Module 5 Communication concepts and reflection

“We define an information ecology to be a system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a particular local environment. In information ecologies, the spotlight is not on technology, but on human activities that are served by technology.”
(Nardi & O’Day, 1999)



I guess the manner in which we have become so reliant on the Internet during our everyday life in Australia, it has become more and more a part of our nature, slowly embracing online technology and the information it brings us.



We socialise on the net through Facebook, we buy our clothes/music online, we make business deals and financial transactions, we put our cars up for sale, etc etc





This form of interdependence has led to many changes in the way we interact with other human beings and has led me to think of the net not just as an information service, but an alternative culture or lifestyle. So many things that we used to have to do through the process of " real" activities, such as walking to the real estate agency to look for a new house, can now be done through the click of a button. Nowhere near as personal, much more insular, but more efficient. Have we lost part of our human nature? Does the fact that I have daily updates from all of my friends, all over the world through Facebook make up for the fact I haven't seen them face to face in a year even though they live ten minutes away?



The Internet is great because not only does it allow us to intake information, it also lets us create it, allowing us to shape its environment in which ever manner we please. Peer to Peer networks allow us to exchange files and data without any constraints, MySpace and Youtube give us the freedom to post our thoughts/music/art online for all the world to see, creating a new economy, breaking down physical and geographical barriers.



There is so much more to look forward to, so much more to evolve, not just technologically but as a society and global economy.



Studying this unit and NET12 has made it clearer of the potential the Internet has to unite cultures, religions and friends through new techonologies, business models and virtual communites through the evolving manner in which we absorb information and the different ways we communicate this information to each other.

Projection on buildings

This is very cool. 3D projection on buildings has certainly come a long way.
Definitely a different method of communication, could see endless possibilities and scenarios with this type of technology.
http://vimeo.com/4238052?pg=embed&sec

Conceptual Research & Reflection Project

Conceptual Research & Reflection Project





CONCEPT 14 – THE INTERNET IS INFORMATIONALLY CREATED SPACE

The sense of space is essential for humans – or at least many humans – to be able to express their identities in special and rich ways.
(Allen, n.d.)

One of the most appealing aspects of the Internet for a large number of users is its capability to unite people regardless of geographical location. Websites such as Facebook allow people to keep in touch with their friends and loved ones whilst being able to share pictures, videos and regular updates of recent experiences. It has created an alternative real world, in which basically everything that happens to someone is chronicled on their profile page and notified to everyone on their friends list. Even if you do not live anywhere near that person or may not have spoken to them for years, you are still able to keep up with their daily life and vice versa.


While Facebook has managed to become a great communal meeting place, there are other forms of popular multiple player online communities known as MUDs (Multiple User Dimension, Multiple User Dungeon or Multiple User Dialogue) which do not rely on real life events or real identities in order to exist. These websites, or virtual spaces, do not tend to focus so much on being a communication tool in the same way Facebook and Twitter do, but rather on the creation of a shared virtual world which allows users to present themselves to the world in a much different manner, not bound by real life events or identities, but still not immune from the normal range of human emotions.


Users are allowed to create their own computerized character or persona, which is most commonly referred to as an avatar, and can then explore a virtual world, chat to other avatars, go on quests or create their own rooms in which to meet with other people. Early MUDs, unlike graphic multiplayer online worlds such as Second Life or MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) like World of Warcraft, were (and still are) described entirely in text, using wordly descriptions about the user’s world around them in order to convey a rich virtual environment.


Graphic MUDs on the other hand are rich, graphic intensive worlds which fully submerge the user into fantasy worlds, with users able to alter and edit every physical aspect of their avatar so even if you are a short, skinny twenty three year old with a hunchback in real life, you can become a hulking beast of a man who heroically trots from village to village going on quests and saving fair maidens. So popular have these types of virtual worlds become that even normal websites now tend to adopt a graphic intensive design which gives the impression of being in a virtual world or virtual store. For example you could be visiting a website of a certain sports brand, instead of clicking on a button labelled Apparel, you are instead given the option of clicking on a ‘door’ and taken to a page which resembles the inside of a retail store, with different clothes racks being the gateways to different clothing catalogues and so forth.

The fact that these types of virtual online communities allow people to detach themselves from the real world and create fantasy versions of themselves or identities gives a real sense of escapism while at the same time developing a real sense of community with other users, creating bonds with characters that may not exist in real life but are still cared for and appreciated not just by their creator, but everyone else present in its virtual world.

WEBSITES

Open Directory Project – Online games – MUDS
http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Online/MUDs/

This is a great website which gives you a list of over seven hundred and fifty MUDs available on the web. They can be sorted by Codebase, Clients or Development and also has a very informative FAQ which explains everything you need to know about MUDs and how to connect to a server and play them. It also has links to relevant articles, message boards, and can be transcribed to other languages.



