The Future of the Human Technology

Nowadays people demand ease, convenience, and something new in their life. Scientist are working in inventing newer technologies which can bring ease and convenience to their consumer. Here is some sneak peak of cool technologies

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1. Google Glasses

Google Glass is a device that you used as your eye-glasses but allows you to access social medias feeds and also accessing google maps and navigation which allows ease in you. You can also take photos with your google glass.

2. Glass Technology

This video will help you describe the wellness of this glass technology which is very interesting.

3. 3D Printer - Form 1

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3D printing is a technology that allows people to forge a digital design to a solid real life products. It is nothing new for a large industry to have this kind of technology, but, having this technology as your personal thing will be revolutionary idea. Everybody can make their own physical products based on their design.

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4. Eye Tribe

Basically it is a combination of eye-tracking technology with a front facing camera, some serious computer-vision algorithm. It allows you to control a computer screen with your own eyes without having to touch or using a mouse.

5. Leap Motion

Leap motion has allowed people to control a desktop with their own hands without touching them. Leap motion is different with the typical motion sensors as it allows you to scroll web pages, zoom in photos and maps, sign documents and even play a first person shooter games.

Image Source:
Picture 1: http://cdn2.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/8606673/google-glass-hands-on-stock2_2040_large_verge_medium_landscape.jpg
Picture 2: https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/projects/274394/photo-main.jpg?1347988415
Picture 3: http://www.bandwidthblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/EyeTribe.jpg

Video Source:
Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZi7e8LYNuQ
Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d6KuiuteIA

Microsoft VS Google VS Apple

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The largest three corporation which focuses on media technology are Microsoft, Google and Apple. People choose which brand they are going to choose according to their preferences as these three brands offers different features. However, in a nutshell they offers basically the same thing which is convenience. We can see from the Venn diagram below how all of these three companies similar and differs.

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Some comparison based on Gartner's idea.

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The main issue that we can observe is where do Microsoft, Google and Apple stand today and how do they affect the market as result of their competition. In my opinion, as they are competing to each other, they will more likely to keep on improving their products in order to win the consumers' heart and win the competition. As a consumer, this will bring advantage to them as they keep having greater and greater technologies developed by other people by them.

Image Sources:
Picture 1: http://goingdigitalmusician.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/microsoft-apple-google.jpg
Picture 2: http://labs.chinamobile.com/upload/superblog_3786/20/Apple-Google-Microsoft.png
Picture 3: http://www.infoq.com/resource/news/2011/01/Apple-Google-Microsoft/en/resources/Gartner1.png

Internet and Journalism

Nowadays, the journalism activity has affected by the existence of the internet which allows them to do news reporting more effectively. However, journalists also lost their monopoly on international news due to the news distribution in the internet. The internet has encouraged shift in who creates, distributes and ultimately owns the news.

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Journalism is the profession of reporting or photographing or editing news stories for one of the media. It is basically everything related with news coverage.

The Elements of Journalism

by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosensteil

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1. Journalism Journalism s' first obligation is to the first obligation is to the truth. 
2. Its first loyalty is to the citizens. 
3. Its essence is discipline of verification. 
4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
6. It must provide a forum for public It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise. 
7. It must strive to make the significant interesting, and relevant. 
8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional. 
9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

The Web News

Key factor to evaluate web news:

Accuracy: The author of the document : The author of the document should be identified and be able to be contacted. Political websites may contain news releases quoting party leaders. The author should be appropriate for the material offered.

Authority: Where was the website : Where was the website published? Are the URL and domain were checked?

Objectivity: The site should contain the organisation’s goals which should be organisation s goals which should be consistent with goals published elsewhere. It should be a detailed site containing material with appropriate style and content.

Currency: The material on the site should be up to date Links to appropriate similar up to date. Links to appropriate similar organizations should be live. The site should be checked to see when it was produced and last updated.

Coverage: Information contained on the site should be quoted correctly. There should be a balance of text and images which should complement each other. There should be links to similar organizations.

