Dumb and dumber

lol-cats

When famous philosopher Socrates famously warned about the effect that books would have on learning, he worried the written word would make people forgetful and too reliant on external characters – he certainly wasn’t the first man to question whether new was inherently better than old. He certainly wasn’t the last, either.

 

Sadly, there’s not one person alive today who can tell us about the day the door was invented, but if that early discovery was anything like subsequent human inventions, you can be sure there was at least one person warning about the negative impact such a contraption would have on our early ancestors.

 

Speaking out against technology may be for weirdos, but it is important to remember that moving forward isn’t always the same as progressing.

 

The internet has definitely changed how we consume information though.

 

If you like photos of cats pulling stupid faces, dogs farting or a Star Wars mash-up compiled by teenagers, then it’s not likely clicking on that content is eating into your busy time schedule.

 

The internet itself is nothing but a post-modern parody of the21st century life, where the best and worst of human culture is available. If you spend your time surfing the web for LOLcats then the internet is no more to blame for your stupidity than a library is if you sit inside one while reading Stupid comics.

 

As a regular ,almost constant  Twitter user, I certainly know less and less about more and more. I’ve skimmed countless essays, blogposts and articles from tweeted links. I’ve also read more books this past year – all discovered via Twitter or Facebook or Instagram than in the previous five years combined. I’d certainly be more of use in a pub quiz than two years ago, but still pretty useless in an in-depth debate about one issue.

 

As we’re only a couple of generations into using the internet, it’s way too early to declare it as fundamentally good or bad, despite the numerous articles cropping up for or against Carr’s hypothesis.

 

And as with any important issues, the effect anything has is far more complicated than a simple binary declaration can make it appear. But then we’d all remember that if we weren’t so easily distracted by videos of cats being si……

 

Bitcoins for dummies

bc

 

Getting our third Niki done before Summer comes to a close next week. Honestly can’t wait to be done and over with only because packing everything within a course of six weeks drives everyone crazy. I’m not saying it can’t be done. Well obvious it’s been done before but I’m sure even Elliot is feeling exhausted haha. Anyways back to our Niki, we’re going to be getting one done on Bitcoins which we as a team found to be an interesting topic.

 

I, personally as someone who believes in investing and earning passive incomes from investments liked to do one on bitcoins because I’ve heard about the hype of it for awhile now but don’t quite understand what it’s all about still, therefore getting this done could help me in understanding and perhaps start trading with bitcoins.

 

As a group we decided to do a Bitcoins for dummies guide and I am basically asked to give an introduction to what it is about and understanding it a little better.

 

Bitcoin was invented as a peer-to-peer system for online payments that does not require a trusted central authority. Since its inception in 2008, Bitcoin has grown into a currency, an investment vehicle, and a community. In this guide I hope to explain what Bitcoin is and how it works as well as describe how you can use it to improve your life.

 

Bitcoins are created out of thin-air through an open-source computer mining system similar to a lottery, yielding a commodity like gold.

 

Taken from an excerpt on a website they explained that :

 

“Lottery” meaning that your computer is basically trying to decipher a 64-byte number before anyone else on the mining network does. Each time your computer gets the 64-byte string correct before anyone else, a new block is created and 25 BTC (currently) is awarded to the miner or pool (group of miners). But this isn’t a normal lottery. This lottery is millions of times more difficult than a normal lottery, thus why miners spend a lot capital on new hardware for mining. Therefore, the faster your system can mine the higher probability you will be rewarded.

 

“Gold” meaning only 21,000,000 Bitcoins will ever be created just as only X amount of gold will ever be discovered on Earth. Thus, this form of payment tends to see an opposite affect of that which you are used to. Bitcoins become worth more as time goes on (finite supply) vs. traditional currencies today which lose more value as time goes on (infinite supply; central banks can print money at their discretion, and they do).

 

Source: http://bitcoinssimplified.org

 

So for all you smart kids out there, would it make more sense to invest in a currency that is finite like Bitcoin, or infinite like the US dollar?

