the EBs [EB = Executive Board] and the recently initiated LC Support Team. Another special happening, considering the time of the year in AIESEC Singapore, was the presence of...
Continue reading...

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Cookie Monsters

When people need something, they usually search for it and sometimes they find it. In contrast, when people might want something, advertising pushes them to go for it. Microsoft has been 'losing' revenue to Google's contextual ads and keyword-driven text links, which have proved to be quite lucrative.

We all think of Microsoft as this monopolising monster don't we? And Microsoft, as always, has delivered new features to feed this public image.

They've come up with this new behavioural targeting technology [December '06], where they link consumers' demographic information [age, profession, etc.] with our online behaviour [clicks, URLs visited, etc] using - guess what - cookies! Everyday, Microsoft is learning more and more about us, and most of us don't even realise it.

For companies to know more about our "behaviour" rather than just using psychology to persuade us to buy stuff, I feel, is even more dangerous because it is more concrete and eventually more effective. "Effective" here would mean us losing money to buy things we might want [but don't need] and companies making more money in selling things they need to sell to generate more and more revenue. It won't be long before more companies follow this behavioural targeting technology [if they haven't begun already].

But the war is not over just yet. There are many softwares that keep popping up in cyberspace to prevent unwanted cookies from being stored on our hard-disk drives [one example is SpywareBlaster], but again, no ordinary consumer can really measure the effectiveness of these softwares. The bottomline is, that our "personal information" is not that personal any more, as corporations gather, share and even sell this information with/to others.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16370058/

Sunday, March 4, 2007

My 'shibboleth'

Hurry makes worry.
Haste makes waste.

Slow and steady,
wins the race.

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Eery conclusion

Just like morning showers make you feel fresh and bed-time showers help you sleep, I feel it must be same with coffee. That morning mug helps me stay up and feel fresh whereas the ones I take in the evening or at night just make me fall asleep. Is it just me? Am I crazy? Have I gone berserk? What has this crisis week done to me!