Image source
Picture 1: http://www.kumulos.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/picture-21.png
Picture 2: http://languagearts.phillipmartin.info/la_journalism.gif

The MultiMedia

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Multimedia is a computer-based interactive communications process that incorporates text, graphics, sounds, animations and video. The key feature of multimedia is its interactive communication. The users determine what content is delivered, when it delivered and how. Why multimedia? People use multimedia as it is engrossing, multi-sensory, creates knowledge connections, individualized and multi-dimensional.

MAJOR CATEGORIES OF MULTIMEDIA TITLES

1. Entertainment
• Games: action and graphic
• Action and storytelling
• Physical coordinating and mental outwitting
2. Education
• Accommodates different learning styles: association versus experimentation, or auditory versus visual.
• Provides feedback, level of difficulty, evaluates skills, and nonlinear presentation.
3. Corporate communication
• Attract attention to a message
• Product catalogs, published magazines, touch screens kiosks, online shopping
• Stockholders meeting, sales rep pitch, conference speaker, employee orientation and training
4. References and documentation 
• CD: encyclopedias, census data, directories and dictionaries.

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MULTIMEDIA DISADVANTAGES

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• "Lost in cyberspace"
• Lack of structure
• Non-interactive
• Text Intensive content
• Complex to create
• Time Consuming
• Cognitive overload
• Linear content

As now multimedia has helped us a lot in making our life easier, there is still some disadvantages of using the multimedia. We need to use them wisely get its usefulness and prevent the advantages.

Image Sources:

Picture 1: http://www.gpc.edu/oit/sites/default/files/multimedia%20delivery.png

Picture 2: http://www.bubblews.com/assets/images/news/1936016186_1378405909.jpg

Picture 3: http://www.iconshock.com/img/web-site-%20icons-lumina-multimedia.jpg

Internet Security

INTERNET INSECURITY

Internet, one of the most convenient way of information transfer, can be beneficial by everybody even a big company also use the internet as their basis. However, internet is no longer safe as people developed viruses and worms to hack through the internet database which belongs to other parties.

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VIRUSES, WORMS AND TROJAN

Virus is used as a genetic term for malicious programs which spread from one computer to another which ordered to corrupt or destroy data. More specifically a virus spread by attaching itself to a normal program file, and will only be executed or propagated when the users take some action.

Worm is a program or algorithm that replicates itself over a computer network and usually performs malicious actions, such as using up the computer's resources and possibly shutting the system down. The most significant difference between a virus and worm is that worms does not need a host as viruses need a host to multiply.

Trojan is a destructive program that masquerades as a benign application. Unlike viruses and worms, Trojan horse do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive. One of the most insidious type of Trojan horse is a program that claims to rid your computer of viruses but instead introduces viruses onto your computer.

DON'T LET THE INTERNET PHISH YOU!

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Phishing is a form of internet fraud that aims to steal valuable information such as credit cards, social security numbers, user's IDs and passwords.

PROTECT YOURSELF!

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What can we do to protect ourselves?

1. Avoid programs or files on disks if not from trusted sources.
2. Do not open email attachments or downloading files if they are not from a trusted sources.
3. Avoid using pirated software on CDs
4. Keep up-to-date backups of essentials data.
5. Have available a "clean" startup disk.
6. Activate macro virus protection in your word processor and check security setting in your web browser.
7. Install anti-virus software and keep it updated

It is very convenient to use the internet security in or daily life. By having sufficient knowledge about the danger of the internet insecurity, hope we will be more cautious in doing activities on the internet.

Image Sources:

Picture 1: http://mixworld.do.am/troian-virus-worm.jpg

Picture 2: http://sites.duke.edu/dukeresearch/files/2013/04/Phish.jpg

Picture 3: http://tutorhubuk.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/shutterstock_46131460.jpg

Seventh Week

The Internet Tools!!!

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One of the best website that I always use is www.google.com. Yes it is the most popular search engine website that is part of the google company. Its richness in internet tools and its ease of use made it the best search engine.



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If you type in www.google.com in your web browser, you will come out with this very simple page. Its look can be deceiving because it is actually a very powerful tool. One think you want to know is the google symbol. Usually it will appear like in the image above but occationally it will appear differently as it celebrates people or an event, and when you click on it, it will link to a page where the explanation of the people or event are there.

