Mtoto wa umri wa miezi mitatu wa Bwana Kim Yoo-chul, 41, na mkewe Choi Mi-sun, 25, wa nchini Korea amefariki dunia baada ya wazazi wake hao kumwacha bila huduma yoyote kwa mwendo wa saa 12 mfululizo.

Polisi wamesema kuwa wazazi hao walikuwa wakilea mwanasesere waliyempa jina la Anima kwenye programu ya Prius inayoendeshwa na 'Second-Life' kupitia kwenye tarakilishi (computer) iliyounganishwa na intaneti katika mgahawa mmoja nchini humo. Mchezo huo humpa mtu ruhusa ya kuwa na ndoto za Ali Nacha kuhusu kazi aipendayo, marafiki anaowapendelea na hatimaye hupewa zawadi za watoto kwa kushinda hatua moja ya mchezo kuelekea nyingine.

Wazazi hao waliporejea nyumbani siku moja baada ya kushinda kwa saa 12 mfululizo wakicheza mchezo huo, walikuta mtoto wao wa kweli, ambaye hakuwa na jina, amekwisha fariki na ndipo walipowapigia simu polisi ili kutoa taarifa hiyo. Uchunguzi uliofanywa ulibaini kuwa mtoto huyo alifariki kwa utapiamlo baada ya kukosa chakula kwa muda mrefu.

Inasemekana kuwa wazazi hao walikata tamaa ya maisha kwa kuwa hawakuwa na kazi huku wakiwajaaliwa(?) kuwa na mtoto njiti (mtoto aliyezaliwa kabla ya miezi tisa - a premature baby). Hivyo ili kupambana na hali halisi ya maisha iliyokuwa ikiwakabili, ndipo walipoamua kuucheza mchezo huo wa kulea mwanasesere hali iliyochangia kumsahau mtoto wa kweli aliyekumbwa na mauti.

YATOKANAYO
Ulevi wa matumizi ya tarakilishi na simu zilizounganishwa na intaneti unazidi kukua na kuathiri watu wa rika zote, hasa hasa vijana na watu wa umri wa makamo. Nimewahi kusikia visa vya wazazi kusemana na kulumbana juu ya mmoja wao kutumia muda mwingi kwenye simu (Blackberry, iPhone nk) katika nyakati nyeti kama vile wakati wa kula chakula, ambapo mtu anashindwa kushiriki chakula cha pamoja ama akishiriki basi muda mwingi anautumia kwenye simu badala ya kuzungumza na walioko mezani, wengine wanatumia muda mwingi msalani (uani, chooni) si kwa kuwa wanakwenda haja kubwa bali kwa kuwa wapo 'bize' na simu.

Wapo watu waliosababisha au kupatwa na ajali kutokana na matumizi ya simu zenye intaneti. Wengi wao wanapenda kusoma matukio ya papo kwa papo kwenye mitandao jamii kama vile Facebook au Twitter.

Hii ni changamoto kwetu sote kuwa makini na muda tunaoutenga katika kutumia intaneti ikiwa ni pamoja na kuwa makini na tovuti ama michezo tunayoipendelea. Ni vyema yeyote anayejiona kuwa muda wake mwingi unamegwa na intaneti, basi ajitahidi kujiwekea ukomo na kutafuta kitu mbadala cha kufanya ili kuondoa utegemezi uliopindukia wa intaneti.

Nadhani punde tutaanza kuwapata wasomi na wataalamu spesheli katika nyanja za matumizi ya intaneti na namna ya kupambana na ulevi wa matumizi ya intaneti. Tukifikia hapo, hata mmiliki wa tovuti hii, Subi, anahitaji kwenda 'internet rehab' - si utani.

Some of you have been looking for ways to save email addresses and contacts of your Facebook friends, however, there is no official way from facebook management on how to do that, but you can do a work around if you have a Yahoo or YMail address.

Here is how you do it:

1. Login to your yahoo address account http://address.yahoo.com/?_src=&VPC=tools_export
2. Click on the Facebook icon.
3. Sign in with your Facebook username and password.
4. You will see a notification with progress bar indicating the contacts being downloaded.
5. After all is done, you will have all of your friend's contact addresses added in you Yahoo! address book.

You can import them to your gmail or hotmail or any other email account via a CSV file,j ust got to http://address.yahoo.com, download the file; then login to your account you want to export the contacts to and follow the instructions on how to import addresses from a CSV file (very simple). Gmail users, click here.

...that Internet Explorer 8 (ie8 or IE8) would beat Firefox, security wise? I didn't, well, d-u-h? I know there are several other good browsers out there but five of those are the most used ones. Talk about all IE versions being weak, vulnerable to attacks and all that scary stuff, but hands off, IE8 has TKO'ed the most famous and praised browsers such as Firefox (FF), Safari, Google Chrome and Opera. See the pictorial result below.

