WeeklyBlog#5: Facebook Privacy

There is no doubt that facebook is very popular and growing rapidly.
According to this Youtube video:

• Facebook has 400 million users all over the world (Actually it reached 800 million right now)
• Americans spend 7 hours per month on average (more popular than wiki or google)

This is only a few facts about Facebook and you can see clearly that Facebook has now a big impact on people daily lives.

Facebook connects people all over the world, enabling you to communicate with your friends who are in different countries for example. All you have to do is just to log in Facebook and Find friends there.

However, Facebook also has a big issue.
It is privacy issue.

There is little or no privacy on Facebook.
Facebook contains numerous personal information, including their names, addresses, phone numbers, birthday, educational history...etc And these information can be accessed by developers, advertisers, and even hackers easily, according to this.


Information has got a power in this information technology era.
Personal information is very valuable to a lot of different advertisers and hackers who are trying to collect personal information as much as possible.

One of examples is this:

When you are surfing on the web, these ads pop up. These ads are not displayed randomly, but know your preference and interests. Ads are customized to you by cookies and so on. This helps advertisers to sell and promote their products and services. Thus, you have to be very careful and be wise that you are always been watched and tracked online, that your purchase decisions could be influenced by them. According to the youtube video that I mentioned earlier, 33% of users are fans of brands because they can get discounts and special offers.

Also, hackers and identity thefts are looking for your personal details.

They try to steal your banking card number or use fake personal information.
According to her blog,

 "The danger that has become most apparent on the Internet in recent times is the threat of identity theft and misuse of personal information. Many people trust their personal information being shown on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but that personal information can be used against you without you even knowing any other person had access."

One more thing. People often misuse Facebook and they get into troubles.

According to this article, Facebook could ruin your future job interview or even your future. In this article, it says that:

"Facebook has been known to destroy some reps and even get people fired and/or arrested. That's why it's so important to protect your privacy, especially if your idea of fun involves strange drinking rituals and casual sex with old women."

Some people make fun of themselves and upload funny pictures or write things that might be considered to be inappropriate. You might think that you are just joking, but some people may take it seriously and this can get you to be in troubles.  Also Facebook can hurt relationships as well. This happens when you write about bad things about people that you do not like or making fun of them or mentioning their personal information.


So when you are using Facebook, you have to be very careful what you write and upload there. Protect yourself and your personal information by setting private settings and do not add people who you do not know.


Lastly, I don't really like Facebook to be honest. This is not only because of privacy issues as I said earlier. The main reason I do not use Facebook is because I don't feel Facebook is a reallly "social" networking. It is much better to talk face to face than using facebook. This way, you can know each other more, sharing the same experiences, not sharing "like" buttoms on Facebook. Why do you need to talk online when you can call them or meet up for lunch or something. I think this is more socializing. It is more meaningful to spend time with your friends or family than chatting with people online who you really don't know well in real life.
I know facebook is great that you can keep in touch with people no matter where you are. But I feel that some are spending too much time online and not interacting with real world.


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Question for final:
How many hours Americans spend on Facebook on average??

Google Translate Fail2: WebAssignment

This assignment is called "Google Translate Fail" by Steven Q. Dangerfist.
Here is the description of the assignment.

Find something in a foreign language and use Google Translate and laugh about how awful it is. Its pretty easy to do if you use Google Chrome. Just go to a site in another language and select the translate to English button when it pops up (options - under the hood - check the box that says to offer translations). I think you can also use the main google.com to translate pages as well. If its a language you know, give an explanation of what it should be and list possible reasons it got messed up.

So here is what I did:

I put text「今日は雨が降ってます(kyou ha ame ga hutte masu)。」in Japanese.
In English, that means " It is rainig today."
I put this text just because it is rainig today.

The answer I got was

I rainig today??? lol
If you read this weird sentense, you might kinda get a sense what it's about... but this translation is not good...
I knew that Google Translate does not work well, especially between English and Japanese but I did not expect this bad. (worse than my horrible English... :P)
The original sentence was so simple and I thought this couldn't go wrong.

