First, Second, Third Life?...

First it was on CSI:NY and tomorrow, its on SVU. Have television caught on with Second Life?

Second Life is no longer just a online virtual community where people to go to escape reality, Second Life is really... well, second life. I don't think there's any other way of putting it. Television series like CSI:NY and SVU has taken a different approach to Second Life. Its looking at the negative of Second Life, murder and crime.

The Linden company, the makers and owner of Second Life, have applied the law to their creation. For example; under 18 are not allowed into the Second Life mainland and under 18 have their own island on Second Life where above 18 are not allowed in. However, who's to know? Virtual communities can't exactly track down all minors in the mainland and more importantly, all the pidophiles in the under-18 island.

Has Second Life become reality, with all the ugly bits? Are Second-Lifers gonna come up with Third Life? A virtual community within an already virtual community?

Blogs = Billboards?

As mentioned in the post before this, bloggers have made fame and fortune through words on computer screens. Kenny Sia from Malaysia and XiaXue from Singapore, have become national stars in their own countries.

More and more bloggers have ads on their blogs as a source of income. Nuffnang proclaims to themselves as the first Asian's first blog advertising community. Have bloggers turn into advertising billboards of the cyber world?

Blogs: From elections to nose jobs.

Have you ever stayed up late and watched those silly infomercials? There is this single exercise machine which can target and part of your body, and there is the Magic Bullet that can make you anything from a frozen Margarita to an omelet, not forgetting the inspirational DVD box set that can make you a million dollars or just make you feel richer in spirit.

Well these are what blogs are to me, multi functional, informative, can be used positively and negatively, can benefit both blogger and reader, and the list goes on. Today you can find blogs from various sectors, from sex blogs to political blogs. This new age online diary has taken the world by storm, what happen to the days when the diary was a secret book of your thought that you would hide under your pillow? Everyone and anyone have the supremacy to read your blog. If it was personal, then why publish it?

Has our virtual world evolved into a parallel universe of thoughts? Well I can only make sense that the users of the internet are beginning to break free of the chains of constrain, especially in those political blogs, where privacy is not an issue. They can’t say it in newspapers, radio or on television, therefore it’s the internet to the rescue!

In Malaysia many ‘out-spoken’ bloggers found their way into the saying everything and anything they want to say in their blogs. The consequences: they are caught and prosecuted by the government. One of the Malaysian political blogger, Jeff Ooi even ran for the recent election. However, our Prime Minister made a comment on bloggers, unfortunately not very positive ones, especially to those left-wingers…

Here are some articles that might be interesting..
In Malaysia, Bloggers become Politicians
Malaysian Political Bloggers form Alliance

On the other hand, there are bloggers such as the likes of Kenny Sia, escape these sort of ‘prosecutions’ by being commercial and actually having quite a wide fan base. Not bad for a Chinese guy who spend a good chunk of his life in Australia and started his blog when he had to go back to Malaysia due to family problems ( I know that because my girlfriend is one of his ‘fans’). And now, he writes a column for a Malaysian magazine and is also the host of Dream Girls, Malaysia’s version of America’s Next Top Model and plays the part of Simon in American Idol.

Another example is XiaXue, a Singaporean blogger who is one of the top bloggers in the world. She is as controversial as an Asian female blogger can get. Being politically incorrect and pink fluffed, she made many entries about how ugly people are, penis sizes and about her nose job.

So, do bloggers really have the freedom of speech? Does our IP address or our nationality determine what we can say or what we cannot say? But what I can say is, we can be politically incorrect and be absolutely charming and we have the big bucks rolling in… and that my friends, will be my next entry…

Talk to me

When I was about 12 years old I began using the computer and surfing the internet, I discovered chat engines such as ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, and MSN Messenger, these engines became my portal of communicating with friends whom I knew and also a place to meet new people. I divided my friends by the chat engines which I used, for instance;

• ICQ was used to meet new people and talk to friends overseas
• Yahoo Messenger was used to talk to my family members or far relatives
• MSN Messenger was used to talk to my friends specifically

Thinking back, I do not know why I divided those whom I talk to via the internet into 3 specific groups, the only logic I could draw from this division is that I trusted certain chat engines more than others. For example, the level of security and privacy that MSN provides is much higher than ICQ, much more personal information is reveled through ICQ.