MMORPG.com – Your Headquarter for Online Multiplayer Games.
http://www.mmorpg.com/index.cfm?bhcp=1

Much like the previous website, but appropriately enough, much more graphic intensive. Here you can access everything you ever need to know about MMORPGs. It has lists of all the games available, news, message boards, blogs and a ton of other features. The website has a real sense of an online community with users able to upload videos of their actual gameplay so they can share with the world their greatest moments and has a thriving message board with countless topics. There is also a chat option so users can text each other in real time. One of the coolest features available I think is the availability of blogs by game developers, which allow users to see what the latest news are with regards to their favourite game franchises.














CONCEPT 7 – NETIQUETTE


An overwhelming and many-faceted aspect of using email and similar asynchronous communication systems over the Internet is 'Netiquette'. Netiquette describes 'good' and 'bad' conduct in online communication (amongst other forms of Internet use). But what is important about Netiquette is the concept that there are these 'agreed' rules of what is good and bad.
(Allen, n.d)



What is netiquette? What may be considered courteous to one person may be considered a slight to someone from a different culture. The Internet is a global phenomenon so how can we regulate the manner in which different people perceive the same information?



Netiquette seems to apply mainly to communication between users on the Internet and the widely shared beliefs and rules that help facilitate correspondence amongst users on online communities. While there are many different types of online communities, each with their own sets of norms and social conventions, they also seem to share a common bond with regards to what is considered appropriate and inappropriate when it comes to communicating with other users. Even websites and message boards with questionable moral stances follow the same rules as other more wholesome message boards in order to maintain a certain amount of control and structure that prevents everything from spiralling out of control. Given the lack of rules and regulations, most message boards and websites tend to maintain a surprising degree of self control as the majority of users realise that straying from the core rules of Netiquette will not only result in an unpleasant and frustrating experience for all involved but also increases the possibility of stricter rules being applied.

“In the arena of content control, one of the perceived virtues (though not unalloyed) of self regulation is the capacity of users to establish their own standards rather than be subject to a single imposed government standard.”
(Price & Verhulst, 2005)

One of the most interesting aspects of the Internet is that due to the fact that there are very little regulations, it is basically a free for all forum in which anyone can contribute, upload content and in some cases, offer views that would otherwise be considered unacceptable in the real world. The act of sitting behind a computer screen seems to act like a protective shield against morality, with people feeling freer to do or say inflammatory things knowing that there is no chance of instant physical reprisal as the worst that can happen is a few harsh words thrown your way by someone else who is also stuck behind a computer screen on the other side of the globe. Sticks and stones may break my bones but the net has never hurt me.

As Virginia Shea (1994) states in Netiquette “Humans exchanging email often behave the way some people behind the wheel of a car do: They curse at other drivers, make obscene gestures, and generally behave like savages. Most of them would never act that way at work or at home. But the interposition of the machine seems to make it acceptable”

This is readily apparent in forums and message boards where “Trolls” and flame wars are a frequent occurrence. In this cases people converse with each other in inflammatory ways in order to antagonise other users for no other purpose than to create a stir. Were this scenario transferred from a message board to somewhere in the real world like a pub or schoolyard, the troll would more than likely end up with a black eye, or at the very least, no one to talk to.

Ultimately, Netiquette, much like real world etiquette, relies on individual conscience and the desire to behave in a manner which is tolerant and considerate of others regardless of what rules and regulations are being placed upon you. It must also be taken into account that what may seem offensive to one culture may not to another, so it is prudent to maintain an open and tolerant frame of mind before taking it as an attack towards you.




WEBSITES



http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
This website holds excerpts from Virginia Shea’s 1994 book Netiquette and states the core rules of netiquette. The site itself is great as it not only provides excerpts to Shea’s book, it also has the entire book available on online form. One reservation I have with this source is the relatively dated content, as the Internet is a lot different now to fifteen years ago. However, due to the fact that netiquette applies mainly to communication between users, a lot of the rules stated still ring true as the basics of text and email communication have not changed that drastically over time.

NETIQUETTE GUIDELINES
http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html
The Internet Engineering Taskforce’s (IETF) Netiquette guidelines, which were published in 1995 are available on this site and again, even though it is quite dated the rules still apply today. It covers guidelines for One to One communication in addition to One to Many communication, guidelines for Mailing Lists and also guidelines for administrators. The whole document is very thorough, cites many references and consists mainly of bullet points so it is very easy to read and gets the information across in a much quicker and efficient way than Virginia Shea as it is a memo as opposed to a scholarly book.










CONCEPT 17 – THE IMPACT OF TEXT BASED REAL TIME CHAT

Communicating in real-time with text enables a form of 'authoring of the self' that is similar to the processes of face-to-face speech but which is much more amenable to authorial control, experimentation and reflection. Further, text-based communication carries with it the possibility for multiple, differing conversations occurring simultaneously, relying on the ability of the human brain to deal with text much better than speech.