The subject sentence is 今日(today), not 私(I). I have no idea why it translated like this.
Google Translate might be fun to mess up and laugh about but it is not for academic use like many people point out that google translate cannot be depended on :(



Well, I tried a second try changing a little bit of the original sentence.
I rewrote it from spoken language into formal, written Japanese, just adding 「い」.

「今日は雨が降ってます。」

 ↓

「今日は雨が降っています。」

The result I got was this

Google Translated successfully for this time!! :)

Maybe Google Translate is not so bad??? 
or is it just an miracle? :P

_________________________
The process of this assignment:
I used Google Translate and tried some translation from Japanese into English. I took these pictures step by step with my iphone and uploaded to Flickr and then embeded here.

Disney Troll Quoting: Visual Assignment

This assignment is Triple Troll Attack, Go! by Darth Ba'al. What I had  to do was to create a misleading image that confuses viewers.

Here is description of this assignment:

The assignment is to take a photo, a quote from a different character than the one in the picture, and a name from a third character different from the other two, place the quote in the picture, and "sign" it with the third person's name. The three characters are to be from three different, but similar in genre, series. It's known as "troll quoting". For an "official" definition, go here: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/troll-quotes

 And here's my work :)

Image: Peter Pan from Peter Pan

Quote: Woody from Toy Story

Signature: Genie from Aladdin

I decided to do a combo of Disney characters because I like Disneys since when I was small and I went to Tokyo Disneyland recently :)

I used Abiary to create the image. I  took Peter Pan image from google, then added the quote and signature and stars around peter pan using Abiary tools ☆★☆

It was fun making the image and I hope you like my work, too! :)

 

1 Quote A Day: Writing Assignment

This assignment is 1 Quote a Day by mome.
This is the description:

Quotes are awesome. They recall a time, a trend or can identify you with a certain group. Type up a simple line/quote/text-based meme today without divulging the source (or completing the quote). People who recognize the line can respond in the comments!    

As mome says in the description, quotes are great and they help remembering the happenings of the day.

I was soooo happy today.

Why??

I got a call from one of my friends. I have not talk to her for a long time since she lives in Niigata where it is a little far from Tokyo and we both are pretty busy.

She called me for no reason, but said to me that she was wearing the pierced earrings which we bought them together a few years ago. And that reminded her of me and wanting to call.

To my surprise, I was wearing the same pierced earrings and thinking of her on the day. Actually,  I lost the earrings few months ago and just found them under the desk last night!!

We talked on the phone for 4 hours (!!!) because we have not talked for ages and we both had lots and lots of things to talk about :D Many things changed since we met last time, she got a new hairstyle, changed her job, living in a new apartment, etc... It was really nice to talk to her (even though I had class from 8:00am next day and we were chatting till 4:00 am... but if i had no class, i think we talked longer...!!)

Recently, I have been pretty busy and stressed out to be honest, but a call from her really cheered me up :)
She made me to realize that there is a happiness all around. People often look for only special things or events make them happy. But true happiness is everywhere in ordinary days. It's the matter of whether you can realize and appreciate it. Like Mai quotes the similar idea in her blog :)

After 3.11, the Great East Japan Earthquake, I think everyone are feeling the same way.

So here's my 1 Quote a Day for today

"So easy to forget our love the little things we do like calling for no reason just to say the words I love you."

(((☎))) <3

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Here's how I did this assignment:
I took a picture of the earrings with my iphone and uploaded to Flickr.Then I editted the photo with Aviary ( this is my favorite app- it's pretty easy to use it and useful! ). And embeded the photo here.
This is how I editted my photo :)

↓

For the image of the quote, I searched with GoogleImage. Then put the quote and changed the font size, color, and style. It was a simple assignment but I really enjoyed doing it.

Hope you can figure it out who wrote this :)

It is one of my favorite songs. 

Name That Single: DesignAssignment

Is it too easy?? :P

This assignment is called "Name that Single".
The task is to:

Create a design for a favorite song by using just simple designs and NO WORDS...Basically a design assignment with the rules in charades. IE: for No Doubt's "I'm Just a Girl" I would just have a symbol of a girl.     

