Totally. This be my morning routine:

1) Cigarette
2) Wake computer from sleep
3) Check email
4) Check status of Torrent download
5) Check blog stats
6) Check who’s online
7) Go to Facebook
8) Choose music for the morning
9) Go to www.reddit.com
10) Boil water for coffee

Zii EGG: The World's 1st StemCell computer

Ok so the big secret is out. I knew Creative was up to something, I just didn’t realise that would come up with something that was sooooo different from everything they’ve done thus far . I mean, this is quite a divergence, y’know. From speakers, mp3 players, headphones and now a StemCell Computer?? WTF is StemCell computing? The funniest comment on Reddit was, “first it was wii, then zii, what’s next, fii?” HAHAHA. Check out www.zii.com.

I’m no geek developer, but as a tech junkie I can see this  potentially becoming something pretty damn big. But WTF is up with the name Zii??? Ok, but one has to be fair when it comes to gadgets. It’s not all about looks. So Creative’s branding is a little dowdy, but I think this mini supercomputer thing might be next on my gadget lust list. Not so very long ago I was all over the iPhone 3G (which I had and lost…. and am now still too heartbroken to look at the iPhone 3GS), and then I had the eye for the NetBook cos it was darn small and cute. But having been converted to an Apple whore as such, I am pretty resistant to anything not Macintosh.

But, but, but, I digress. Back to Zii. The competition is fking heating up. First Apple  iPhone, then Google Android and now the Zii EGG…the competition is heating up, y’all! Checked the page out, but it doesn’t seem quite consumer-ready to me. But the specs are promising. HD support, intuitive touchscreen (duh, who doesn’t have that now?), expandable SD card slot, low-power consuming, super powerful processor, and it can even support Android OS?! Fk, Creative’s really upping the ante, yo. When I had the iPhone 3G for a bit, my one lament was the incredibly high power consumption and that it had the tendency to lag (because I jailbroke my iPhone). FARK! I wanna get my hands on the Zii EGG to play around with it!!

But seriously speaking, of all the features the Zii EGG has,  I’m most interested in it as a portable media player. I’d like to jam ALL my music, photos and videos on that thing and if it can hook up to broadband and let me transfer my files to a server online, better still.  I think the standard disk size is 32GB, but they should SOO up it to like 64GB and more. PLUS the expandable SD card slot, I don’t think I would need to upgrade my media player for a guuuuuuuud long time. Have I mentioned how many iPods I’ve gone through? I think it’s 2 or 3. It looks a helluva lot like the iPhone, but at least Creative got the sleek  design right. Throw in a phone function and we be ready to rock and roll. I wonder what Steve Jobs thinks of all this….

I moseyed around the zii.com website and I found this press release: http://www.zii.com/Technology/ViewArticle.aspx?Article=4. I understand like most everything except “shanzai marketing”. And that’s another WTF IS THAT? The latest announcement, however, is that users are going to be able to run the Opera browser on the Zii EGG. Which is cool, except I’m a fan of Firefox. Lately, though, I’ve switched between Firefox and Chrome because Gmail just loads that much faster on Chrome.

Oh and if you aren’t already using Firefox, get wit da game already. I can’t believe anyone still uses Safari and Internet Explorer. Heh. Snobby tech biatch I am today.

Perhaps the operative word here to describe people who are willing to share personal information that can be easily accessible by anyone with an Internet connection is “social animal”. Perhaps these people just want to know that they are indeed not as lonesome as they think they are. For some, it has become a competition to see who has the most number of friends. Perhaps, one thinks that the more friends one has, the more likeable he or she is? And what is the likely motivation for these people to reveal seemingly meaningless information to the world? So many people reveal so much information about themselves – where they have travelled to, what they’re thinking, how great – or not so great – their love lives are?

The information economy is constantly evolving and serves many needs. The online world has gone from the humble “let your fingers do the walking” (the good old Yellow pages) search for telephone numbers, to a 24/7 platform that connects all sorts of hobbyists communities. What has enabled this dramatic change you may ask? I’d say it is the pervasiveness and accessibility of the Internet, the emergence of new Web 2.0 tools, and the realization of how information can be so easily created, accessed and consumed on the Internet by anyone. Back in the old days (not too long ago), one would expect publishers to be the main content generators.

And why not? They have the money and resources to produce, publish and distribute the information, and they make their money from subscriptions and/or advertisements.
Today, however, we see lots of content on the Internet being generated by individuals, instead of corporations. We see content posted in online forums to personal Websites and now blogs (a more structured personal Website facilitated by software). Media conglomerates and leading news magazines are also beefing up their content by adding third party blogs and inviting their readers or members to contribute opinions and blogs. They call it “user generated content”.

