jeudi, janvier 12, 2012 If a tree falls in the forest without anyone to see it, does it make a sound? Similarly, if you didn’t blog, Facebook, Tweet or Tumblr something that happened in your life, did it ever happen?With the current level of self-management (or is it obsession?), many people would qualify as “self-stalkers”. You know the type – they constantly check their social feeds to see if they’ve been tagged, mentioned, “liked” or commented on. These are also the people who usually live their whole lives online, “checking in” to places, tweeting about things, posting photographs of their meals, and using Facebook to login and comment on various websites. The question from me to them usually is – what happens if you DON’T do it? Does that invalidate your existence? For many people, it does. It has been documented that people often do not feel the full completion an event until it’s been posted online in some form or other. Great holidays that lacked a certain je ne sais quoi – until the photographs were put on Flickr. Relationships that weren’t really exclusive until someone blinked, and changed their relationship status to “in a relationship”. (Relationships have apparently broken down because of this issue.) With this in mind, I’m looking rather mistrustfully at Facebook’s new Timeline feature. Touted as the ability to “tell your story with a new kind of profile” where you can highlight important and memorable events in your life, I’m not sure if it won’t enable us to manufacture a completely different story about ourselves altogether. Given the choice, most people want to put forward the best version of themselves. This is why we dress up when we head for a night out on the town, and why we put our best foot forward when we go for job interviews. Similarly, we curate our personal social media feeds to show the best versions of ourselves, and the best parts of our lives – great meals, fun parties, and amazing vacations. To us, these things “really happened” in our lives. But what happens to events which pass by unnoted and untweeted? Character-molding events have a tendency to leave a bittersweet taste in their aftermath. We probably won’t note a severe reprimand on our personal calendars, but what if, upon further rumination, it deeply impacts your life? A personal timeline should represent you in your entirety – the good, the bad, the highs and the lows. When we can obsessively curate our “public selves” to contain only the good, the happy, and the glorious, we become hyper-aware of our public image, and overly-concerned with what others’ responses to our actions are (you mean nobody “liked” the fact that I checked into the library today?) The choice of what to portray as our "public" selves may prove to be a boon to some, especially to people who value the integrity of keeping the public-private selves as closely related to each other as possible. However, it could also mean the annihilation of the breathing space we need in order to explore different facets of our personality as we grow into our own skins. For fear of ridicule or lack of validation, one could be stopped from trying a new activity that radically departs from your established personality. I'm someone who knows this more than most, since I seem to keep trying things which people find "out of character" or "not really your personality" for me. Case in point: I signed up for tap dancing classes for about 6 months in 2004; it was something I had always wanted to try out, so I found a school in Queensway, borrowed some shoes, and danced. Sometime later (just around the time that I had worked off my curiosity for the subject), someone told me that they had been walking around the shopping centre after dinner and had peeked in on the dance class, only to be surprised at seeing me in class. "Not really your personality leh," they had commented to me. I'm honestly not sure that I would have tried the class as earnestly, had thry made that comment to me just as I was starting out. I might have discontinued my lessons, considering it had I been discouraged from the activity - after all, it's "not my style/personality." With social media timelines conflating the public and private selves, we are going to spend more time obsessively curate our "public selves" that other people base their impressions of us on. People will assume impose certain notions of our behavior, and we will continue to reinforce them on ourselves. The question for us then is - are we ready for the responsibility of redefining who we are online? And in any case, who are we to censor ourselves? Remember how Jim Carrey's John in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind pleaded for the "scientists" not to delete his memories of Kate Winslet's Clementine. "Not this one, let me keep this one," he begged. We are the sum total of all our parts, experiences, joys, tears and laughter - what will become of our "selves" once we start to purge "unnotable events" from our public Timeline? Libellés : technology, thinking [Curation of the Virtual Self] |
