Future of the Internet!

The future of the internet is vast and beyond what we can imagine it to be. Yes, it is a fast growing things that has quickly moved from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 which we are currently and easily using now a days. However, we are expecting Web 3.0 to enter our lives before we can imagine it. Our life is going past us in a blink of an eye so what are we to expect from the internet. ALOT!

1. Audio web surfing
Building the web with standards and accessibility in mind brings the Internet to as wide an audience as possible. With the importance of accessibility getting the recognition it deserves lately, I think screen readers will soon take a front seat as a common means for surfing a site for a much broader audience.
I’m calling it: people on the train with headphones attached to their mobile device while Text-to-Speech reads them the latest articles from their favorite sites. HTML5 is a step in an awesome direction with regards to easy reference points; header, footer, nav, section, and article could be logical jump-to points by audible instruction. Rather than reading and clicking, the audience can tell the browser where they want to go with spoken commands.
From an input standpoint, speech recognition has come a long way in the last decade. Bell Canada has been playing with the audio-attendant "Emily" since 2003. When you call, Emily will give a familiar greeting and ask how she can be of assistance. By simply telling her what you want – it can range from simple commands like "Billing" to more complicated sentences like "I want to talk about my Long Distance package" – she will direct your call accordingly.
2. Web surf on any device
It seems the tech industry is eager to integrate the Internet into every device these days. It’s the equivalent to adding a digital clock to a coffee maker. Why not? Adding a touch-screen to your fridge and other appliances might create new opportunities and challenges for interfacing.
The recent boom in smartphone devices has shown us that tiny screens and suddenly awkward digits can sometimes make for a cumbersome user experience. Our traditional concepts of input applied to the next generation could be confounded more as the devices and environments change. At 6′ 4", I don’t relish the idea of hunching over a wall-mounted screen that has my 5′ 2" coworker in mind.
4. Mobile networking
Bluetooth is known for allowing wireless communication, like with hands-free systems in cars, and the some of the latest mice and keyboards (like the aforementioned Magic Mouse). It also may be the future for mobile networking and P2P interactions. Check out this Android 2.0 "Pong" demonstration:

Does that blow your mind? Imagine interacting on a website with a friend, or with the advertisement at the bus shelter. The possibilities become staggering.

For as long as the Internet has been around, .com has been the assumed default extension for websites (regardless of whether or not the site was "commercial" or not). For a while, there was almost a negative stigma to not having the .com for your brand, company or personal site. How many times has traffic meant for your site ended up at the .com equivalent?
6. IE6 stops being used

I’ll admit this seems like the most unlikely out of all the other predictions. Maybe it won’t happen in our lifetime, but it is somehow feasible that it could happen.

Well, I would say that whatever the predictions for the future of the internet, i hope all of us out there would use it wisely and smartly.

So, be happy and be Internet friendly coz' then will it work to YOUR benefit!!

ENjoy! =)

Why Internet is LOVED!

Why is the internet loved is one question that is super de duper easy to answer. You may want to know why!? Well here is why!!!

Here are various other reasons why we love the internet!

http://lhonline.com/technology/guestservices/ten_reasons_love/

E-mail

Yes, e-mail management is a challenge, but e-mail has provided us with the ability to communicate easily, globally and quickly. We ask questions, disseminate information and conduct non-stop dialogues that did not (and could not) occur prior to e-mail inception.

Competitor Information

Visiting competitor hotels to copy group and convention names from their lobby reader board and calls to competitors' reservation offices have been replaced by vastly more informative (and faster) access to their websites. Competitive rate search tools such as Travel Axe, Rate Tiger, and TravelClick's Rate-View, now joined by meta-search sites such as Kayak.com and Sidestep.com, have streamlined and improved this important data collection process.

Recruiting

Classified ads in the local newspaper have, thankfully, given way to employment opportunity buttons on our websites and the array of hospitality-oriented employment sites like Hcareers.com and more general job sites such as Monster.com. These enable us to publicize our openings and draw from a broader, deeper labor pool. Yes, there are still waves of resumes, but now they are electronic.

