Conceptual Research and Reflection Project

Conceptual Research & Reflection Project

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.



Real time text based chat has been around for almost 15 years with its birth in IRC and now mainly utilized in programs such as MSN Messenger. But what is real time chat and what impact does it have on our society? Real time chat is the method of communication where users send text based (or with today’s programs more content is available) messages to one another. Some of the plus sides of this is you can talk to people from anywhere in the world and be chatting to them as if they are next to you, and all this is done freely, no cost to the user. A user can have any number of conversations simultaneously and not seem rude to other users by doing so. Or even a multiple number of people can enter a ‘chat room’ and have a discussion amongst each other. Some might say that this can be done via a telephone. Which is true, but it requires more effort and it costs you.
Users have the freedom to reply to messages when they deem fit, thus it is quite acceptable to take your time when replying. This gives you time to formulate your reply and revise it before sending it. This eliminates the issue with thinking before speaking. And in the event information that is valuable is mentioned the information can very easily be saved as opposed to writing it to another medium.
In most real time chat programs files can be transferred from one user to another. This can assist in getting a point across by supporting a message with a document or picture. Or it could generally be used to show off a new song that you heard. Hyperlinks could also come in handy this regard. Unlike a phone conversation where someone would tell you to visit a webpage and you have to physically write down and access it yourself, a simple link that just has to be clicked could accompany the message.
In real time chat users adopt a social identity. Requiring a username in order to chat most people adopt a fake nickname which people will come to be familiar with. In some cases they may also pick an avatar or picture to represent them or symbolize them or their beliefs or interests.
But as with everything, there are pros and cons. Some of the cons have been raised in the schooling environment, with many schools feeling the need to raise an alarm for students learning bad spelling and punctuation habits from chatting online.
At times it can rather difficult to distinguish tone in real time chat. As you don’t have body language and voice to get across how you want your interpreted, it is common practice to include emoticons with your message. These emoticons usually represent and determine the context of which the message should be written, being a smiley face or a laughing face. They can also be used to splice up the conversation.
Another point which may be viewed as both a pro and con, is the ability to keep your identity a secret. This could be useful with people who have difficulty socializing due to a number a reasons, say a physical deformation. Thus it allows these people to form somewhat meaningful relationships. But on the other side of the fence, is the fact that sexual predators may prey on children as such by pretending to be someone they are not.
Overall all things in life have there ups and downs, and real time chat is just another one of those things. It is becoming more common practice and I feel that the pros far outweigh the cons.

Site 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_chat
The Wikipedia page for Online Chat just gives a general description of chat, and links to most of the online chat programs. There is no page for real time chat, so one would need to have prior knowledge in the topic and click the appropriate links for more information. The site is credible, although it has very little information. I feel it didn’t give much help to the reflection but did find a few useful links. None of Wikipedia gave any insight really into the impact of real time chat, but gave insight into the basics and understanding of real time chat.

Site 2: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/554265/the_introverted_college_student_online.html
I felt this site was a good read and gave a good insight into the effects that online chat has on students in their studies. It was biased, so it was most likely written by a teacher or something similar. The Author is named but no other information is given, so determining if the information is credible or not is hard. Some of the points are valid and have been used in my reflection. I would recommend this to anyone researching the topic as its always good to read the most sources as possible to have a better understanding of both sides of the issue being discussed.

Bibliography:
http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/9/0/0/6/p90067_index.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS133610+26-Mar-2009+MW20090326