But what force could be so powerful that it is able to move droves of people to so readily share personal information that is seemingly “insignificant” to everyone else? The planets seem to have aligned. The timing and almost systematic convergence of all things possible for content creation has arrived. The power of content creation is in the hands of the masses, thanks to better Internet connectivity, availability of content creation tools, and ease of use. Today, anyone with a device and an Internet connection can keep communicating with their friends while on the go. They can blog about the restaurant that they just visited, check their Facebook account to see who just received a SuperPoke, or even uploaded the photo of their newborn baby.

Today, sharing information about what’s going on in our lives is so easy. You don’t need to be at home, sitting in front of the computer to write – you could be waiting to catch the train, sitting in the airport lounge, or sipping coffee at StarBucks – with a mobile device and Internet access, of course.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s to come in this information economy. The new Internet wave is only the beginning, and I’m sure other Websites and applications will replace Facebook as the Next Big Thing. Consumers are ready. The question is how much easier and affordable will this be for them. Mobile devices supporting this dramatic change in consumer behavior and service convergence must also continue to improve. Device manufacturers need to improve the user experience and improve batter life. The cost of connectivity needs to further come down as well if this new form of social communication makes the next leap toward the information big bang.

Appliances like our refrigerators, microwave ovens, home entertainment systems and air-conditioners can ‘communicate’ with each other wirelessly. Automation lets us do more with less effort.

Internet access enables this—the information hub we can access via our laptop, mobile phone or any Wi-Fi-enabled device. Whatever it is you need—information, email, your weekly schedule—you can get hold off wherever you find Internet connection. Waiting for a flight at the airport? Get connected at any of the free-to-use Internet terminals in Changi airport.

To say that technology has improved the lives of the digital generation is to understate things. Technology is indispensable in our lives. The average individual owes it to interactive technology for increased productivity, for being able to maintain contact with people easily, and even shape their identity.

To return to the first example, technology has helped simplify and enhance everyday tasks. And as devices become more personal As many devices become more personal, they need to be portable, with highly interactive embedded system that is easy to navigate, to meet the consumer’s increasing demands. Of course, wouldn’t hurt if the device looked sleek and chic as well. The combination of instant internet access and access to vast amounts of information, has better enabled personal productivity, and given us more resources to pursue personal interests more extensively.

We have easier, faster ways of communicating with each other as well. Letters, telephone conversation, faxe have given way to 3G video calls, email and instant messaging. Plus, these are no longer deskbound functions. The spread of internet-enabled mobile devices allows us to email and IM on the go. Welcome to the life of the mobile digital generation.

The rapid evolution of digital living and the pervasiveness of constant Internet connection, traditional businesses are cottoning to new strategies such as social media marketing. Done right, these new technology driven business and marketing strategies can reap reasonable results.

But even as we become progressively enmeshed in the digital lifestyle, we need to review the digital readiness of the end users at large. What good is the existence of a supercomputer without the necessary infrastructure to accompany it? Namely, high speed internet connection and generous bandwidth.

Cost is a key consideration here. Establishing the digital readiness of the consumers at large can be costly. Cost is a key factor that determines how readily consumers will adopt new services or technologies. It still boils down to the dollar, as the primary consumer mindset is to get bang for the buck. Whatever they decide to introduce to the market, companies will have to watch the price factor to ensure that their product takes off.

Mobile phone was the proposed solution to the hardware problem; users are now able to make video calls, which is one-to-one video call. Mobile phones are pervasive; a high percentage of the developed and developing nation’s population carries mobile phone. Mobile phones are connected to a network (GPRS) almost all the time. This is a portable device that allows people to make calls and with technology improvement, make video calls.

However, mobile phones do not support video conferencing, which is one-to-many video calls. Most consumers thus make do with voice conferencing, which is the ability to call multiple recipients and conduct a mass chat, voice only. The biggest users of video conferencing would be business people. These people need to attend meetings, be efficient, travel often in cities or between countries.
Traditionally, meetings are conducted physically; board of directors sitting in a board room, company manager travel to client’s place to attend meeting. Business people have to spend time travelling on the roads or in the air. Productivity is be sacrificed for the sake of being personal.

There are not many options for business people to be productive currently. Most ‘mobile’ video conferencing requires him to find a video conferencing provider and conduct his meet up. Another alternative would be to purchase video conferencing devices (video conferencing devices or a laptop with webcam and microphones) and carry them as he would for a portable projector. Still, he has to find electricity points in order to set up these portable video devices before using them.
Ideally, business users could travel and conduct business meetings on the go, virtually.

The most suitable equipment for business users would be a portable device, hopefully not much bigger than a mobile phone, and has the capability to stream video and audio to multiple recipients. This option is also hassle-free as users need not bother with equipment setup and its fees or the need to carry heavy equipments.
With such a device, the business user only has to switch on his device, connect to a network and he’s ready to meet his business associates wherever he may be.

