03 January 2013

Love World Cinema? Check Out The Korean Film Archive [Stuff to Watch]



korean film archiveThe Korean Film Archive, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of Korean film has been busy sharing select entries from its archive over the past year. Don’t worry if you don’t speak Korean, English subtitles have been provided courtesy of Google.


The Korean film archives are vast and there are now nearly 70 titles available for immediate streaming, with older 30s and 40s films as well as newer 90s releases. The uploads are not necessarily highly celebrated populist pictures like Oldboy or The Host, but they’re culturally relevant enough to tick the boxes if you’re into Asian and world cinema.


They’re also completely free to enjoy on your PC or YouTube-enabled TV or media centre.


The Road To Race Track


A 1991 drama that’s currently topping the Korean Film Archive’s “Top 10” list and has seen over 70,000 views, The Road To Race Track tells the story of a relationship breakdown, the harsh reality of old age and deceit. A dialogue-heavy tale of a two lovers and conflicting priorities, this is one for those of you who enjoy a good story-driven tale that’s not reliant on special effects to move its audience.


korean film archive


Woman Of Fire


A woman who volunteers to work at a farm in the hope of marrying well becomes entangled in a love triangle which turns sour. Another drama, though this time with lashings of murder and betrayal for good measure. Woman of Fire is a 1971 film brimming with insights into Korean life and society, recommended for fans of a good tragedy.


korean films


Carnivorous Animal


When Kim Dong-sik feels threatened by his wife’s thriving business he starts to feel incompetent and resorts to an affair as a means of escape. Before long he finds himself supporting two women, with two lives. When the two women make an unspoken pact to share their man, Dong-sik starts to wish he was tied to neither woman in this 1984 romantic flick.


korean films


Aimless Bullet


Aimless Bullet is not a happy film, and instead documents a very unstable time in a man’s life which seems to go from bad to worse. After a rough upbringing with an unhinged mother, sister who is a prostitute and malnourished pregnant wife, Cheol-ho simply doesn’t earn enough money to live comfortably. The story continues along a suitably bleak path, so be prepared for some heartache before settling down to this one.


korean films


The General’s Son


A 1990 action adventure about Kim Doo-han, a beggar who lost his mother at an early age and has made his living singing on the street. Of course, he’s also in possession of some formidable fighting skills and soon learns he is the son of an esteemed General who helped fight off occupying Japanese forces. The story then turns its attention to the Yakuza gangs looking to expand their influence in Doo-han’s area – it’s then up to him to protect and win over the support of the locals.


korean film industry


Gagman


A comedian convinces a barber to sell his shop and follow him into a life of making movies and showbiz. Along their way the two encounter a beauitful woman on the run from gangsters, and decide to start making their mark on the world of cinema. When a soldier who has deserted the army hands over his gun, bank robbery and criminal records await – but is everything quite as it seems?


korean film archive


Watch More


You can keep an eye on the KFA (not to be confused with this KFA) at the official website or by following “KoreanFilm” on YouTube. As ever, if we spot more quality world cinema on the big bad interwebs then you’ll find it in a future Stuff to Watch. Feel free to submit your own videos or links in the comments.


Do you like world cinema? Any favourite movies? Let us know in the comments below.


The post Love World Cinema? Check Out The Korean Film Archive [Stuff to Watch] appeared first on MakeUseOf.



In Your Face (Book): How To Integrate Facebook With Browser



facebook in browserOur social lives naturally revolve around networks, both offline and online. Many fundamental human needs can – at least partially – be met on online social networks. Facebook in particular has experienced massive success by tapping into the human needs to participate, understand, create, identify, and relax. We use this social network to communicate and connect, update friends on what is going on in our lives, express how we feel, and share things we like. Facebook has become so important that many of us cannot imagine living without it.


Since Facebook is so important to us, we desire seamless integration of its features into our everyday life. To most of us this is a matter of convenience. Beware that the tools described below can easily distract you from other activities and foster an addiction to Facebook. Hence, if you are susceptible to checking Facebook too many times a day, I forbear you to set up Facebook browser toolbars, sidebars, or extensions. Those of you simply looking for simpler ways to quickly check into Facebook, however, shall read on.


Google Chrome


A Facebook extension for Chrome puts the social network at your fingertips in the browser toolbar. The extension eliminates the need to keep a tab with Facebook open because it offers direct access to all key features, for example news, messages, photos, and notifications. You can also update your status and share links directly via Facebook for Chrome.


facebook in browser


Since Facebook for Chrome also integrates into Chrome’s right-click menu, you can easily share anything with a URL by right-clicking the item and selecting Share on Facebook from the menu.


facebook browser support


MakeUseOf has also published a full review of Facebook for Chrome, which looks at the setup and all features in detail. The extension is lacking some of Facebook’s functionality, for example the chat and a full events calendar. However, the developers are continuously working on improvements.