(Allen, n.d)

While technological advances have made it easier than ever to conduct online conversations with the aid of web cams and microphones, the large majority of Internet users still prefer to converse through the trusty old keyboard. While there are definitely some advantages to video conferencing, such as being able to see and hear the other person, it also requires a lot of bandwidth and can be quite costly.

“But there are great advantages to the text based approach. The bandwidth requirements are low, much lower than sending audio or video. The hardware requirements are low too: any computer or PDA has a means of entering and displaying text whereas not every machine has sound/video capabilities. And finally, there is a vast experience dealing with text with efficient and well known ways of archiving and searching huge amounts of it.”
(Roddy & Eppelman-Wang, 1998)

Quasi synchronous text based real time chat, or Instant Messaging, allows the user to multi task while still holding the other person’s attention. With video conferencing, one must dedicate their full attention to the other person in much the same way one would in a real life conversation. In most cases it would be deemed rude to perform other tasks or talk to other people while someone is talking directly to you. That is not a problem with text based chat, and it also allows one to be more deliberate with what you say and the manner in which the conversation takes place.

"Participants are able to manage multiple threads because of the quasi-synchronous nature of text chat. That is, unlike face-to-face conversations where comments follow one another with minimal or no pauses, in text chat only the completed comment is entered, thus there are gaps while participants type. In addition, rather than listening, which is a continuous process, the typed comments are persistent and so can be read relatively at will." (O'Neill & Martin, 2003)

Personally, when chatting to friends on Messenger, I tend to write and re-write a lot of my sentences before pressing SEND. Sometimes the first thing to pop into your mind is not the necessarily the best thing to say, so text based real time chat allows you to prevent any embarrassing or hurtful situations.

The way you put yourself across can also be altered by text chat. Unlike, video chat, your appearance is only known to you, so it gives you the freedom to stretch the boundaries of the truth. One drawback to this is the fact that this false identity caper is often used by sexual predators in order to entice future victims.
Text based chat also allows the other person to clearly follow what you are trying to say, and although tone of voice can never be fully conveyed on a simple text line, the use of emoticons, caps lock and fonts makes it easier to convey your feelings across.
Also, due to the fact that the Internet is global, text chat allows people who may not speak the same language to interact more efficiently as reading text is much easier than oral comprehension. The fact that you can also look back through your chat history means that text messaging is better for recollection of old conversations as opposed to having to rely on one’s memory.

WEBSITES

E-mail, Online Chat and Text Messaging Acronyms

ttp://www.sharpened.net/glossary/acronyms.php

LOL? ROFL? RTFM? There are a lot of different acronyms used during online text chatting, almost turning into a language of its own. This website is fantastic for those who are not very experienced at online text chatting as it gives a comprehensive list of acronyms most commonly used during conversation. I have to admit, I consider myself a quite experienced hand when it comes to online chatting but there are some acronyms here that I've never heard of before. Enlightening

Chat Rooms -Online International Chat Rooms
http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/TextChat.asp

One of the things I love most about the Internet is its ability to unite people regardless of geagraphical location, race or religious beliefs. This web site is designed to be used as a language learning forum, in which you can converse with people all over the world in various languages and practice with native speakers. There are also lesson plans and allows you to save your chat session so you can revise the text at a later time.

CONCEPT 33 – INFORMATION AND ATTENTION

In the era of the ‘attention economy’, readers and users of Internet information must be carefully craft, in their own minds, the kind of metadata which will – almost instinctively – ‘fit’ with the metadata of the information sources they want, so that – in the few brief moments of initial exchange, when a seeker of information encounters information being sought, rapid, effective judgments are made that ‘pay off’ in terms of further reading, accessing and saving.
(Allen, n.d)


Due to the explosion of information available on the world wide web, it has become more important than ever to create web sites that are able to engage the reader in a quick and efficient manner. There is simply way too much data available on the Internet for one person to fully process and revise everything out there. This has created an attention economy in which web site developers and advertisers treat human attention as a commodity, with an emphasis on trying to deliver the information the web user requires as early and easily as possible, otherwise, if the user does not find his desired information within seconds of opening and scanning the page, he will more than likely move on to a different website.
A good website should be able to not only lure web surfers but also keep them interested and coming back for more. While the graphic design of the web page is considered an important aspect due to its ability to quickly gain a user’s attention, ultimately it comes down to the strength of the content and its relevance to the user’s desired information that plays the most pivotal role. There are some very simple websites out there that are extremely popular such as http://craiglist.org/ whose design has barely changed since its inception but remains amazingly popular as an online classifieds source for over 50 countries.