26. Privacy and Security

The Internet is a profoundly ‘open’ system and advanced Internet users are cautious about either accepting or sending material from and to unknown sources and are careful in releasing information about themselves in any form. Conceptually, the Internet challenges us to take greater responsibility for the protection of privacy and security than perhaps we are used to when dealing with the media.
Privacy and Security have become a big issue in today’s society with identity theft. With today’s technology we have vast advancements in both hardware and software which enables us to do things we never thought would have been possible 20 years ago. We have software to read the weather, software to chat to people on the other side of the world, software to manage our bank accounts. But with all these great developments some people go out of their way to create software that can damage our computer and steal our personal information. I remember back when I first started using the internet, I guess you could say it was considered relatively safe. There was no such thing as a firewall, if you told someone you had a virus, people would tell you to go to the doctor.
But those times soon changed. These days the word virus encompasses a number of sub divisions namely Spyware, Adware, Malware and Worms. Depending on the viruses particular objective places them into one of these categories. Viruses can be contracted by a number of means, they can be attached to files that are downloaded and opened. They can be imbedded in web pages and thus considered a ‘drive by’ attack, where by just visiting the web page you have been infected.
There are things to protect the user from such things. Virus protection such as AVG or Kaspersky offers not only the capabilities to scan your computer but also real time protection which scans all incoming files for viruses. And this brings about a type of virtual ‘arms race’ where hackers are trying to release new viruses undetectable by the virus scanners. And the companies that create this virus protection are racing to release almost daily updates to their software which detects all the latest viruses and ways in which they can detect new viruses yet to be released.
Identity theft can be a direct result of contracting a virus. Some Viruses known as Spyware have the capabilities to record and transmit sensitive data that you input such as your usernames and password to your bank account or credit card numbers. Even data from a social networking site such as Myspace could lead to one opening a bank account in the stolen users personal information.
Another security threat is Hackers. Hackers come in two forms, ‘Script Kiddies’ who utilize software written by other hackers and generally have very little knowledge in hacking. And then there are genuine Hackers who have a vast understanding of computers and software and ways to get around protection and infiltrate ones computer. This is where a Firewall comes in. A Firewall protects a user by being a virtual wall blocking access to the users computers via different ports and letting the user decide who and what has access to your computer and what software is allowed to send outgoing data from your computer.
Overall we need to be careful with what information we use online. We have to ensure that we have adequate protection and try not to access questionable material. Ultimately it doesn’t matter how much protection you have, it all comes down to the user and how he uses it.


Site 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus
Usually when I do assignments I go to seek out Wikipedia first. Wikipedia contains quite a lot of useful information, although some of the information may not be verified. This page has several sections which are both verified, but several also need citations therefore making them not verified. But on a good note it provides external links to either other wikipedia pages relating to the topic or other pages where the contained information has been drawn from. It came in handy for determining the different types of viruses around and their nature. Generally being updated as required, it is usually up to date with the latest threats etc. of computer security.

Site 2: http://all.net/books/virus/index.html
This site although outdated was quite useful in understanding the nature of a virus. It has generic structure codes outlining the general purpose or flow of code that a virus contains. Being outdated it is understood that some aspects of the essay are irrelevant to the topic of today’s Security. But most of the principles still hold true. Although the writer doesn’t say much about himself, a quick google search shows that he is rather credible writing essays on information protection for quite some time now. This site would be a good start for people who want to know more on the issues of a virus.

Bibliography:
http://www.kaspersky.com/
http://www.avg.com/
http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Protecting_Email_Viruses_Malware.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_insecurity





23. Human Computer Interfaces

The Internet lessens the recognition of difference between humans and computers because, at a distance, it is often feels similar to communicate and act on the Internet regardless of whether one is speaking with a human or a machine.

For years, Science Fiction has portrayed a sense of Artificial Intelligence in Robots, Computer Systems and from this a vision has stemmed a future with intelligent artificial beings. With advances in AI and Robotics this vision appears to be getting closer and closer. In Japan they plan to have a robot in every household by the year 2012. And further down the track teaching in schools.
Already today you can see human-computer interfaces in every day life. Whether it be a self serve checkout at your local supermarket, or when you ring a company and must go through their automated phone system which incorporates voice recognition technology. In all these sorts of instances you are interacting with a computer interface.
Another form of computer interface that has been created are ‘bots’. Bots generally reside in chat rooms and are meant to represent real chatters or perform a certain function. The earliest form of a chat bot was created in 1966 by Joseph Weizenbaum. This chat bot was name ELIZA. These days one of the more popular ones and also more advanced is called A.L.I.C.E. A collaborative AI entity for whom you can chat with. On IRC in certain rooms bots exist for whom you can request and download files from. On MSN messenger bots are sometimes employed to promote particular websites or even try to spread viruses.
In the 1950’s a question was posed, ‘Can machines think?’ by a man known as Alan Turing. His thoughts and questions regarding the matter brought about what is known today as the ‘Turing Test’. The ‘Turing Test’ is used as a benchmark to determine the intelligence of a computer system. A user would speak with the artificial intelligence and if after 5 minutes he couldn’t determine what he was speaking to was human or machine, the AI was considered intelligent and the test was passed.
But chat bots aren’t the only aspect of AI. In computer games we see varying degrees of AI. Most have a particular purpose, say attacking the player. But in a lot of games of the First Person Shooter genre, there are bots which resemble human players which the player can play against, or with. Some of them even chat to the player in the game or give them orders to simulate playing the game with other human players. These so called ‘gaming bots’ vary in difficulty, and some far surpass the skills of a human player whilst sticking to the confines of the gaming engine.
Overall at this point in time in relation to conversations of human like dialogue
and responses with a chatter bot, the technology can be perceived as being in the distant future. But we have come a long way with technology in the last few decades, so maybe this future may not be so distant. And with advances in this technology, more questions will be posed, as to how people will react to having conversations with these artificial ‘entities’? And how one can turn a ‘logical’ computer program in a ‘randomly’ thinking ‘mind’.