IE8 emerged a winner over the top five browsers in a 24x7/18 days test performed every six hours over 74 discrete test runs, each one adding fresh new malware URLs. The test was done by NSS Labs [an independent product analysis and testing organization that operates the largest security & performance lab in the world providing product functionality, security efficacy, performance and manageability, helping organizations worldwide make empirically informed decisions about how to purchase and maintain complex information security defenses].

You can download the full Q1 2010 Web Browser Comparative Test: Socially-Engineered Malware at:
http://nsslabs.com/test-reports/NSSLabs_Q12010_GTRBrowserSEM_FINAL.pdf

Have you been suggested a friend to connect with but you absolutely don't know this person? and you've accidentally clicked on the 'add as friend' request, when you absolutely didn't want to add them up? Well, If you are bold enough, you can visit their profile and send them a message (if they left this option available) asking them to ignore the request. But what if you really do not want to embarrass yourself that much?

Unfortunately facebook doesn't have this option available, luckily, there is a work around, and this is what you have to do to cancel those 'accidental' add-ups:

1. Log on to your account at www.facebook.com
   
2. Go to Settings at the top of your homepage.
   
3. Click on Privacy Settings.
   
4. Click on Manage under the Privacy tab.
   
5. At the bottom, find the Block People option.
   
6. Type in the name of the person that you do not want to be friends with (see "how to search" below).
   
7. Click "Block". The person is now blocked from your account.
   
8. Now, go back and type their name in the box again to unblock them.
   
9. The pending friend request will disappear from their profile page and they will never know that you temporarily "blocked" them.
   You can opt to keep the person blocked from your account permanently by omitting the Unblock step. This way they will have no access to your profile and no option to ever send you a friend request.
   

How to search for people on facebook
--> In the search box, type in the name of the person you inadvertently Friend Requested, hit search.
--> For a pending request, it should read Awaiting Friend Confirmation under their name (if their profile page is private, it will read Friend Requested next to their name on the main search page).

Credits: eHow.com

FileSocial is the easiest way to share files using Twitter.

Simply attach your file, be it an Image, Song, Video, PDFs or Power point, Compressed files… i.e. mp3, jpg, avi, doc, ppt, zip, bin…write something the upload and a link will be posted to your file in a few seconds to share with whomever you want.

Website: filesocial.com

Are you looking for twiple?
Here are some of the easiest search tips:

1. Ask that person for their tweeter ID or UserName (for example one person's ID is SubiNukta)
2. Open your browser
3. In the address bar type in the ID or UserName i.e.  www.twitter.com/TwitterID (substitute the word 'TwitterID' with the person's real ID they gave you, e.g. twitter.com/SubiNukta)
4. Once you get to their page, click on the button that says, 'follow'. That's all there is to it.

Alternatively,
If you don't them personally and you still want to follow them for updates, you can  guess their I UserNames through the Twitter's profile search engine at twitter.com/invitations/find_on_twitter or private sites like tweepsearch.com

Also, when visiting websites/blogs, you may see the Twitter icon/link displayed on the front page (like the one seen at the top right corner of wavuti.com) in which you can click and follow them back.

More twitter tips? Click on the 'social networks' or 'cool sites & application' labels on the right column of wavuti.com and explore more.

PS: twiple = twitter people (people using twitter) and tweeple = tweet people (people who tweet)

Twit a file. TwitLoad is a free file hosting and sharing site made specifically for Twitter. All you have to do is login with your Twitter account, upload a file and share it with twipple in twiland via a status update. Head on to www.twittload.com and twit your file.

Using the #tag in Twitter:
In Twitter, the "hashtag" is used as a way of grouping or categorizing tweets that eventually become indexed for an easy find when searching. For instance, during the US presidential debates or Mumbai bombings or Iranian elections, tweeple used certain hashtags in their tweets when discussing the debates, updates on the victims of the Mumbai bombings and election results. This way, people could easily search in twitter specific news about a certain event and then follow all comments that include the hash tag. So in real time, you can follow the comments and respond to them, creating a conversation about a given topic. Thus, if an item or word has been hash tagged by many people, such as #follow friday, then it becomes easy to find.

Others use the # tagto denote discussion of events, groups, TV shows, movies, themed discussions, world events, and more.