Due to the overwhelming amount of relevant data now available to someone through a simple web search, the search results are rarely precise so there are many instances in which the first link clicked is not in fact considered worthwhile to the user, and has led to browsing patterns that consist mainly of clicking on a page, scanning it, and quickly clicking the BACK button to try again. While this may lead to a large number of visitors to a certain page, the amount of hits is irrelevant if the user does not spend any significant amount of time actually browsing the page and in turn absorbing some of the advertisements present on said site. This has become known as Stickiness, and is now a major factor in e-commerce, as advertisers are shifting away from the old adage that the more hits a website gets the more lucrative it is as an advertising platform and instead have started to analyse different aspects such of web site development that may influence potential customers such as integrating design concepts with certain products.

Davenport & Beck (2001) cite three common parameters that are used to measure stickiness and these are (1) the total amount of time spent on a site, (2) the number of visits per person and (3) the number of pages viewed per person. While these figures may be able to give a better understanding of consumer habits, ultimately the best way to ensure that a website is successful is to ensure that it is relevant, engaging, has a community aspect to it such as message boards that further engage the reader and is convenient to all involved.

WEBSITES

The Attention Economy: An Overview
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/attention_economy_overview.php

This is a great, informative article by Alex Iskold which explains the main points and concepts of the Attention economy theory. It makes great use of charts and graphs to show the reader how the explosion of blogging and other types of online information has created an information overload age. He also goes into great detail explaining concepts such as Attention Trust, the Technology of attention and the challenges that lay ahead to ensure that this future marketplace is healthy. The article also contains some very useful and relevant references and links so one can familiarise his self with the topic further.

Browsing Through the News: Determining Predictors of Linear Behaviour on an Online News Site.

http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p191625_index.html

This is an excellent article which attempts to determine the individual factors that play a role in browsing behaviours. It is extremely thorough and cites a large number of previous studies. The difference between linear media such as film, televison and print which encourage the user to develop a sequential thought process and the internet is touched upon, as the internet is a non linear form of media that through the use of hyperlinks allows continous access to several pieces of information at once. It is quite a lenghty article but nonetheless there is a lot of very informative content in there that will definitely help someone learn more about the changing user browsing patterns over time.

REFERENCES

Allen, M. (n.d.). Internet Communications Concepts Document,
NET11 The Internet - Communications, Curtin University of Technology. http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_14736_1%26url%3d


Davenport, T.H. & Beck J.C. (2001) The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business. Harvard Business School Press
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=FuuKd3on9psC&oi=fnd&pg=PA35&dq=internet+attention+economy+theory&ots=RI-LBz4-Wu&sig=yIX3-tboESfBAuxGjkbdP5flcb8#PPP1,M1


Mongue, P.R. & Contractor, N.S. (2003) Theories of Communication Networks. Oxford University Press, USA.
http://books.google.com/books?id=5z3oPq8M5NwC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=instant+messaging+theories&source=bl&ots=H1bmsiqVlS&sig=9vMcOE9ahCFlpRUAEvHZuRSKdis&hl=en&ei=-90WSoXaG8-HkQXji6H8DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5#PPA9,M1


O’Neill, J. & Martin, D. (2003) Text Chat in Action. ACM New York, USA.
http://doi.acm.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/10.1145/958160.958167


Price, M.E., & Verhulst, S.G. (2005). Self Regulation and the Internet. Kluwer Law International.
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ssIvjfunkO8C&oi=fnd&pg=PP8&dq=netiquette+self+regulation&ots=7N6yAo3Onw&sig=B_qcpbKbIrayc9VlX9xrQqShT9Q#PPA12,M1

Rittenberg, J. L. and Tewksbury, D. , 2007-11-15 "Browsing Through the News: Determining Predictors of Linear Behavior on an Online News Site" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the NCA 93rd Annual Convention, TBA, Chicago, IL Online . 2009-05-23 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p191625_index.html


Roddy, B.J. & Epelman-Wang, H. (1998) Interface Issues in Text Based Chat Rooms. ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, Vol 30 Issue 2. New York, USA.
http://delivery.acm.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/10.1145/280000/279172/p119-roddy.pdf?key1=279172&key2=9539003421&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=15605080&CFTOKEN=55032916

Shea, V. (1994). Netiquette . Retrieved May 22, 2009, from
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/index.html

The Attention Economy: An Overview http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/attention_economy_overview.php

The Internet Engineering Taskforce’s Netiquette Guideline
http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html

AND OR NOT, OR NOT AND, NOT AND OR

So I forgot to do the Boolean search last time so here it goes:

My initial search query was



M.Ward Tour Dates = 214,000 hits

now booleanise lets this mofo:



M.Ward AND Tour Dates = 203,000 hits

M.Ward OR Tour Dates = 30,900,000 hits

"M.Ward Tour Dates" = 417 hits



Not surprised that M.ward OR tour dates had the most hits, but the most relevant by far was the one with the little " " around the search query. They " have a name, I'm just drawing a blank at the moment.



On a side note, if you try to google [ " ] to see what the apostrophes, parentheses are called you will draw a blank....



wait they're quotation marks....no more coffee for me.

Coolest cars you've never heard of...