 

I believe that by after comparing bitcoin to gold, it became so much clearer to me. People are investing in Bitcoins because it is like gold, or more accurately, the gold of the Internet. As long as people trust that this currency has value, people will continue to invest in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is open-source software, so it has no central control with corrupt bankers and politicians, just really smart people working for free to keeping it running!

 

Given all the problems we see in world economies, we are rapidly beginning to lose faith in conventional legal tender. Governments have demonstrated that they can seize your bank-accessible assets if needed. With Bitcoin, this is not possible as no one can have access to your funds. Your Bitcoin wallet is essentially your very own bank. It’s similar to the idea of people stuffing cash into their mattresses, except this is a lot more profitable and accessible. People will perhaps one day refer to this era as the gold rush of the 21st century.

 

 

 

Working with Pinterest

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So, now that I’ve explained the topic of my second Niki, “Pinterest” to you in the post prior to this. Let me move a step ahead and talk about what we’re doing up for the Niki page. We decided to focus on Niki and how it has helped enterpises and businesses boost sales and also acts as a website analytic for business owners.

 

We managed to find quite a number of academic references on google scholar and also a couple through RMIT’s e-library. We had great ideas on trying to make the Niki interactive and fun but were stuck when we started to question if getting that much work done is worth it?

 

So we decided to cut out making the page interactive and decided that an infographic would do the trick in explaining how pinterest helps businesses. We decided to make our own pinterest page and “business” to show example of how businesses would do it. And the process of analysing our consumers by watching what is being pinned most and work on from there. But that was too time consuming.

 

So back to the demographic graph, with the help from Dana we were able to get the graph done up. The graph comprises of three catagories with made up details. The first is the follower growth chart of the different “non existing brands”, the second comprises the percentages of brand mentions and the third, audience engagement on pinterest.

 

This faux infographics represents how it really works for businesses in real and shows our audience how consumers responds to these stores and business through the use of pinterest.

 

The world of Pinterest

In the last class before the long weekend break, we were broken up into different groups once again and were given topics to work on. What we got for our Niki page this time, was something far more interesting and creative than the one I had prior to this. We were going to be doing up a Niki page on

NPinterest

 

What could be more interesting right? I’ve not been an active user of Pinterest but it’s no doubt one of the sites that I would go on to, together with Tumblr for creative inspirations and a platform I go to, to seek thoughts and whimsical aspirations as well. So what is Pinterest actually? According to wikipedia,

” Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies. Users can browse other pinboards for images, “re-pin” images to their own pinboards, or “like” photos. ”

pinterest-2

 

They are inspirational boards which allows us to pin up pictures and images into different themed boards found on the site. We are able to share it with other people or set up private inspirational pinboard as a pictorial diary or for any purpose we want it to. We’re also able to create our own themes and add in inspiration for others to see.

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Therefore, instead of doing up a inspirational board on hand like the image above, everything is done online, without us having to move our butts. Also, there are millions of inspiration to be found online Pinterest shared by the rest of the world. Of course, if you love having to craft up your own inspiration board like the above is just as inspiring because most of us can’t be stuffed to do that.

 

Pinterest is not just a platform for inspiration but also a platform for businesses. Many stores has turned Pinterest into their biggest traffic drivers. Because Pinterest didn’t have a link back to where one could buy a store’s product. Most of the stores started linking all of their look books back to their website and integrated “Pin it” buttons on all their product pages.

 

Most stores also created their own relevant boards to use as inspiration for their brand and for photo shoot ideas. They use data analysis to help in purchasing decisions based on viewer’s styles, colors, cuts etc and are constantly seeing people pin and re-pin images back to their boards. The stores tend to see their images pop up on people’s inspiration boards, wish lists, style and clothing boards which drives prospective customers back onto their webpage to look for more.

 

I feel that, anything on the internet can be used to our advantage in so many ways, it gives inspiration and drives knowledge and creativity. It also helps businesses and creates a space for one to just dwell and seek comfort in. Pinterest is one of the many sites like that and a site which I hope will continue to stay for a long time to come.