Using the @ sign in Twitter:

1. Use it to capture the attention of someone in a group of twiple in twiland.
2. It is a sign of attribution when you retweet a message by another user (eg. RT @subinkuta). 
3. Use it to suggest twiple to follow others or something, eg. #FollowFriday @subinukta
4. Using the @username (eg. @subinukta) the message appears in that username's twitter inbox.
   NOTE HERE:
   This should not be confused with DM (direct message) i.e. sending a direct message to twiple. Anything sent via DM is out of public and can only be seen between the two people who send direct messages to each others' inbox. Also, you can send an @ message to anybody – whether or not they follow you BUT you can only send direct messages to people who follow you.
5. When you @ somebody, that message is posted in public, although directed to someone whose name  appears after the @ sign.  All the twiple following you and the person you @, will be able to see your message.  For example, let say I follow @jkmutta and you don't, then each message I @jkmutta, you will not be able to see but all the twiple following me and jkmutta will be able to read it. HOWEVER, if you begin writting a message by anything even a - or ? or . or any symbol then followed by the @ sign and username, e.g, '-@subinukta, can we meet today?' then everybody will see that message where or not they follow you two twiple. So, if you  follow Oprah Winfrey or Elen DeGeneres or Robert Kiyosaki or Anderson Cooper,  don’t assume they will see your messages just because you used the @ sign, you may want to try to catch their attention by DM them if they have that feature allowed (good luck). BUT if you want to send a message to somebody you don't follow and you can't DM them, then try the @username.
   
6. If you want to spread a word, better use the #tag instead of the @ sign because it limits the number of people who can see that message. For example: if you tweet, '@subinukta has as a good post about scholarship tips at wavuti.com' that message will only be seen by people who follow you and subinukta, you would then do a good favor if you just said, 'subinukta has a good post about scholarship tips #wavuti.com' without using the @sign.
   

Did you know:
That anybody can read your tweets if they click on your username? So, if you think using the @sign will prevent some people from seeing your tweets, the answer is NO, it won't,  people can still see them when they click to read your profile. If you want to say something in private, then DM them or send an email or better still, call them by phone.

PS:
Tweeple or Twiple are People who have twitter accounts and tweet periodically.
Twiland or Tweeland is a virtual world where twiple or tweeple live and tweet.
If you have a twitter account and you do tweet, then you are automatically a twiland resident.

Facebook has rolled out a cool new feature (I wrote about it in the previous post, click here to read it) which enables people to reply to comments via emails, i.e. if you receive a notification in your inbox from a comment that you left in someone or your own profile, then you can reply to them from your email as you would with any other email message without having to open and visit facebook page.

To enjoy this feature, you need to enable the Email Notification feature in your Facebook account.  Email notifications allows you to know when people interact with you on your profile, whether through Wall posts, Comments, Photo, Notes and Video tags or Friend requests so that you are aware of what is happening even when you are not logged in on Facebook.

To enable email notifications, this is what you do

• Login to your Facebook account
• Click the "Settings " tab (located on the right upper corner of the page)
• Click on the 'Notification' tab
• Here you will see a list of actions, put a check-mark next to each of the action you want to be notified about.(If you would not want any notification in some actions, like when people poke you or invite you to join groups, events etc. then leave the specific boxes unchecked).

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO ON HOW TO SET UP EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS

From now on, you will receive notifications via the inbox of the email address you have signed up with.

NOTE: If you want to change the email address associated with your account, go back to the "Settings" tab and clicko on the "Email" tab, then put whatever address you prefer to receive notification with. You can keep more than one email address or delete whichever you want to delete. If you choose to keep more than one email address, the notifications will be sent to the address you designate as your "Contact Email".

Some of you have accounts with social network sites such as Facebook (fb), Twitter, Myspace, Hi5, LinkedIn etc. It's obvious that some of these sites are blocked in work areas not because the company hates you, but for security concerns. It is for this reason that many people are unable to reply to comments left in their profile pages until they open the actual social network site, and since this is blocked at work, they will have to either rely on mobile version of the site and reply it there. But, what do you do when you don't want to connect your phone to a social network site but have the ability to read and reply your messages via personal emails such as gmail, yahoo!, lycos etc?

I believe the management of some social network sites have looked into it and gave it a second thought.

Today, the giant social network site Facebook announced in their blog that they are launching the 'Reply Via Email' feature. This feature was available to some members during the Beta stage (currently closed) and they are going to have it rolled on to all members. So if you have a fb account, and if you have been dying to reply to your status via email (like me), the wait could  be over (according to Facebook Blog, see shots below).

UPDATE1:
The new feature is up and running. From now on, when you receive a new comment in your email inbox, just hit the reply button as you always do with other email message replies, type in what you want to reply to that comment, hit the send button. You are done!

Notice that, the usual "noreply <noreply@facebookmail.com>" has been replaced by a new address that accept replies, for example, I just received a message that when I hit reply I have this "Reply to Comment <c+23bespi000000ox8zf70m00003jnzl4hu0000008dbdv80000000000001en1j@reply.facebook.com> "

Thank you Facebook Management!
Happy facebooking!