May 24, 2007

Finshed

Ok, just a quick review through all the notes and requirements and I'm set to submit these :-)

THE END

May 13, 2007

Module 5: Info-Communication Concepts

During this module I reflected alot on what I have learnt and reflected about what the internet really is. It helped me understand the diversity of people, technology, tools, ecologies, groups and that they all rely upon eachother for adoption, use and many other things.

One of the things that struck me was that the users drive the collaboration and convergence of technology in to the future where it allows us to share information more easily.
Case in point is peer to peer . I dont use it, although know others that have and I tried out a flavour, as in morpheus http://morpheus.com/
Interesting concept of leaching and bandwidth sharing but I felt it unsafe and that it doing more than sharing files or that I'd be in some kind of trouble or danger ... in fact I worked out that it was just using my bandwidth for other nodes while I wasnt using it - I didnt like this and thought about the security aspects. In hindsight, it found most of the stuff I looked for and was sometimes good and sometimes painfully slow.
Other research lead me in to Internet 2 territory which looks like a decent attempt at building an architecture and series of backbones that offer the highest levels of efficiency ... is ground up redevelopment is my summary - definately one to watch.

A recap of all the concepts and I think Ive got the right idea for the essay.

Interesting experience studying again, one that I hope that getting through the unit with all the externel pressures Ive had around new job, car, house, moving etc have made me a stronger and more dedicated academic to study more about the things I thought I knew everything about ... thanks for the experience !

Apr 25, 2007

NEWSFLASH ! NEW JOB !!!

I've accepted an offer from IBM and look forward to handing in my notice tomorrow after 7 years at Compuware. I learnt a hell of a lot at Compuware both good and bad but IBM has always been part of my dream list, so off I go - yipee!

Apr 11, 2007

NET11 - Module 4 - Tools for using the Web

Downloading tools / plug-ins Task

RealPlayer
Cost - Good marketing to get you to download the paid version - I had to look carefully but found a Free version.

Ease of use - After checking the system requirements and finding Vista not supported, I went to my XP machine and used it there. Again marketing played a big part, it was all about getting you to subscribe to content - I un-ticked all the options to save a spam deluge. Quite a bit of setup and config options were considered during installation and careful to not let it 'take over' all my defaulted other applications. Once working and played with it for a while, its smoother and faster playback than Windows Media Player for mpeg and mpgs and also includes alot more scope of features too - I like it - I think I'll keep it as my new default for these ... for a while anyway.

Functionality - Definately offers more functionality than Ive seen in other players.

Utility - Its faster to load and play the files definately - it also downloads files from the net differently using Windows settings which provides a better indication of time to download, not automatically trying to stream it on the fly.

Commonality - Windows Media is the standard because its an included application as part of the operating system installation and updating process but it need not be, just as the European Union has found against Microsoft. I would say that Realplayer is a contender for being a standard but it needs to almost reinvent itself like Google did with search engines.

Copernic
Cost - Various options, used the free one.

Ease of use - Again didnt work on Vista, found it took some time to configure and luckily referred the webct forum which helped.

Functionality - It worked and showed results but I think Google beats it without having to install the agent and results were 'as good'.

Utility - cant say it increases effectiveness

Commonality - it may have its merit with different kinds of users but not a general 'standard'.


Searching the Web
Advanced Internet Users Tutorial - CIESE

www.k12science.org/tutorials/advanced/

Results 1 - 10 of about 107,000,000 for advanced internet users. (0.12 seconds)

Advanced Internet Users Tutorial - CIESE
Choosing a link below will bring you to a web page that describes a specific procedure or aspect of browsing the internet. This tutorial ultimately directs ...www.k12science.org/tutorials/advanced/ - 16k - Cached - Similar pages
Advanced Internet Users Tutorial - CIESE - Keyboard Shortcuts
The following are a list of keyboard strokes that are commonly used. Keyboard shortcuts are the same for all versions of both Internet Explorer and Netscape ...www.k12science.org/tutorials/advanced/shortcut.html - 16k - Cached - Similar pages[ More results from www.k12science.org ]
- Advanced User's Internet Training Resources
VICNET Internet Training - More Advanced Users. Been connected to the Internet for a while? Want to get more out of the services it offers? ...www.vicnet.net.au/training/advance.html - 18k - 12 May 2007 - Cached - Similar pages
Advanced Internet Users, School of Continuing Education ...
Advanced Internet Users. Nearly everyone knows how to use the Internet, but are you an expert? Can you find the number of people currently living in the ...www3.uwm.edu/sce/course.cfm?id=6835 - 13k - Cached - Similar pages
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/global/asiapac/news/2005/pr_09-21.html
Professor Li Xing, deputy director, of the CERNET Network Center said, "With the increase in the number of Internet users and the development of advanced ...newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/global/asiapac/news/2005/pr_09-21.html - 48k - Cached - Similar pages

Copernic returned 42 results
http://www.k12science.org/tutorials/advanced/
http://www.k12science.org/tutorials/advanced/saveweb.html
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/usingwindows/internet/tips/advanced/2advanced_list.asp
http://www.softstack.com/advink.html
http://www3.uwm.edu/sce/course.cfm?id=6835

Results from Google were definitely higher in number. Google also gave search results for the individual words – not just the exact phrase. Google seemed to find more interesting and relevant results.



Boolean searching task

The biggest number of hits relating to these key words
> 'advanced+internet+user' - 292M results

Sources relating to skills-based information on these key words.
> 'advanced internet users skills based learning' - 1.15M results

Information coming only from university sources
> 'advanced internet users and site.edu' - 834 results

Organising search information task

1.
URL. http://www.k12science.org/tutorials/advanced/
Author : unknown
Institution : Stevens Institute of Technology






Screen from Stevens Institute of Technology : http://www.k12science.org/tutorials/advanced/


2.
Launch URL. http://data.webjunction.org/wj/documents/898.pdf
From here : http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=898
Author : Nancy Riesgraf
Institution : Hibbing Public Library
Summary : The PDF link is a community technology awareness program developed by the Library as a course outline.


3.
URL. http://www.vicnet.net.au/training/advance.html
Author : Unknown
Institution : Vicnet, a division of the State Library of Victoria
Summary :
Screenshot of webpage taken from : http://www.vicnet.net.au/training/advance.html





Evaluating the Web
I have chosen the VICNET link http://www.vicnet.net.au/training/advance.html because of its content and that the publisher is a trusted source of information - the State Library of Victoria. Its relevent to Internet training and covers alot of the course content that we have learnt as part of Net 11. The main purpose is to teach and inform the community about the internet and advanced use - extending the experience of the users. It does well to inform the audience of further uses of the internet, what they stand for and how to apply them and why they are there.

The snapshot of the site would be most helpful in future as its clear and identifies the summary of content. The description is also very appealing and concise "Been connected to the Internet for a while? Want to get more out of the services it offers?Here's a select list of the many excellent Web-based courses you can work through at your own pace."











NET11 - Module 3 - Blogs


A screenshot of the blog I have going.

NET11 - Module 3 - FTP

I used the Simple FTP Client - horrendous and buggy app, but could have been part the fault of curtin webct. Ive done a fair bit of ftp'ing for my clients as well as my own 'homespaces' for various ISP's, its simple enough but the curtin one did my head in! After researching the forums I had to download the VPN client to get it working and to view it but finally managed to upload the volcano web site to it - that was painful and could have been more intuitive - maybe externally hosted space is the way to go!
http://www.student.curtin.edu.au/~13777766