Thursday, October 8, 2009

After all this..

After all this, I have something to tell....

Remember the first time I attend the class, there were some people like me, missed the first class and so they would need to ask what to do and catch up. Then I remember when my classmates were talking about posting diary and articles on their blogs, many of them doubting how come some people doing that as routine which they could never do that.


BUT, in fact, I personally have more than 3 blogs.. its not like routine (hmmm.. its bit crazy if you asked me to post something but I couldnt really think about something to write) but.. haha yes, I have many blogs.

Oh, but I also found some people wrote a bit of diary in their school blogs as well.
After this cutie, I have to move on and start doing my tourism economic research report which I hate the most. hahha.. Did I tell that I'm majoring hotel management before? Yer I know its nothing related to this subject, the IT multimedia thing, but I love computer. Actually I wish I choose to do IT as my major.. (was thinking to do interior design or web design).. Anyway, have fun everyone, and my dearest tutor & lecturer. ;)


You such a fun guys!



THE LAST OF LAST, SHARE MY POLAROID AND FUJIFILM INSTANT FOTOS!



LOVE & PEACE

Essay

Marc Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and Dave Weinberger's "A New World" both present different views of contemporary internet users. In light of your own experiences with new technologies do you think they are accurate portrayals? Discuss why or why not with specific examples.





Internet has become one of the things that most of people cannot live without nowaday. Marc Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and Dave Weinberger's "A New World" both reflect this phenomenon by different views. This happened to most of younger generation and as well as some adults. It is not hard to understand why would the number of Digital Natives grows so rapidly. This new technology makes digital migrant abandoning the traditional activities and changes our daily life style. Digital migrant has their own online identities and enjoy living with those what brought from the new digital native which included varied activities, communicating, educating, sharing and collecting.




Varied activities is one of the biggest reasons that why people immigrate from the reality to the digital world. These activities are included online games, buying and selling, brain storm/puzzles, arts, creating and more online recreation. Some youths deem that online games are part of their living essential, and grade up their levels is their daily routine. They enjoy the self-achivements and the reputation in the digital native which they may not obtain from the reality world. Also they can make up an ideal identity and choose to be any characters they want to be. Some of them may just enjoy the moment they team up with their online buddy and fight with the virtual enemies. Migrant is also doing business online. They do buying and/or selling or just window shopping. In the market of digital world, people can find almost everything they're looking for, and the price is usually cheaper than the reality. There are plenty of online shops. For example, amazon, yahoo shopping and lots more. Or they can participate and enjoy the auctions which could be eBay or Yahoo auction. Moreover, they have more choice as the market is globally, and sellers gathering here from different countries. There are also puzzles and brain storm for any ages of migrant to participate. They can whether join in a game room to play with other migrant or just play by themselves privatly. Digital migrant can also do art things such as drawing, scratching, building web sites and other online recreations to statisfy their interests or just to kill their spare time.






Secondly, communicating is another important reason cause people immigrate to digital world. As letters take time to write and deliver, communicate through internet has become a better choice. It is easy to access and fast to arrive. The most common communication tool that supplant tranditional letters is email which sent instantly. In addition, there are some other communication softwares that convenient to migrant for instant live chatting such as MSN messenger, Yahoo messenger, ICQ, Skype and Google talk. They can do private or group online chatting, leave offline message or even voice chatting and web cam. This definately make the digital natives distance less. In the reality, its being expensive to have long distance communication and so that makes people feel time is limited. However, in the digital world, communication tools make it easy, cheap or even free, and its world-wide communication. Migrant who doesnt have a cam, there are many of facial and mood icons that help expressing their emotion. Furthermore, there are other communication tools that don't have to be installed. Currently, the most popular tool is Facebook. It is used globally. Migrant can not only communicate with their friends but also meet other new friends. They can even choose whom to be their friends and reject others without being too rude. The chatting room, which is all about meeting strangers and become friends. There is a phenomenon happened as I've noticed that some people meet in the digital native, and turn into a relationship even they never really see each other before. This is also happening in the online games.



Last, the digital natives achieve sharing, collecting and educating. Some migrant would join a forum or several forums, and usually there is a theme. Migrant would share and post any latest information they know in the related forums, and/or share their related experience and knowledge. While these migrant are sharing, the others are learning from it. Sometimes this would happen as a Q&A form. For example, several migrant joined and became a member of a computering forum. Some of them could be experts, they're there to share and try to resolve others problem. Once if any members got a difficulty about computering, the others may be able to help. It is convenience and fast to get the suitest solution rather than looking in the old edition books. Or they would just share the latest news about computering. The educating resouce in digital world are numerous, but migrant only learn whatever the things they're interested in or for their own purposes. On the other hand, migrant share intimate details of their personal and emotional lives by using weblog. They may share their journey, or just diary. Originally this would just be a plain text form, however as the technology has been improved a lot, migrant can now create albums to share their photos and videos so that they may present diary with the combination of their words and photos. Migrant also sharing and collecting musics, movies and so much more in the digital world. The statistics are that 40 billion songs have been downloaded in 2008. They use different software, and peer to peer (P2P) for downloading and collecting different types of files. They're fast, cheap or free and last longer.


