The...END???!!!

Wow, I never thought I'd reach this point at all. Finally, dearest readers, it is time to hang up my coat and leave this vast library of information I'd like to call my COM125 blog. it has been such an awesome time of learning and sharing amongst all of us. I feel myself tearing up.

Hontou desu ka?

Aside from the near-obvious fact that this course teaches us about the origins and use of the internet, I feel that being in this class has really opened my eyes to the wonders of the modern world. How a top-secret government project could be transformed to a global phenomenon, connecting people from all parts of the world together almost instantaneously.

I also learnt that like most people, I have taken the internet for granted. True, I was born in the dial-up link era, but still i had access to decent internet connectivity. We all think that the internet is an inherent right for now, but what if it hadn't been invented? I bet my bottom dollar half of the inventory you currently have wouldn't even exist right now.

SO lets end this chapter with a thought: would we as a species progress further with the innovations of the internet, or regress into the Stone Age?

I bid you adieu.

Week 12: New Ideas CONTINUED BRUTHA

And yes my faithful followers. It is now nearing the end of this blog. And to go out with an appropriate bang, I will touch on what we further learnt this week: New ideas and innovations through the use of the internet.

You have not brushed your teeth in 2 days, this app says. disgusting

With new innovations utilising the power of the internet, we are able to connect daily chores with our technological devices such as handphones and computers. such as this smart toothbrush that lets you know how much of your mouth you have cleaned out. Coolio.



Google, the mother of all cool things and innovations, has had its fair share of new inventions too. like this human-powered monorail called Shweeb: a space-age transportation device that combines the unique properties of monorail with recumbent cycle technologies.

How amazing, is the human mind to conjure up such grandiose and fancy gadgets to improve on everyday life. It really makes me wonder, will we one day end up the product of our own genius?? it is a harrowing yet humbling thought indeed. One of my most favourite and crazy japanese anime films, Ghost in The Shell, sums this up at its finest.

not porn.

Using microchips to control real-life gamers, sounds like fiction?

 What if one day, we humans and machines get integrated to such an extent that we end up losing most of our humanity to the near-perfection of machine precision? Shows like terminator and the Matrix come to mind. Maybe you think me mad, but it is already beginning. NBC has predicted that come 2017, all Americans will be retrofitted with a microchip implant that will supposedly help identify individuals in case of John/Jane Doe cases. But whats to say the chip will not be used for more dubious purposes, like say, the Montenegrin of its own citizens by the government? Premise for a new box-office smash hit much.


 So as much as we think innovations are a thing of the distant future, it is actually accelerating as a much faster pace than we think. Hopefully, I'm able to think out what I want to write on a blog without actually typing on it. It would save so much time.

Week 12: NEW IDEAS MUCH

This week was one of the more interesting topics we did! It was about how people(ORDINARY PEOPLE, mind you) are able to create absolutely amazing applications and new ideas that change the way we use and apply social media to our daily lives. Lets take a look at one innovations that have personally helped me improve on my daily dealings

Carousell(surprise surprise)

Something to start off with, lets go local! Carousell started out as Snapsell with founders Lucas Ngoo, Quek Siu Rui and Marcus Tan. Snapsell began in March 2012 at Startup Weekend. Snapsell's team took 54 grueling hours to produce a demo for the final pitch. It impressed the judges and they won.

additional info: They're from NUS. Shocker

The idea began with a problem the founders faced just days before Startup Weekend. One of them had a white MacBook that was still working great and with reasonably good specifications, but it had been abandoned for months since he had gotten himself a newer, more portable MacBook. Having always wanted to sell it on a marketplace like Hardwarezone or Craigslist but just never got around to doing so, it became clear that one of the key reasons for this perpetual procrastination was the hassle in listing stuff for sale.
Listing something for sale is truly non-trivial, especially when it involves photos (and photos are key to getting good offers). The process goes something like this: You take photos with your camera, upload them to your computer, use a photo editing software to enhance/resize the photos, then upload it to an image hosting service and then embed it into the post where you are listing your item. It’s a painful process that easily takes 30 minutes or more. With that, it occurred to them that with smartphones, this process could be streamlined to a process that would take just seconds. Hence, at Startup Weekend Singapore, Snapsell was submitted for the voting round as “a dead easy way to sell your stuff”. Since Startup Weekend concluded, the creators have been encouraged by requests for the app to launch sooner, and have spent a lot of time listening to feedback and understanding the problems associated with selling stuff. Internally, they have distilled all the information gathered to the essence of the problems of selling today. And that has given the makers new insights into the possibilities of what Snapsell can become.
Today,  Snapsell has been successfully been transformed into Carousell! For more information about this new venture, here is a newspaper cutout.


I personally use both Facebook and Carousell, although I subscribed to the latter only recently because I needed a quick way to get a headmount for my action camera. Furthermore, allowing me to chat instantly with any buyers/sellers is a great way to get to know more information about the product I'm buying or whether the buyer is legit or not. So far currently I'm in the dealing with this guy for the purchase of three fire-bellied toads. lets hope it all goes well and I'm not going to get caught.