I don't care about what you have to say, and no I am not lying.

Welcome back everyone,

The Internet has spawned something called Internet Journalism. It sounds like normal journalism except on the Internet. Right? WRONG! While it also includes mainstream news network now available on the Internet, it is also about so much more. Like citizen journalism.

What is citizen journalism? Well, it means that everyone and anyone can be a journalist here on the Internet. All you have to do is go write or make a video about something and post it up on the Internet using your blog or Facebook or whatever it is that you want to use. And pray that someone actually cares about what you are writing. That is both the beauty and the beast of the Internet.

The issue is that everyone can report about anything under the sun. Therefore, the term journalism is thrown around very lightly. I can report about the number of warts on the big toe in the country, post it on the Internet and BAM! I am a journalist. You can see it as good thing because that means you can go around introducing yourself by saying "hey I am a journalist" but I tend to see it as a bad thing so please forgive me.

Warts, I am going to report about them and you can't stop me.

On a more serious note, the Internet is something everyone has access to. That is where everyone can come in and give their opinion. Important thing to note is the word "opinion". It does not translate into fact, despite many people on the Internet thinking so, especially when the "fact" is their own. People see the Internet as a tool for great learning. I see it as a tool for great lying. Thing is, many journalists approach controversial subjects with an open mind. However, many people on the Internet do not display such degrees of intelligence. They will distort or overlook facts just to get their point proven. Plus, you have the gullible people who believe everything that is on the Internet is the truth. There is going to be alot of misguided and misinformed people in the future, I predict.

So in all, citizen journalism might make you sound important. But do you, or that dude with the laptop drinking his latte at the nearest Starbucks have what it takes to be a professional journalist, with the emphasis on professional? You might consider me to be a fussy old man with the professionalism thing, but when you consider the millions of people looking at the Internet to learn something, the future of the human race is at stake.

Do you have what it takes to be a professional journalist?

Which way will it go?

Hello everyone,

It looks like the topic this time is going to be about politics mixed in with the usual dose of the Internet. I know, the word politics is enough to drive people far, far away. But hey, I have to do what I have to do!

Please don't run so far away!

Alright, so the Internet is all the rage now in political circles. Politicians have their own websites and many make use of the Internet when it comes to campaigning. Many of them are starting to have their own blogs, and some even have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts. Research has shown that among that political apathy among the youth around the world has significantly decreased with the Internet. This makes sense as the Internet-savvy youth will feel that they are able to have a greater influence in the political process and thus spend more time on it. With political blogs and forums, they can ensure, or at least feel that their voices and opinions are being heard.

With the Internet, politics has seen a few changes. One of which is that every action by a politician will spread like wildfire throughout the entire world thanks to the Internet. For example with things like Youtube, every speech made can be recorded down and viewed way into the future. People would know whether or not you as a politician have kept those promises you made or stood by your standards. Your opponents will also have easy access to whatever you or your party are doing, and may use that against you. Thus, the Internet does have its own perks like being able to spread your message better, but it also has its own consequences.

But really, apart from that, what has the Internet changed? Is the renewed interest in politics here to stay? I believe that this interest brought around by the Internet can very easily disappear, like many other things on the Internet. People are only active if they think that what they are doing has some sort of influence. When that disappears, the interest disappears. When people feel that politicians are not taking into considerations the numerous blog posts and forum threads made by concerned netizens, then this Interest may rapidly disappear. If writing a several hundred word post on a political forum yield no result, then people may realize that the influence they hold is but an illusion. People may complain about things on the Internet, but if nobody cares, then nothing happens. So interest in politics on the Internet: which way will it go?

When people start to feel that nobody notices them on the Internet, interest may die down.

Are you ready for the future?

Hello again everyone.

In this episode, I am going to talk about multimedia and the future. We have all seen plenty of innovations in multimedia. We have things like the iPod, iPhone, Sony Playstation Portable and the Nintendo Wii. But one thing is important. For every innovation to be a success, certain factors must be met.