Digital world brings many of benefits and changes. The migrant can do both things that they're doing in the reality, and those things that can not be done in the reality. Its so hard for migrant to get back to the old way they live. Digital world has become part of them, or even the whole world. Some people may say that they can live without the internet, but internet doesn't delegate the whole digital world. And funniest thing is, they still cannot help themselves to surf internet by using their mobile or smart phones. The others, they will tell undoubtedly that they can never or impossible to live without this digital world.





by Liyen


Reference
Sean Adams, 2009, "95% of music downloads in 2008 were illegal - DiS reacts and suggests two solutions"(http://drownedinsound.com/news/4136081-95-of-music-downloads-in-2008-were-illegal-dis-reacts-and-suggests-two-solutions)

Monday, October 5, 2009

choose a good laptop - plus mini laptop, CULV

Talk about laptops, it definately wont be the mini laptops for me.
But I'll 'try' to be objective to talk about how to choose laptops. ha!



so, here is the question.

what would you concern when you buying a new laptop? Its performance? specification? weight? size? appearence? brand? or price? or maybe you know nothing about laptops so just get the newest one or whichever that media say its good?



If you have a preferred brand, everything becomes very easy.

but if now, I have my own steps to help my friends to figure out which laptops suit them best.





1. think about what you'll use it for?

Are you going to play online games? graphic design? daily use? some office works? sufering internet? If you do play online games or doing graphic design, please concern the graphic of the laptop and don't even think about CULVs or mini laptops. If not, most of the laptops can satifying your needs.



*the online games I talked about in here mean the one that need install into your laptop (e.g. WOW) , not the web online games.





2. Size & weight

Choose the best size for yourself.

Warm remind, screens that below 11" laptops (inc 11") will hurt our eyes.

I'm the person who cares about the size and weight very much. 12" laptops are always my first choice and no more than 2kg. but if you don't care about size, skip this step.





3. Make a budget

How much would you like to spend on it? make your own budget.

Normally I'd ask my friends their budget first then start my searching and give advise. However I found that sometimes their requirement will over the budget so.. I put this in step 3. You can pretty much tell the price range once they tell their enquiry. if they want a better graphic, you'd say it will be more expensive because normally laptops are with standard or basic graphic blah blah blah. If they tell you they would like the brand to be vaio for example, you can tell them its gonna be much expensive than Acer or Asus and so on (this happens in Taiwan, vaio are so expensive and become one of the brands that I'd not to buy).





4. Compare the specification

Yer, in the budget range, choose the ones that have better specification. Of course you'll compare all specification but if you don't understand those things just check the common ones.



CPU

If you care about the speed of your laptop, choose the one that has better CPU. Duo Processor? I love it. Runs so smooth and speedy (as this 3C killer is using duo processor laptop for 4 years and still quite fast). It was expensive when I got the duo processor laptop but now they're all quite chaep.



Memory, storage, display.





5. Go to shops

Go to shops? doesn't mean go and buy it straight away after all these simple steps. Go to shops to feel the laptops you may buy. Try their keyboards, the touch pad (?) and see what they look like. You know on the websites they're all been edited and look so fatastic in the photos so you may want to have a look the real ones.



6. Seek the feedbacks

Seek the feedbacks from other users online.





step 7 only suit for now..

Check the system, buy the one that is Windows Vista PREMIUM so that you can get free upgrade to Windows 7 after it release.









after all these steps, the thing that disappointed me a lot is their size and weight. Its so hard to find 12" laptops that I like. Well... I saw one by Fujitsu and the price is... making me cry :_( Ha.. I think I may get the Acer 3935. and I checked the price, from AUD$2299 inc GST. wt....???!! guess how much in tw? AUD$1XXX. much cheaper. guess I have to wait until I go back Taiwan and get one over there.





Mini Laptop




Here I'm not gonna tell you their features, disadvantages or something like that. Nor introduce any mini laptops that you can find in stores. Here, I just want to share the mini laptop by Fujitsu which I don't see many in Australia.




pic: mini laptops compare

Yes, 3 of them are mini laptops. From left to right, they are Asus EeePC, Toshiba then Fujitsu. I know once you put the Fujitsu next to the other ones, they look like normal laptop size. However, Fujitsu's price is not 'mini' at all. Its price just as expensive as the normal one but the specification are just as other mini laptop. Well.. I don't think it is worth to buy but I just want to show how amazing that the size is. (seriously I think if a mini laptop is over AUD$400, dont even think to buy it. its not worthy!)







CULV



what is CULV? its "Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage" which is laptop with low voltage. This is the laptop that I would say between netbook and notebook. It definately works better than mini laptop, and we could say that it almost a normal laptop. the only difference is the CPU. But let me tell you, CPU for me matters a lot. If you just use it to run some website, MSN, Facebook, Microsoft office, CULV is a good choice. Its light, good at temperture control, long battery life and cheap. Bad news is, the warranty is shorter than other laptops. But it such a pretty baby ay?