How I wish I could be like Santa — giving gifts only to those who have been nice and not naughty! That would seriously save me lots of money.

But since Santa doesn’t have to contend with the stress of dealing with the chagrin of friends, colleagues and family on receiving useless chocolates and candy canes bought at the last minute, and I do, I vow this year to begin the annual Christmas Shopping Marathon one month earlier!

I have also been reminded by my tree hugging colleagues that not only must I now rush with half the city to get presents for people I may not particularly like, I must also look into saving the world from the brink of ecological disaster at the same time. So given the very accommodating person that I am, I have done some research that on some tips on that will make this Christmas an experience that much more greener:

Send an electronic Christmas card instead of a printed one.
The eco benefits of Electronic cards are huge:
No paper -
No cards, no junk mail, no envelopes or stamps.
No ink –
To print your designs or to print your address or even to sign each card.
No postal delivery trucks -
No petrol use, no carbon emissions and no contribution to the postal backlog.
No postal delivery aeroplanes -
No carbon emissions or travel miles.
No time energy and recourses wasted -
By paying for your staff to sit and stuff envelopes and sign cards for two days.
No need to stand like an idiot at the Card shelf -
Picking out cards that cost a bomb which will eventually end-up in the trash bin anyway.
No need to stand in long lines at check-out counters
Stay at home and click away in comfort.

Wrap your Christmas gifts with recycled wrapping paper
It’ll make a great talking point at Christmas gift exchange, and especially useful if you’re planning to chat-up that hot tree hugging colleague you’ve been planning to ask out! I’ve found out that there are actually a whole range of gift wrappers made out of alternative ‘non-paper’ material: Large sheets of handmade, tree-free paper make perfect alternative gift wrap, and are available in woven grass, lokta, tree bark, banana fiber, spun silk, recycled office paper and recycled rag. Lokta paper is made from the inner bark of the lokta bush, a quickly regenerating plant that grows in Nepal, while banana paper is created from the waste bark of Thai banana trees. Available at www.papermojo.com.

Create your own personalized recycled wrapping paper
Become an artist and use plain old brown recycled paper. With colored markers or tempura paint, decorate the wrapped packages by drawing or painting ribbons, bows and other holiday visions on them. If you don’t want to do that, have your little ones decorate them with their tempura painted hands. The warm creativity that shows through in these personalized packages is pure love. Or if you really want to make a lasting impression on someone you don’t like, just wrap the darned thing in brown paper. Great for your irritating colleague or Mother-in-law.

Tape your Christmas gifts with Eco-friendly adhesive tape
Keep packages secure with tape that’s free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which releases carcinogenic dioxins when produced; or with clear cellulose tape and recycled, gummed paper tape. Available at www.greenearthofficesupply.com.

Download Your Christmas Carols
According to The American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research: ‘Positive environmental impact of buying online and finds that just downloading music has resulted in 6.5 billion fewer miles driven each year. Less driving benefits the environment. Specifically, we estimate that music downloads alone have spared the emission of 23.6 million tons of greenhouse gases in the last 10 years, and is likely to contribute another 9.8 million in the next ten years.’ Nuf Said.

Use LED lights for your Christmas Tree
LED lights have semi-conducting material rather than incandescent filaments; they are 90 percent more efficient than traditional Christmas lights. Literally billions of kilowatt-hours could be saved if everyone used LED holiday lights. LED lights also last longer, release little heat and if one goes out, the rest will keep glowing. Whether you are using LED or traditional lights, turn them off at night when you are asleep to save additional energy.

Ok. These tips should get you into every tree hugger’s good book (I wonder whether those are printed on recycled paper as well). In my next article, I’ll be touching on getting gifts that are eco-friendly — and I don’t mean re-cycling last year’s gifts.■

The ideal brand ambassador
What is a good fronting consumer for a company? An example would be the Apple Evangelists. A former employee, Guy Kawasaki, went around gathering consumers who were pro-Apple and built a following of Apple fanatics. Even after Guy left Apple, these Apple fans continue advocating the brand, following the brand’s progress and are definitely instrumental in creating excitement in the brand’s products.
This is a classic example of how a company engages the right consumers, who make sure their favourite brand is always visible and desired.

Not every company has it easy like Apple – a self-sustaining group that generates more members, more fan sites, more rumors (often positive) about the company. It’s never the initiative of the company, but the cult of Mac fans that generate this positive fanfare for the brand. Brand loyalty – it can surely go a long way in preserving a brand’s longevity.