Site 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-computer_interaction
Once again I seeked out wikipedia for information. This page although related to human computer interaction, has a nice segment of actual human computer interfaces. All information in this article is cited and thus credible due to wikipedia standards. Many external links are present on the site, thus giving the user many different aspects of the topic to look at. I’d say this article and other articles linking from this page has helped me most with my assignment. Also having prior knowledge in the topic assisted in finding some other materials that were useful and also hosted by wikipedia.

Site 2: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~amulet/papers/uihistory.tr.html
This site is rather outdated, but if you are looking at human computer interfaces at the broader aspect of human-computer interactions, this site gives a nice overview of technologies used to interact with a computer. It didn’t really come in handy with my reflection as I stuck to the more concise topic of human computer interfaces. But for someone who has no knowledge of the topic might want to take a look at this first before moving onto more detailed stuff. The author is credible being part of Carnegie Mellon University.

Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatterbot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_turing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_engine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_game_bot



7. Netiquette

Good communication practice on the Internet is not something one 'learns', but something one 'practices' so as to teach others, less familiar than yourself, how it is done. (Allen, n.d.)

To put it simply, the definition of Netiquette can be derived from the name itself, the etiquette of the Net. It is a term used for posting messages on boards, sending emails, instant text messages. It can be seen as the correct way of communicating via the internet.
When someone is perceived to be new to something, be it a message board, or an online game, and they are asking questions, they will be often referred to as a ‘noob’ or ‘newbie’. This term is seen as an insult in the online world and relates to ones intelligence, even though one is just unfamiliar with such an environment. Netiquette principles are often talked about to educate these so called ‘newbies’ and help to make the internet a friendlier place for everyone. Is it right to belittle someone for simply asking a question or just simply making a mistake? The answer is no. So what’s the difference if this occurs on the internet? There is no difference.
The internet can be seen as a culture. And if we were to travel to another country we soon begin to learn the customs and rules of this new culture we are experiencing. But we don’t learn this on our own. We are shown by the natives of that culture what is right and what is wrong and the same is with the internet. If someone makes a mistake or asks a question, it is proper Netiquette to politely respond telling them of their mistake or assisting them with seeking an answer to their problem.
But unlike the real world, these rules are rarely enforced. And this brings about the arrival of ‘trolls’. ‘Trolls’ are people who generally post irrelevant, inflammatory, derogatory messages to people on message boards. They get a kick out of it and have nothing better to do with their time then to aggravate other users of the Internet. While many message boards and online games ban such users for this behavior, many don’t. And its these people that disrupt many of the friendly online communities that inhabit the internet.
But Netiquette doesn’t just relate to how you treat other people or how you behave online. It is Netiquette when sending an email attachment to generally ensure that the receiver is capable of using such attachment. And if not, then to provide details or software required to do so. It is bad Netiquette to send large files via email as different people have varying internet plans which determine the speed and download limit they have on a month to month basis.
Overall Netiquette is the concept of communicative practices on the Internet. And it is the advanced internet users which must show the way to the newcomers of the wonder which is the Internet. With the pace of new technology we all at some stage will fall under the category of ‘newbie’, and will seek answers to the questions we ask. And we would hope that someone with proper Netiquette could assist us with our dilemmas.



Site 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netiquette
The Wikipedia page of Netiquette doesn’t have the greatest volume of information, but provides many external links which expand on the topic. The information is cited and thus credible. It gives a general insight into the topic so I believe this would be a great start for anyone looking to read up on Netiquette. This page hasn’t been the greatest of help in relation to my assignment due to the lack of information. But a few of the external links provided have assisted in making me more knowledgeable in the area.

Site 2: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/
This site has a wealth of information relating to the topic. I’m unsure about how credible it is as it does not really say much about the author. But really, who decides what netiquette is, so how can you really be credible? This page would be a great place to expand your knowledge on the topic. It has a quiz which helps you to learn the information contained which could be helpful if someone is wishing to practice the art of netiquette. The site doesn’t offer any external links and thus doesn’t offer much more to expand on knowledge. But I felt it was a good read before writing my assignment.
Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll
http://www.albury.net.au/new-users/netiquet.htm
http://www.netalert.gov.au/advice/behaviour/netiquette_emoticons/What_is_netiquette.html
http://online.mq.edu.au/docs/neti.html
http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html
http://www.studygs.net/netiquette.htm

Module 5 conclusion

wow, thats it for module 5? "looks through material again" YEP! that was short, I guess it felt the most in depth though, with the questions it put forward in relation to the technological ecosystem. Only 1 last assessment to complete now, the hardest of them all, the concept project. So my time here is nearing its end. its going to be sad to let it go. :( but its not over yet.