Information, Information, Information

Need a new source for coffee mugs? Want to find the addresses for travel agents in Milwaukee? The web has almost everything, and search engines like Google, Yahoo and Ask.com help us find it (in sets of 10 entries at a time for 3,853,002 listings!).

The World Is Our Marketplace

In the hospitality industry, the Internet has removed geographic boundaries — our client base is global.

Our Hospitality Encyclopedia

News, vendor announcements, who's moving where, best practices for just about everything, corporate policies, brand standards and staff training …newsletters, manuals, policies and procedures and so much more are now immediately available online. Web-Based Systems. Internet-based property management systems (PMS), point-of-sale systems (POS) and other previously locally installed technology are becoming more widely available. Local hardware maintenance, periodic software upgrades and the need for back-up tapes are beginning to disappear as formerly in-house and directly maintained systems are replaced by web-accessed technology that, incidentally, requires little or no capital expenditure.

Guest Feedback Sites

TripAdvisor.com, Igougo.com, HotelChatter.com — inconvenient for hotels? Maybe. Requiring work to monitor — no doubt! These immensely popular sites are now integral to travel (especially lodging) shopping. TripAdvisor now has five million postings for 220,000 hotels worldwide. Are these sites perfect? No. Biased reviews do occur but readers recognize and discount these. In the end, operators of good properties receive the acclaim they deserve and bookings follow.

Online Bookability

E-purchasing is on a roll. Consumers are increasingly comfortable buying everything from pajamas to Christmas trees to cars online. Hotel reservations are no exception. The Internet booking engines of our brand or property websites, combined with those of the online travel agencies (Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, etc.), are enabling and delivering a growing and increasingly global stream of bookings to us.

Relationships With Our Guests

The web has enabled us to promote our properties more widely and appealingly. Not only has it has enabled instant bookability, equally importantly it has enabled us to continue and strengthen relationships with our guests. The results are both greater use of our properties' facilities and loyalty to both property and brand. Hotel-guest communication unfeasible in the pre-Web world is now not only practical but highly productive.

Now, i love the internet for the same reasons stated above and various others. I love it as it allows me to keep in touch with my relatives overseas like on a daily basis. It also allows me to talk to my friends without having to physically speak to them. It also allows me to do art, photography, learn new things, fill my curiosity about things that i might want answers to and also lets me learn online if i am unable to attend classes like other students.

I am sure there are more reasons why we love the internet. SO share what your reasons for liking the internet are!
Cheers! =)

Google Vs Microsoft!

What is Google??
Google has taken the last 10 years of systems software research out of university labs, and built their own proprietary, production quality system. What is this platform that Google is building? It’s a distributed computing platform that can manage web-scale datasets on 100,000 node server clusters. It includes a petabyte, distributed, fault tolerant filesystem, distributed RPC code, probably network shared memory and process migration. And a data center management system which lets a handful of ops engineers effectively run 100,000 servers. Any of these projects could be the sole focus of a startup.
While competitors are targeting the individual applications Google has deployed, Google is building a massive, general purpose computing platform for web-scale programming.

Fascinating stuff eh. =)

And now, what is Microsoft?

It is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions. Established on April 4, 1975 to develop and sellBASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOSin the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. Microsoft would also come to dominate theoffice suite market with Microsoft Office. The company has diversified in recent years into the video game industry with theXbox and its successor, the Xbox 360 as well as into the consumer electronics and digital services market with Zune, MSNand the Windows Phone OS. The ensuing rise of stock in the company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO) made an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees.

Primarily in the 1990s, critics contend Microsoft used monopolistic business practices and anti-competitive strategies including refusal to deal and tying, put unreasonable restrictions in the use of its software, and used misrepresentative marketing tactics; both the U.S. Department of Justice and European Commission found the company in violation of antitrustlaws. Known for its interviewing process with obscure questions, various studies and ratings were generally favorable to Microsoft's diversity within the company as well as its overall environmental impact with the exception of the electronics portion of the business.

