Personally, I love the whale card the best! And I still remember how my hands were aching after 6 hours of drawing each card individually – ouch. But the joy of giving is always greater than the pain so.. it’s worth it! Hope you enjoyed my designs! (:

Ning and her team presented on the future of music and it was an enlightening one.

From vinyl to cassettes to CDs and now to digital forms, the way music is being sold has evolved.

Go on to itunes, and you will see millions of songs being sold. Even the most indie of bands, most likely, you’ll be able to find it there.

However, the way of selling songs is not the only one that’s changing. The way music is presented to people has also evolved. From the time of music artists performing in front of audiences, to radio, to television and now the world wide web.

Recently, U2 performed live from the Rose Bowl on the 25th of October 2009. It was a global live web cast, streaming from Youtube. And being a huge fan of U2, i had to watch it. And so off i went, rushed from school to home to watch U2 at 1130am Singapore time. (No i did not skip school; I’m a good student, HEHE)

It was absolutely phenomenal, and yes, there i was, sitting in front of my laptop screen, singing along to U2′s songs.

Seems kinda pathetic huh? Phenomenal and yet facing a screen. Although i appreciate the fact that i get to see U2 performing live (i mean, they wouldn’t even bother to come to Singapore, right?), the feeling of being in the atmosphere of a live performance is definitely worlds apart from sitting in front of a laptop screen.

Anyway, just a video that i took from the U2 performance. My favourite song from them: I still haven’t found what i’m looking for. I wish i could be there jumping and singing and shouting. But reality is harsh…..

Will music performances will only be web casted in the future? I really hope not. I’m still hoping that U2 will come to Singapore one day and then i can sing as loud as i can, And i still haven’t found what i’m looking for……

Let’s start with the technical parts of VoIP.

Basically VoIP means Voice over Internet Protocol, a Internet telephony  which is a method for taking analogue audio signals, and turning them into digital data that can be transmitted over the Internet, rather than the usual telephone network.

So how it happens..

First, there is a conversion of the analogue voice signal to digital format, which is then compressed and translated into Internet protocol (IP) packets for transmission over the Internet.

Okay, now let’s be practical about using VoIP in Singapore.

The advantages of using VoIP are:

• Conference calling, call forwarding, automatic redial and caller ID are cheap
• It is free (using Skype)
• To make a call from your PC to a phone, it is cheaper to use VoIP than a traditional phone
• It is portable

The disadvantages:

• VoIP service will not work when the internet connection fails
• If there is a blackout, a traditional phone is still kept in service. However, when the power goes out, so does your service with VoIP

For now, there are VoIP services offered in Singapore but the reliable sources are Singtel, Starhub and M1. Singtel however, only offers this service to companies while Starhub and M1 offer to us individuals. For more information of their service, click on these few links.

Singtel, Starhub, M1.

Now, although VoIP means voice over internet protocol, there is another version of VoIP, which is Video over Internet Protocol. Here is what Video of IP all about:

Of course, as most of us know, there is Skype which allows us to communicate through the internet with not only voice but video as well. The amazing thing about Skype is, it allows 25 people to conference call which is quite a huge number. Traditional phone calls only allow 6 people. However, the quality of the conference call might not be that great, with 25 people speaking all the time. It truly takes management to get 25 people to conference call.

Skype however, is losing out in the realm of Video oIP, with only allowing 2 people to interact through video caming. There are other services such as iVisit, which allows the use of 8 people video conferencing. However, iVisit requires payment upon using their service.

Another interesting service from iVisit is video conferencing on mobile phones. Once again, of course, a service that Skype doesn’t provide.

However, if you are like me, a poor student who can’t afford to pay the rent, let alone VoIP services, you can use MeBeam. MeBeam is a site that hosts video conferencing – without sound. And so, this is where Skype conferencing comes in useful and handy. Conference call with your friends, and ask your friends to sign in to the same chat room.

For example, signing in to the name of nctnct chatroom, which was what our class did. It was sure fun..

And of course, the trial run..

Watched Minority Report yesterday to refresh my memory, and of course, as expected from Steven Spielberg – it was an awesome movie. But besides it being a great movie, the story was frightening. Don’t we all feel afraid that our future will turn out like Minority Report?

Set in Washington DC in the year 2054, the movie focuses on Precrime chief, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) who found himself turned into one of his company’s wanted people, after the precogs showed a vision of him killing. Thus to prove his innocence, he struggles to find his own minority report.

Looking at  Minority Report, people might think the technology shown is still far in the future. For example, getting identified through an eye iris. Today sees us identified through our fingerprints, and it seems, nothing more than this. However, Ms Kwa shown the students this video, which i think can challenge that altogether.

This video is a demo of a device from MIT. At one part of the video, a person is identified by the device by his face, and projects all information it can gather of this person. With technology like this being around the corner, eye iris identification seems nearer than 2054.

Also, didn’t you find the finger gesturing on the demo video similar to Minority Report?

If we can actually have a little of Minority Report in the year of 2009, i have a feeling it wouldn’t take longer than 2054 for life to be similar to Minority Report.

Advertising Agency: singh&sons

In Australia, 1.8 million children as young as eight years old are being sold for sex – sometimes up to ten times a day – until they’re considered “worthless” before they reach their 30th birthday. – Herald Sun

And we thought dogs were loyal..