So for this assignment, what I had to do is to create a design for my favorite song by using simple image. No words are allowed, so I designed the image as simple as possible to make it easy to guess! :)

Hints:
This song is my favorite since I visited Liverpool a few years ago.
I was not a particulary big fan of them before visiting Liverpool. But I really had a good time there and learned about their history.
_______________________________
The process I took for this assignment:
I searched the image using GoogleImage search engine and then decorated with Aviary. I looked up stamp tool but it didn't have stampe that I wanted so I used text tool instead. Using text tool, I typed ☆ and changed colors. And here's what I got!
Aviary is such a simple and easy to use, still does great work. I really enjoyed using it :)



Original image

Decorated image with Aviary

Colorize Your World: Visual Assignment

Colorize your world from ds106

I chose my favorite character Sponge Bob :)

Original version

Pink

Green

Blue

Google Translate Fail

Google Translate Fail by Steven Q. Dangerfist from ds106

Personally, I do not use Google Translate because it is really bad :(
But when I tried to translate the lyric "You Raise Me Up" by Celtic women, I wanted to make sure if my understanding is correct, so I tried Google Translate.

I was almost burst into laugh when I read the translation.

Original text was this:
When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

Google Translate did such a great job and gave me translation like this:
私を育てる の歌詞

私がそして時、オハイオ州疲労している私の精神、とても;
悩みが及び来るとき負う私の中心はある;
そして、私は私としばらく来、坐るまでまだあり、沈黙でここに待っている、。
(※私を育てる: 私はより多くにある場合もある。)

I think better translation would be more like this:
ああ、打ちひしがれ、疲れきったとき
もしも困難がおとずれ　心に重荷を負ったとしても
じっとここで静かに待つ
あなたがやって来て　しばらく座ってくれるまで
(Please tell me if my translation is wrong)

SongStory: Audio Assignment

This is SongStory from ds106.
The direction of the assignment is:

My memories fade over time, but sometimes there is a song that can take me back to a place that revives the memories of my past. The song allows me to remember things I thought I had forgotten. So, for an assignment, pick a song that does that for you, and tell some stories about what you remember. An example for me would be to pick a song off of the Journey "Escape" album, and talk about the summer job I had cutting the grass for my high school the summer before my senior year. The smells, the grease, the noise, the sunburn, the boredom, the friends. In the assignment you might want to mix your voice over parts of the song, give an intro, tell the story first and play the song, break up the song with the story - lots of options.  

Like the author says in the description, I guess everyone has a song that brings up special memories.

I read other people's song stories and every story and song is great!
I particularly liked  Mayu's story- it's sooo funny and cute story with cheerful song,
and Swadloon's story- it's very personal and touching! Her story inspired and made me wanting to share my memory that I'm going to talk about.

My favorite and special song is "You Raise Me Up" by Celtic Woman.
This song reminds me of the time when I was in Ireland.

I went to Irish high school and every time when I hear this song, it brings up a lot of memories; friends, host family, places I travelled and visited, cafe that I used to go almost every weekend and chatted with friends for hours and hours....

The reason I went to Ireland was not only to study English, but also to learn about different cultures. I've had a lot of opportunities to meet people from all over the world, such as Italy, Germany, Korea, China, etc... These friends helped me to gain an understanding of cultural differences and countries. Studying abroad has allowed me to learn about myself and be more independent. Living in a different country had challenged me, the new situation had tested my abilities to adapt and learn. It has expanded my worldview and has helped me to learn what it really means to be Japanese. I believe it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The past three years in Ireland had been full of fun, laughter and sometimes tears. This experience has been unforgettable and a precious time in my life which I will never forget!!

I like this part of lyrics

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders

You raise me up... to more than I can be

Like in the lyrics, these memories and experiences in Ireland raise me up more than I can be :)

You can read the full lyrics here.

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The process of this assignment is simple. I took a music clip from Youtube and embeded here. And searched the lyrics on the web and linked to it. I also linked to other people's work that inspired me to write this songstory.

Hope you enjoyed reading my story :)