BUSINESS on the Internet

Business is definitely not my cup of tea... (That's why i am taking psychology as major!) This semester, i tried to take up MGA201 Introduction to Accounting. Immediately after the class, i head to the library and dropped the course. All the terms simply makes no sense to me. All the formulas are harder than C-Maths. 90% into the class, i couldn't understand what the lecturer was saying.. So i made the right choice to drop it. As you can see, I can't do business when i can't even stay focused in a basic accounting class. If that is so, how dare I post a blog on BUSINESS on the Internet? This post is not a how-to-set-up-business, it is just a generic post to list down some pros and cons, so that those who wants to be their boss in the Internet have some realistic views over it. 

Ever toyed over the idea of becoming your own boss and setting up a business online? You could wake up at anytime you want, wear your pajamas, switch on the computer and check your revenue pouring in every day! Wow.. it sounds like a marvelous idea, but with so much scams today, is it actually feasible?

Technology has advanced so much throughout the years that of being slaves to technology, people today are making use of technology to their own benefit. But of course, these are clever people mind you. I am not talking about those websites where you enter to search for online jobs, i am talking about creating an own web space and attracting investors, revenue, and many potential customers who are willing to fork out the money to see your website grow.

Well, one of the benefits of doing E-biz is of course Communications. You could be living in SIngapore but have American investors and Chinese customers. You can easily discuss a business on a common internet platform such as google docs. You can communicate with each other via Skype and receive documents with a click at a finger on the fax machine. Technology definitely helps facilitate communications. Instead of printing mass catalog, and mailing them over the world, you can now reach out to more people when customers scour through your site for products.

In an average business, you have to fork out a start-up capital, know somebody in that field, have business partners...etc. But on the internet, your start-up is basically ZERO! All you need is a computer, internet connection, a basic business plan and some creativity to start up a business online. Sounds easy? (Seems very difficult to me..) 

Internet sometimes can become a bane for users if not properly managed. We have to deal with copyrights. A web entrepreneur is constantly faced with copycats, and has to learn how to protect his trade secrets, and continue to be innovative and attract customers. Just as you can attract customers all over the world, competition can come all over the world too. Hence you must be shrewd and have enough strategies to ride on them.

Security is one big issue too. You have to prevent professional hackers from hacking in either to your websites or your clients' transaction history. Their private data such as credit card number, addresses would be food for identity thieves. You would have to employ professional help in setting up firewalls, anti-phishing and malware...etc.

This seems like a long post, to prevent it from getting too dry, i shall continue on this topic some other times. ^_^ Stay tuned!!

GUess WHat? I got a taste of the medicine...

Last week, i blogged about how Technology has evolved so much such that humans can't live without internet. Just 16hrs ago, my modem broke down (supposedly out of power). i was out of internet!! i needed to send a draft assignment to lecturer, check my email, play a bejeweled game at facebook... immediately at 11:15pm, i called the technical support and arranged an appointment first thing today. Due to my network being Singtel Mio, my home telephone couldn't be used too.. what a whole lot of inconvenience.. the first thing i did when the internet was finally up just now at 2:30pm was... FACEBOOK!

Well, today I like to share about RSS. any idea what it means? Seen the logo on the right before?
That's right, its called Rich Site Summary.

Ever followed a blog before? I know a particular cute friend who follows friends' blog passionately. Do you find it a waste of time whenever you enter the blog only to find out he/she hasn't update for a long time? Forgot which blogs to go simply because you have too many of them? Fret not! Now with RSS, you need not go into each and every blog to search for new posts. The new posts COME TO YOU.
You will have a personalized site, where you can organize your RSS from blogs, news, movie reviews... etc. Next, subscribe to your friend's blog or CNN news or movie reviews... etc. With that, every time you log in your computer, you only need to go to your personalized site, and check on the NEW posts that will show up when your friends update their post on their individual blogs.

The next question you might ask is.. HOW?  First, you need a Reader. E.g. (www.google.com/reader). After that, go to the blogs you like, click on the RSS icon, Choose your reader from the list (blogline, yahoo, google...etc) and click "subscribe to feeds"! Easy right?

Now, I've done my homework.. most common blogs to me are blogspot, livejournal, wordpress. So both wordpress and livejournal has the RSS icon on the blog sites. Blogspot is more tricky. On your friend's blog address, enter /atom.xml.
For example, mosesmoses.blogspot.com --> mosesmoses.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Then the same thing happens again.. Choose Reader.. Click Subscribe.


Now you can save so much time surfing blogs.. the new ones come to you! ^_^

Introduction to the Internet

Life have become indispensable with the Internet. People can watch movies without going to the theatres, play games with friends without going to the cyber cafe, exchanging favorite photos and songs without having to burn CDs, and even going into business with an associate without having meet him physically!

Can we ever live without the Internet today? Before this, let's watch the reactions towards internet 50 years ago when it first came out.



Now, let's look at a small evolution of the Internet. A simple email account has became more than exchanging information and documents, but becoming a social media.



As seen from the videos, internet has become a social media, a platform for people to interact and change their lifestyles. Internet started of in 1968 as ARPAnet, as a defense measure from the United States to prevent information loss and chaos during an attack. Slowly, it evolved into an instrument from political uses to our personal uses of today. In a short period of 50 years, we can't live without the internet. Without emails, information exchange cannot be instant. Without the teaching resources online, teachers will have to revert back to textbook and boring lectures. Without the entertainment on the Internet, people will have very much less to look forward to when they reach home.

In the later entries to come, i will be talking about communications on the Internet, Business on the Internet, Education on the Internet, Security, Entertainment... etc. So stay tuned!!