Facebook recently unveiled it’s new re-design to all it’s users, called Facebook Timeline, where it takes over the traditional profile based design and replace it with a brand new interface with heavy emphasis of time and well, not to mention age, many users would take time to understand the re-design and there’s a foreseeable backlash of users that would object against it.

However, this is certainly the right step of presenting users with useful and detailed information, as its now presented in a life profile, allowing any individual to learn more about one’s life. (And not whatsoever that’s recent).

I believe this is a response to Google+, extending the circles concept further with it’s wealth of information collected over the years, with a strong emphasis of history.

This is Facebook’s Brand New Re-designed profile (The photo was taken from one of my recent Toastmasters’ competition)

Immediately beside your titles are tiles / tabs, which you can easily update, add applications (which will be made available during launch) to include in your profile and it shows you interesting services and contents which you are linked to, for example, like Spotify (it will pull up your musical tastes)

But just for this example, I’ve included Tetris Battle in one of my featured applications, seems cool, don’t you think so?

Well, unless there’s further privacy concerns.

As you scroll down, you’ll no longer see lines of excel sheet sized status updates and photos, its more like a magazine styled design with a timeline at the centre, allowing you to navigate through your virtual life, and learning all about your past with dates at the side.

You can easily add a status, photo, place or any one of the diversified categorised, such as Work and Education, Family & Relationships, Living, Health & Wellness and Milestones & Experiences.

And yeah, you get this feature too in the timeline profile itself, at the sharing box located right below your personal information. And yes, you get access to the diversified categories!

As you scroll down through the timeline, it will show you a month by month summary on all the events you had RSVPed and Friends you had made, so it’s easy to consolidate and have a one glance view on what you had done.

Through the new Facebook Timeline, I get to scroll through all my old and long met friends and probably see when I added them, since its heavily focused based on time (the past and present), the content are modified in such a way where time becomes the content of wealth.

And if you didn’t notice, as you scroll down, you’ll get to see a large personal bar which you can share and add information about yourself automatically straight from the bar on top.

Scrolling through the timeline is like reading your own personal life magazine, it is fully customised based on what you’ve input to Facebook over the years, its a breeze to see what you had done, accomplished and experienced in both good and bad ways over your usage period in Facebook, and for some, it starts when they are born.

Some extra privacy details about sharing information in your timeline profile before I jump into the important Facebook applications, as usual, you could delete / hide the post from the timeline. And now, for those stuff and moments you are proud of, you can always feature them in the timeline.

And yes, not forgetting the Info tab, which you can learn more about the person in the profile that you are currently viewing. It’s now so much neater, cleaner and provides you with only information that you need. Nothing else.

Now, lets go through some of the crucial Facebook apps, one of them is Friends, it shows your friends in tiles, with their display pictures at the side. Looks like Windows Phone 7 tiles, it’s easy to comprehend, and instead of putting friends in alphabetical order, it shows friends that you always talk to. Some personalization algorithm there, I believe.

The photos application look similar to the friends app above, it shows you all the photos that you’ve recently added and Facebook still employs their same old tactics, more images will load when your scroll down (so there’s nothing to show other than this feature right now)

Using your check-ins, Facebook will now show you a map representation on the places you’ve been and classify it accordingly with the tabs located at the bottom, the places are also really interactive. For example, after clicking on one of the shiny dots, which represents the number of check ins:

Now moving onto Facebook Likes:

I wouldn’t say that Facebook had really invested time onto changing the Likes section, as it looks similar to the older Facebook profile under the info tab, but the interface looks cleaner and simple.

Facebook also provides an activity log, or a stuff that you’ve done over the past few years. Nothing in much detail, doesn’t need much explanation, what you see is .. what you get!

Alright, I believe that I had managed to cover some of the most essential features about Facebook Timeline, hit me up at @thejeremygoh if you’ve any more questions.

PS: After scrolling all the way down in my timeline, Facebook is seriously asking me to add my baby photo (Are you sure about that Facebook, this timeline is even thicker than my graduation yearbooks combined!)

J.

P/PS: If you’ve not got your timeline, you are probably not a developer, which you can easily sign up and do it here, which should look something like this:

Sure think that this swag thing was cool!
(Watch and gasp!)

BASKETBALL SWAG:

HUMAN BICYCLE SWAG:

SWINGING BICYCLE SWAG:

CHAIR SWAG:

BULLET SWAG:

THIS MAN HAS SWAG:

FINGER-SKATER SWAG:

FINGER-ELEPHANT SWAG:

EVEN THIS WATER HAS SWAG:

Falling down swag

Going down stairs swag

Credits: meryldenieceuy

I was heading to a 7-11 outlet at the rest area and it was a really small outlet, which only house a single staff.
A quick brief about Craze Hotties, it is a potato based snack with heavy chicken tasting like seasoning, it is really crispy which is shaped like a cylinder and its an item which 7-11 was selling for years.