What I mean is the consumer base has to be ready for it. The innovative product must also be accessible. This means it should both be priced at a acceptable amount or that the system requirements for that device must be within acceptable ranges. I will talk about some multimedia ideas that were certainly innovative. However, due to certain factors, they failed to revolutionize the multimedia industry.

All right, I talked in an earlier post about virtual classrooms. In the past, virtual reality was all the rage and the abundance of IMAX theatres with virtual reality was a sign of that. Because of that, Nintendo, the very creators of the revolutionary Nintendo Wii, sought to capitalize on that excitement and create a whole new gaming platform to take take advantage of Virtual Reality.
They created their masterpiece: the Virtual Boy

More than just a headset on a stand, the Virtual Boy makes Virtual Reality, well, a reality!

If you have never heard of the Virtual Boy, then you are forgiven. Why? Because the Virtual Boy was a flop. It uses a system similar to IMAX theatres, where 2 different screens are flashed into each eye to create a semblance of virtual reality. An example of what you would see
is something like this:

I suppose it looks better in 3d.

If you are thinking that the colours are awful, well then you are not alone. Reasons why the Virtual Boy failed was that it used monochromatic red and black images as opposed to full colour.
Never mind that it was extremely expensive ( it cost about US$180 as compared to the Gameboy's US$110). And did I mention that it was extremely uncomfortable to play? The Virtual Boy is one good example of why a supposedly innovative piece of multimedia was not well-received ( only 880, 000 copies were sold worldwide).

It sure looks uncomfortable to play.

And now I am going to talk about another piece of multimedia, in this case, a game, that failed to turn heads despite it being extremely innovative for its time. A game which I enjoyed playing greatly and felt that it was the right game released at the wrong time. The game I am talking about is none other than Magic Carpet.

Ah nostalgia...this game brings back the memories.

It was basically a 1st person shooter game. You play a wizard on his titular magic carpet and your objective is to kill monsters and enemy wizards to collect their energy or mana, and you do that using a variety of spells. The carpet flies around like a helicopter so you can control both speed, direction and height. And oh, you cannot crash in case you were worried.


Hope you are not groggy, because this game is immense fun!

Now what made this game so innovative? Here is a short list from the game's article on Wikipedia:

Magic Carpet was touted by its developers as being ahead of its time and it garnered many accolades and favorable reviews. It used a realtime 3D-graphics engine, which was considered cutting-edge for its time. It included features such as:

• dynamically lighted, gouraud shaded, changeable ("morphable") landscape
• Dynamic music that changes whenever the player enters a fight
• Scene reflections in the water
• Distance fog
• Transparency effects, such as the transparent HUD, the water, and the Possess Mana spell when cast.
• A particle system, like the mana balls and flocks of vultures and other creatures. Often attacking one member of such a group is enough to attract the attention of the rest of the group.
• Player viewpoint control using the mouse

Some of the innovations, like fully deformable terrain is not found in any other games even up till today! Dynamic music is also something that some games have started to incorporate only recently. Unlike other games at that time, for example Doom, Magic Carpet is played in a 3d environment. Using the mouse, players can move in all 3 x, y and z axis while other games were essentially 2d.

However, the biggest failing of the game was that it was TOO advanced for its time! The game had notoriously high system requirements and required a Pentium core for smooth gameplay and maximum graphics, which was rare at that time. Most gamers at that time only 386 processors while Magic Carpet a 486 processor as a MINIMUM requirement. It didn't help that the game was placed in the same category together with the most definitive 1st person shooter, Doom. Because of that, the more popular Doom stole much of Magic Carpet's spotlight, despite both games being radically different from each other. It was clear that Magic Carpet was superior (at least technology wise) but unfortunately it just came out at the wrong time.