The laptop 3C killer is using - Acer TravelMate 3020



Seriously, I never seen it sell in Australia, even I visited Acer centre once and they couldn't repair my laptop because they didn't have any TM 3020 pieces here. The best thing was, it came with 2 batteries so you can charge both of them and bring them with you, then you dont have to worry if there is no outlet on the wall. However, 3C killer is not only good at killing 3C products but also knows a bit of tricks. Yer, she disappeared her second battery. 3 years+, the room is just that big but no one could ever found it. Sigh! anyway, my slim baby got duo centrino processor bluetooth mic (which has already gone). When is the next 12" good slimmy gonna be developed? I'm still waiting......

Clean Feed

The truth is.. when I was searching clean feed, 9 out 10 were NO CLEAN FEED, not the CLEAN FEED. seems like no clean feed got more support.







What is the 'Clean Feed'?
The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and slow down Internet access.
Despite being almost universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is determined to force this filter into your home.





just found this from the nocleanfeed.com





well.. seriously i think once you decide to use internet and put up all your personal detail on or.. you know, register some websites with your real information, well.. you should have think about hackers, stealing, and all those things might happen to you. Clean Feed? I don't think this will work, if it does, then we don't need to worry about sooooooooo much, right? and seems like people fighting this for kind of their freedom right, but once your detail get hacked, dont yell or scream or complain. you want to enjoy something from internet, you also may need to pay something back. well.. its not really as people always think "it wont be me". ha.. hackers or viruses are all the same for me and I never really care. as long as I can keep my computer alive and work well, I'm happy.




No Clean Feed Protest - Perth - 2008-12-13 by Wyrmworld.


Clean Feed Rally Brisbane 5 by Sally06.

This gathering was in Brisbane.
How come I didn't see that?

Except CLEAN FEED, I think Australian Gov should think about the usage.
Well.. I'm not sure if Australian has this problem too or not really.. but seriously, limited the download usage is very very annoying and scary. why would I say its 'scary'? here I have a true story or should said my friend's experience to tell. He was living with a usage monster, and they were over the limited usage of the month, normal there would be 2 options (this is very depends on the supplier or the company). I'm pretty sure they were using BigPond which is taking penalty plus over usage fees. (I know the TPG will slow down your speed, very slow) ha.. unfortunately, they didnt get any notice when they were out of limited usage so they just download whatever they want as usual. Guess how much for the bill (inc penalty and over usage fee)? over AUD$3000. that WOW me a lot!!! No kidding.

anyway, that is all about internet. part of my life.




Reference
fotos above are from http://au.wrs.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0S0zu9jJ8pK0G4A.DgW5gt./SIG=122ta4v7d/EXP=1254848739/**http%3A//www.flickr.com/photos/ocarr/3104746380/

hi there, 3C killer

here I am.. again. let me share another story of 3C killer.
well.. this just happened last night.
while 3C killer tried to force herself doing some assessment works, she decided to move her laptop from her little messy room to the living room. don't ask why because you should know how easy it is to be distracted when there are full of interesting stuff surrounding. anyway, she decided to sit on the seat that she used to sit, which was the one facing to the TV but far away from the power outlet. The only way to sort this out was using the outlet from her room as her room just facing the living room. but, once she decided to do that, she should be very careful each time if she wants to leave her seat. however last night, she wasn't careful enough. just the moment she stepped on her charger cable, @$%#%^%.. the laptop dropped on the floor.


another tragedy.


but, yes! she is still using her laptop typing this story.
fortunately that she loves her laptop so much and her laptop does too, it still works.. but not too well.
next article, she is going to share and introduce some laptops.
just because she thinks its time to buy another one and did a bit research.



ciao!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

political participation via internet

* sign e-petition

This was one of the online petition that I've signed which called "Say NO to United Nations' abolishment of Traditional Chinese in 2008". (the petition has closed)

let me introduce this petition shortly. simply it was popular to argue that whether the traditional chinese should be kept or not. As China this huge country is using simplified chinese, some people (not taiwanese for sure) thought that traditional chinese is not neccessery blah blah blah. and how stupid this arguement was all about. sigh!


* comment for a major news site


Look at what I found at ifood.tv



This article is talking about Ken Moorish (one of the farmer?) picked this apple from a golden delicious apple tree. But no one had the heart to eat it.

and this is my reply:
wow! I've seen this kinda apple few times... in Snow White Cartoon. ha.. well seriously this apple remind me that fairy tale. In one of the version, its the green apple but once the witch put the toxic on it comes red, just like this one. hmmmm.. i'd love to try this apple if i could.



*What is Barak Obama up to?
Well.. from my researching, he is apparently requiring people in USA to get health insurance.












From here could be the most difficult tasks for me so far.. because I dont know anything about Australian political things.. :( oh no! lets see what I've found.

Local Representatives of Central Brisbane: Lord Mayor Campbell Newman

The last time he spoke in parliament was on 19/05/2009. and i try to read a bit of his speech but such a tough work for me, and i dont understand anything he talked about so.. i'll save heaps of my words. well.. i dont even know what should i commence about his speech. so......
hopeless as I am about the political things.........

free softwares. why bother to pay?

download free software???? well.. I didn't pay any fees on any of the softwares in my laptop except the viruses protection one. of course some of them are illegal to do but.. you know, who would really love to spend hundreds on just a software? they are way too expensive.

here are some softwares that I think is quite useful.

