The Internet, the force in Politics for and used by Politicials

Hey guys, welcome to my 9th Blog which intends to identify the link between Politics and the Internet. Mr. Abel had previously highlighted the use of the internet by Barack Obama during the 2008 US Election. Initially, I just wanted to emphasize the effective ways with the help of the internet of course, which helped further Obama's Campaign that led to his victory.

However, since the Singapore's 2011 General Elections is coming up in May as well, I decided to include this segment by making a comparison between the usage of the internet by Obama, the People's Action Party (PAP), and the Opposition to rally support from the masses to further their cause.

Indeed, the success of the Obama Campaign had resulted in the Singapore Government's better understanding of the internet, but we cannot deny the fact that both parties have come a long way from the "Manual" style of campaigning to a combination of "Manual" and "Cyber" style of campaigning; this allowed these parties to reach out not only to the middle or older generation of voters, but also the younger "above 21 years" generation of voters, and get them to be more aware, more interested, and more participative in the coming "Social Media" Elections.

Similarities

In addition to going around and meeting the residents of the different constituencies, candidates used numerous forms of social media.

1. All parties engage the use of online video, blogging, and social networking to establish an even more meaningful connections between the candidate and voters; this helps in the strengthening of relationships between the average Singaporean and candidate/ potential candidate.

• The People's Action Party had 41 out of the 81 PAP members in parliament join Facebook in 2010. For instance, George Yeo, Minister of Foreign Affairs and a MP of Aljunied GRC actively shares snippets of his personal life and work as a Minister with his 17,000 fans on Facebook to strengthen his vote base, and gain the confidence of the citizens.

• Another example would be the Opposition, the Worker's Party in Singapore which uploaded short speeches of their candidates on Youtube to increase their popularity, especially if they made good rebuttals that Singaporeans appreciate.

• Similarly, President Obama of the United States of America createdMy.BarackObama.com for his presidential campaign, the campaign's online social networking website, and it reaped five million "friends" on more than 15 social media sites and three million friends on Facebook alone when the election ended.

Here are 3 videos which proves my point, but the last video was already shown during Mr. Abel's lecture, so I am really sorry about that...anyways, Enjoy :)

Diferences
While the Obama Campaign used a wide range of social media for fundraising which successfully allowed him to gain more funds to propel himself further in the "rat-race", the Singapore government had restricted the marketing efforts of political parties. Other than the "I love SDP" Danny Bear Mascot, and the easily identifiable "white shirt and white pants",and so on, that's just it.

I expect to see more of these approaches in future Singapore elections, so just a gentle reminder to those who are like myself, a first time voter, to remember to cast your votes on the 7th of May 2011...or you would be in trouble...oops XDXD

Virtual Realities Solely for Entertainment Sake?

There are many who have avatars in a world in a dimension known as the Virtual Reality (VR). VR is something like an online community. In this alternate cyber world, characters/people are able to buy and sell properties in their own currency, make new friends, etc., while enjoying the experience as if it were some interactive game which consist of multiple players.
Here is a video about Second Life which is a 3D Virtual Reality...



While having fun in this virtual reality may be for the average people like you and me, the concept of the VR is used to help others who are not as fortunate. For instance, the VR is utilized to aid people who are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), physiotherapy for disabled patients or those who experienced a stroke, as well as the treatment of phobias.

Using a 3D camera and specialized software that captures the patient’s image in the form of avatars. Under the guidance of professional therapists, the patients perform a series of therapeutic activities and exercises in a virtual game-like environment. Scores are then recorded to rate the patients’ performance which would allow them to assess their progresses themselves and boost their self esteems.

Moreover, it can help to increase agility in limbs and the rate of recovery of patients with stroke or those who had encountered unfortunate accidents. To add on, patients who are paralyzed neck-down can use the VR as a way to lead a "normal" life, and this system keeps their brains active and would prevent them from sinking into further depression.

This is a video which shows the effective use of the Visual Reality System by a paralyzed individual.



In addition, the VR helps individuals to conquer their fear of spiders and the horrors of war (for soldiers that is). Professor from Brunswick designed a program for people with arachnophobia (afraid of spiders) known as “Fear of Spiders” to help individuals in overcoming their fear. To add on, soldiers are mentally prepared for warfare by introducing them to games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and so on.

A trailer from the Call of Duty where one of the soldiers seemed to be retelling his war story/experience.



In conclusion, VR is no longer used by people in just the gaming arena, rather it has been integrated to improve the quality of life for those who are ill or with problems that they are not able to overcome in reality. I sincerely believe that this system will benefit mankind in the long-run.