But luckily, this game is now freeware (if I am not wrong) and can be found free to download on several gaming websites. You would need a Dos emulator to get it running though. But I definitely recommend you to try it out if you can be arsed to get the emulator to work, and if you don't mind the dated and heavily pixelated graphics (by today's standards). I can assure that you would not regret it!

Compare and contrast!

I earlier said that Magic Carpet was the right game released at the wrong time. If it was released about a year later, things may have been very different. But it turned out that the consumers were not ready for the future. The Virtual Boy was another example in which everybody, even Nintendo themselves, were not ready for the future. So in light of all these new innovations in multimedia coming up we must ask ourself this question: Are we ready for the future?

OMG n00b H4XXOR!

Hello everyone.

This post is a rather serious one compared to the relatively light-hearted nature of my previous posts. This is because it deals with Internet Security, which is of no laughing business to anyone, whether you would be an e-business owner, gamer, or a casual internet user.

Now everyone knows about Hackers, Viruses and Trojans. Hackers use a variety of different methods such as Spyware and Trojans to obtain valuable information from your system or to disable it. They may steal your credit card information to access your bank account or take down your official website if you are running a business. Elite hackers from certain countries have even been accused of using cyberspace as means to harm and disrupt another business or even another country. Imagine a hacker getting control of a goverment's electronic and online infrastructure and other assets.

Nope, computer hacking does not involve hacking down a tree.

Unfortunately, online gaming is not free from their own share of hackers. Depending on the game, the hacker may use different type of hacks and exploits in order to further their goals. Usually, this involves cheating the game system into giving them ungodly powers usually not allowed in normal gameplay. For example, they may give themselves unlimited health or give themselves the ability to see through walls, thus giving them an advantage over normal players. They may even be able to change certain aspects of the game world in more serious attempts. Other hacks trick the game into believing that the hacker is a administrator of the game server, thus giving them power normally reserved for admins, such as the power to change boot players out of the system or to change the server passwords. When this happens, the server is more or less loss to the original owner forever. More serious hackers may try to take over your online persona and thus gain access to whatever digital items that your persona may have.

While most game hackers may seem like an insignificant threat to the more serious threats of credit card information theft, I still feel that this is a matter not to be ignored. After all, a game hacker is only one small step away from more serious attacks such as hacking into a business intranet. In addition, since there are many games which require real money to make purchases of digital goods, such theft of virtual goods would mean real world money being loss as well. Same goes for account theft for games which have a pay-to-play payment system. I think all hackers should be dealt with regardless of what area they specialize in. You never know if the game hacker you are screaming "OMG n00b H4XXOR!" would end up stealing something more serious like your credit card number.

Just Google it

Welcome back!

In this episode, I will be talking about Google. I can't really think of anything witty of funny to talk about this time, so I will be talking about Google in general and how it has so ingrained into our daily lives. This post might be a bit boring so I apologize and feel free to do something more entertaining instead of reading this. I will be trying to inject some humour into this post as usual, but forgive me if I fail miserably.

Google has become more than just a search engine. It has Google Earth and Google Maps which allow us to view satellite views of anywhere on else. There is Google Scholar, which is a database for many scholarly articles and research papers, which is a godsend for students like me. And there are many more.

In fact, the word Google has become integrated into our English language. Many at times I would ask a friend about some matter and he would respond with "Just Google it". If a teacher didn't explain something in school properly, I would tell myself to relax and "just Google it" the moment I got back home. Google is indeed an extremely powerful and popular search engine for it to warrant a place in the English Language. It is even so powerful that it can search for stuff which you do not even want to know. Such as this:



Seriously I don't want to know. Google may be powerful search engine, but it is still only a program. It cannot find stuff for you without having proper instructions on how to do so. For example, I would need to type in A OR B or A NOT B. You cannot type in something like Lee Kuan Yew's Masterplan and get what you were searching for.

With that sad, Google is a very helpful tool. Have fun playing around with it and you may find funny stuff like around on the net. You may even find the answer to the meaning of life!

I am gaming, therefore I am learning.