Commonly, people will go to this website to browse datas. And it is too popular to search for information from google and the word "google" can be a verb. For example, "I am going to google that information." Okay, now everybody knows that the easiest way to look for informations is via google. You just need to type the keywords and you get what you want.

This interesting video is about tricks that usually people don't know about google search engine.

After wathing this video, you will reealize that google search engine is beyond what you know. I hope by knowing some google tricks, we can be a better google users and use it more eficiently.

Image source:
Picture 1: http://www.googletrafficbooster.com/5-comscore-piechart.png
Picture 2: http://cdn2.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/03/google_normalbar.png

Video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro4fZO0Botc&list=HL1381457353

Week #6

VIRTUAL WORLD !!!

Virtual world is an online community that are mediated by computer which takes form of computer-based simulated environment where users can have interactive interaction with each other to do a certain goal. Usually each user will appear in a form of an avatar, a graphical representative of the user or the users' alter ego. These avatars usually appears textual, two-dimensional, three-dimensional or other form. This virtual environment has promoted anonymous participation in a three dimensional environment. In general. virtual worlds allow for multiple users.

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There are two types of virtual world concepts:

1. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs), also called virtual game worlds, where the users use a specific character is a main feature in the game.
2. Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Life Games (MMORLGs), also called virtual social worlds, where the users can edit and alter their avatar at will, allowing them to play a more dynamic role, or multiple role.

In the class, the lecturer introduces the students something called virtual classroom. Basically, it refers to a computer mediated education system where the students and the teacher meet online to have a discussion about an educational material. 

Video 1

From the video above we can know that virtual classroom is not that bad. It has a lot of feature that promotes interactivity which allow the users to communicate interactively. It is so good that you can join a class room when you are sitting on a table in your room, or you can be in the class room while enjoying your lunch. 

However, without physically present in the classroom also brings a lot of limitation of this virtual classroom. Yes it is true that this virtual classroom has allowed a lot of interactivity features, but you will not be as freely interactive as you communicate face-to-face.

For my preference, I still prefer to go to a physically exist classroom. Although the virtual classroom has allowed flexibility, my initial motivation to go to classroom is to study and earn knowledge, and I think physically exist classroom is better.

Image Source:

Image 1: http://www.techpluto.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/virtual_class.gif

Video Source:

Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxY22IhbaH4

COM 125 Fifth Week!!!

E-Learning

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"I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."

- Albert Einstein -

We can't deny that learning is a never ending process of human live. We will not stop learning until we reach our death. Do you agree with a statement saying that we are happiest and most successful when we learn, develop, and work in ways that make best use of our natural intelligence? I do agree!!

Learning is not limited with activity you are doing at school. It is more than that. I know that everybody hates school, but they don't hate the knowledge they get. Every people hate it when they have to learn something that they don't want to learn, but they will even try their best when they are learning a certain skill or knowledge that they want to master.

The problem is that sometimes they don't know where do they go to learn the skill or knowledge they want to master. They don't have the knowledge source that can help them learn.

Fortunately, technologies has helped us a lot in information. We can acquire some information through browsing through the internet. It is different with the old way of learning where you go to school, listen to a real teacher standing in front of you and read from a real book. When you are reading an article in the internet, or you try to learn a skill by watching a video online, it is called e-learning.

E-learning is a learning that is facilitated by the use of digital tools and content. Typically, it involves some form of interactivity, which may include online interaction between the learner and their teacher or peers. Some varieties of e-learning includes: Virtual classroom, Online learning, Rapid e-learning, Simulation-based, Game-based, Mobile learning, and Learning Management System. Below is a mind map that can help you to know some categories of e-learning.

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Some Benefits of E-learning:

1. Convenience and flexibility to learners
2. Improved performance
3. Increased access
4. To develop the skills and competencies needed in the 21st century, in particular to ensure that learners have the digital literacy skills required in their discipline, profession or career.