Oh man, I looooove number 8 on the list

sweet action

http://southflorida.sun-sentinel.com/live/wsfl-cool-cars-pg2,0,400925.photogallery

Best three search results

For the previous search task, the best three sources I could find were:



1. M.Ward - Hold Time at http://www.mwardmusic.com/

Site author/Design: Royal Magnet Design Company



This is M.Ward's official web site (not his record label's) and it contains all the information you could ever require, including News, Tour Dates, Bio, Videos and so forth.



2. M. Ward at Tourtracker.com

Institution : AOL

This is an excellent site that I had not come across before. It lists all of his upcoming concerts and their location. It also allows you to buy tickets to any of the shows listed so it is an excellent way to get tickets quick and easy.



3. M.Ward at Merge Records

Institution: Merge Records

This is his official page on Merge Records' site and again, much like M.Ward's own site it contains

News, Tour and Discography information.



The best way for me to save this information so I can revisit it in the future is simply by creating a new folder (M.Ward) in my Favourites section and bookmarking the links onto it. This is really simple, but gives me all the information I need and a quick and easy way to access it.

Search Search Search...Search your booty

So, I had to search any phrase or word and compare the results from Copernic and from Google (my search engine of choice). I went ahead and typed in M.Ward Tour Dates. He's a Portland based troubadour who makes excellent music and is a finger picking devil with the guitar. Last time I saw him play here in Perth was about two or three years ago so decided to search him up to see if there were any Australian tour dates imminent.





Google search returned 214,000 results, with www.mergerecords.com/artists/wardm being the first one up, which is pretty good as that is his record label's official page for him.








Copernic returned 62 results (!?!) with the first one being completely off base, as it was:





1.Online Dating
Find Online Dating Sites Fast! Compare Hot Singles Online!
Sponsored by: www.Online-Dating.Theselection.com.au [Found on Ads by Ask.com]





Although Google had a lot more results, apart from the above woeful result by Copernic the rest were all quite relevant, with #2 on Copernics results being:


2. M. Ward Tour Dates and Concert Tickets I...
Get the latest M. Ward tour dates and concert ticket information. Find up-to-date info on tour schedules, concert announcements and buy M. Ward concert tickets online.
www.tourtracker.com/artist/m-ward/1448712 [Found on Windows Live, Yahoo! Search]





That's a lot better, but Google also returned similar results without the Online Dating misstep.








On first glance it seeemed like Google gave me the best results, as it listed M.Ward's record label's official site first instead of an Online Dating service, and also had much much more results, including guitar tabs and so forth while Copernic seemed to have a lot more irrelevant results which were links to other companies and services that had little to do with M.Ward's actual music.


All in all, I can't see Copernic becoming my first choice as a search engine, too slow, too few results and too many advertisement links.

Remember Space Invaders?

Stumbled upon this Q&A from USA Today with the creator of the original Space Invaders video game. I found it interesting that despite all the new technology available he finds game developers at the moment are going through a tough time due to the over saturation of games available as most video game themes have already been covered in the past.
He also states that the focus on unique concepts has waned with the evolution of technology, which I have to agree with. I remember when I was younger gaining much more enjoyment out of simple Atari games than I do now with the majority of games I play. In fact I tend to only ever play sports themed games now as the novelty has long worn off with shoot em up games.

Module 4

Copernic



I was already extremely familiar with the majority of programs on the list, in particular all the Media Players, which I have had on my PC for quite a long time. At the moment I only ever use Windows Media Player as my main media player and Quicktime for all my iPod music and video needs.

One program that was not on that list is VLC Media Player, which is a free, very basic media player that supports a wide wide range of video formats and codecs so is a great all round application.



I decided to download Copernic Desktop Search as I had not seen or heard of it before and it seemed like it may be somewhat useful to me and....it's pretty decent but I seem to not have configured it properly as I typed in a few queries knowing I had files in my hard drive that matched, but only a few of them showed up on the results section.



It really slowed down my Internet Explorer and Vista quite a fair bit and it annoyingly kept asking me if I wanted it as the default search browser even after I ticked the box saying "NO" repeatedly so all in all, not something I will be using too often as it seems to be more annoying than helpful at this stage. Maybe once I spend a bit more time configuring it then it may pay off.

Web 2.0

Comparing the Internet Communications FURL site to an HTML was quite contrasting. The furl site was much more vibrant and colourful, as the html site merely consisted of a simple list with links to relevant course work while the FURL site is much more graphic intensive, interactive and not as linear in its content.
I guess HTML would be good for simple, straight forward content/lists that do not require much explanation and user interactivity, as all you can really do is read and click on the links.
The FURL site was much more user interactive, allowing you to see what other users were active at the time, what sites/articles they had visited the rankings the links had attained. It definitely has a much more community feel to it along the same lines as Facebook and other social networks, as opposed to just a list with articles on it.