K-Lite Codec Pack
Its a multimedia player, free, easy and plays most types of films.
click to download.

utorrent (BT)
P2P download-ware. you can find almost anything you want, from software to films, songs, albums.. anything. and its totally free (just dont download from the sites that need to pay)
click to download.

RealPlayer11
Its a media player, however, I never use it to watch any films or listen any songs as I use K-Lite and iTunes. but it has an attractive, great new function which is downloading films. yes, if you want to download films from youtube, myspace, any other websites, real-player 11 can do all this for you by clicking "download this film" button. well.. sometimes it shows error but works most of times. and the best thing is, the film wont be .flv so that you dont need to install a software just for watching the flv films (and the flv films are all in low quality in my opinion)

Orbit Download
don't like to use real player to download films? well.. orbit is always a good option, and my favorite one too.

WinRAR

GoldWave

some converters

hmmmmm...... well.. I use free microsoft office, free CS3.. some others which are not popular in Western but.. I have to say, I love all these lovely free software for helping me mess up my laptop :D

brissy of the day

so.. I believe everyone noticed the dust storm today (or should say yesterday). and below are some photos that I took in Brisbane city when I went out this afternoon.

The whole city was in orange.. covered by the dust. (didn't edit it)


When I was on my way back home, it was getting better and turning in pink (or should say ashy)


can't even see the goodwell bridge or the story bridge from the victoria bridge.



well.. i hate the nasty dusty taste after came back home.
first thing I did was taking a shower RIGHT AWAY.

Week 6 tasks




Firstly is the Personas one, as I tried my full name buy couldnt find anything so the result below is just with my first name Liyen.

















Last one, my map
Here is my place, Vulture St in South Bank..
and definately the red house I tagged is where I live in

Sunday, September 20, 2009

3 short films

Well.. its been a while that I didn't come up and post something for tutorial.
I'm really sorry about that and I'll try to finish this all, the thing that i missed in past classes.

(however still can't think of my password tho :( )


in last 2 weeks, something happened and I became a 3C killer.
In the same day (which my friend asked me to record the date but I've forgot), my charger for the laptop was broken (the universal charger, which I'll never consider to buy them ever again) so I decided to start clean my room. I plug my ipod mini to the speaker, with charger on at the same time. Just about 2 songs time, the ipod mini dead. Then, I plug another ipod which was 4th gen ipod, the old, whity one. Not even a song, dead. I tried to find out why? and so I smell them like what dogs do, and I smell something inside of my ipods burned. Fair well.. I hate apple ipods' battery but I love itunes which makes me still want to get an ipod even I think its so.......bad :( Ha, so now i have a 5th gen ipod nano, with its build in video camera. I'll tape some videos and upload to share the quality.



so.. in week 5 we're doing the 3 short films that internet delivered. The films that I choose are "Charlie the unicorn". It was very popular when it just published. I think a lot of people already watched it before so.. well.. the films that I imbed are something different. For the reason why I choose these is because Charlie the Unicorn is an online animation which only can be found on internet not TV. and now thats enjoy these Charlie the Unicorn special versions with quotes defination (its idea always gets from some exist films and you'll find out once you read it).




YouTube Live Promo - Mission Impossible













This film imitates MacGruber (the bomb part), and movie Mission Impossible 1. However, in Mission Impossible, Tom Cruise was holding heaps of MO disks, but Charlie is holding the old 5.25 big disk.


YouTube Live Promo - Rick Astley Alive













This one has more surprises.


"Fat guys will be falling over in slow motion" yes, this one is talking about the Maxican fatty boy Edgar and his cousin Fernando try to across the log bridge.


"Cats will be doing people things" this one I guess is about the film called Simon's Cat which talking about the cat doing some people things behind the owner.


"Rick Astley" This joke maybe only Western people would understand so I did some research. It used to be a joke called Rickroll which is people post a link that looks normal (they might say its new movies' trailer or someone's new music video) but when you click in, it always Rick Astley's song Never Gonna Give You Up. This joke is not as popular as before so Charlie said "Rick Astley will alive again". The pinky and the blue one said "Never gonna give you up, never let you down" "you know the rules.." these all are Rick's lyric.


"Raining Chocolate" This was a very popular film/song on youtube made by Tay Zonday. more than 36,000,000 views. Why was it so popular? I have no idea.


Hot Topic Advertising - Charlie the Unicorn






sorry this one got the Chinese subtitle, I couldnt find it anywhere so I upload myself.

"I am the Weasel" This used to be one of the cartoon in Cartoon Network.


"We are naked" this is saying that T-shirts of Charlie the Unicorn is selling and asking people to buy the T-shirts.


Sunday, August 23, 2009

Internet timeline and computing timeline

I missed week 4 tutorial due to I was sick.
And I cancelled all my shifts that week, didn't earn any money at all. :(
and below is the internet timeline and computing timeline things.
Here I just post some more recent computing history as its a long list.


And here is a website that content heaps of resource of computer history.
(http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/)


Computing timeline


1998 - June 25 Microsoft released Windows '98. Some U.S. attorneys tried to block it's release since the new O/S interlaces with other programs such as M.S.I.E. and so effectively closes the market of such software to other companies. Microsoft has fought back with a letter to the White House suggesting that 26 of it's industry allies say that a delay in the release of the new O/S could damage the U.S. economy.