Image Source:
Picture 1: http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs50/f/2009/295/4/2/Albert_Einstein_Full_Color_by_Pyrlo.jpg
Picture 2: http://www.elearnspace.org/images/Categories%20of%20eLearning.gif

Week Four

E-Commerce

Electronic Commerce is a type of industry where the buying and selling of products or services is conducted over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks (also known as e-commerce). There are some types of e-commerce: E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on websites with online catalogs, Business-to-business buying and selling, Business-to-consumer Buying or Selling, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data, E-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospective and established customers (for example, with newsletters).

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Brief History of E-commerce:

• 1971/1972: The ARPANET is used to arrange a cannabis sale between students at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
• 1979: Michael Aldrich demonstrates the first online shopping system
• 1984: CompuServe launches the Electronic Mall in the USA and Canada. It is the first comprehensive electronic commerce service
• 1992: Book Stacks Unlimited in Cleveland opens a commercial sales website (www.books.com) selling books online with credit card processing
• 1995: Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com and the first commercial-free 24-hour
• 1996: IndiaMART B2B marketplace established in India.
• 1996: ECPlaza B2B marketplace established in Korea.
• 1999: Alibaba Group is established in China
• 2000 onwards: DHgate.com, groupon, business.com, zappos.com, diapers.com

A typical e-commerce website should contain:

1. About Us
2. Contact Us
3. Site Map
4. Why buy from us
5. Testimonial
6. Legal information

Some Types of E-commerce bussiness Model:

1. Brokerage (example: eBay)
2. Advertising (example: Google)
3. Infomediary
4. Merchant (example: amazon.com)
5. Manufacture (example: Dell)
6. Affiliate
7. Community (example: wikipedia)
8. Subscription (example: iTunes)
9. Utility

Image Source:
Picture 1: http://tomuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/online-shopping-cart-software-ecommerce-web-store-services.png 

Third week COM125

The Social Networking

After a lot of discussion about web 1.0, web 2.0 and web 3.0, this week's material focuses on social networking. Well what about social networking? It is true that nowadays social networking is so popular and people cannot live without them, it is now become our daily activity. So, what do we learn in class? It is not necessary to learn how to use the social network sites as most of us are using them at the moment; therefore, the teacher discussed a lot of facts regarding the social media.

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Well there not much things we learned about social networking, but from this week's lectures we realized how great is social networking impacts our daily life. Some social networking sites which are discussed a lot are google+ and facebook. Twitter, instagram, linkedin and other social networking sites were also mentioned.

A lot of new social networking sites are made as they are found to be popular. People keep developing existing social networking sites or creating new ones just to satisfy users demands. If a social networking sites is better than the other, people will use that sites instead of their existing social networking sites they are using. By more and more people using that social networking site, its popularity will increase and people will willing to join that social networking sites. As we can see since early 2000 towards now, the number of social networking sites keep increasing.

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Some Facts About Social Networking Sites

Here is some facts about some social networking sites we discussed in class:
1. GOOGLE+
• In February 2012 Google+ had 90 million users
• Googgle+ accounts for about 0.22% of referral traffic
• American users spend an average of 6 minutes on the site
• Just 29% of Google+ users are female
• 44% of Google+ users are single
• The top ten countries using Google+: USA (31%), India (14%), Brazil (5%), UK (4%), Canada (2.5%), Germany (2%), Indonesia (1.8%) and Italy, Mexico and Spain (1.7%)
• The top occupation is student (20%) (20%)
• The Google+ button is served more than 5 billion timeseach day
• China and Iran block access to Google+

2. FACEBOOK
• In February 2012 Facebook had 850 million users
• Facebook Facebook accounts accounts for for approx approx 26% 26% of of referral referral traffic traffic (according to Shareaholic study)
• Of the 850+ million Facebook users, 31% check in morethan once a day
• 63% of Facebook users have deleted people from theirfriend lists (up from 56% in 2009)
• 44% have deleted comments others have made
• 37% have untagged themselves from photos
• Young adults and women are more likely to unfriend people (67% women vs 58% men)

3. LINKEDIN
• In February 2012 LinkedIn had 135million users
• LinkedIn accounts for about 0.20% of referral traffic
• American users spend an average of 17 minutes on the site
• 50% of LinkedIn users have a bachelor’sdegree or hi hi hgher
• There are 2 million companies on LinkedIn

We can see from the facts above that some social networking sites are so popular and they had become people's daily activity.