Isn't this equally facinating!?

So in my world, I would say that i would pick Google any time over Microsoft though no offence to microsoft too of course. I have been a microsoft user for most of my life but when google came knocking on my door, i was won over by it hands down. I like how google not only responds faster but also gives me various options when i search for one word. Over the years, as google started gaining power over microsoft, microsoft started creating stuff to pit against google. They created a search engine like Bing to stand against Google search engine. But boo hoo...it stood no chance against google from the word go.

SO all you microsoft users out there, I would urge you to try our google anytime and lemme know if my thoughts clash against yours in any way!

Cheers! =)

Internet and Journalism!

Before I go into the world of Journalism with Internet, here is what Journalism is in Layman Terms. It is is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues, and trends to a broad audience. Although there is much variation within journalism, the ideal is to inform the citizenry. Besides covering organizations and institutions such as government and business, journalism also covers cultural aspects of society such as arts and entertainment. The field includes jobs such as editing,photojournalism, and documentary.

Now, we can move onto the combination of the internet and journalism. We have been reading the news via the newspapers that are delivered to our houses every morning or from the ones that we purchase. But in today's world, we refer to the internet for all of our news. Not only that, we the public are the ones that come across the news that are reported on the internet. SO, we the people are the ones that journalism runs on and we function it. Now, since we generate the news and read the news and comment on the very same news, what is going to happen to journalism in the future.

Here is what we think may happen. CHeck it out!

Now, although the various things mentioned in the video above may happen, what will happen to those that are still from the era who read print news? Since Singapore is an aging population, we can't just look forward to the future generations and think what would be good for them and us later on. We must also bring our again population along with our future generations so that they can work hand in hand together as a mixture from experience and fresh ideologies. But what might happen if the old couldn't catch up with the new form of journalism? Here's what...

What ever may happen in the future, we may only hope for the best. As everyone says, the rest is all a historical mystery! ;)

Internet and Politics!!

Internet and politics can either make or break a political party. And it has been such for two such Candidates running for elections this year. Both being the Youngest in their respective parties, they are the focus of the media and the talk of town in the internet world. The People's Action Party with which one of the youngest candidate is linked with have a Facebook page with hundreds of followers. Despite of that, the interviews being generated online are the most influential of all.

Here are two videos to show how the internet can have an influence on the people that are its frequent and experienced users.

After viewing this video, many people have turned against PAP candidate Tin Pei Ling and are questioning her ability to run for MP.

Here are some issues that everyone is talking about online!

Singapore General Election 2011
Opposition Parties
- SDP: Democrats unveil first six candidates
- SDP: SDP introduces remaining 5 candidates
- NSP: National Solidarity Party Manifesto At A Glance
- TOC: Time to make a decision on S’pore: SDP
- The Itch To Write: Q & A with TNP
- Abdillah Zamzuri: National Solidarity Party’s Simplistic Manifesto Not Impressive
- The Satay Club: Election handouts raiding the reserves
- Thoughts of a Cynical Investor: Chiam: The importance of EQ
- Rants of a Weird Little Bird: Nicole Seah’s Interview on Razor TV
- Anonymous_X: Zeng Guoyan … an independent candidate who once went to jail for 3 months, instead of paying $3,000 fine for misusing banners of Mas Selamat?? [Thanks wacky]

Independent Candidates
- Singapore Kopi Tok: The March of the Independents
- The Satay Club: Independent: Contenders or spoilers?