1999 - Jan 25 Linux Kernel 2.2.0 Released. The number of people running Linux is estimated at over 10million, making it an not only important operating system in the Unix world, but an increasingly important one in the PC world.


1999 - Feb 22 AMD release K6-III 400MHz version, 450 to OEMS. In some tests it outperforms soon-to-be released Intel P-III. It contains approximately 23 million transistors, and is based on 100Mhz super socket 7 motherboards, an improvement on the 66MHz buses their previous chips were based on. This helps it's performance when compared to Intel's Pentium II - which also uses a 100MHz bus speed.


1999 - Aug 31 Apple release the PowerMac G4. It's powered by the PowerPC G4 chip from Apple, Motorola and IBM. Available in 400MHz, 450MHz and 500MHz versions it's claimed to be the first personal computer to be capable of over one billion floating-point operations per second.


1999 - Nov 29 AMD release Athlon 750MHz version.


2000 - Jan 14 US Government announce restrictions on exporting Cryptography are relaxed. This allows US Companies to stop the long running, and rather ridiculous process of having to create US and International copies of their software.


2000 - Jan 19 Transmeta launch their new 'Crusoe' chips. Designed for laptops these prvoide comparible performance to the mid-range Pentium II chips, but consume a tiny fraction of the power. They are a new and exciting competitor to Intel in the x86 market.


2000 - Feb 17 Offical Launch of Windows 2000 - Microsoft's replacement for Windows 9x and Windows NT. Claimed to be faster and more reliable than previous versions of Windows the computing industry has mixed feelings about how much of a success it will really be.




Internet timeline


1969
ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) goes online in December, connecting four major U.S. universities. Designed for research, education, and government organizations, it provides a communications network linking the country in the event that a military attack destroys conventional communications systems.


1972
Electronic mail is introduced by Ray Tomlinson, a Cambridge, Mass., computer scientist. He uses the @ to distinguish between the sender's name and network name in the email address.


1973
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is designed and in 1983 it becomes the standard for communicating between computers over the Internet. One of these protocols, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), allows users to log onto a remote computer, list the files on that computer, and download files from that computer.


1976
Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter and running mate Walter Mondale use email to plan campaign events.
Queen Elizabeth sends her first email. She's the first state leader to do so.


1982
The word “Internet” is used for the first time.


1984
Domain Name System (DNS) is established, with network addresses identified by extensions such as .com, .org, and .edu.
Writer William Gibson coins the term “cyberspace.”


1985
Quantum Computer Services, which later changes its name to America Online, debuts. It offers email, electronic bulletin boards, news, and other information.


1988
A virus called the Internet Worm temporarily shuts down about 10% of the world's Internet servers.


1989
The World (world.std.com) debuts as the first provider of dial-up Internet access for consumers.
Tim Berners-Lee of CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics) develops a new technique for distributing information on the Internet. He calls it the World Wide Web. The Web is based on hypertext, which permits the user to connect from one document to another at different sites on the Internet via hyperlinks (specially programmed words, phrases, buttons, or graphics). Unlike other Internet protocols, such as FTP and email, the Web is accessible through a graphical user interface.


1990
The first effort to index the Internet is created by Peter Deutsch at McGill University in Montreal, who devises Archie, an archive of FTP sites.


1991
Gopher, which provides point-and-click navigation, is created at the University of Minnesota and named after the school mascot. Gopher becomes the most popular interface for several years.
Another indexing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server), is developed by Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corp.


1993
Mosaic is developed by Marc Andreeson at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). It becomes the dominant navigating system for the World Wide Web, which at this time accounts for merely 1% of all Internet traffic.


1994
The White House launches its website, www.whitehouse.gov.
Initial commerce sites are established and mass marketing campaigns are launched via email, introducing the term “spamming” to the Internet vocabulary.
Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark start Netscape Communications. They introduce the Navigator browser.


1995
CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy start providing dial-up Internet access.
Sun Microsystems releases the Internet programming language called Java.
The Vatican launches its own website, www.vatican.va.


1996
Approximately 45 million people are using the Internet, with roughly 30 million of those in North America (United States and Canada), 9 million in Europe, and 6 million in Asia/Pacific (Australia, Japan, etc.). 43.2 million (44%) U.S. households own a personal computer, and 14 million of them are online.


1997
On July 8, 1997, Internet traffic records are broken as the NASA website broadcasts images taken by Pathfinder on Mars. The broadcast generates 46 million hits in one day.
The term “weblog” is coined. It’s later shortened to “blog.”


1998
Google opens its first office, in California.


1999
College student Shawn Fanning invents Napster, a computer application that allows users to swap music over the Internet.
The number of Internet users worldwide reaches 150 million by the beginning of 1999. More than 50% are from the United States.
“E-commerce” becomes the new buzzword as Internet shopping rapidly spreads.
MySpace.com is launched.


2000
To the chagrin of the Internet population, deviant computer programmers begin designing and circulating viruses with greater frequency. “Love Bug” and “Stages” are two examples of self-replicating viruses that send themselves to people listed in a computer user's email address book. The heavy volume of email messages being sent and received forces many infected companies to temporarily shut down their clogged networks.
The Internet bubble bursts, as the fountain of investment capital dries up and the Nasdaq stock index plunges, causing the initial public offering (IPO) window to slam shut and many dotcoms to close their doors.
America Online buys Time Warner for $16 billion. It’s the biggest merger of all time.


