Tomorrow is 2009, so as tradition goes, the ReflectionUpon Blog is going to review what happened this year! So I hope everyone thought positively about 2008 and have a happy new year.

The biggest (and probably most obvious) is that I switched to WordPress and got real hosting. I also revealed my real name to be Eric Ouyang and blew away my pseudonym Kevin Johnson. Here is a month-by-month review of this year’s blog posts.

In February of this year, I signed up for Flickr and posted up a few photos that I took. Now it is a part of this website (see the “Photos” page) the original announcement post is here.

In March, Super Smash Bros Brawl came out and gave it a review (see here)

This May, the Phoenix Lander touched down on the surface of Mars to look for water on the red planet. What was different about this robot was that it has its own “Twitter” feed as well as a website and a blog. The mission ended on November 10th, 2008 when the Martian winter came along and NASA lost contact with the lander.

E3 was in July and at that video game showcase, I talked about Wii Music (which FYI, I still do not have), Wii Sports Resort, the Wii MotionPlus, and the Cooking Guide. (see the original post here)

Also in July, a highly anticipated product was released and sold quite well (which is quite annoying):the iPhone 3G. Yeah, itdoesn’t feel like it was even this year, but it was, on July 11th, but I had a post on it in June. (see the post here)

In August, I talked about the (at the time) upcoming netbooks which now are quickly becoming the new “laptop”. And yes, I did get a Lenovo S10. See the post here.

This September, the T-Mobile G1 (Google Phone) was the first phone to come out with Google’s Android open-source mobile operating system. I talk about it in this post.

This year’s Blog Action Day was in October where bloggers from around the world joined to talk about poverty. My contribution is located here.

The successor to Windows Vista (which began as quite a flop, but now is pretty good), which was discussed on originally the Funknowledge Blog,  Windows 7, was introduced to my blog readers in November. Again, the beta is expected to come out very soon (in fact, Steve Ballmer is expected to talk about it at CES). My post on Windows 7 is here.

Finally in December, again, started the ReflectionUpon blog. I also posted up a video on the Scratch Meetup @ MIT (Note: I do say Kevin Johnson at the beginning, I can’t really change it now). You can see it here. I also created my.ReflectionUpon.com, an experimental social network where you post up your own goals and then learn from the experience of others. See the post regarding that here.

Over the course of the year, ReflectionUpon also got a bunch of add-ons. Some of them being the the Forum (click the tab at the top), a gallery (photos tab), a wall for readers to post up something (see the right sidebar), and a mailing list that’ll automatically send subscribers an excerpt of the latest post which you can sign up at the bottom of the sidebar (originally, I manually sent emails).

Again, best wishes for the new year, and I’ll see you over the jump in January 2009!

Wow… it really is the season of change, first switching to actual hosting and WordPress, then a bunch of add-ons (such as the forum), and starting a few projects (including my.ReflectionUpon.com).

Okay, so Kevin Johnson is my pseudonym (though the person actually exists, Google the name!), my real name is Eric Ouyang. I’ll still probably use the pen name for some things, but for this blog, I’ll be Eric.

You could put it that I was hiding my identity all this time, but think about all the other pseudonyms in our world including Mark Twain and Dr. Seuss. I just felt that I wanted to keep my Internet life separate from my normal life. Though all the info I’ve posted about myself is true.

But I’ve reconsidered it and have decided to merge them into one. I knew I would have to do it sometime, no better time than around New Years.

I’ll be changing account names on the internet over the next few days, so you still might find a “Kevin Johnson” here and there.

Happy Holidays and have a great New Year!

Any thoughts about this? Leave a comment!

I wanted to add some more interactivity to my website, so I found a forum plugin for WordPress and installed it. The result is the ReflectionUpon Forum. Go check it out by clicking on the Forum tab above.

If you are interested, I used the the Simple:Press Forum plugin. Check it out at http://simplepressforum.com/.

NOTE: I have just installed it (and it is beta software), so there may be a few bugs (so post it on the forum under Site Suggestions and Bugs). I also need to write up a “Service Agreement” for the forum.