Housing
- Molitics: The PAP’s Unique No. 1 Election Strategy
- Chapter Two: Reload: Flat prices: enhancement or inflation
- Mr Wang Says So: Mah Bow Tan is “Proud” of the Asset Enhancement Policy
- Thetwophilo’s Blog: Mr Mah, Housing Minister or Property Agent? [Thansk Lee]
- My Sketchbook: Master or servant?
- ST Forum: Affordable housing is Govt’s primary role

Gutter politics, gerrymandering, pork barrels, mud slings, character assassinations, FUD.. Welcome to SG GE 2011!
- nofearSingapore: Welcome home, prodigal son, unless you are Chen Show Mao [Thanks Doc]
- SpotlightOnSingapore: Ng challenges Opposition to “form next govt”: don’t be daft

Immigration
- Singapore Social and Political Thoughts: Lee Hsien Loong: Foreigner Help Create Good Jobs for Singaporeans?
- ST Blog: A Singapore for Singaporeans or to please foreign investors?

PAP Manisfesto
- TOC: PAP Manifesto 2011 – a statistical analysis
- Singapore 2025: The 2011 PAP Election Manifesto: Old Wine in Old Bottles?

New Mandarins on the Block
- Ravi Philemon: The extremely talented NTUC’s sub-unit
- My sketchbook: The army life and the civilian life

Transportation
- The Lycan Times: Workers’ Party Manifesto on Public Transport

Cost of living
- ST Forum: Rising cost of living is making life tough

Healthcare
- SDP: SDP to Khaw: Don’t mix religion with politics

Casinos and Gambling
- ST Forum: Worried about promotion of gambling

Malay as a foreign language
- Sgpolitics.net: The National Language

Bloggers say
- The Kent Ridge Common: Drawing the line on internet debates
- Yawning Bread on WordPress: Importance of parties should not be overlooked
- Sam’s thoughts: Not mum about single mothers in Singapore
- New Asia Republic: The simple math behind winning hearts of voters
- Politics in Singapore: What GE 2011 means to a 21-year-old
- self-contained: killing sacred cows: on Singapore’s democratisation
- only blue, only blue: What are we exactly electing?
- Yee Jenn Jong: Spoiling your vote? Think carefully!
- Daily Breaks: Death From Complacency [Thanks Annabel]
- Tan Kin Lian’s Blog: Impartial civil service
- Think For Me, Singapore: Why Tampines GRC needs to go to the opposition…
- Yaevlejunce Pilgrimage: Would Jesus vote for the PAP?
- deadpris: Straits Times supports opposition?
- Abdillah Zamzuri: My Manifesto For Singapore – Magnifest-OH!
- Gweek Culter: Every Day Party Unveils Manifesto! [Thanks Gwee]
- Today: Governance, a serious business

Hope that those of you voting for this election would make a wise decision and not only judge on what you see online but also go for the face to face meets to get a chance to better know the people who might serve you in the future. I hope you all make a wise decision and from there we can only hope for the best in our future! =)

Cheers ya'll!! ;D

Multimedia In The Internet!!!

Multimedia is is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun (a medium with multiple content forms) or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which only use traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material. Multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images,animation, video, and interactivity content forms.

And to give you a better picture of what Multimedia is, here is something for you!! ;

We can all use multimedia in various things that we do. We can use multimedia to make a mobile phone application and games, computer programs, online games, modify our pictures with it as well.

Most of us do use Multimedia in our life. When we are photo shopping on our desktops or even playing around with the pictures on our iPhones. We get so excited when we learn how to apply that to our life that every little thing after needs our modification or touches through multimedia! =)

Cheers to all who Love Multimedia!! =D

Internet Security!

Internet Security is something that we want to have and save our privacy. But all that is not that possible. There are Internet pirates all over and we ourselves are one of them without even realizing it. We go around saying 'tsk tsk that is such a bad thing to do' but actions speak louder than words.

Here is a Video to take us through the world and dangers of Internet with or without security by showing us stories of those effected by it!:

I hope you guys out there can learn from this and hope these things do not happen to anyone of you. I Know despite of knowing, each of us is still curious and wants to try out the various things anyways, well my advice to you would be..try it, knowing all the dangers and preventions so that your curiosity is filled and your internet experience a good one! =)

Internet Tools

There are various internet tools that we can use to further help us in our usage of not only the net but also help us when researching. This time round, during class, i learnt about the Google tools. THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!

