Diigo!!

Wow... i did not know bookmarking and sharing them are that advanced right now. I signed up for Diigo, which allows me to not only save bookmarks but also highlight any texts on website and save them. I was amazed by this service once proftracy brought up in the lecture. When I new this tool, I already decided to use it. Although I have sorted out all the favorite websites in my firefox and will not use Diigo bookmarking, I downloaded it just for highlighting contexts because it will definitely be a useful tool for studying for students today. However, I noticed something valuale in Diigo. If you keep all the favorites in Diigo bookmarking tool, you can use the favorites with different computers. For instance, I can only view my favorites only with my computer now, but if I put all the favorites in Diigo, I can go on favorites with my firend's comuter or computers at school. This is amazing. If I have time I will transfer all the favorites into Diigo.

I also checked Delicious.com. I did not believe the importance and convenience of it at first. I doubtfully tried it, and got addicted. I will not be signing in, but I will keep using this website to see popular websites that many people keep as their favorites of a certain matter. I could google a subject that I would like to know, but this clicking-tab-and-see-other's-favorite type of service is faster and more convenient because the number of people who added a website as their favorite tells me how popular the website is. This is an awesome website. I found 9 websites that are course related and bookmarked 5 of them. From these websites, I learned that there are several different types of social networking sites, and it is true that there are numerous sex offenders hidden in them. Hacking is also another big issue in in this matter. To live in a healthy and secure social networking environment, I thought each individual needs to be careful and have good manners online.

By using Delicious.com, it lets people to find websites that are useful and many people like but hard to find or may not come up in the first place when googling. So I can easily obtain a specialized and porpularized website in a second. This is the difference I found in between Delicious and Google. I already sought some websites that I am intereseted in such as Lexus, Japan, and Food. The websites that I view are very limited because I do not net surf and do not know how to surf well so I found this social bookmarking is a very useful tool for me. Additionally, its advantage is also a letting people know which websites are recommended and popular so this definitely helps those who do not know how to surf on the internet like me.

Twitter

Twitter... I clearly remember the first time I met Twitter. I did not like and to be honest, I couldn't understand why people use Twitter. I was disgusted by the concept of it, because I thought it is just for updating what I am doing. However, I tried to use it and see how other classmates do on Twitter. Twitter gradually changed my mind. I found the practical utility on Twitter, which is obtaining answers and feedback without asking certain people. Moreover, the answers I can get are from those who are willing to give me some advice. This is awesome. It is not forcing somebody to answer my question. It is more like volunteering. I felt those who read my status and gave me feedback are so nice that they were trying to help me out. Twitter gave me happiness. I also found the fact that a person who was kidnapped could ask for a help through text messaging on Twitter. It is an awesome website. This story made me rethink of this website and got me start to Twitter.

another new tech on cell phone

I just found an article introducing a new cell phone in Japan. It is called "932SH" from Softbank. SH means Sharp. This cell phone holds 3.3 inch wide VGA new mobile ASV liquid crystal display so that you can not only tansparently view "1 seg", which I blogged about TV on cell phone, but also both watch and record two different TV programs for FREE. "932SH" is also called "AQUOS cell phone", which directly inherits Sharp's high-definition display. In addition, it equips three speakers that can adapt virtial 5.1 ch and a function that automatically changes sound quality and resolution depending on TV programs. Moreover, it has a 8-mega-pixel builtin digital camera. This is no longer just a cell phone. It is not a computer either. I was amazed by Sharp's cellphone although I knew they have produced advanced cell phones. People's demand increase unlimitedly. This renders companies make "All-in-one" type of device that has numerous different functions that have as advanced quality as other independent electric devices such as TV, digital camera, portable music player, GPS, email, internet, remote controller...etc have. Technology has no end to be reached. I am afraid of being so behind and having a hard time to catch up the advaned technology when I get back to Japan...

Wiki wiki

Wiki is one of the most convenient internet tool that anybody can access online. It is goof for those who seek information because wiki provides tons of data. However, it is simultaneously a negative side of wiki as well. Because anybody can access, people can intentionally alter the information and make up a false. I personally liked the idea of wiki when it is used for group discussion which was introduced by my professor. She is a expert on information technology btw. I am not a wiki user and even a well-web master. This is confusing and challenging but i am happy that I learn a lot from this. Because now I know about wiki, I would like to utilize this system for school work such as group discussion instead of having many group meetings and mutually sending email over and over. I realized this is even more confusing. It is reliable and useful when we are aware of who are sharing wiki with me. On the other hand, when an unspecified large number of people share the same wiki such as wikipedia, the credibility lacks out of the public. As long as you sign up in wiki, you can mess up the explanation on wikipedia. "wikipedia" on Wikipedia says it is the one of the serious issue that wikipedia has had. wikipedia is not run for marketing purposes since it does not include any advetizement. I think it was built just for people's convenience and wealth of life standard. However, it is true that many corporations take advantage of wikipedia that numeous online users visit and read the contents. Companies regard wikipedia as an amazing introducing and advertising companies themselves and products without any expense. They try their best to sell their strengths. I personally think wiki is good only when it improves people's convenience and quality of lives, but it is important to know that some of the inforamation is faked and biased.