lundi, janvier 02, 2012  Libellés : technology [Best buy of 2011] |
jeudi, décembre 22, 2011 Facebook timeline and the curation of our selves With the rollout of Facebook Timeline, we are going to curate our selves more than ever. I'm quite sure that the managing of our public selves - the tweets, the thoughts, the photographs, EVERYTHING - will hit new obsessive heights - not that it hasn't already hovered somewhere around the "self-stalker" territory already. You know the type - someone obsessively checking his/her status to see if they've been "liked" or "commented" on, or tagged in some photo or post or link or note somewhere.The choice of what to portray as our "public" selves may prove to be a boon to people who value the integrity of keeping the public-private selves as closely related to each other as possible. However, it could also mean the annihilation of the breathing space we need in order to explore different facets of our personality as we grow into our own skins. For who doesn't need some privacy to try a new hobby that radically departs from one's own personality?  I'm someone who knows this more than most, since I seem to keep trying things which people find "out of character" or "not really your personality". Case in point: I went for tap dancing classes for about 6 months in 2004; it was something that I wanted to try, so I found a school in Anchor Point, paid for a couple of terms of lessons, borrowed some shoes, and danced. Sometime later (just around the time that I had worked off my curiosity for the subject), Matt/Sam told me that they had been walking around AP after dinner and had peeked in on the dance class, only to be super surprised at seeing me in class. "Not really your personality leh," Matt had commented to me. I'm honestly not sure that I would have tried the class as earnestly had he made that comment to me just as I was starting out. I might not even had continued considering it had I been discouraged from the activity beforehand - after all, it's "not my style/personality." The other thing which continues to astound people is that I like mucking around with household DIY (like grouting toilets and re-upholstering chairs), and I also like fooling around with sewing stuff. I can't imagine experimenting with all this if people impose their impressions of me - I'm no shrinking violet, but the peer (sheer?) pressure would be fairly strong. With Facebook Timeline, we're going to obsessively curate our "public selves" that other people base their impressions of us on. People will read our FB Timeline, and impose/reinforce that idea of who we are back onto ourselves. The question for us then is - are we ready for the responsibility of defining who we are? And in any case, who are we to censor ourselves? Remember how Jim Carrey's John in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind pleaded for the "scientists" not to delete his memories of Kate Winslet's Clementine. "Not this one, let me keep this one," he begged. We are the sum total of all our parts, experiences, joys, tears and laughter - what will become of our "selves" once we start to purge "unnotable events" from our public Timeline? Libellés : technology, thinking [Facebook timeline and the curation of our selves] |
vendredi, décembre 16, 2011 Hard disks are always the weakest link in anyone's data systems. Most of my portable unpowered ones are working fine; it always seems that the powered ones die fastest.Grr. Here I am taking it all apart. 1.5TB+0.5TB HDD gone.    Libellés : technology [HDD: the weak link] |
mardi, novembre 15, 2011 Been meaning to post this for a while - applying for a KrisFlyer account reveals the extent to which they really chap about how to address you - check out the dropdown list for the sheer plethora of titles which you can attribute to yourself! (Also says a lot about their clientele.) Libellés : technology [How do I address you?] |
dimanche, octobre 30, 2011 Enough is enough: shut up already. Steve Jobs sister: 'Death didn't happen to Steve, he achieved it'Yes, I'm sure that he really had control there. He "achieved" death like we all "achieve" breathing when we're asleep. When will this madness of deifying Jobs end?! ETA: Even mentioning Bill Gates' Foundation makes Job supporters angry. Madness! Libellés : technology [Enough is enough: shut up already.] |