In regards to talking to people I know, I try to keep my conversation as formal as possible, I dislike using emoticons (Smiley, Frown, Cry) I recon that whatever that needs to be said can be said through the use of words. I also find it rather offensive to use short hands (TTYL-talk to you later, BRB – be right back, LMAO- laugh my ass off), from my experience I realize that not many people understand these short hands, trust me I found out the hard way. Using terms such as the above may save time and so forth, however if I were to talk to my parents back home over MSN they wouldn’t have a clue what TTYL meant.

Giving out personal information over the internet is a silly thing to do, there have been multiple cases of teenage girls/boys getting robbed, raped, and harmed by these so called internet stalkers whom pose as sincere guys/girls looking for an honest relationship, these vulnerable victims end up being lured into giving out their personal information (Phone numbers, Address, Account numbers).

Being an international student, using chat engines to communicate may seem like the easiest and most cost effective way to communicate with my family and friends from around the world, however I still prefer talking to them over the phone or face to face.

Friendster VS Facebook VS ME

I declare the battle between Friendster and Facebook a tied failure!

These are my reasons why?

When the whole craze of Friendster arose within my friends when I was in high school, I found it rude and appalling to have a webpage of which the users of the internet could view you and judge you, however on the other side of my critic I grew ever interested in this new age of keeping in contact with friends you meet everyday and even more friends whom you have lost contact with.

Virtual communities, the bright side lies upon the fact that you can relate to other on various levels, for instance same interest or even similarities in the choice of clothing brands. However my interest only lasted as long as a Castle St. party would, it faded away as I began to realize that there were so many users whom portrayed them selves in other people shoes. My friends weren’t really my friends, in a sense that their profiles were written clearly to attract people; there were advertisements on the internet the only difference is they do not keep on popping up on your desktop asking you some silly question.

Just recently the craze of Facebook has taken over, it’s a level or may I say a thousand levels above Friendster is and will ever be. How did this happen? Whatever it may have been that cause this up roar, I openly believe that these examples of virtual communities is a platform of which user indulge in to feel god about them selves.

I hope I have not offended anyone, but I still believe in reality, the dying truth!

The Broken Condom

Various important sectors that service our public daily use the innovations of computers and the internet to store, transfer, and compile raw data. Information traveling across the internet does not really have to worry about worldly problem such as an accident, speeding tickets, or a broken condom, in fact the faster it travels across to the receiver the better. With this in mind, how safe is our personal information such as bank account number or passwords?

It has prevailed to be extremely convenient to use the internet to purchase products online, and do a little banking; however with the rise of hackers over the years how safe are we?

It reads on the back of a condom packet that it will not act as a 100% contraceptive, in this regard how much do you trust keying in your credit card number and pin onto an online account to purchase pornography or a teddy bear? The internet maybe such a wonderful place, however just like reality all things must come to and end.

Hackers = Criminals

I always had this image of hackers as, overweight, mid 30’s, jobless, however very intelligent people who are angry with the world and have an awful amount of free time on their hands. “An idle mind is the devils work shop”

As human beings we tend to find interesting yet odd ways to amuse out selves during the little intermissions in our life which I like to call BUMMING TIME. Within these periods we figure out ways to either enjoy our life or simply make the life of other beings a living hell.

Hackers exist for various reasons; however no good can come about hacking into another person’s life. Nothing is safe regardless of it being in reality or virtual reality the both lives that many of us lead is constantly under surveillance.

The Hibernating Population

I believe the world has fallen asleep and woken up within the walls of this great epiphany know as the internet. Day by day we indulge our self in this unbelievably realistic world of communicating with the world, for example the emergence of networks on the internet has made it possible for the communication of people of the same culture, interest, idea, and language.

With the availability of the internet and the convenience it has grown into, it isn’t common that people spend more than 12 hours a day online. Whether it maybe logged onto a chat engine or just plainly surfing the net, many of us have become more comfortable in this virtual platform that we have in reality. Being logged onto the World Wide Web allows users to crate a façade that may sometimes be a perfect reflection of themselves in reality or just a modified image of what they would like to be.

This mentioned scenario could possible relate to the concept of users, networks and structures.

USERS

• Ordinary human begins who choose or are influence to live a second life (virtual).
• People whom face segregation from society.
• Groups of individual who do not fit into the characteristics of being normal.

NETWORKS

• Online society platforms that suggest and support certain groups.
• General platforms which users can join or form a group.
• Online database that host a platform to keep in contact or make new friends.
• Gaming platforms

STRUCTURE

• Forum leaders, bloggers, online journalist and other forms of web host.

These 3 categories work in accord to create a virtual world of which users can relate to on a daily basis.