Note that to fully function, the app requires full access to your Facebook account, including personal information, posting on your behalf, and accessing your Facebook inbox. You can refuse to grant some of these permissions, but they will reduce its usefulness.


If you think this extension is too much, you might prefer the Facebook Like Button extension for Chrome, which we have briefly introduced here.


Mozilla Firefox


Many Facebook add-ons are available for Firefox, but the browser actually supports Facebook integration, natively. The feature is hidden in about:config. It can easily be enabled by following the instructions below.


Open a new tab in Firefox, type about:config into the URL bar, and hit Enter. Acknowledge the warning and promise to be careful.


facebook browser support


Now search for the preference name social.enabled by typing this name into the search box. The default value of this preference is false. To set the value to true, double-click the item. The moment you enable this feature, a Facebook Messenger sidebar will pop up on the right-hand side.


facebook browser support


After you log in, the sidebar will show the latest updates and notifications, as well as a list of your online friends. Moreover, Facebook buttons in the top right of the browser indicate new notifications, messages, or friend requests. To be sure you don’t miss these, a notification pops up in the bottom right of your screen. Fortunately, all unnecessary distractions can be disabled through about:config.


facebook browser plugin


As you may have noticed, there are several more social.* settings available in about:config. For example you can change the value of the social.sidebar.open setting to false, which closes the sidebar, but keeps the toolbar buttons. Likewise, you can disable notifications popping up in the bottom right of your screen by setting the value of the social.toast-notifications.enabled setting to false.


facebook in browser


If you are interested in more or different ways to integrate Facebook into Firefox, try these 5.5 Great Firefox Extensions To Make Facebook Awesome.


Opera


Although there were speculations in early 2012 about Facebook acquiring Opera to turn it into a Facebook browser, Opera offers little native Facebook integration at present. However, Opera and Facebook have teamed up to develop the Facebook extension for Opera’s Speed Dial.


Opera’s Speed Dial is similar to Chrome’s new tab. Each empty new tab contains a list of favorite sites (dials) that the user wishes to access quickly. Speed Dial for Facebook adds more interactive extensions, but users report that it doesn’t always work.



An independent Facebook extension for Opera works similar like the Facebook extension for Chrome. A toolbar button expands to a popup window when clicked and allows you to check Facebook.


Microsoft Internet Explorer


For Internet Explorer 9, no Facebook extension or toolbar could be found that mimics the above browser integrations. It seems like users of Internet Explorer 9 are stuck with visiting Facebook.com for their daily dose of social connectedness. If you use an earlier version of Internet Explorer, however, you may have luck with Facebook Web Slice or the Facebook Toolbar. Please note that I cannot give a recommendation, since none of them did anything for me. Who uses Internet Explorer anyway?


Conclusion


Integrating Facebook into your browser is highly convenient, possibly distracting, and it potentially contributes to social network addiction. When Facebook is always in your face, you will definitely not miss out on anything your friends do, you will be reminded of events and birthdays, and you will share more (of) yourself. On the downside, however, you may miss out on real life.


Be mindful and try to keep a balance between interacting with people online, observing what they do with their lives, and living your own. Facebook can help you maintain friendships and get inspired, but it cannot replace reality.


For more about Facebook, refer to our (very) unofficial Facebook privacy guide.


How do you use Facebook and how do you manage not to spend too much time on the site?


The post In Your Face (Book): How To Integrate Facebook With Browser appeared first on MakeUseOf.



A New Year, A New You: How To Clean Up Your Facebook



clean up facebookLike social networking sites as a whole, Facebook can be a force for good, even though it seems to have been doing everything in its power to turn its userbase off, as of late. The problem is Facebook can also be a force for evil, but it’s more about how we, the people, use Facebook, than it is about how Facebook uses us. Essentially, if you stay on top of your account, maintaining your profile and not letting the data it leaks get out of hand, you can control Facebook rather than letting Facebook control you.


This isn’t actually that hard to do. As well as keeping up to date on the various changes made to site policy and regularly checking your privacy settings to ensure they are still doing what you want them to do, you should be cleaning up your Facebook on a regular basis. And what better time to do so than the new year.


Whether you call it a fresh start or a spring clean, the result is the same: a sparkling fresh Facebook organized enough for anyone to cope with. What follows are the main areas to focus on in order to clean up Facebook, and the methods to employ to achieve that goal.


Profile


clean up facebook


First up is your profile, the landing page for acquaintances old or new who clicks on your name. You may not have visited your profile in a long time, and that’s the first thing to rectify. Click on your name and see how the world sees you on Facebook. Then set to work making sure everything is up to date and as you wish it to be.