Anyway just a quick idea here, the machine that appears to be ‘cooking’ or frying the snack just seems to be like a simple warmer after I found this gigantic snack right in front of the machine.

Not everything is legit. – probably just a random thought.

J.

:O

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Adapted with official permission from Creative Stable. I took mostly it all from them and added loads more at the bottom of this article (Had asked some of my friends around for it)

J. - © Jeremy Goh | JeremyGohBlog.com]]> http://jeremygohblog.com/2011/09/15/special-symbols-and-characters-for-facebook-twitter-social-networks-and-instant-messaging/feed/ 0 http://jeremygohblog.com/2011/08/21/take-your-relationships-seriously-posterbanner/ http://jeremygohblog.com/2011/08/21/take-your-relationships-seriously-posterbanner/#comments Sun, 21 Aug 2011 07:10:00 +0000 Jeremy Goh http://jeremygohblog.com/2011/08/21/take-your-relationships-seriously-posterbanner/

After looking at some of the people in my working networks. If something that touches to the future, you have to secure and take it seriously.

Click on the picture for a high quality image.

Take it seriously and it will change your life drastically. However, on the contrary, things will change from time till time, it just comes from the perspective of how we react and adapt to the changes as it happens.

This picture is something that I had worked on. However, the original credit for the photo belongs to LowDensityLifestyle, credit to them for the above original image.

J.

The last few weeks I have been preparing for this competition at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, and its called Speechcraft, which is a public speaking competition supported by Toastmasters International.

Preliminaries

I started off with my preliminary rounds of Speechcraft in iSpark Studio (School of Film and Media Studies) at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, and I met different people from different faculties and schools. People from all walks of life comes together to achieve a single purpose; to speak and to share their knowledge and thoughts.

For the preliminary round, a speech can only be 3mins max, and must be at least 2 minutes. Any topic for your speech is fine, as long it does not touch the controversial subjects.

(Another participant presenting their speech; the archives did not have any of my photos )

My speech had been an interesting one, frankly I only prepared my simple speech in less than an hour for the preliminary round and I felt that I did badly initially. If you are interested, my preliminary speech can be found here. However, I kept practicing my speech over and over again in my mind and executed it on stage, luckily it was delivered with no obvious flaws.

The judges were pretty serious and at the same time, really supportive and smiled when there were pauses or times where I couldn’t remember some parts which I am supposed to.

=============================================================

Semi Finals

The preliminary rounds were over, and I was notified that I had to be in the next round, the semi finals. The format is slightly different, the time limits were increased and the minimum presentation time of the speech is bumped up too. In this slightly different format, which is also held in the same venue at iSpark (School of Film and Media Studies) at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. All participants will be held in a holding room and will be transferred to a waiting room, which the Speechcraft Organising Committee will show the speaker 5 topics which they can talk about. And will be given only 5 minutes to prepare their speech contents. Which they will than be transferred to the speaker’s room where they will speak to their heart’s content.

I wouldn’t say that I spoke the best, but the lack of preparation is really a killer, I don’t have much objectives in mind and I spoke whatever that came hitting in my mind, which is not a really good experience, but I managed to overcome it by coming up with a simple agenda during my speech; not during the preparation which I was busy making my mind up.

I ended up speaking about this topic, out of the 5 topics on the paper:

“If you were able to rewind time, how old you want to be, and why?”

I spoke about rewinding time back to a primary school student, where I won’t have to make teachers angry, and to get their trust and respect. I also discussed about building stronger friendships when I am young and stop being so playful and careless. But the general idea is, if you keep dwelling in the past, you will not see any improvement in your life but to apply them practically in your current life, which reflects more and more on my character. I have also discussed that all the things in the past isn’t perfect and our brain only selectively remember the happier parts. So why not build a better future, it sounds like a brand new fairytale but I hope I had proven my point of the history is just the building blocks of the future.

===============================================================================

Trainings

Probably one of the most interesting and interactive lectures where everyone talks and shares their opinions on debates, argumentative and ethics. Everyone speak their minds out and presents their thoughts and findings to everyone else.

Many language skills were picked up, in this Rhetoric lesson, its about Argumentation and Debate with Ms Rajoo, one of our club advisors here at Ngee Ann Polytechnic Student Toastmasters Club.

Debate is process of inquiry and advocacy ..

Friends around me smiling happily. Well, me too.

Who told you what you believed was always right? See this example ..

Discussion in progress about ethics; is it right or wrong? What differentiates?

Further discussion about a case scenario, who is in the wrong? It’s not always the person who commits the mistakes that are in the wrong, what leads up to that?

Mr Bala speaks about speech techniques, how could one’s speech be more engaging and visually entertaining, not only in the form of speech. How to build up their spirit of the audience, and to bring out the sway the opinions of them.

The event started from late afternoon till 11pm, it was a great lesson which I still remember details off, not your usual history lesson that is.

