Do you know your search?

You know…Google?

And use Google?

I use Google on a daily basis too.

But the question is, do you know how search engines work?

Just like you, I took search engines for granted. I mean, who cares how search engines work? As long as I am able get all the needed information, that’s it. Why think further?

However. Knowing how search engines work is crucially important. That is if you want fame, reconigition, blah whatever you can think of. Basically, that is if you want your website to be listed on the first page of the search results. And that’s, what I have learnt while researching on this topic for my NCT class. So here, I’m gonna impart my knowledge on search engines!

The ticket for your website to be listed on the first page of the search results include:
-Using alt tags for images
-Using keywords, meta tags relevant to content
-Having site maps
-Each page should contain >250 words of text
-All important pages on a website should be accessible with 3 clicks or less

These 5 points are really important as they will aid you in attracting Spiders to your site. When Spiders are attracted to your site, there’s a very high chance that your site will be listed on the first few pages of the search results.

Wait. I know, you must be asking. What are the Spiders I am talking about? Spiders are part of the process on how a search engine generates results. They are simply bots that crawls around the entire world wide web, searching on sites that are relevant and matches your search query. The following video explains it all! ^^

Man in Red Kimono blowing the whistle = Acts as the Search box. Had a query that has the keyword- “girl”
Men in bathing suits = Spiders

Moving on, I wanna introduce a VERY COOL SEARCH ENGINE. It’s nothing like Google or Yahoo.
Click on WolframAlpha.
It provides instant factual answers, and answers to mathematical problems.

WolframAlpha uses its built-in algorithms and a growing collection of data to compute the answer.

Try these few questions on WolframAlpha:
1)What’s Mars’ distance from Earth?

2) What’s 287+18%?

3) What are the nearby cities in Auckland?

Amazed yet? If you’re not, it’s okay. Because I am utterly amazed by this search engine. HAHA.

Know what? This is one thing that Google can’t do. =) And…I’ll never get to find out about the existance of WolframAlpha if not for NCT class, where I’m forced to research and learn about it. This is the last week of seminar-styled presentations. I’m sure, I’m gonna miss it. It’s one class that I have learnt so many things about today’s technology!

Thumbs up for NCT! ^^

For a pessimist, I’m pretty optimistic afterall

Am on CLOUD NINE that my seminar-style presentation on Search technology with PX is finally over.  Shall impart some knowledge about search technology on my next post, so stay tuned for it!

It’s just only 2 more weeks of school left. I can’t wait. Really.

Counting down! 😀

Oh and I wanna introduce…Lego Rockband!

I love the setlist. I only want the setlist.
Awaiting for the day when my friend is able to get the export code for US$10. And yes! I can export all the songs to RB2.
I believe it’s share-able. Through some speculations. Haha.

Wait. Maybe not. I think I wanna own the game disc. THE GAMEPLAY IS SO CUTE.
Check this out (it’s on story mode aka tour mode lol):

AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

kick*

My throbbing temples are killing me softly.

Not to mention my sore throat.

Why is everything so sore today?

Thank goodness the throat is recovering. NO MORE FRIED FOOD NOVEA! EVERYTHING HAS TO BE STEAMED!

lolllll

Further studies

Crap. My parents have been constantly pressurizing me on my further studies.

I need time to go apply for my university education. But it seems like my timetable doesn’t permit so.

Augment the future~

Oh no! ): I didn’t fulfill the statement where I said that I’d blog about augmented reality & continuous partial attention on Friday! Thousand apologies, was caught up with lots of stuff and my computer couldn’t start-up for some reason.

I’m supposed to be doing my school work but I’ve my TweetDeck, MSN Messenger turned on, trying very hard to keep on top of everything.

That’s continuous partial attention. Not multitasking. Multitasking is like watching the television while eating. Simple? Lol.

Now let’s go straight to augmented reality. Fasten your seat belts. On the count of 3, 2, 1…WELCOME TO MY POST ON AUGMENTED REALITY! *throws confetti* (lame)

According to Wiki:

Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, like for example sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally usable. Artificial information about the environment and the objects in it can be stored and retrieved as an information layer on top of the real world view.

And currently, the world’s first augmented reality browser is called Layar, available for handsets with the Android operating system (the G1 and HTC Magic).

Get it? Of course you don’t really get it, haha. Let me explain it in basic human language.

You have a phone. A smart phone.
It comes with a software which is smarter than Google Maps.
You’re at Holland Village, looking for 5-star Ipoh Hor Fun.
However, there are tons of shops/restaurants and you don’t know which is the exact one you are looking for.
AND SO! You whipped out your genius phone. And turned on the augmented reality browser.
The application automatically activates the camera. The embedded GPS automatically knows the location of the phone and the compass determines in which direction the phone is facing.
As you place your phone over the location you’re at, you’re able to see what each shop sells, its reviews, ratings, etc.
No worries if you’re lost too. With this, they’d be able to tell you your exact location and addresses of the nearby buildings.
Cool much?

If you still don’t get it, just watch this video:

I’m so looking forward to this. Even though, with this technology, it’s easier for people to track your whereabouts. But so what? We all gotta pay a price for everything: Using our privacy to buy convenience.

Social media tips learnt today

Ms. Pat Law from Ogilvy was our guest lecturer today.

I’ve learnt pretty loads of things and here are some useful links: (Credits to Nizam who managed to copy all of them down)

How to search for news on blogs

Homepage static

http://alltop.com
http://www.icerocket.com
http://www.blograma.com
http://www.thedailyinfluence.com
http://pbworks.com
http://daymix.com

Be sure to exclude words like “free” and “exclusive”. Especially “free”. This makes you narrow your searches.