jeudi, juin 09, 2011 Installing WindowsXP on my Linux-Xandros OS ASUS eee 701 PC Otherwise known as: how to save on buying a new netbook when you just quit your job, and want a windows-based netbook.What I used: 1. Time and patience 2. A USB drive (2GB - completely empty) 3. A Windows XP CD (with reg number) 4. My ASUS eee 701 PC (apparently this works with all other non-Windows PCs as well) 5. Another 32-bit Windows XP computer (apparently Vista works as well, but I cannot vouch for it) Software I downloaded: The Process/What I did: 1. Read this awesome guide from top to bottom and used it as a guide. 2. Prepared the WinXP software as per instructed a. Copied my WinXP CD into c:\winxpcd b. Integrated the SP1-3 into the pack: my copy of WinXP didn't have service pack 1, 2 and 3, so I downloaded them, and followed Method 2 of this "how to integrate Service Packs into your Windows XP installation files." c. Used WinSetupFromUSB as per instructed 3. Used PeToUSB 3.0.0.8 to format my USB stick as per instructed (impt note: I did NOT use the "inbuilt" USB formatter inside WinSetupFromUSB, which was neither PeToUSB nor HP Format Tool.) 4. Copied the files over with WinSetupFromUSB into the thumbdrive. 5. Installing WinXP on the Eee - This pretty much follows what the awesome guide's steps. Total time taken: 4 hours (11pm - 3am) And now here are some triumphant photographs:  The moment where I went OH IT WORKS!!! It's alive... ALIVE!  The entire operations workspace: Win7-64bit, WinXP-32bit and Linux-Xandros-32bit  Before the operation begins, one last look at the Xandros OS  Please install Windows!!!  Another blue screen, but of life instead. Many ask why. I ask back: why not? I need a light laptop, but in order that proxies may be setup with GUIs, best to have a platform that many people programme for.  YAY! 3 hours' work, to ensure that my trip goes easier with a windows OS... Libellés : technology [Installing WindowsXP on my Linux-Xandros OS ASUS eee 701 PC] |
dimanche, janvier 30, 2011 Why chat will never supercede f2f meetups  Superhuman typing will never overcome squeeing over coffee.Libellés : technology [Why chat will never supercede f2f meetups] |
mercredi, janvier 19, 2011 How to add hanyu pinyin to Word documents on Microsoft Office 2010/Win7 Hello everyone! After bleeding through many, many webpages trying to find how to add hanyu pinyin to Chinese characters on Windows 7/Office 2010, here is the solution, which I am happily forcing everyone to receive via email because it was VERY difficult to figure out what was wrong with Office 2010/2007 (Office 2003 had this feature automatically enabled) Step 1: You need to add "Phonetic guide" to your Word 2010 http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/13504-ms-word-2007-cannot-get-pinyin-with-phonetic-guide/ --> see post from Sebastien somewhere down the middle
Step 2: Try adding Pinyin. You should see this sort of screenshot with the hanyu pinyin missing. If it's not missing, then hooray, you can stop here! But chances are is that it is missing. http://www.pinyinjoe.com/faq/word-phonetic-guide-missing-pinyin.htm Step 3: Close MS Word, download and install Microsoft's free upgrade
Leave me a message to let me know if this helped you :) I spent 3 days trying to figure out what was wrong! Libellés : technology [How to add hanyu pinyin to Word documents on Microsoft Office 2010/Win7] |
dimanche, août 29, 2010  Somehow I don't see the makers of Grand Theft Auto making a God-Themed Adventure anytime soon. Libellés : christian, geek, technology [GTA & A Nice Christian Girl] |
dimanche, juillet 18, 2010  I'm not sure how this will add to my online experience, but hey, anything that looks like it could add another dimension to the "virtual" 2D experience that is web surfing - like the 3D desktop I wrote about at my work blog - makes for interesting reading.Plus - hardwarezone has nothing on Wired. Libellés : current affairs, technology [Is 3D cool or what?] |
jeudi, avril 22, 2010 Them's Fighting Words: Steve Jobs I cannot wait for the next installment of this bitchfight - seriously, it's a throwdown - technology wars have started getting up-close and personal.Google’s ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Mantra Is ‘Bullshit,’ Adobe Is Lazy: Apple’s Steve Jobs Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/01/googles-dont-be-evil-mantra-is-bullshit-adobe-is-lazy-apples-steve-jobs/#ixzz0loYDHj76 On Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. This don’t be evil mantra: “It’s bullshit.” On Adobe: They are lazy, Jobs says. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5. Libellés : technology [Them's Fighting Words: Steve Jobs] |