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Finals

Probably one of the largest events that I had prepared in weeks, the finals ain’t something that easy. As usual, the time limits were bumped and the venue had changed to be a theatre with a public audience.

Each competition participant will be making a speech based on ONE of these themes!
1) The Social Media and The Singapore Elections
2) Ethics are taught or caught?
3) Money is the currency for incorruptibility.

Some preparation, among all the finalist of the competitions. Some words of reminder.

I did a simple mic test before we started the competition; so the people controlling the audio equipment get a better view of what would happen during the competition itself.

As the competition is about the begin, the timers sits near the stage and will show us flashing cards so we would keep within the time limit of 6 to 7 minutes, with the minimum of 5 minutes per speech.

To start off the night, our very own NPSTMC (Ngee Ann Students Toastmasters Club) members Nabilah and Aaron kickstart the night by being the host.

The open category, which is for Year 2 and Year 3 students from the school had performance extraordinary well, and they have really interesting points.

Next, the freshman category, which is fortunately for me, where I fall in. And we have a team of amazing speakers which could really talk.

And of course, its not complete without me, so since you are reading this blog about me, I have to take at least some space at this blog. In case you forget that you are reading Jeremy’s Weblog

(Yes, I was talking about Social Media and Singapore Elections and my speech hit the 7 minutes mark, almost hitting the time limit)

After the freshman category, everyone get a 20 minutes break while the judges were in discussion. So we get to see a few performances.

There was entertainment during the break times where everyone had fun and such. I would love to put the videos here, but its currently in processing.

There’s a prize presentation ceremony right after that.

And yes, thats me!

That’s the entire speakers team from Speechcraft 2011!

Thank you everyone, hope that this is really interesting and an eye-opening experience for you!

And thats the start till the end of the entire Speechcraft 2011.

J.

The packaging is quite interesting, the compact design keeps the headset in place and it doesn’t get damaged by vibration (the holding plague contains a headphone grid locking mechanism), its well protected and the see through plastic allows the headphones to be seen.

After burning in the headphones, you could tell that the HT-21 headphones could handle bass pretty well. Despite these minor flaws, the HT-21 offered good clarity, detail, and sound stage. I could hear bits that made the music I love, that I have never heard before with my other headphones I tried. Instruments all so separated carefully and clearly, it almost feels like a high end product worth more than $100.

I am using the headphones as I type this review, it’s really comfortable the headphones do not put too much or too little pressure. One thing i really like, is that the wire, even though not Monster-designed, the wire is hard to tangle so its a joy to just pick up and use. The extendable headband has a simple design, it allows you to self-adjust it according to your preference and its quite durable, as the metal plates are also actually reinforced by the plastic frame. Microphonics wise, the wires do not affect the sound quality, noise cancellation is really good I have my friend playing songs from his laptop no less than one metre from me and I can detect almost no sound leakage on my headphones.

In conclusion, the sound quality is excellent for such a price mark. The lows are really good, although it lacks a little bit of detail as it sometimes get too overpowering at times. However, the mids is really decent, I really enjoy the fact of hearing the entire music spectrum clearly and its a joy to have that in my headphones. The highs is sub-par, but its still audible although it can be quite sharp. If you are going into high end premium audio, you should probably take a look at my review of the highly sought of the Meelec A151 Balance Armature In Ear Earphones or the M-Series (which can be found on their Meelec site) if you want a bass-packed earphone instead.

Overall, with a carrying kit which I almost forgot to mention in the review, its a worthy buy for such a price mark for such a great sound.

Mirror (If it’s down): http://www.get.jeremy-goh.com/CanabaltRajkosto.apk

The hit single wonder Canabalt (Currently available to play on the website and for the iPhone and iPad on the Apple App Store) have been said to be available for Android after releasing it for the iOS platform for over a year. Now that it have almost been half a year since they’ve announced it for Android.

The creator of Canabalt have decided to release the source on GitHub (Which any user can self compile and get the game on the phone). One of the online netizens by the YouTube name of ‘rajkosto’ have uploaded a test video of him running Canabalt for his Android phone and provided a link of his compiled version of Canabalt.

If you need help installing an APK to your Android phone, please see here.

There’s some flaws in this compiled app, so if anyone is able to compile a more recent verison; please contact me and I will update this post, credit to you and provide hosting.

Once again, you can compile it using the sources on GitHub, which probably I will do it someday when I have time. Really!

Get it now, leave a comment below and report back to see if anything needs to be improved, and try to get it to compile, devs!

Cheers!

Drop me a tweet @jeremy89632 and tell me what you think about it!

J.

Although sometimes the manual taps can be dirty to press and be a hassle, at least I am not cut off from my precious water supply when automation fails or it being programmed to save water.

Oh wait and that’s a price to pay for the digital revolution.

Have something in mind about more water taps? Leave a comment below or @jeremy89632

J.