Facebook Porn Cops

Interesting article from Newsweek on the people in charge of monitoring what is and what isn't considered appropriate content on Facebook.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/195621

to iphone or not to iphone?

Been thinking about getting a new phone as my current one is acting up, was thinking about an iphone but to be honest not all that happy with what the current model has to offer. Sure its great,has decent storage capacity and I have an Ipod Touch so I'm familiar with its interface and love it but can't help but think if I hold out a bit longer I can get the new version of it. It's bound to come out soon, and I find the 2 Megapixel camera on the current model is waaaaaaaaay too outdated. I just can't justify shelling out almost $1000 bucks for something with a camera that has the same resolution as my current crappy $200 Ericksson.

Blogs! What are they good for? ABSOLUTELY anything

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Validation time...COME ON!!....Let's validate.

Ok, wow, I knew it wasn't going to be all peachy creamy but yikes.... fifteen problems with my site. I was going to paste it all into here but then my post would be three pages long, breaking one of the cardinal sins of the previous 5 rules. Most of the problems seemed to be little issues with coding that didn't have an effect on the actual functionality of the website so I'll put it down as beginner's errors.

With regards to copyright laws, then yes, I would definitely say my website infringes upon a couple of those as I have an unathorised image of Michael Jordan on my site that both him and FLEER trading cards would have an issue with. Unless they're really cool, in which case, I'm golden.

5 most important rules for writing on the web

1. Get straight to the point.
Jakob Nielsen's article may be from 1997, but it still has some points which are valid up to today, especially the one about being concise, scannable and objective. Most people, including myself, do tend to just scan through web articles so it is important to get your information and view across as efficiently as possible. Personally, most times I read an article or site it is because I searched for a specific topic and the site came up as one of the results, so I tend to just scan quickly through the page finding my desired information rather than reading the whole article. If I don't find it within 20 seconds, I'm out of there.

2. Linky Linky

Provide links, oh boy, you better provide LINKS, if a person has stumbled upon your page it is because they are seeking certain information. Giving them further options to pursue their desired interest is bound to give you a lot of brownie points. Upon reading Nielsen's 2008 entry on How little users read I was surprised to find out that the BACK button is only the third most used feature behind clicking hypertext links and buttons on the site.
Really??? Third?? There is no way I would click on more "buttons" on a website than I would the back button but that's just me. Having said that I do tend to click on ads just because I want to open another window, and once it is open I tend to write the address for the website I'm really seeking. Hope that hasn't skewered the results too much but I wonder how many people do the same thing?

3. Don't use long paragraphs
I think humans, thanks largely to television, glossy gossip magazines and the net, have looked at goldfish for long enough and decided, Fudge it!, I'm going to be just like you!
Seriously, any paragraph longer than 10 lines in a row will get you overlooked. If you have something important to say, either say it quickly or break it up into little pieces. Which is why I will not go into this into any more depth...sorry, move on.

4. Write scannable text
Really, I guess, this all goes back to reason number 1, but yeah, please, if I can type a word and see where it is on your web page, my job, and your job, is DONE. If not, at least make it easy to find, slap some bold text on it, or lat least ink the page to something worthwhile and relevant.

5. Make it fancy...or don't.
This really depends on what sort of site you are trying to push. If it is a website for a big company or an ambitious start up, then yes, make it sharp, bells and whistles and so forth, something that makes the consumer think if you go through that much trouble to make it look professional then his or her money is worth investing on your brand. People are attracted to bright colours and lights sure, but if your website is more of an information hub then keep it simple and easy to load. Horses for courses on this one, just make sure your desired audience is catered for in the right manner.

website/webspace problems

Have tried and tried to connect to Curtin's server through Filezila in order to access my Curtin web space but cannot do so for some reason so I am unable to put up the website I made online. Oh well, was fairly simple anyway and the screenshot from the previous task pretty much sums up all the links and info available on it so at least you get the gist.

Hot chicks with douchebags

One of my favourite blogs, not just because it's hilarious and stupid, but, well, yeah, really it is just because it's hilarious and stupid.

http://hotchickswithdouchebags.com/

html vs blogging

After doing the previous exercise with html and seeing how much effort goes into making such a small amount of information available on a basic site, it would seem as though blogging certainly has its benefits, as it allows you to customize your blog space, content, text and images in a much quicker and user friendly manner. With html there is a lot of double checking and re-writing involved, and it can be easy to get lost amongst all the code mumbo jumbo.

Nonetheless, making an html website definitely gives you a much bigger sense of achievement, and still allows you a wide range of creative scope to muck around with.

I wouldn't say I like one over the other, as blogs and websites serve different purposes. While I like being able to go to media intensive websites such as espn.com to get my latest basketball news, I also love going to simple blogs such as Basketbawful to get the same news in a much more satirical point of view.

websiiite

Well, that was fun.

