Surf the Web On a Smart TV

Digital receivers are bringing the Internet into millions of living rooms. Television manufacturers, feeling the competition from the digital receivers like Roku and Apple, are promoting smart TVs with similar services. In addition to streaming media from a few specific sites, many modern smart TVs also provide you with an integrated Web browser. With a smart TV, you can sit in your living room and enjoy your social media network in a 50” LCD instead of the little 13” laptop screen.  Actually when I heard this news, I was surprised because I had tried to connect my laptop with the TV screen to watch movies before, but I still needed to manipulate and set up everything on my laptop.  Right now I could really surf the net on a TV. While some opinions argue that one no longer need to run a TV and a laptop or tablet at the same ime with a smart TV, I also couldn’t help thinking whether cable company will like it or not. As we know, there are so many sites provide TV channels online. I myself always watch NBA game on the Internet. Although the image quality is not as good as a TV, it could still challenge these TV cable companies in my opinion.

NEWS from Wired: The right interface

These custom browsers are similar to those on your PC, and they include the basics you need for navigation and bookmarking. So instead of reaching for your laptop to search Wikipedia while you’re in front of the TV, you can do it all with one device.

TV-based web browsing can be easy or awkward, depending on the interface. Maneuvering around a browser using arrow buttons can sap the fun from the experience, and trying to enter words with a remote can lead to intense frustration.

Then there’s a new technology from LG called Magic Motion. It’s similar to a Nintendo Wii controller. You simply point the Magic Motion remote control at the screen and a little cursor follows the remote’s movement. You can enter text by clicking keys on a virtual keyboard.

                                                                        ----18:54, 24 March 2011 by loresjoberg.

Secure Online-Identity

 Yesterday,   after a long time, I decided to see how's going on my stock account. Unfortunately , I forgot my password of my online account.  The reason is that I got so many passwords that sometimes I can’t remember them. I had tried to log in again and again until the stock system locked me for wrong passwords.  I had to call my home agent back in China for help. Anyway, I didn't surffer a big lose since the stock market in China hasn’t change rapidly for a long time. Nonetheless, I also read a news says president Barack Obama unveiled an ambitious proposal to create a trusted-identity system to boost consumer security in cyberspace. These two things again remind me the term of online privacy.  I myself was a victim of some form of identity theft in the past years, but I didn’t surprise at all as long as I haven’t lost very important information like bank account because I know this is the normal risk one should face when he or she using Internet. As a matter of fact, it already becomes a very big big privacy concern when people using Internet nowadays. I believe most people, like me, sometimes want to make sure you and the only you can access sensitive information. You might have a lot of passwords, too many to remember them all, or maybe you use the same password many times. The proposal made by Obama argues in either way, ID thieves can get or steal your password and pretend to be you.  Now there is a group of private and public organizations think there is a better way. They are building an identity equal system, where consumers and businesses can more confidently conduct transactions on line. If you decide to participate, you need to pick one or more private or public secure ID providers to prove your identity.  That company or publicity issue your credential, it might be a secure ID application on your iPhone, a smart card, or other devices. Your credential proves you and most online providers no loner need your personal information. You can use your trusted ID for sensitive transactions and not use for others like serving the web. Your ID provider will not know how you use your credential. There is no central database tracking your actions. In the new cyber world, with trusted IDs, online transactions are safer and more convenient.  In this way, one could control the access to personal information. Nevertheless, I don’t know if this proposal will help to solve the hard problem in America, but the ideas sounds good for me.

Media convergence

Nowadays, thanks to the thousands of new media technologies, consumers have more choices. Marketing competition speeds up the innovation, and consumers’ loyalty will decline because of another more convenient media technology. Moreover, today’s consumers are more active which means their desires have been expended, and their requirements are more nitpicky. I think that is why Facebook has been more popular than regular blogs. Facebook provides us so many choices such as writing blogs, chatting with friends, sharing pictures, videos so that consumers can reach all their desires in one single web site.

I have watched an interesting video on YouTube yesterday, basically, this video portrays that students are out of self-control when they are facing distractions brought by new technologies. As a matter of fact, this is a normal phenomenon which I can see every day in every class. Once a student opens a YouTube video in his laptop, nobody behinds this student will focus on the professor anymore. I am one of them. However, not every student behaves like us or like what was described in the video. Still, there are a lot of students focusing in class and taking notes carefully instead of chatting or watching YouTube. Although I believe people should be self-disciplined all the time, I can’t deny people have different study habits. I have many friends who can get a very high grade even they watch videos in each class. The most important lesson we should know in this information society is that: control the technology so that you will not be controlled by the technology. What recalls me after watching this video again is the term called media convergence. I have noticed that laptop, facebook, cellphones have all been mentioned in this short video. They are examples of the media convergence which mentioned in our readings. By just looking at students’ behaviors in class, I am startled of the influence which brought by media convergence.