Today I’ve added two new features to the Reflection Upon Blog:

• Now I have my Flickr Albums available on the site, though I really need to get some more pictures up. Look for them over the next few days. See the “Photos” tab to take a look at them.
• Also, I’ve added Google Friend Connect, so you can add your self to the ReflectionUpon Blog network!

I’ve also added some other features (though not today) to my blog.

• Email subscriptions, so you can sign up to receive the ReflectionUpon Blog updates by email (and if you want, you can also do it through RSS, though that has been up since the site started. 
• AnswerTips, so if you double click on any word on the blog, you’ll get information about it, such as a definition of it.

Not quite a feature, but I’ve also added a Links page for sites that I feel deserve recognition. If you have a website (or other online content such as a Youtube Channel) you could submit it by using this form.

As a bit of an experiment, I’ve created my.ReflectionUpon.com. This Joomla (the Content Management Software that powers the site, similar to what WordPress does, but for a site, not just a blog) website allows anyone to reflect upon (Ha…. I thought it was pretty funny how the name fit with this blog’s domain) their lives through posting in their “notebook” as well as to set goals for the future. At the same time, they can also find other people with similar goals and connect with them to try and reach that goal together. They can also learn from the experience of the past goals of people.

A screenshot of my.ReflectionUpon.com (click on it to go there)

Originally, I had hoped for this to be a full fledged website, but I realized quickly that such websites already exist. See Goalmigo.com and Inpowr.com. Though anything that I would make with Joomla could not be as “non-buggy” and as easy to use as the professionals both because of Joomla’s architecture and my own abilities with websites. (which are very limited when it comes to web design and programming) But nonetheless, just for fun, I’ve created the site using quite a few extensions for Joomla and some minor tweaking, so that means I actually did very little nitty-gritty programming. I just mashed them all together to work as they do in my site.

If you are familiar with Joomla and you want to know the extensions I used they are as follows:

• Community Builder- the actual connection and profile part of the site
• Fireboard- the forum
• IDoBlog- the notebooks
• JCE (Joomla Content Editor)- the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Editor that is used to post up goals
• UddeIM- the private messaging system for users
• Mass Content- I used this to set up the sections and categories
• Content Submit- Allows users to only post to certain categories and sections
• JoomlaPraise’s Submission for the Joomla 1.5 Template Contest- the theme I’m using for the site

Other details:

• The goals are actually just articles posted by users and I have set up so when you register you are automatically an author
• I tinkered with the PHP files to avoid goals needing to be approved

More than likely you’ll run into problems with the site, you can report them, and I’ll try to fix them, but I have to stress that this site is not for real use. Sure, you can do what you want with posting your reflections, but you won’t really get any use out of the site (unless some event occurs and a lot of people actually start using it).

If you are interested in really taking part in such a goal-tracking site, check out those two sites I mentioned. I haven’t really looked at them myself, but I’m sure they’ll be much more useful than my.ReflectionUpon.com.

On the other hand, if anyone is interested in playing around with my Joomla site, you can contact me and I’ll see what I can do for you (and it’ll depend on how well I know you for you to do so)

So if you want to try my site out, go ahead and sign up for an account on my.ReflectionUpon.com!

I know…. this blog hasn’t been around for too long (though the Funknowledge Blog has) and I’m already updating our core software! Then again, it isn’t that strange, when my blog starts and when WordPress releases new versions have nothing really to do with each other.

So what is new? Well from your point of view, really nothing. The real update is the back-end. It has been completely redesigned to be easier to navigate and use.

Talking about new, I’ve also installed an automatic mailing system for this blog, so every time I write a new post, it’ll automatically send it to my subscribed readers without me doing it manually. Tell me how it works out!

Interested in finding out more? Check out this blog post on WordPress.org. To learn more about WordPress in general, check the about page on WordPress.org.

Below is a video from that post from WordPress.org showing what is new, so you can check that out too.

Today I attended a meeting at MIT’s Media Lab to meet people who use Scratch (a visual programming environment that does similar things to Flash). I got the great opportunity to talk with the makers of Scratch (Including a developer of the Scratch Website, see the video) and learn from other “Scratchers”.