Image Sources:
Picture 1: http://technomiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/all_stages_marketing_social_media_icons.jpg
Picture 2: http://merchantmarketinggroup.com/uploads/news/Social_Media_Timeline.jpg

COM 125 Week 2.0

The Social Media and Web 2.0

We Are the World - Michael Jackson & Lionel Richie

"We Are the World" is a song and charity single originally recorded by the super group USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album We Are the World. With sales in excess of 20 million copies, it is one of the fewer than thirty all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) copies worldwide.

The Song was released on March 7, 1985, as the only single from the album. A worldwide commercial success, it topped music charts throughout the world and become the fastest-selling American pop single in history. The first ever singgle to be certified multi-platinum, "We Are the World' received a Quadruple Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. However, the song garnered mixed reviews from journalists, music critics, and the public. Fans enjoyed hearing racially and musically diverse recording artist singing together in one track, and felt satisfied buying "We Are the World", knowing that the money was going to the charity.

The Web 2.0

It is true that social media have a lot of impact in reality social life. The song "We Are the World" were made for charity to help people in Haiti who suffers from a magnitude-7.0 earthquake. As I mentioned above this song really made a great sale and a lot of money to be donated for the charity was earned. 

So why this could be happened???

Yes! It was all because the help of social media. Other than selling the music CD for charity, this video is also posted on youtube.com so that everybody can see this video for free and donate. There is a link at the end of the video for everyone who would like to donate for charity.

The effect of social media is very great as it allows people to share information more faster and easier. Without the help of social media, less people are accessible to give donation and less people is aware about the tragedy. We can't deny that social media is very important.

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As we can see that social media platforms has developed a lot of social networking sites. A lot of companies are trying to develop newer social networking sites that fulfills consumers' demand. Some sites such as facebook (2003), youtube (2005) and twitter (2006) are successful, but some aren't so popular. Social media is one example of broad field that very popular to study. There are a lot of social media platform and they are continuing to develop.

As a social scientist, the most important thing about social media is what is the future of social media. If we can predict and analyse the future of social media, it will be helpful as nowadays a lot of people are using social media in almost every aspect. Other than that developing existing social media is also a good thing to study as improving the existing social media is also necessary in order to keep following the era.

Sources:

Video "We Are the World": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glny4jSciVI

Picture 1: http://bachelorresearch.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/social-media-timeline1.jpg

COM 125 First Week!!!

Attention! Attention! To all of you who do not know what COM 125 is, COM 125 is one of communication required module for communication major in University at Buffalo, the State University of New York. It is 100-level communication module named "Introduction to the Internet". So, why do communication students are required to understand the internet?? Well, I started to write this blog at the beginning of the semester which means that I just started this module. So let see how is it going to be!

Our instructor, Mr Abel Choy, will be my COM 125 lecturer for this entire semester. From the first day I met this lecturer I can see from his appearance that this professor is really an IT-looking guy. I am sure he will deliver this lecture well.

Okay, what we cover during our first week is about the history of the internet.


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Internet was first began to develop by the existance of the electronic computer in 1950. People than were introduced to a concept that leads to internet which is the ARPANet. The ARPANet soon led the development of protocol of internetworking and in 1982 the internet protocol (TCP/IP) was standardized. Continuous development occurs and in the late 1800s and early 1900s the Internet Service Provider (ISP) was emerged. Since the mid 1990s internet has became common and it gave a revolutionary impact on our daily activities. By the invention of near instant communication platform including emails, chats and video calls, the use of internet becomes even more and more.

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Now, people cannot live without internet as all communication devices require internet connection to work well. As social networking become more popular, internet becomes the most useful platform to communicate and to look for information.

Okay! that was a little information about the history of the internet. You can get more complete and detail information from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

Images sources:
Picture 1: http://www.internetsociety.org/sites/default/files/images/timeline.gif
Picture 2: http://www.krepcio.com/images/1agg-TIMELINE-7-SocNet.jpg