Hello everyone.

Once again, I am going to blog about various Internet stuff. This time, I will talk about E-Learning! First, E-business and now E-Learning yay! I know the words learning and education brings up images of boring classes and strict overbearing teachers. But my dear fellows, with the Internet and various improvements in computer technology all that may change!

As a computer gamer, I love to game. And I hate studying. Imagine combining computer gaming and education. I hate studying. Yeah, I know this is nothing new as there are many educational games out there. And did I mention I hate studying?

Imagine playing your favorite massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). You enter a room with the rest of your friends. Suddenly, the room darkens and you tense up expecting some action. And your expectations are proven as your lecturer's avatar then enters the room as well and begins his lesson! Soon, he is giving an online lecture in your favorite game. You control your character to accomplish the different practical and "hands on" assignment that
your lecturer assigns you to. At the same time, he summons up various non-player characters (NPCs) and teleports you into different settings so that he can demonstrate certain aspects of whatever he is teaching. Finally, you are given a quest where you have to make use of the various concept you have just learned to gain additional loot and other goodies for your character. Now, how awesome those this sound?

The graphics aren't that great but whatever.

That is how a virtual classroom may be like. A classroom where everything and anything is possible. Pilots have virtual flight simulators and even the US army uses virtual lessons to teach its commanders. In fact, the game Full Spectrum Warrior was developed specifically to train US military personnel. With that in mind, the future of the virtual classroom may no longer be a dream, but a reality.

I didn't know you could play games in the military...

Advantages of an E-business

Welcome everyone!

This post will talk about the advantages of an E-business! Boring, I know! However, I will try to spice things up a little! Instead of the usual stuff, I will talk about the advantages of having an E-business which you probably would have never considered, so lets check it out!

So the development of the Internet opened up a lot of doors for many people. One such door is the area of E-business or business done through the Internet. With the Internet, you can make money without even leaving the comfort of your home. You can trade stock and shares, foreign currency and whatnot. You may be a website designer and work directly from home. So what other advantages of an E-business are there?

1) You can work whenever you want.
Yes, no more walking up early in the morning to be able to go to work. Get up as late as you want and start work whenever you feel like it. No need to consider what other people may think about you. Most importantly, you can stop working and take a break whenever you feel like it.

2) You save the environment.
Reduce your carbon footprint by working from home! Instead of squeezing into that overcrowded, smelly and unreliable public transport, or getting your car stuck in the jam every morning, just log into the computer and start your day. Saves you the trouble and makes you alot happier too. Saves Mother Gaia as well by not burning fossil fuels just to get to your torture- I mean- workplace.

Save the world by working at home!

3) Save your ears from office gossips.
Seriously, who likes office politics. People commenting about each other behind everyone's backs, its enough to drive people insane. And make one lose all faith in humanity. And commit suicide soon after. What better way to avoid this then not be there at all. When working from home at the comfort of your own computer, the only sound you would have to put up with is the music from your own computer speakers. Or perhaps, that noisy 1 year old son of your neighbour who is screaming his lungs off. But that is why you have headphones.

4) No need to look at that ugly cross-eyed girl (or guy) sitting across your workdesk who is secretly trying to get you to marry her (or him).
With E-business, you won't have to look at your colleagues, and spare your eyes from these walking visages. No longer will you have to put up with their oily and pimply face or their horrible body odor. You won't have to look at your boss' nasal hair anymore too. Unfortunately, you may miss that occasional hot hunk walking through the door, or that sexy secretary in cleavage revealing clothes.

5) No need for pants.
At home, no one can see how you look. Or how you dress. Sure, you may need to use a webcam for video conferencing, but no one will see your lower half anyway. So might as well take off those pants you are wearing. It will be a lot cooler in Singapore's hot weather too. Comfort= Productivity so why not?

Might as well wear nothing on the lower half of the body...

There are a lot more advantages for having an E-business but there are far too many to list here. The list is endless...