2001
Napster is dealt a potentially fatal blow when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rules that the company is violating copyright laws and orders it to stop distributing copyrighted music. The file-swapping company says it is developing a subscription-based service.
About 9.8 billion electronic messages are sent daily.
Wikipedia is created.


2002
As of January, 58.5% of the U.S. population (164.14 million people) uses the Internet. Worldwide there are 544.2 million users.
The death knell tolls for Napster after a bankruptcy judge ruled in September that German media giant Bertelsmann cannot buy the assets of troubled Napster Inc. The ruling prompts Konrad Hilbers, Napster CEO, to resign and lay off his staff.


2003
It's estimated that Internet users illegally download about 2.6 billion music files each month.
Spam, unsolicited email, becomes a server-clogging menace. It accounts for about half of all emails. In December, President Bush signs the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM Act), which is intended to help individuals and businesses control the amount of unsolicited email they receive.
Apple Computer introduces Apple iTunes Music Store, which allows people to download songs for 99 cents each.
Spam, unsolicited email, becomes a server-clogging menace. It accounts for about half of all emails.
Apple Computer introduces Apple iTunes Music Store, which allows people to download songs for 99 cents each.


2004
Internet Worm, called MyDoom or Novarg, spreads through Internet servers. About 1 in 12 email messages are infected.
Online spending reaches a record high—$117 billion in 2004, a 26% increase over 2003.


2005
YouTube.com is launched.


2006
There are more than 92 million websites online.


2007
Legal online music downloads triple to 6.7 million downloads per week.
Colorado Rockies' computer system crashes when it receives 8.5 million hits within the first 90 minutes of World Series ticket sales.
The online game, World of Warcraft, hits a milestone when it surpasses 9 million subscribers worldwide in July.


2008
In a move to challenge Google's dominance of search and advertising on the Internet, software giant Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion.
In a San Fransisco federal district court, Judge Jeffrey S. White orders the disabling of Wikileaks.org, a Web site that discloses confidential information. The case was brought by Julius Baer Bank and Trust, located in the Cayman Islands, after a disgruntled ex-employee allegedly provided Wikileaks with stolen documents that implicate the bank in asset hiding, money laundering, and tax evasion. Many web communities, who see the ruling as unconstitutional, publicized alternate addresses for the site and distributed bank documents through their own networks. In response, Judge White issues another order to stop the distribution of bank documents.
Microsoft is fined $1.3 billion by the European Commission for further abusing its dominant market position, and failing to comply to their 2004 judgment, which ordered Microsoft to give competitors information necessary to operate with Windows. Since 2004, Microsoft has been fined a total of $2.5 billion by the Commission for not adhering to their ruling.



Sources for this timeline include International Data Corporation, the W3C Consortium, Nielsen/NetRatings, and the Internet Society.




reference
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0193167.html
http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/dbrown/8162/timeline.htm

Scavenger Hunt For Thursday

Alright, this week task is to answer the questions below without using wikipedia and google.
But I can tell you that I don't really use wikipedia or google for my search before because my favorite one is Yahoo! ha.. I know in someway google is much better especially when we need to search some literature reviews or theories to do our assessment. However if you know there is a function (should I call it function?) called Knowledge+ which is named Yahoo answer in AU YAHOO!7. Its very popular in Taiwan and you always find something useful, amazing, interesting or even stupid questions (as I think the oz Yahoo answer is not that popular or fun).


Anyway, lets start to answer these questions.


1. What is the height of the world's biggest tree? How long did it take to grow?

General Sherman is the biggest giant sequoia and the biggest tree in the world. He is 83.8 m (274.9 feet) tall, his girth at breast height is 24,10 m (79 feet) (near the ground it is 31,3 m or 102,6 feet). The width of the crown is 33 m, and the first branch starts only at 40 m or 130 feet! For a long time it was thought that this tree had reached an age of 2000 to 3000 years. Others even spoke about ages of 6000 to 11000 years. Research out of 2002 has shown that he is probably 'only' about 2000 years old.

By the way, the tallest tree in the world is a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), named Hyperion after a person in Greek mythology. He is no less than 115.55 m (379.1 feet) tall!



2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Madonna?

Creative Artists Agency
9830 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills, California
90212-1825
USA


3. What is the age of the oldest ever captive elephant? Is this older than the average wild age?

The oldest captive elephant was 86 years old, and was grown in Taiwan (so I should already know this, shouldn't I?) and yes, it is older than the average wild age as average wild age is about 60 years.


4.a) How would you define the word 'glycomics'? In your own words, what does it really mean ? b)What does the term 'seagull manager' refer to?

a)Glycomics? I know the word "comic" but glycomics? Sorry! I really need a dictionary to help to define.

The systematic study of the structure and function of the complete set of glycans (the glycome) produced in a single organism and identification of all the genes that encode glycoproteins.
Common names: Glycomics; Glycomic; Glycobiology

(my friend told me "glyco-" is something about glucose, and he was right! He is only 18 years old. Thats pretty smart. Haha)

b)A manager who only interacts with employees to criticize their work or when a problem arises.