I am not a heavy wiki user, therefore, I will not create one for a personal use. But as I said before, it will be one of the best tools for group work that needs individual insights and feedbacks so I would like to take an advantage of this information technology because group memebrs will no longer spend much time on "when & what time to meet up", which takes so much effort since everybody has his/her different schedule, and can ensure that the messages will be delivered to the wiki board timely. In business wise, employees within a corporation can communicate with each other on wiki as well. Additionally, customers and companies also can interact through a wiki page. This service will be a big share of internet use in the near future...

I also found this interesting wiki-type of website that several people can share and edit the information. It is called EtherPad. It may be a great tool for school work such as developing outline. http://etherpad.com/ep/about/product

Part Two

I liked this Nexus application because it lets me easily see how the communities that I belong to look like and interact each other. I found that more than half of my friends are friends each other. This shows that I have many mutual friends. I interpreted this situation as a usual outcome because most of the people I have on facebook are those who I met in St.Catharines. Facebook is not popular in Japan. St.Catharines is such a small town. So it is usual that people know each other and share friends together. I personally do not put my interests, information and pictures in order to protect my privacy because it is true that people who you do not know can access to your page and view some contents if he or she was on facebook and have people in common. So I didt not see many people in the same groups. I learned that because we currently live in such a information driven society, communication on social networking site such as facebook ease and fasten our communication method even though we are far from each other and have time differnce. I have a couple of friends in Japan on facebook. Facebook email is more casual and handy than hotmail because I see their pictures, actions, information etc on facebook. I also learned that people in the same city or even in the same house utilize facebook as a communication tool. They may be just lazy to talk to them, but at the same time, facebook allows people to leave messages when they cannot see each other and even makes it easier to talk about topic that is hard to talk about in face-to-face. This is very important for people swiming in the information society, because people are getting busier and have not time. However, communicating on social network sites let people to communicate with anybody, in anywhere, and at anytime. To me it is important and I appreciate haveing the social networking site because I do not get online on msn, which means I only have two ways to communiate except F2F communication such as cell phone and facebook. In this case, facebook allows me to communiate with people I know for study and work (before) and even people I know in different countries without spending a lot of money for talking on the phone. In addtition, I can see how my friends are doing in Mexico, Japan, China, etc. Facebook is very convenient and contains so much information to share. Therefore, I also believe people need to make sure it is secure when sharing information and respect people online.

Part one

this is an interesting feedback on how our relationships with people around are and how you interact with people in different levels. i saw a donut. yes, i found that i have 2 different circles (i placed 1-9 and A-T, and drew a circle based on the number and letters). a small one is made with numbers and bigger one is made with alphabets. i found that i have a big gap between my "very-close" relationships and "somewhat-close" relationships. however, i thought somehow that it is the ideal of everyone's social relationship. it is nearly impossible to make many close friends. people do not have enough time to be very very close with every single person around them. in addition, if i had many close friends, that implicates that the relationship in "very close" does not mean much. because i have few people who are very very close to me, i see more value into it. the roles in my "very close" are only family, 2 best friends, and a few very good friends. those people are whom i fully open my mind with, ask advice from or give advice to, and share a lot of my value with. on the other hand, people i listed in "somewhere close" are those who i see and chat or do school work with. this does not mean i do not like them. i like them. however, i have not talked enough to know more about them and vise versa. in ordr to develp these relationships, i need to self-disclose and spend more time with each other. this is difficult as i said that people have time limited, therefore we cannot or need to make many close friends. the ways i communicate with "very close" are mainly F2F communication and cellphone when needed, except my parents, sister, and best friend in Japan. I usually talk with them via email. I send emails to their cellphone and they send me back to my hotmail. my family do not use facebook of course, and my best friend in japan does not use facebook either, because it is not popular in Japan. instead, there is a popluar social networking website called "mixi" which allows you to access it through cellphones. cellphones in Japan is the most popular communication method. the way contact with "somewhere close" is basically on facebook becaue we do not have to or want to spend so much and effort to see each other. moreover, having a facebook account and keep them in contacts is very easieer to adjust. another thing i realized through this relationship analysis is that i don not have many very close friends is because i have been lived in 4 different counties such as Japan, Hong Kong, Bahrain, and Canada. although i make close friends, this relatioionship does not last for so long because move to another place. i guess every one has just a few close flose friends. the people i can constantly and tightly contact or hang out with are regarded as my "very close".

it is good enough to have only a couple of bestfriends rather than many many "somewhere close" friends.