S10: DIY = creativity

Do-it-yourself means you have to create something from scratch. correct? That's the problem with me. I am definitely not a person where i can just create something from scratch. I have always envied my friends who are very creative when it comes to designing a birthday card or a scrapbook. So, what i do is to search for videos that can give me ideas that i can 'steal' from and call it my own! :D

DIY products will usually be cheaper than what it is in the market. Unless you are getting an item that at least a million people has the same product, then it could be cheaper. Mass production will produce cheaper production cost products thus cheaper in value. The only DIY product i have so far that i can solely claim that is belongs to me is my wall of photos.

The wall of photos is on my cupboard. It reminds me of all happy moments of family and friends.

S2 & S8: The big iphone!

Some of you may already found out about this 'little gadget'. I just want to share it with you. I related this gadget to Session 2: The web in culture, what is new media and Session 8: collaborative media, social software and gaming. This is because that from the history that i've posted about mobile phones, each year when they create a new trend of mobile phone, it has to be slim and small or light-weighted but this piece here is enormous! Well if you put it this way, it is not actually a mobile phone but probably just a screen that allow touch censor. It actually does work just like a mobile phone (iphone).

And, instead of playing games in a small screen from the iphone, we can use the 'big iphone' as part of the gaming software's tool to challenge a new player! i'm as excited to see this gadget in real life as a kid that gets a piece of sweet every now and then! :D

Enjoy the video. Be mesmerized!

S10: It's just too much!

This will happen when there's no proper measures taken to control the advertisement placements in a small area. This picture has been taken in Hong Kong. We all know that Hong Kong is a small country and it is just as fast paced as Singapore. Advertisements are placed everywhere just so that consumers are able to see where exactly the items will be. If only one billboard advertisement is placed in a street like this, it will be very noticeable. But if there are hundreds of them placed so closely next to each other, then we are definitely facing a problem of information overload.

Similar situation can be applied when there are too many gadgets introduced in the market. A big company such as Apple will be very appreciative if they have no rivalries in the market but everybody wants a fair share of the earnings that one can get. So there comes the imitation products. Too many products of the similar features will confuse consumers. Just as it is mentioned in Caryn's blog postings , we are in the era where 'Data Smog' becomes a problem for us to differentiate what is good for us and what is not.

If in any case, i personally think that a particular country's government plays a big roll into allowing all this products or information to be in the country or not. China banned Facebook in their country because of their own reasons and Saudi Arabia(correct me if i'm wrong) banned Blackberry Chat in their country. Singapore bans the use of chewing gum in their country. What i meant here is that every country has its own policy that will help their citizens to be better in certain ways and if we have a problem with information overload, it may just be a problem of the country's government's ignorance.

S9: Convergence culture

Some of you may know who they are, some of you may not. Both this video clip has been uploaded to youtube.com and has many viewers viewed the video. They can be labelled as one of the youtube stars that shines above the rest. Marie Digby (the first video) had already visited Malaysia as part of her Asian tour. That is how famous she got when she published herself onto youtube which then record labels signed her to become a full time artist.

Marie Digby from America and the twin sisters (JS) are Koreans from Australia. They are from different countries but have something in common. They love singing and has proved their talent through youtube and got famous from there. It has been seen as a culture-like to video-post themselves through the internet instead of the classic way of recording a demo which to be later on sent to a recording label.

'Coyote Ugly' (2000), portrayed a girl that wants to be a famous song-writer, had to go through the hardship in life just to be able to prove her talent to the world. This movie showed the best example of how it is for a person to be a featured artist and be known. We are able to see the convergence of culture when it comes to the technology that we are able to reach easily thus using it wisely to help us where we stand today.

S9: Participating

I've always wondered why KDU's Diploma program does not use their KCN function well when i was in Diploma 2 years back. I have to physically be at the college compound to know that classes were cancelled at the very last minute. It's not that i'm staying in a place where it is only walking distance. Even when our final results were out, it was printed out on a paper and posted on the notification board. Now, why am i going on and on about the problem i had during Diploma days in KDU?

With the system going on during studies for Murdoch's degree, it is very useful/convenient for all of us students to post up our comments in a centralized blog/group. With this subject, we found ourselves checking constantly for updates when Mr.Hardip has included a link onto the group's wall. Many of us had to learn through the whole process of writing on a blog while others had to rely heavily on the search engine to get more information to be able to post up our little thoughts for the day. I am one of them.

So, participating in the topics that our lecturer require us to in the group allowed us to see and observe all other comments posted up thus understanding more in-depth about that particular topic. The internet made it possible for us to be able to 'participate' at the first place itself. No doubt it has made everything easier and faster. Why shouldn't we use it at the first place?

S8: What if we are all surrogates?

What if the reality is not a reality anymore? We can all create a character that can represents us just like in MMORPG games? The surrogates are suggesting that we are all able to create a 'new' us. As long as our brain is still functioning, we are able to control our surrogates to complete a task.

The fifth element suggests that all our cars can now fly and everything is in the air. Gravity still exists of course. These science fiction movies are created based on observation of our daily lifestyles but with an added touch. There are similarities between both of this movies though. They suggest that humans can be cloned or created in seconds. Imagine that the gaming world allow us to create a surrogate for ourselves to control them in playing a real-life games rather than controlling it through a computer. It could be brutal but the surrogates are not actually real. are they? A social gaming software might just suggest that we are brutal in reality which most of us would want to apply the small part of out brutality into games rather than real life. So, having a surrogate might not be a good idea in this sense.