There are sooo many things about Google that i did not know about. The search Bar itself is a wonderful thing that does and shows wonderful things.

Here is a Video to bring you into the AMAZING world of Google Tools.

This is one of the many ways that Google helps especially when one is starting off an eBusiness.

The various other tools of Google are Google Maps, Trends, Translate, Earth, Docs.

One of my favorite Google tool is Google Docs. This not only allows me to send my work to my friends, Group members or even colleagues, but also allows them to modify it. The modification can be done and sent to everyone and it can go on. Due to this helpful tool, people don't always have to meet up for discussions and stuff! =D

E-Learning!

What is E-learning? As stated by our favorite site Wikipedia, it is something that comprises all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. The information and communication systems, whether networked or not, serve as specific media to implement the learning process. The term will still most likely be utilized to reference out-of-classroom and in-classroom educational experiences via technology, even as advances continue in regard to devices and curriculum.

There are many features to E-learning that some of us may know and some may not. Here are a few, to help double check what you know already and what else you can do with it. =)

http://www.worldwidelearn.com/elearning-essentials/elearning-benefits.htm

• Learning is self-paced and gives students a chance to speed up or slow down as necessary
• Learning is self-directed, allowing students to choose content and tools appropriate to their differing interests, needs, and skill levels
• Accommodates multiple learning styles using a variety of delivery methods geared to different learners; more effective for certain learners
• Designed around the learner
• Geographical barriers are eliminated, opening up broader education options
• 24/7 accessibility makes scheduling easy and allows a greater number of people to attend classes
• On-demand access means learning can happen precisely when needed
• Travel time and associated costs (parking, fuel, vehicle maintenance) are reduced or eliminated
• Overall student costs are frequently less (tuition, residence, food, child care)
• Potentially lower costs for companies needing training, and for the providers
• Fosters greater student interaction and collaboration
• Fosters greater student/instructor contact
• Enhances computer and Internet skills
• Draws upon hundreds of years of established pedagogical principles
• Has the attention of every major university in the world, most with their own online degrees, certificates, and individual courses

There are also many benefits with E-learning:

Convenience and Portability

• Courses are accessible on your schedule
• Online learning does not require physical attendance
• Learning is self-paced (not too slow, not too fast)
• You're unbound by time - courses are available 24/7
• You're unbound by place - study at home, work, or on the road
• Read materials online or download them for reading later

Cost and Selection

• Choose from a wide range of courses to meet your needs
• Degree, Vocational, and Certificate programs
• Continuing Education
• Individual courses
• Wide range of prices to fit your budget
• Go back to school to get a degree, learn a new skill, learn a new craft, or just have fun!
• From art to zoology you can do it all online in a price range to fit your budget.

Flexibility

• Online learning accommodates your preferences and needs - it's student-centered
• Choose instructor-led or self-study courses
• Skip over material you already know and focus on topics you'd like to learn
• Use the tools best suited to your learning styles

Higher Retention

• Online learning will draw you to topics you like and enjoy. Studies show that because of this and the variety of delivery methods used to reach different types of learners, retention is frequently better than in a traditional classroom.

Greater Collaboration

• Technology tools make collaboration among students much easier. Since many projects involve collaborative learning, the online environment is far easier (and often more comfortable) to work in since learners don't have to be face-to-face.

Global Opportunities

• The global learning community is at your fingertips with online learning. The technologies used give online instructional designers the ability to build in tools that take you to resources you may never see in a traditional classroom.

I have been using the E-learning system since i was in secondary school when it was a popular thing for schools to use. I still remember that i enjoyed doing my work via e-learning and and due to the fact that due to e-learning, i didn't have to go to school and could do my work online. Also helped that i didn't have to look at my teacher's faces for that day!! =D

So all in all, i would say that e-learning can be either taken positively or negatively depending on one's own perspective. But when it comes to technology, i would urge all to look at it positively as it is a WONDERFUL thing to know and use.=D

Social Networking Sites (SNS)

Here is a sneak peak to what social networking site (SNS) is. =)

What is a social networking site? Wikipedia states that social networking site is “a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes", which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.”