First, make sure your profile and cover photos are exactly as you’d want them to be. Is your profile photo recent and showing you in the best light possible? If a stranger was to see one photo of you, would you want it to be that particular one? Is your cover photo recent or at least relevant? Does it sum you and your personality up in a pleasing manner?


clean up facebook wall


Next up is the masses of information Facebook would like you to provide it with. Click on your profile and then click Update Info underneath your cover photo. You’ll be presented with a list of information and questions, and it’s simply a case of ensuring everything is up to date. You can of course leave it all blank, and this is one instance in which less could actually be more.


clean up facebook wall


Last but not least are your favorites, which can be found under Likes. These are the music, movies, books etc. that you’ve stated you like. Have they changed recently? Would you rather not provide that information any more? Either way, just click on any to be taken to the Facebook page of that favorite, where you can simply click Unlike to have it removed from your wall of Likes.


Photos


clean up facebook wall


Facebook has become something of a killer app for photos, with millions of people sharing billions of photos with family and friends. The problem is it’s easy to forget the amount of photos you have uploaded, and, more importantly, the nature of them all. As life moves on the photos we want to see and share changes, so it’s a good idea to regularly make sure all of the photos you have on Facebook are relevant.


Click on Photos and you can view them in a number of different ways. Go through and prune any you’d rather were no longer on Facebook, even if you have to download them first to ensure they’re not lost forever. Look for those which show you in a bad light, or which feature someone you no longer wish to be associated with. Always consider how you’d feel about a stranger viewing your collection of photos for the first time.


Pages


clean up facebook friends


Facebook doesn’t make it very easy to see all of the pages you have subscribed to or liked, but there is a way. Click on your profile, then click Likes, then click Show Other Pages. You’ll then get a long list of pages that you can use to decide which you still want to interact with. If there are any that you are no longer interested in just click through to them individually, click the Settings button and finally click Unlike.


After clearing the boards in this way you may want to find new pages to like, and strangely enough Facebook makes this process much easier. Simply click on Like Pages in the left-hand sidebar, and you’ll be presented with a list of recommendations. Click on any that interest you and you may find a gem that is kept in great shape.


Groups


clean up facebook friends


It’s very easy to be gently persuaded into joining groups on Facebook. If a friend sets one up then you may feel obliged to do so, as an obvious example. But every now and then you need to have a purge in order to save your sanity. Now is the time to do just that, and it’s surprisingly easy to manage the groups you’re a member of.


All of the groups you’re in will be displayed in the left-hand sidebar. If you no longer want to be a member of any of them then click on the Settings button and finally click Leave Group. A word of warning, however. Once you leave a group it will continue on without you, unless you were the sole administrator. So only leave if you’re happy to miss any future postings to that group.


Apps


clean up facebook friends


Apps are commonplace on Facebook, and that means you’ve likely added a great deal of them over the years. You’ve also likely forgotten about some of them, and if you no longer wish to use them it would be a good idea to remove them completely or at least limit their access to your account. Luckily apps have their own dedicated section on Facebook. Just click the Settings button, Account Settings, and then Apps.


You’ll then get presented with a list of the apps you use. First, scan the list and see if there are any you’d like to delete altogether. If so then simply click the small ‘x’ to remove them from your Facebook. Alternatively you can click Edit and change what the app does and what actions it notifies you of.


Friends


clean up facebook


Friends are the very essence of Facebook. If you have none then you may as well delete your account altogether, have too many and any chance of meaningful relationships and conversations occurring is gone. How many Facebook friends is too many? That’s for you to decide, but Dunbar’s number stands at 150, which is how many people an individual can theoretically maintain personal relationships with.


Friendships manifest in many different ways, and it’s for you to decide what level of friendship you want to retain with people on Facebook. The strictest would be sticking with family members, the loosest would be adding anyone who asks, even strangers. Whatever method you subscribe to, having an occasional purge is heartily recommended.


An alternative to actually deleting friends is organizing them into lists. You can then choose which groups of friends will receive each of your updates, and it makes the whole act of keeping up with everybody from blood relations through to random acquaintances a whole lot easier.


Conclusions


As noted at the start of this article, social networking only works for an individual if they’re willing to put the time and effort into maintaining their presence on each of the different sites. This is especially true if a site is free to use, as you’re then the commodity and everything you do on that network is data waiting to be used or sold.


Cleaning up your Facebook regularly is the only way to ensure you’re staying in control and able to keep a tight grip on this one aspect of your online life. The good news is it’s never too late to give your Facebook a nice dusting down, working through its many elements one by one. Follow these steps now, but also bookmark the article in order to repeat the process every few months.


Image Credit: Lena


The post A New Year, A New You: How To Clean Up Your Facebook appeared first on MakeUseOf.