5. What was David Cronenberg's most recent feature film? Which of his films Had 'Blondie' in it?

David Cronenberg latest film which he directed is 'Eastern Promises'. The Blondie was in the movie called Videodrome.


6. When was the original 'Hackers' released?

Hackers starring Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller was released in 1995.


7. Why do phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?

Numbers 555-0100 through 555-0199 are now specifically reserved for fictional use, because it is not a real area code.


8. What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Cairns?

Jetstar does flights from $79 (one way) from Cairns to Gold Coast or Gold Coast to Cairns


9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1970?

The top pop song on Australian Charts in mid August (16 – 22) was Bread - Make It With You.


10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?

Black Assassins

sources
http://users.telenet.be/sequoiadendron/en/california.html
http://www.superiorpics.com/madonna/contact.html
http://www.find-health-articles.com/msh-glycomics.htm
http://www.wordspy.com/words/seagullmanager.asp http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/
http://www.themovieblog.com/2008/06/movie-blog-history-lesson-555
http://www.flightcentre.com.au/
http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/number-one-songs-by-year/?y=1970
http://live-wirez.gu.edu.au/Staff/Stephen/default.html


Photo





The photo was taken when I went to the winery excursion last week.

Chanel No5 Film

The Start of new Chanel No5 Film (just 2 seconds)
I dont know why that it always appear error when I upload the full film so if you want to watch the full version, please check on youtube or the chanel no5 website.

Its by one of my favorite actresses- Audrey Tautou
Backgroud music- Billie Holliday "I'm a fool to want you"

Reference
http://www.chaneln5.com/

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Language of Film/Screen

Below are some details of language of film that I found.

Distance

Very Long Shot (VLS)/ Wide Shot (WS)
As I found in most of websites, they would call VLS as Extreme Long Shot.
It used when showing the main object at a considerable distance from the camera and thus presenting it in relation to general surroundings. Often these are landscape shots that give a view of a city, a town, or even a galaxy.
The wide shot helps identify both the character and his environment.

Long Shot (LS)
One of the primary functions of the long shot is to establish a context or sense of place.
Repeated use of long shots in a sequence tends to stress setting over character.

Medium Long Shot (MLS)
In the case of a standing actor, the lower frame line cuts off his feet and ankles. Some documentaries with social themes favour keeping people in the longer shots, keeping social circumstances rather than the individual as the focus of attention.

Medium Shot or Mid-Shot (MS)
In such a shot the subject or actor and its setting occupy roughly equal areas in the frame. In the case of the standing actor, the lower frame passes through the waist. The MS is a general, all-purpose shot and to see the body language or hand gesture. MS is frequently used for the tight presentation two actors or with dexterity three.

Medium Close Up (MCU)
Head and shoulders.

Close Up (CU)
A picture which shows a fairly small part of the scene, such as a character's face, in great detail so that it fills the screen. It abstracts the subject from a context. CU focuses attention on a person's feelings or reactions, and are sometimes used in interviews to show people in a state of emotional excitement, grief or joy.

Big Close Up (BCU)
It forehead to chin. BCUs are rarely used for important public figures.

Extreme Close-Up (ECU)
In the ECU, an entire panel or the screen is devoted to some detail important to the plot.

180 degree rule
If you are using multiple cameras and plan to edit the different shots in a scene into a seamless sequence, an important rule to keep in mind is to place all the cameras on the same side of a line of action. A line of action is a path which your subject is traveling along or an imaginary line between two characters who are interacting.



7 Items

Who
In the film language, the who question is typically answered with the close-up (CU). The primary point of focus in any close-up is the subject's face. This framing typically mimics the experience of what you would see in real life if you were conversing with a person. A close-up is an intimate portrait of someone, more intimate than you would ever get with a stranger. This is part of why fans inherently feel as though they "know" famous actors. (Though the feeling is certainly not mutual!)

Who Is He?: A Close-up gives insight into who a character is.
These shots leave little doubt that one is a no-nonsense sourpuss and the other is a idealistic dreamer.


What
If you want to communicate what is going on, you probably need to show a subject performing an activity, and typically, this is conveyed in a medium shot (MS). To clarify, dramatic events are broken down into hundreds of discrete actions that can be described by active verbs (to lift, to threaten, to save, to give, to arrest, and so on.) While sometimes such actions might be subtle and internal enough to be conveyed in a CU, or complex enough to require a sequence of shots, very often the MS provides enough distance from the subject's eyes to move the focus off of their identity, but is still close enough to emphasize what it is they're doing.

What's Going On?: These Medium Shots are perfect for showing a variety of activities.

Where
The location of an event is critical. Sometimes this element is deliberately omitted for a while to emphasize suspense or disorientation, but if you go too long without answering this question, the audience will likely grow weary and eventually disengage from your story. The where question is nearly always answered with a Long Shot (LS) though depending on the nature of the scene, sometimes a medium long shot (MLS) or a shot even further away than an LS such as a wide shot (WS) might do the trick.

Where Are We?: Wider Shots clearly show a person in an environment.