Many people around the world today are all about Social Network Sites, also known as SNS. These SNSs are there for various reasons. To keep in touch with friends, find old friends, to do business and even to make new friends. There are dangers on social networking sites which people tend to underestimate. Personal Information is something that when given out easily, comes back to haunt us.
Social networking sites tend to mislead people into believing that they have become social beings. The more “friends” you have on your list, the higher your popularity. Staring at your computer, chatting with fiends and random people as well as playing online poker does not make one a social person. People become so tech-reliant that they forget what it is like to communicate with people face to face.
Online social interaction may give the ‘quite’ people a chance to communicate more and express themselves more freely. These people have a different personality when they are online and when they are offline. These two personalities clash when faced with reality. This is normally a problem when two people meet on an SNS and decide to meet up. It ends up such that their portrayed personalities online do not match their descriptions.
Be careful of what you are sharing on these sites. It is easy to give out enough personal information for random people to find you, your family and friends through it. Personal information like home address, phone numbers and full name. This information can be cross checked with the network’s list and traced to your place and address.

A good number of people do not realize that the information they post can be seen by everyone unless they have restricted profiles. Random people from around the world or even from your neighborhood can find information and use it to track and hack your accounts. Even releasing information about your child; school is dangerous as a predator out there, is now aware as to where to get your child.

Posting up of pictures is another thing to look out for. Pictures are put up to share with friends and family. However, are those pictures alluring or provocative to catch the eye of a dangerous person? Despite knowing it might not be safe, some even put indecent or racy pictures of themselves to attract attention. What if those pictures catch the wrong attention and put you in a dangerous spot.

When you are looking for job, the first thing you do is send your resume to the company. The first that the company does upon receiving your resume, is check up on you via the internet. What they get when they first type your name is the link to the social network site that you have joined. From there, they check out all your personal information and pictures. If, they do not like what they see, they chuck your resume and go on to the next person.

A positivity that a social network site allows is the promoting and conducting of any particular business. Any user might like what they see and proceed on to purchase it. After making payment for the object or even service, it might be defective. However, it might not be the case all the time.

SNS can be very addictive. We join it to be in touch with friends from the past and the present. They also join it to know what is going on in the clique that they want to join. We also want daily updates of the people on our list, so we checkout their profiles even though it is not something that effects us in any way.

Not only that, we tend to play the games on it as everyone is playing them too. We get ‘invitations’ from our friends and we join them for the sake of it. We start off with Farmville and we proceed with quizzes that pop up every other time we are online. We start off with playing the games once a month, which goes on to once a week, to once a day and ends up with us playing it every hour. There starts our social network site game life.

As the world becomes more tech savvy, as does our reliance on it. The first thing we do when we get our mobile phones is to download our social network site application. Then we proceed on to doing something more with it. Once we have access to it on the go, we update it regularly with minute by minute progress. As you sit beside someone in the bus or train, the first thing you will notice the person doing is checking out the activities that are occurring on the SNS.

Social networking sites can have both negative or positive impacts on a person. It all comes down to how the person is using the tools that are provided in using these sites.

The Future Internet: Service Web 3.0

What is Web 3.0? Well according to google, it is defined as the creation of high-quality content and services produced by gifted individuals using Web 2.0 technology as an enabling platform. Web 2.0 services like digg and YouTube evolve into Web 3.0 services with an additional layer of individual excellence and focus.

It is some thing that will bring us to the a higher level in terms of the internet services.

Although it has taken ten years for web 2.0 to evolve into web 3.0, it may not take as long for the internet to evolve from there to maybe a 4.0. So when you ask yourself what is web 3.0, you may reply something along the lines of "I don't know." It is something that we can only predict and assume what it would be like. Assumptions are something that we as human beings can't stop doing.

What is Web 3.0?? well, I Don't Know.