I managed to get the website for my basketball team done without too much of a hassle and even though it's fairly basic, I still linked to our sponsor's website, our basketball fixtures website, our facebook/news website and added a contact email address. All fairly basic, yes, but still quite informative and efficient nonetheless.

And, yes, I do feel a certain sense of accomplishment, and can't wait for the other web design units coming up. The whole process really, really appealed to the "creative yet willing to do repetitive tasks" side of me.

Anyway, here is the screenshot of the site's main page as it stands so far:

Damn you Christian bale pop up ads

One thing I didn't like about Joe Barta's site was the ridiculously annoying flash ad that just kept looping over and over. Had to disable flash or loop it forward so it would finally stop. Apart from that, it was great going through that tutorial. HTML in its raw form can definitely be a bit overwhelming to look at initially but the tutorial exercises available definitely helped make sense of it all. I managed to follow all the web page code instructions without a hitch so that was a pleasant surprise.
Now I just have to think my about some small details of my webpage for a little bit and will hopefully have it ready by end of the day.

Module 3 - Creating a website

I had forgotten much of the old basic html principles so it was great to go back and do the tutorial So, You want to make a webpage! by Joe Barta. He makes the instructions really easy to follow and so far I have gone through the first half of the lessons and have found a lot of stuff I had forgotten coming back. Shouldn't be long now until I make my first site, thinking it might have to be something to do with my social baskteball teams and their respective comps.

Mailing Lists and Message Boards

I am not a fan of email lists, in particular the newsletter types that seem to just clog my inbox with outdated news. I belong to a couple of mailing lists, such as NBA.com 's to keep me updated with basketball news and results, but by the time it arrives in my inbox I already seem to know everything it includes. This is also the case with a number of music lists that always bring me BREAKING NEWS!!!!, but it is more like YESTERDAY'S BREAKING NEWS!!!!

The whole concept seems so outdated and stilted, especially in light of the manner in which the internet has become much more fluid and reactive. I tend to prefer message boards where people can discuss said news or any other interest that they may share in common. Message boards usually consist of a number of different topics on one main subject area, such as InsideHoop's NBA Forum which allows users to discuss the National Basketball Association and whatever latest saga is going on with their respective clubs.

I also had a browse through some of the discussion lists available on Yahoo's group page such as Your Dallas Mavericks and M.Ward and was left a bit undecided on the merits of email lists. The information on M.Ward's page was scarce and the posts were few and irrelevant, although this wasn't all that surprising as he is not all that well known by mainstream music audiences. The Dallas Mavericks site I expected would be much more active as my beloved Mavs are currently embroiled in a battle for the Western Conference in the playoffs. It was, and while there were quite a few messages regarding the latest victory, I don't know if I am a big fan of the way the messages are delivered to one another. Reading through them it seemed a lot messier and confusing than the same conversation would on a message board. Then I found out you could group messages by topic, making it all a bit more organised, but even then the manner in which threads were organised was less appealing than a message board. The format on Google's Android Developers group was a bit easier to follow than Yahoo's but still not quite as informative as a message board.

However, I can definitely see how they can be useful to some people, the fact each response by each member in the group is emailed to you allows for quick notification on replies to certain posts or threads. This doesnt occur on message boards, where you have to regularly check back to see if anyone has replied to your thread so that is one advantage email lists have over the boards.

Module 2 : Email

With just a quick glance at the header, there is a lot of information one can gather from an email message.


Firstly, the sender's email address lets you know their username and domain name.



If it is a work email, most people are allocated their full name as their username, with the domain name being the company's name and location. eg : johncitizen@victoriabitter.com.au. (not a real email address I would hope, either way, DON'T send anything to it {you just clicked on it didn't you?})


For personal email accounts the majority of people tend to avoid using their real names as a username, in part due to privacy concerns but mainly because ilovebarrymanilow@gmail.com was just too good to pass up.



The subject line, usually located right below or next to the sender's address, lets you know what the email is about. In some cases, such as when sending files to one another, the subject line is all that is required. eg:

To: Gregmatthews@yeahyeah.com

Subject: "March Payslip".



One can also see at what time on what day the message was sent and if it is a group email, to who else the email was sent.

cc and bcc are best used when sending an email that is of interest to more than just one person.

cc allows you to send a copy of your email to a group of people, and bcc allows you to send a copy of the same email to someone without the other recipients knowing about it.

When it comes to attaching files or documents to your email, if you do not know what type of operating system your recipient has, it is best to send the attachment as a plain text file(ASCII) or rich text file(RTF) as these formats can be easily read by most applications.

Personally, at home, I'm not a big fan of emal filters, mainly because I'm too lazy to set them up, but they are actually extremely handy and at my previous workplace they were a vital tool that allowed me to organise incoming emails in their appropriate mailboxes or folders. This saved a lot of time and effort and reduced the risk of misplaced or overlooked emails.