dimanche, février 14, 2010 Let's have an open relationship I love this, from Wired.com (which I always love):Highly not advisable, relationship wise, but the joke rocks. Happy New Year/Valentine's Day everyone! Edited to add an excerpt from another wired.com article on Tux:
Libellés : humour, technology [Let's have an open relationship] |
lundi, février 08, 2010 just in the nick of time: 10 ways to a geeky girl's heart  I like tech and I can hold my own when discussing the latest intel chip, and don't get me started about macs and their... okay I have to stop here before this post becomes an anti-mac rant - the point: this is one of the best valentine's day posts I've seen in a while: Wired.com's Geekdad tells us the 10 ways to a geeky girl's heart.Best suggestion of the 10? #5. Be able to have interesting conversations on any topic. This doesn’t mean that you have to be an expert in everything, but be willing to discuss unusual topics. Know nothing about fossils? Be willing to have her teach you what she knows, and ask relevant questions. If you try to learn something new each day, you’ll always have something new to talk about. Some days I wish conversations would go beyond the usual 1. soccer 2. computer/iphone/mobile phone 3. job/government bitching, 4. guy's obsession (could be cars, or a particular genre of music only), or 5. the latest movie (which I have not watched.) Not that they aren't fun, but most new-guy-friend conversations tend to run those treads. :\ Mental gymnastics are fun, and stretching oneself is good too. Libellés : technology [just in the nick of time: 10 ways to a geeky girl's heart] |
vendredi, février 05, 2010  definitely not theologically-correct (Adam was not that smart to smell a trap), but funny anyway! Libellés : christian, comics, humour, technology [The Fall: No back button] |
jeudi, février 04, 2010 Have you met GINA? Context over dogma. Libellés : technology [GINA] |
mercredi, décembre 23, 2009 real computer geeks talk to their computers  Today the funniest thing happened - the church public computer was acting rather strangely and was performing very slowly (turns out it has a terrible virus which we're trying to exorcise now). J and I were typing on the Christmas programme, trying hard to figure out what was wrong with it. We decided that the computer was ill or just acting up. Immediately, both of us independently stroked the computer, simultaneously saying: (me) "Sayang-sayang" / (J) "Are you okay?" Behold the litmus test for real computer geeks. HAVE YOU HUGGED YOUR COMPUTER TODAY? Libellés : church, personal, technology [real computer geeks talk to their computers] |
mardi, novembre 10, 2009 I'm looking out for a library system or content management system that can be built on Wordpress, and I stumbled across this amazing person called Casey Bisson, who's building something for WP with Library of Congress!http://bavatuesdays.com/wordpress-as-a-library-catalog-who-knew/ http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/11133/wpopac-an-opac-20-testbed/ He's gotten a Mellon grant to work on this, so I'm hoping it comes out soon! Too bad that it still needs some work before the stuff is distributable, so :( for now. That's all I have time for this morning; I'm trying to return to blogging - I think my routine needs work, and I need to get used to shorter bursts of writing. Libellés : geek, technology [Do good, save the world, READ] |
vendredi, septembre 11, 2009 Facebook not working, Blogger not working Hello gentlefolk.Have you been frustrated lately because your blogger is not working? Are you bamboozled by the upside down logos on facebook? Has your blogger looked like this for the past, oh, FOREVER?  The problem: you're using Singnet. The solution: fix your proxy to proxy.singnet.com.sg, port 8080. The DETAILED solution: INTERNET EXPLORER 8: Go to Tools > Internet Options > LAN settings > Proxy Server Change the proxy like this:   Firefox Go to Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Connection (configure how Firefox connects to the Internet)   Violà! Source (from 2007, so I just updated it a bit): http://sporecowboy.blogspot.com/2007/05/solution-for-singnet-problem-on.html Libellés : technology [Facebook not working, Blogger not working] |
samedi, juillet 25, 2009 My brilliant genius whiz-kid older cousin (more whiz, less kid these days) has a new web app thing out - could you guys sign up and see how you like using it? It's something like del.icio.us, for those of you who know, but more robust and pop-app friendly. Libellés : technology [Support ShareIn!] |
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