Why Do Some Countries Block YouTube

The YouTube banning trend is getting popular. Every week we hear of some country that has decided to protect its oversensitive citizens from the horrors of video sharing by blocking YouTube. Since I have talked YouTube in two of my blogs, I get a feeling that I have to talk something about YouTube and censorship (if politics is too wide). And, I just want to express some personal experiences and thoughts. However, I guess none of my opinions can be correct just because in real life, I can never find a correct answer for a certain political issue.

Sometimes, I am really happy that I can enjoy watching YouTube again after I came to Canada. YouTube came into my life when I was in middle school in China. At that time, YouTube hadn’t been banned yet and I just enjoyed watching NBA videos on it every day. However, I watched it not because there were no other sites provide NBA videos. It just feels cool for a teenager to watch NBA in a foreign website. It really doesn’t mean much to me. So when YouTube was banned, without much sadness, I moved to another Chinese site which actually provides better NBA videos. But why does government ban YouTube? Two Comments I found on the Internet are quite typical answers.

“To control information, usually. It can be hard for a government to run a successful propaganda campaign if people can go to the web and find the truth on their own.”--- IMHO Brain

“Finally, China and India currently have no active ban on YouTube, but both states have on occasions threatened to block the video sharing website; India because of a video clip mocking Gandhi, and China because of their general policy of banning, well, all kinds of stuff.” --- Stan Schroeder

It is believed by the public that countries which banned YouTube in the world are the countries have less democracy. However, it is not fair to conclude that citizens could find the truth on a banned website. Take me as an example, as a Chinese citizen, I was much clear than anybody else on the reason why they ban YouTube. As a matter of fact, in China, most of the people who know how to use Internet know the reason why the government bans it. And you know what; they have many ways to see what happened there in that banned site. Porn videos are not permitted, but every boy has some in their laptops. (Not every boy LoL) And believe me; it is much easier to visit YouTube than download a porn video. The fact is people are more curious about things they are not allowed to see. It actually reminds me what American government did for Wikileaks. In this information society, whenever there is a government, there is secret. We are all fed with information in a manner that they choose. In my point of view, any comment laughing at other countries’ information policy is like a Chinese saying: the pot calls the kettle black. Nevertheless, I wish some day in the future, Chinese government could be the first one which is brave enough to face any expression of opinion in front of their people.  

Why Youtube?

Nowadays, everybody uses YouTube, ordinary people enjoy making and sharing funny videos online, students like us analyze videos on YouTube to finish our presentation and blogs. However, can you tell the reason why do thousands people there like YouTube? YouTube contains so many racist, sexist, violence, homophobic and absence messages. Teenagers may get affected negatively; social influence may become a major concern, but YouTube Still has tons of fans. Why? As recently as 2008 John C. Paolillo observed that ‘there is no clear picture of how people use YouTube and why.’ The surrounding culture of confessional practices can be said to predispose individuals to make video diaries about their lives. In my opinion, most of the people go to YouTube for self-representation. I mean, we are socialized to embrace self-expression via video. Advertisements for consumer electronics tell use this is normal, television shows us how to do it, our peers lead the way, and social norms reassure us that it is acceptable. In other words, YouTube just provides a platform for people to express and show themselves. Also, for me, pleasure and vanity are great motivators to be a YouTuber. There are also more material matters of utility and convenience that explain our Youtube compulsions. People use YouTube for distributing video holiday greetings, wishing friends happy birthday, celebrating anniversaries, births, and deaths. To some, YouTube remains a mystery. As Lange observes, “people who do not regularly participate on YouTube may not understand why people watch seemingly poor quality or odd videos.  The answer to the question “why do you’ Tube” I s as broad as the answer to the question “why do human communicate?”

Just like a community, it is made up of those who fit and those who do not fit well with norms and tacit rules. Internet communities have long been plagued by those who do not play well with others. The people who posts rude and often racist, sexist, homophobic, or obscene messages are just like those people. It won’t be a big issue if YouTube set some regulations properly. However, as some countries concern in as political view, they may just forbid YouTube in their countries. It is quite controversial to discuss this topic further.

But one thing we should notice is that “New media practices typically change faster that institutionalized modes of representation. It remains to be seen how well military and electoral campaigns will adapt to mass participation in video making. From the global to the local, YouTube and amateur video are now deeply embedded media practices and touch upon all areas of life.”(Watching YouTube, Michael Strangelove)