Come to think of it, maybe I should set up some filters in my personal email account, as at this very moment I have 8331 messages in my hotmail inbox, but as it is a personal account I only ever really get emails from friends so it is not a life or death issue. At work I had filters set up so emails from different departments were sent to different folders, allowing me to do reports more efficiently as I did not have to search high and low for the emails in the main inbox.

Further exploration on Tracerouting

I also downloaded A-Tool bar and used its trace feature to Traceroute from my computer to curtin.edu.au and this time it only took 17 hops as opposed to 21 for the HowStuffWorks website.
The milliseconds taken to complete the task were a lot quicker and I'm guessing that the reason it took less hops to trace was due to the fact that it did not have to connect to any overseas routers like it did with the HowStuffWorks site, which was based in the USA.

Tracerouting

So I Tracerouted from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ to http://www.curtin.edu.au/ and it took 21 hops to get there.
According to the information on tracerouters on HowStuffWorks the three millisecond numbers show how long it took a packet of information to get from my PC to the router and back again and the average of those was 249.66 milliseconds. Finally, it also told me that Curtin's host IP address is 134.7.179.56.

File Transfer Protocol - Capitalization matters.

File Transfer Protocol task


For the ftp task firstly I had to download the ftp client Filezilla. Then I was asked to ftp to recall.curtin.edu.au which was quite simple and straightforward, and once there was required to find the README file.

After browsing through a couple of the folders I was able to find the file without much of a problem and according to the README file : Capitalization matters.

Found ftp to be very interesting, feels like I’m hacking into someone’s system and is quite an easy way to access and copy files from one computer to another over a network. Filezilla reminds me a bit of some other Peer to Peer programs such as Soulseek, in which you can explore User folders for anyone that is online to see if there are any files or live music sets in their system worth downloading. *I don’t personally use this program anymore as I may or may not have heard whispers that sharing music over the web might just be considered a tiny bit illegal nowadays.*
I have often stumbled upon URLs with ftp:// at the beginning and always wondered why those sites would display in a folder format more suited for windows explorer but now it all makes a bit more sense.

A long long time ago, In a galaxy far far away...there was Blinkenlights

TASK B


Next I moved on to Towel.blinkenlights.nl and Wow! The amount of fandom/freetime and skill involved in that is pretty mind boggling, definitely a different use of Telnet to what I expected. Reminded me of the old racing games I used to play on my Casio Scientific/Graphic calculator in high school when I was bored during class. They too also consisted of ASCII characters, but were nowhere near as elaborate as that.

Blinkenlights and the old Casio games both do however share the same maverick spirit as the first person to figure out that 5318008 spells BOOBIES upside down on a calculator, thus turning a perfectly functional and useful tool into something much more amusing and giggle-worthy.




As impressive as it was, I could only put up with a couple of scenes before moving on. Not a big a fan of Star Wars, and the lack of speech and sound effects made it a bit boring for my Xbox/Playstation conditioned mind. Shameful, I know.

Telnet

OK, so much for following my own advice. Did these tasks a while ago and typed them up on Word but haven't updated this space in a loooong time. I could make excuses, some valid, and some far fetched, depending on your stance on Extraterrestials, avocados, dodgy modems and Space/Time continuum but going to change that as of today and this week will post all the previous work and finally focus on this blog the way it deserves.


TASK A


First task at hand was to get stuck into Telnet and get into the Deakin Library catalogue.

I followed the Telnet install instructions for Vista found here and it was fairly straight forward. Telnet popped up and reminded me of the old MS Dos prompts that I used to have to use in order to install video games way back when.

I tried to type in the Library.deakin.edu.au command but just got back an error message. Upon further inspection of the vista help site, I typed in the ? symbol and an options menu popped up. I browsed the options available and took a stab at O = connect to host as it seemed the logical option. Luckily that seemed to be the correct guess and after typing Library.deakin.edu.au I was sent to the Deakin Library search menu.

From then on it was very straight forward, and I managed to get the search results emailed to my Curtin email account without any problem.

Reflections :
The whole process was fairly simple, Telnet seems to be a very simple application that is useful for tasks that don’t require fancy graphics, and installing it was no problem but it took me a couple of minutes of random command prompting to figure out how to bring the main options menu up. There was a certain sense of nostalgia and dread having to use the old black windowed command prompt, as it had been years since I last needed to use that kind of thing, and apart from installing games, I only ever used it if there was something wrong with my PC.

5 tips for new bloggers

OK, this is actually my first ever blog but I have a large number of blogs which I like to read on daily basis so I'll just try and point out the good qualities that make me go back to them.

1. Keep the design nice and simple.

2. Try and update on a regular basis.

3. Don't make the posts too long, sometimes good content can be overlooked if the reader does not feel like trawling through twenty seven paragraphs.

4.Provide links to relevant (or not so relevant) external sources that may be of interest ( that's how I've stumbled across most of my favourite websites)

5. Be creative and enjoy it, everyone loves a laugh.