The best part, for the company of course, is that these fronting consumers spread the good word about the brand for free. They’re not incentivized by money—only by their obsession with the brand’s product.

Not all fronting consumers are friendly to corporations. There are many other companies who bore the brunt of front groups who do not agree with companies’ mission. Oil companies like Exxon Mobile faced pressure from consumers after it reported higher revenue in 2006. Exxon’s PR team failed to pacify the masses and instead made them madder when it stated its profit margin is lower compared to other industries.

Dealing with negative fronting customers
So how can companies deal with its ‘negative fronting consumers’?
Preferably, the company should work with these consumers and address their concerns., The company that has ready access to customer grouses (which its competitors may not have) should absolutely take advantage of that to satisfy their consumers. They may not become cult advocates for your brand, but at least you would have done your part to fix their dissatisfaction and possibly change their minds about the company.

The benefit of having proactive consumers is the ability to get direct feedback from its users, and work hand in hand to deal with product issues and find out what is in demand. Other brands who do not have such proactive consumers instead will have to engage external consultants to find out what its target customers think and feel about their brands.

Ultimately, a brand that listens to its consumers, its fronting consumers in particular, has the power to positively influence their mindset. Starting with them, the brand can then create positive ripples in the market about their brand. Fronting consumers are able to influence other consumers’ perception of the brand—positively or negatively.

The company that embraces the challenges and demands their consumers pose, is the one that will earn the loyalty of their consumers. That lays the foundation for improving brand image and possibly build a cult following. And once they have secured this pool of loyal consumers, these companies can thrive, even in the midst of a crisis.

Skype
The ultimate chat and VOIP call application, iI beats Pandion, the office messaging system with a wonky connection. Otherwise the cross

Lightscreen
This is a screen capture application that is also available for free. It works tons better than the default screen capture on the Windows PC for two reasons: 1) you can capture a selected screen area 2) it stores screen captures in your designated folder. You do not have to open Paint to paste the screen capture in.

Launchy
I haven’t figured Launchy out as well as I have Quicksilver, but they do the same thing—launch applications. I hit ALT + SPACE to launch Launchy, then I type in the name of the application I want, like iTunes or Word. Ta da! Why Launchy is worth installing: 1) You never have to go to the Start Menu to look for an application you need 2) If you have several applications open, you can launch another without having to go to the shortcut on your Desktop.

Evernote
Free to download, Evernote makes taking notes on the computer easy as pie. Store notes, web clippings, notes and synchronize them with your Evernote account online. The unique Evernote bonus is the search. Evernote can even search for words within images.

DropBox
Do you have files to share, or to synchronise between two computers? Then look no further than DropBox. Signing up for a free account gets you 2GB of storage. Install the DropBox application on the computer, drag and drop files into you “My DropBox” folder to upload it to your DropBox server.

Unfortunately for writing, it’s still Word I’m using, because none of the free word processors come with a database of synonyms, and lord knows a writer couldn’t survive without one. Looking forward to a open-source word processor with a thesaurus database. You hear that, developers, y’hear??

PC Mag highlights some of the cool, things we can expect from Web 3.0:

The Semantic Web
The Intertubes is supposedly where machines can read sites as easily as humans. It’s about intelligent search. Generate a search query for “what to wear to a charity ball?”,and your machine will generate results for you based on your preferences, gender and age—all located within a 10 mile radius. Customized search results—that’s as the Internets’ version of service on a silver platter.

3D Web
The Interwebs of the next generation is projected to be about a walkthrough, 3D experience. You can virtually tour Europe, go house hunting, suss out cool new hangouts via the Internets. Surfing for data and interacting with others will also be in 3D. Sounds pretty neat.

The manifold possibilities of that! Let’s say we put 3D web on a handheld device with GPS. Map navigation will be spectacular.

The media-centric web
With the new version of the Intertubes, you don’t just have to use just keywords to search. Image search will be more enhanced, so you can use images to do a search.

Internet heads could also have another interpretation of media-centric web—content. The shift towards the digitization of data, images, videos, music means by the time Web 3.0 rolls around, we will access content online, instead of the filing cabinet or storage media like DVD,s thumb drives and portable hard disks.

The pervasive Web
In your bed, your kitchen, your bedroom, integrated into your clothes—the intertubes is predicted to be everywhere. Everywhere you need it.

Web services
Seeing as how the Internet is going to be a pervasive presence, one too, can probably expect a richer variety of web-based services. Banking, file storage, communications, entertainment and even creating documents can all be done online. Web 3.0 will be the age of digital convergence. Rawk.

Dean Clarke (http://deanclarke.wordpress.com/2008/03/23/web-30-and-the-features-that-wow-many-users/) predicts other awesome features of Web 3.0: spectacular graphics, hi-def video and audio, seamless animations.