How to follow specific information
http://omgili.com
http://monitorthus.info

Homepage

http://whostalkin.com

How to listen on Twitter
Helps you find what’s the latest & hottest topic on Twitter.

http://search.twitter.com/
http://monitter.com
http://twitterfall
http://mediaontwitter.com/
http://muckrack.com
http://www.twellow.com
http://www.tweetizen.com
http://wefollow.com
http://mrtweet.com

Homepage

http://twitterfall.com

How to evaluate an influencer
These basically tells you how popular one’s website is and its ranking.

http://www.alexa.com/
http://urlfan.com/
http://compete.com/
http://www.popuri.us/

How to track on Twitter
These are all about how one’s twitter account is growing.

http://tweetica.com
http://twitalyzer.com
http://twitter.grader.com

The most important thing I’ve learnt today is that…BLOGS HOLD VALUABLE INFORMATION. Not only that, BLOGGERS ARE WORSHIPPED. All because blogs have all the fresh content with different perspectives and…constant regular updates. Besides, bloggers are like you and me. Sometimes some people see things that you don’t. Not everyone could catch every single detail that’s happening around you every second.

Shall blog about augmented reality and continuous partial attention tmr. Till then.

Rockband 1 vs. Rockband 2

Okay I know this is a little too late but it’s alright, cos’ I only just got my Rockband 1 disc.

Rockband 1 is a pretty painful experience I’d say.
Firstly, for the Solo mode > Solo Tour, I CAN’T SWITCH INSTRUMENTS/DIFFICULTY to complete the set list. I started off with Guitar on Hard difficulty and I did have some difficulty. Thus I switched to Medium, thinking that I’d be able to unlock the other venue. HOWEVER. It’s fruitless. Exasperated, I went back to Hard and struggled through the set list…painfully. Lol. Thank god I was able to complete that set list and unlock that venue or I’d have completely given up unlocking all the songs on RB1.

Secondly, I wonder what’s up with the Vocals. I could perfectly gold-starred some songs on RB2 but not on RB1. The arrow following your pitch keeps going on…weirdly. I couldn’t even score a 5-star on a single song on Expert. Like errr? I had no problems in RB2! 😦 Probably it’s just my voice but…I don’t know…

So in conclusion: RB2 is better than RB1! Haha. (But in my opinion, the songs in RB1 are so much better.)

Okay, I guess what I need now is the RB export key.

:/

Guess who? It’s none other than Stephie Tan, blogger of http://www.stephiesays.com and writer of Fashion Nation!

Stephie Tan came over to one of our lectures to gave a small presentation about social media, and well, I’m quite amazed by how social media is becoming an essential tool to our daily lives. Technology is changing people’s lifestyles I’d say. One example would be Twitter – even your Mom would be able to know your whereabouts and what exactly you are doing outside! They can forget about calling up or texting their child (who might be merrying the night away), cos most of us tend to miss out the calls/texts while having fun. And I know, we’ll definitely tweet our status… it’s just a natural trend now.

Anyway! I learnt from Stephie Tan too that being a FREELANCE WRITER + BLOGGER IS AN AWESOME JOB. Not only you get to attend all the exclusive events, you even get to travel all around the world! You earn your keep by just using your laptop and of course, your writing skills. It’s kinda a stress-free job I’d say. However, even though I’d very much like to be like her…I doubt I have the abilities. I’ve no idea whether my writing skills are actually skillful. Some of my works are published, like articles from inaugural Asian Youth Games (AYG) website, singaporesports.sg and SP’s publications. But…OH WELL.

I think I wanna be a copywriter. Or an author of children’s books.

Wisdom of crowd

Do you know that Google uses “wisdom of crowd” for its search engine?

Haha, of course you do – if you’ve attended new communications technologies class. Or some way or the other, you’re just tech-savvy. Lol.

Wisdom of crowd basically means two heads are always better than one. This is how it was experimented:

1) There’s a jar of cookies. You’re supposed to guess how many cookies do you think there are in the jar.
2) There are 2 groups making the guess. Group 1 = 15 ppl. Group 2 = 1 person
3) 15 people’s guesses were averaged out.
4) The guesses of the group of people vs. to an individual is nearer to the answer.

Oh and I forgot to mention. There must be zero-biasedness. The group of people must have an opinion of their own and not swayed by other people’s guesses.

Isn’t it so amazing? Haha.

“Privacy” doesn’t exist

Caught Minority Report during  New Communications Technology class (NCT) last week.

Somehow I think the “future” is always pictured with flying hovercrafts everywhere, hologramic computer screens, being able to control things with only with a touch of your finger or by just a mere movement by your hands, etc. Zzz. Honestly, all these futuristic movies need a change.  

Okay anyway, I realised… as technology advances, it seems like every single detail of every living individual could be tracked. Creepy much? Just look at Minority Report –  there’s this eye-scan technology where anyone could be identified by just scanning their eyes. No escape.

Oh oh. Minority Report reminds me of a recent movie – Eagle Eye.

Basically the storyline revolves around how every single human being’s movements are tracked and seen by a robot. The robot watches over a zillion TV screens every second, watching every move everyone makes. -_-

All in all, the message that I got from all these Sci-Fi futuristic movies is that : Advancing technology = Increasingly no privacy. Tsk. See lah, invent more stuff lah, next time even when you’re in your bath people can be watching you too. -_-

Now, I’d think that it’s better to be a caveman. Why the heck did we humans turn so smart for? We’re actually making ourselves at a disadvantage subconsciously. Stop upgrading, stop inventing! Life’s good, no need for any more improvements that you think that would make our lives better! It’s only your warped perception! And I also feel that it’s all a conspiracy to make more money. HAHA. 😡

Seriously. What’s the use for being so advanced?!