S8: Cheats in MMORPG

First off, i am admitting that i did not understand what the term MMORPG means. I did not know what it stands for and what are people/users doing with it. I am not a frequent gamer as well. The only games i play are bejeweled blitz and diner dash. The cute ones and probably a game that does not require me to think too much! :D

After reading more about it, i now know that MMORPG stands for massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Then i asked one of my close friend what was MMORPG? He said, 'it's a role-playing thing..don't you know about it?'. For a girl that does not know what 'World of War Craft' is, i don't think i will ever know what role-playing is all about. Well, the search engine helped me a lot with this. MMORPG basically means that users create an avatar/character in the gaming world and use it to represent themselves in going through obstacles during games. The games that we are talking about here are those that require skills to 'purchase' guns and bombs just so that they can kill the opposite teams or build a base that they called home to protect themselves from the enemy. My explanation are just brief ones, i might be wrong at certain point.

Many MMORPG games offer hundreds of levels for the users to qualify to. This, i think, is a catch for users to be addicted into playing it thus attracting users around the world to meet at one meeting point (during games). Users are able to challenge each other and also chat and meet new people from around the world. So, there is more attraction to it rather than just a simple game that only a 5-year-old kid would play.

From that, users improvised their creativity by selling their characters when they have reached certain levels. In 'Plants Vs Zombies', they learned a way to cheat their way through to the top levels and teach others as well.

So, If all users are more interested in 'cheating' their way through to the top then what is the point of challenging yourself to attempt to play the game at the first place? Probably it is the thrill to know that one is able to reach the extreme top while others are still striving to pass through all the levels. It is something that a girl like me that enjoys simple games, would not understand what is the thrill to those actions. But one thing is for sure, MMORPG games are incorporating real life experiences into the visuals of the games (which sometimes comes in 3D version) to attract users.

S7: Facebook Vs Emails

Usually we will compare the old social network provider to the new one such as friendster, hi5, etc. But what if facebook(FB) replaces the email world? After all it can do so much than just providing message sending and quick chats. In enable you to understand the other person better. Several big companies may not agree to use FB in their working environment as it might distract their employees completing their daily workload. But some companies, has been allowing FB to be accessed. They may have overlooked the 'distraction' that it can offer but FB may have been a good choice to promote a product or notifying a person about something.

With the current messaging tools in FB, it works similarly like Gmail's email function as it merge messages coming from the same sender. They are also able to send the message to many receiver at one go. So, basically everything that the email providers are providing, FB has it as well. It might not look as formal as it seemed from the email providers but it offers the same functions. Companies should think twice about banning FB in their offices as it may be a very important tool for everyone in future as it is what advertisers are already focusing on.

S7: How personal is personal?

How do we define the media? The radio, newspaper, television, mobile phones? All these mediums are part of the media for them to pass a message or information to the users. Even mobile phones can be categorized as such when they have incorporated features that allow users to read the news or receive information about the world, etc. When technological products in the market decrease its selling value, it became more affordable for users to purchase one. The newspaper companies are offering free daily news already. It is not a issue for users to purchase them. TV sharing has become personal media. In a way, it could give an advantage to all the media to calculate their total or average viewers rather than multiplying it to two or three times more than the total amount of purchases.

Just to think back, how many of us actually need a gadget all to ourselves? How many of us really need the television or the radio to ourselves? Some of us will say that they are able to use that particular medium according to their timing/needs thus saving the waiting time. I, for one, thinks that all these mediums of the media is part of our social connectivity amongst family and friends. So if each of us own one, and there's no more 'watching the same movie together', then how are we suppose to bond?

If new gadgets were to be introduced as being more 'personalized', then we would probably not understand what's the actual definition of 'socializing'. Just the same if we were to compare cutting down trees and not saving the earth as much as possible, our great grandchildren might not understand what is a tree at the first place.

S6: My friends all have one, i want one too!

In the modern era, children are being pampered in such a way that they should own every new technology or gadget that is introduced in the market. Parents are labelling/calling their children princesses or princes. As for a typical chinese family, there's no more 'Ah boy' or 'Ah girl' anymore but their princesses or princes. Probably they would want to be more 'westernized' . That i'm not sure of but there is something that i am very sure off is almost every children that enters kindergarten, would want to own a mobile phone just to be 'cool' amongst their friends.

Even though they don't have it but among the whole group there is one kid that has it, they are bound to nag their parents for it. so, here we are asking, why do they need a mobile phone at that age? who are they suppose to call? i assume that their contact list would only consists of their parent's number and probably a hand full of their friends number. Even if they do call up their friends and talk to them, why is it so important to own a mobile phone then? well, it is not based on the importance of owning one but to be able to 'compete' or look 'cool' among their friends. And the only positive reason i can think of is that they are easily reached by their parents or just so they are not lost.

There are more negative things that i can think off. the radiation that the phone produces are very harmful to us users but to be exposed to it at such early age will definitely cause more health problems in future. Having something worth quite a bit will only attract strangers even more to rob them. They will also be easily distracted during learning classes because of a new gadget that they own. And face-to-face communication skills will never be developed as they will be too used to talking on the phone or using a new technology rather than the normal approach.

Sorry!

Sorry Mr.Hardip! i know you told me not to create another blog to put up my postings earlier when i have encountered some problems, but i'm falling behind on my work and not being able to post up anything in full. Wordpress cuts off half of what i wrote and post it up. I couldn't find out how to undo the problem.

Sorry for the trouble to have an extra link.

Here's my old link: http://blogs.murdoch.edu.au/elaineteh/