I have a video below of the event. As I said, I interviewed a developer of the Scratch site, which allows users to post up their project for others to use and comment on. The video also interviews some kids who have been using Scratch.

The whole experience was very enjoyable and for those of you who have not tried Scratch yet, I would highly recommend for you to check it out.

Go to the Scratch Website at: http://scratch.mit.edu/

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

I’ve decided to shift the focus of this blog. So rather than just technology, this blog will talk about nearly everything with a focus on my own life as well as technology. Also, posts will be have more links to other content on the web so YOU as a reader can learn more (unless it is about something personal, of course).

So here we go, the Nokia N97 (image from Crunchgear.com). With the arrival of the iPhone, HTC Diamond (and other HTC touchscreen devices), the G1 (which is an HTC phone), the Samsung Omnia (and related phones such as the Instinct), the LG Dare (and related phones, like the LG Voyager), we now have another touch screen phone: the Nokia N97.

But this one isn’t quite the same.

As a part of Nokia’s N-series, it is more of a high end phone (quite apparent in its unlocked 550 euros ($695) price tag, before taxes or subsides). It also sports a 3.5 slide up and tilting touchscreen (a la AT&T Tilt and Sony Ericsson Xperia X1) and underneath is a full QWERTY keyboard. The phone is Symbian based, has a 5-megapixel camera, and has 32GB of built in memory (as well as a microSD expansion slot). There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack (yay!) It is seemingly a cross between a typical touch screen smartphone and a netbook.

The phone is said to be quite oriented around social networking (with something called “social location” which is when the phone can automatically update a status message using the built in A-GPS and share their location through photos and videos) and web-browsing (including streaming flash videos)

It is coming to Europe (no info yet on when it is coming to the states) in the first half of 2009.

Some videos showing the Nokia N97:

A demo

The N97 in Action

Learn more at (links to the specific pages, not just the main site):

An Article on CNET

A video on Engadget

More Specs and Photos on Hand Cell Phone

An Interview with the N97 Designer

More info on Nokia Conversations

Blog entry on gHacks

Article on CrunchGear

NOTE: This is written from the point of view of the Funknowledge Blog, so imagine that you are back on that site!

So… basically I’ve decided to get real hosting and a domain for my blog and switch to WordPress, visit it at http://reflectionupon.com. This blog will still be here, but all new posts will be over at ReflectionUpon.

Why did I ditch the name Funknowledge? It isn’t that I don’t like it, but I find the name a bit limiting so I thought up of ReflectionUpon. It is more open to whatever I want to write about and has a nice ring to it.

I’m still working on smoothing out a few parts on the blog, so you may find that somethings don’t quite work right or that the theme changes around a few times.

Also, I’ve transferred over all my stuff from this blog to the new one, so you can find all my previous posts there too!

As of this writing, I’m working on a post for the ReflectionUpon blog so go on over there and check it out, by the time you read this, it’ll be there!

Hey wait a second….. this isn’t the Funknowledge Blog!

Or is it? Well, the simple answer is no, but it is debatable.

I, Kevin Johnson, wanting to try something new and fresh, decided to completely create a new site. No more subdomains under “.blogspot.com”, we have our own domain now!

Okay… so now you are wondering this: what is up with “Reflection Upon”? So here’s the scoop this Monday (December 1st, 2008), I was just thinking about everything occurring in my life and suddenly a thought invaded my mind…. reflections. And then I felt an urge to get some real web hosting and start a new blog. The name itself I really like too. The fact that is doesn’t feel like there is an end is the whole point of the “…”. This blog is going to be a reflection upon…. life (mine and others), technology, the environment, our world, and whatever else I’m reflecting upon at that moment. And thus, this blog was born.

So is the Funknowledge Blog dead? Not yet…. but this will become my main blog in the future!

Interested in a post that was over at the Funknowledge Blog? Search for it, I’ve transferred them all here.

Comments? Leave one, or send me an email at kevinjohnson@reflectionupon.com!