Tag Archives: facebook

A social networking website that originated in 2004.

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Follow up, Life

A Day at Cisco

I’m enjoying my internship at Cisco, reading articles and Christian books as well as updating Facebook during my break time. Here’s a day in the life: I would eat a rich and healthy breakfast!

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Munching 7:30am (PST)

I would then drive off to work and arrive at my building – it’s one of the few left that has cubicles. Most of my time is spent in this place coding and participating in hour-long meetings. As for the meetings, I like how the meetings are almost like Google hangouts except that we use Cisco’s software and IP phones!

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Working 10:00am (PST)

The coffee here is free! It’s great when I need to boost my attention span around the hour. However, the chips and drinks are not free! They’re cheap though so I take chips in place of a lunch sometimes. After work, I occasionally exercise at the gym, return home and help my parents out around the house – and 3 hours left for my own stuff! Cram! Cram! Cram!

And another day awaits. That’s Cisco for you.

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Goals

Should I hang out with my friends, or rather, their virtual entities?

Ten days into the New Year is refreshing. Maybe it’s the fresh air; or that I am riding my bike once again so that I can exercise; or that I have a 17 unit quarter this year; or that I have an opportunity to change my personality, my handshake and how I entertain myself.

College life in the apartments is much different than that of dormitory life. The distance between my apartment and the college campus makes meeting up inconvenient, which makes meeting people difficult. I can’t count the number of times I have rejected a few get-together events because of issues regarding time and distance. As a result, I turn to these virtual entities, you know, Facebook friends and AIM “Best Buddies” and “Miscellaneous Buddies.” The point is its convenience. But it misses that one key thing, the human touch.

Just yesterday, I asked my best friend what I lacked the most. He said that I lacked relational sensitivity and flexibility, and he’s right — even my Mom says this to me too. Perhaps my lack of humanity is connected to this virtual entity business, that is, I am being sucked into the convenience of being with people on a virtual level.

Hopefully, replacing this obsession with the virtual may make me a more relational person. Instead of that IM blooping on my taskbar, I’ll give a phone call. Instead of planning a tentative date for meeting with others, I’ll arrange an appointment to meet up. Ten days into this year has made me reflect on my behaviors. Three hundred and fifty-five left to go to change myself!

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Information and Privacy

Nation under Data

I can bet a dollar that you have a Facebook account. Furthermore, I’ll bet another dollar that you just opened a separate tab for it. However, there is one uncertainty related to this Facebook phenomena of yours and mine – the reliability of data transfer between Facebook and Google applications. Actually, it is a lingering thought I had in my mind over these past few weeks – can I actually export Facebook data from my Facebook account to other email services permitted? The answer is no and this Newsweek article offers some insight on this issue.

It’s shocking how Facebook and Google, the hubs of social interaction, are facing a standoff because of this data-exporting mishap. What really stands out is that the competition for the computer market has drastically changed over the years. First, it was Microsoft vs. Apple for the desktop market. Then, it was Intel vs. AMD for the chip market. And, as shown here, Facebook and Google for the data market. While the data market itself is beneficial for us and profitable for companies, it really begs us to ask the following question: what kind of information should we offer and withhold? I find this question interesting because our responses to data giants today determine how our computing experiences will be tomorrow.

One quote I found interesting was the last phrase from the Newsweek article:

…[information sharing] was great until people realized that their user data could be turned into gold. Now there are billions at stake, and nobody is playing nice anymore. -Daniel Lyons

May this quote be a note of caution to everyone with an online account. I bet no dollars on this.

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