What I believe are the Top 5 Most Dangerous Viruses ever

Today, my 7th Blog will take on a "red-carpet" sort of approach. Instead of counting down for the best dressed celebrity, I would be announcing the top 4 viruses which I believe are extremely dangerous and caused the most harm to computers, starting from number 4.

Before this happens, I intend to give a little introduction on what computer viruses are capable of doing to your computer(s) and how this happens.

Computer Viruses can cause plenty of problems for users. Although such viruses have a relatively short history, the damages that some of them have caused have prompted cyber-experts to carefully and cautiously review the issue of how to protect the users' computers from virus attacks. Some viruses led to serious damages and affected a large number of companies, universities and even governments.

Here is a video on what computer viruses tend to do to your computer, and other people's computers.



Starting at Number 4:
The Melissa Virus (1999)-This virus was acknowledged in March 1999 when it successfully shut down the Internet Mail System; it got blocked by the e-mails which were infected by this virus, or worms as it is called, and this caused the servers to overload and result to other serious problems. It was hidden in a file called "List.Dic" which featured passwords that served as keys to unlocking 80 pornographic websites, and it was sent through email to different users. Most Importantly, the Melissa Virus had the ability to multiply on Microsoft Word 97 and 2000 and Microsoft Excel 97,2000, and 2003; in addition to all that, the virus could mass mail itself from Microsoft Outlook 97 and 98.

At Number 3:
The Conficker Virus/Downadup worm (2009)-This computer virus had infected an approximate total of 3.5 million worldwide with China, Russia, and Brazil being the three most affected countries. Using the patched Windows flaw (which was intended to distantly compromise computers that ran un-patched versions of Microsoft's Operating System), it spread successfully across the Web. The most destructive power this virus have is that it is capable to make infected computers download destructive codes from a random drop point.

At Number 2:
Nimba (2001)-This virus infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide shortly after the unfortunate September 11 incident. Considered to be one of the most complicated viruses, it has 4 different methods of infecting computer systems and is able to duplicate itself; it infects Microsoft Web Server, Internet Information Server (IIS), and computer users who opened e-mail attachments.


Last but Certainly Not the Least, At Number 1:


I Love You Virus (2000)-The virus managed to infect computers around the world overnight. By sending passwords and usernames which were stored in the infected computers, it sent a copy of itself to everyone in the Windows Address Book and with the user's sender address; it also made a number of malicious changes to the user's system.

NOTE: I might be wrong so I truly welcome anyone's opinions on which viruses are the most dangerous and cause the most harm.

Knowing that such viruses do exist, I would suggest computer owners to install an effective anti-virus software like Security All-Suite or Antivirus. Although this might not be foolproof, there is no harm installing a software which protects your computer. I always believe that it is better to be safe than sorry.

Me, Megan, and Wan Jing's Use of Internet Tools for Our First Video

This is currently my 6th Blog, and I have to say that I really enjoyed myself this week. Mr. Abel wanted us to use internet tools like the Windows Movie Maker to create videos of our own, but rather than doing that alone (lonely...I am so lonely...I have nobody...ahaha), me and two of my good friends, Megan and Wan Jing, decided to do this together.


The experience was really hilarious, fun, filled with tons of bloopers and blunders, and more laughters. I loved making this video with them, especially the ending when we started singing (Look ma...I'm singing XDXDXD). Here's the video...



The two main tools we used are the Apple's GarageBand and Microsoft Movie Maker.

What is Apple's GarageBand?
GarageBand is a software which Apple Inc designed to allow Mac users to create music or podcasts. We used the audio recording application to record our voices for some of the crazy sound effects, and the ending song. We also downloaded the instrumental version of One Republic's Apologize and did a little editing of the lyrics to produce our final masterpiece.

The good thing about this application is that it allowed us to play back multiple tracks of audio, helped enhance the audio tracks, and adjust the tunes that we recorded. For example, if we tuned the sound we recorded to the max, we ended up sounding like Alvin and the Chipmunks, only worst, and if we did the minimum, it sounded as if a devil was talking out loud.

What's the Microsoft Movie Maker?
Basically, the Windows Movie Maker video creating and editing software application that is included in Microsoft Vista and XP.

What we did for the car racing scene was to take photos of the cars gradually moving forward at different parts of the tracks, then combine the scenes together with the movie maker to get the entire car race episode. This is similar to the pictures which we added in between the car scenes.


We also used the Windows Movie Maker's basic audio track editing program which allowed us to export audio tracks from the Fast & the Furious soundtrack in the form of a sound file which allowed us to include in the video.


I have to thank Megan and Wan Jing for making this happen because they were great and definitely better than me in using these tools. I don't usually make self-made videos so this is a great eye-opener for me. Really hope to do this again someday :)

Thanks Girls

...The End