When
The when question can seem tricky, especially when trying to simplify it to a single shot type. When can mean what period in history, how long before or after an important story event, or it can mean at what point in the overall story arc. The quintessential when shot is the extreme-long shot (ELS or XLS), which illustrates the subject traversing such a vast space that there is a sense of how much time it will take. This could be a car traversing an endless stretch of highway, camels crossing the desert, or a ship in a huge swath of ocean.

A Long Way To Go: The framing here emphasizes how tiny the camel caravan is compared to the huge desert they must traverse. Adding to the travelers' burden is the further information that the sun is setting and they're nowhere near any destination.

Why
This question points to the internal decision making of your subject, and when you want to delve into someone's thoughts, the classic shot to use is an extreme close-up (ECU or XCU or sometimes BCU for bigclose-up).
What's He Thinking?: ECUs like this one get the viewer wondering what the subject is thinking.
The decision making going on in there can serve as motivation for the action he takes next.

How
While the why is usually a very internal aspect of the story requiring suggestive shots and editing techniques, the how is just the opposite. This question is very external and is usually answered using either medium close-ups (MCU) of a subject performing a physical action (opening a door, lifting a manhole cover, packing a suitcase, etc.) or a series of CUs or ECUs of specific actions (pulling a trigger, snapping a latch closed, operating a piece of machinery, etc.)

A Very Particular Procedure: The MCU is a perfect shot to show just how meticulously the photographer likes his tea prepared. This particular example does double duty; since the teacup in the foreground is like a built-in Close-up of the action itself.


With Whom
There's one more question that you must answer to satisfy your audience's unconscious need to make sense of the information you are communicating. Whenever you have a scenario with multiple subjects, their relative proximity, posture, and the power dynamic between them is an essential story element. With two people, this information is, by definition, contained in a 2-shot.

Best Buds: 2-shots can vary widely, from the standard over the shoulder (shown first) to a variety
of other arrangements that convey the subtle but critical relationship dynamics that are fundamental
to making sense of the story you are telling.


Reference
Chandler, Daniel (1994): The Grammar of Television and Film. Aberystwyth University.
Dan Ablan: Types of Shots.
Michael Wohl: Language of Film


mistake

I have to say that I'm soooooo stupid.
On tuesday, I had Tourism Economic class which started at 12. and I would say that its one of the most important tut classes this semester because we're going to submit the group member list and sort. I was not too worried about that because last week I already found a group to join in. However, I made the most stupid mistake that I didnt check my alarm before I went to bed and I woke up too late to attend the tut class. After all, I don't have a group now and I have to wait they put up the group list, then find someone who hasn't got a group yet and group a group. The worst thing is that we may in different tut classes and I or he/she has to change the timetable. And thats really bad!!!!! I love my timetable for economic class, 12pm tut and 2pm lec. such a wonderful timetable and now things may be changed. Alright! I know that I should be positive and I'll TRY!
Bless me about this everything. Pray for me. :_(

Friday, August 7, 2009

Stop motion videos





The Pen Story/ PenStory







Her Morning Elegance/ Oren Lavie


There is another amazing one called Stop Motion with Wolf and Pig. Directed by Takeuchi Taijin.

Enjoy!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Postal Service "Give Up" Album
















Two of favorite songs from The Postal Service.
Obviously they're not the official music videos.


Sleep In
is my favorite one.
Such Great Heights is one of their most popular songs. (and the only one that has official MV, maybe)




Click The Postal Service to browse their offical website.




Convergence Tech

Wikipedia defines that Technological convergence is the tendency for different technology systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks. (yes, wikipedia and google are not everything, but sometimes they are quite helpful.) or
Check
NCT09-GC for a better, detailed defination. ;)



HTC touch pro. One of my favorite phone so far.
It includes camera, video, internet, games, and lots more. And you can always update the version from the official website.

Yes, I've hear HTC' system is not as smart as Blackberry.
It's touch screen is not as sensitive as I Phone (non of other brands are). But I like the keyboard desing as I'm not a totally touch screen person. I still prefer keyboard which is easier for typing. The Touch Pro 2 has been published as well, with more functions and improved system. However I don't really like the design, is too smooth (as other brands). I have to say its I Phone's effective (OH NO!). More fake iPhones are coming soon.

Click HTC to see more about HTC Smart Phones.




Skype incorporates features of a phone using both internet and computer. Now can even just use phones/mobiles to connect skype and make calls easily and cheap.


Click Skype for more info and download.

Wii (Black version)


Wii can be said its one of the convergence technology as well. Its not only a game console, but also an internet browser and social networking tool.



Computers are very good examples. They are now more powerful than used to be. They are now including camera, can be game console, DVD player and much more.

Click Apple to see more Apple products.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

first tutorial

Its the second week of uni starts but my first time to attend the tutorial class... Yep! I missed last tutorial. I was sooooo late! as I live in South Bank (which is in Brisbane city). Travel from zone 1 to zone 12 almost everyday. Thats wasting time? Not really! I always have an hr rest in the train, although its not too comfortable.

Few people just like me, have to ask what others did last week and try to catch up.
Well... actually just setting up a blog. ;)
Will try to figure out what need to be done.

By the way, just noticed that Im the only Asian in this tutorial class, wow! (or just others did not come today?)

work again later. you'll see me like a zomby.
I need more time to sleep.