The Ecology of Technology

1) How might the metaphor of an ‘ecology’ impact on the way you think about, understand or use the Internet?

In all honesty I feel it doesn't affect the way I think about the internet. But I can see how it can be viewed as such. All the different domains could be viewed as the countries of the world. All the different online communities could be the flora and fauna of this technological environment. How just like an ecosystem where certain species survival depends on other species, certain services on the internet require other hardware and services to be active in order to survive. A simple example would be you need a modem in order to have a basic internet connection, in order to have a working web browser in order to view this blog. In a way I guess the Darwinian theory could be applied to these view of an internet ecology. Survival of the fittest, a simple example could be MSN Messenger, certain versions won't work due to the release of newer versions and in a way the older versions are obsolete or extinct.



2) How are the concepts ‘information’ and ‘communication’ understood within the framework of an ‘information ecology’?

From my understanding using an analogy of a vehicle such as a car and its occupants, information is the occupants and communication is the car which transports them to their destination. Information can be in any form, be it a simple string of text or data packets for a particular file. See a deeper understanding could be that these data packets of information are the atoms of the 'organism'/file in the information ecosystem.



3) Why don’t we talk of a ‘communication ecology’?

We don't talk about a communication ecology as from the material provided to read it is understood that communication is the means by which information travels. So thus being important inside a information or technological ecosystem, it cannot survive on its own. An analogy of what communication can be percieved as is a particular species inside the ecology. Lets say dogs for example, you have poodles, german sheperds, siberian huskies, in communication you have phones, chat software, television. They are 'subspecies' of the superclass species.

Conclusion of Module 4

Well that concludes module 4, better move on and get a nice head start into Module 5, I think ive got a long night ahead of me. So I guess I can say this post is my commencement of Module 5 also. :) enjoy!

In Comparison

Well in terms of my own future use I feel my annotation would be the thing id most likely refer back to, because it is shorter, it has all the relevant information I require. If I felt I required more information I know I could always refer back to the original page.

In terms of external users If they are asking the exact same question as I did, then I feel my annotation would be an quicker and easier read for them. If on the other hand they had a more in depth question relating to the topic then I suggest that they seek the original source of the information.

snapshot of site

I thought I might post a snapshot of the site I am referring to in relation to happy meals

Annotation

after working through the tutorial I decided to complete this task. Obviously considering there was only 1 site relevant to my needs I guess thats the site I am going to choose.

The Article describes when the happy meal was released for the first time in 1979 and the first toys you recieved with it. The toys being "a McDoodler stencil, a puzzle book, a McWrist wallet, an ID bracelet or McDonaldland character erasers" (quoted from wikipedia). But as it turns out Happy meals weren't the birth of the first McDonalds toy, and it was infact called Treat of the Week (although this aspect of the article isn't cited) where children would get a ball or a frisbee as their toy.

The host of the web page is Wikipedia, so information is taken from many number of sources cited at the bottom of the article itself. No Author is listed, and there is a possibility that the information may be false due to the disclaimer at the top

"Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)"

But who would want to lie about a maccas toy?? :P anywho....

The main ideas discussed in the article is about the birth of the happy meal and its toys. The purpose of this article is informative, theres no two sides to the issue!!!!

Organising search information

Seeing as its been so long I feel a bit out of shape in these tasks, and Im trying to follow on with a task I completed over a month ago. But ive quickly gone through it all again, and Im a little unsure of the requirements of this task, but in my search only 1 result was completely relevant so due to this I will only include this. Seeing as my search was done with a simple web based search, google, I felt the easiest way to retrieve the particular information asked for was just a simple cut and paste.

The URL is : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Meal

The Author is : seeing as its a wikipedia page the author is not listed

Institution : Wikipedia

Blurb : 14 Aug 2008 ... A toy is typically included with the food, both of which are usually ... The Stolz meal featured the first McDonald's in-meal premiums, ...

Its been a while

Well its been over a month since I last posted, didnt think it was that long :S I thought id better finish this blog off. Ive been too tied up with all these other assignments I had to submit and other personal issues. Not that anyone cares :P Im back now anywayz. :D

Boolean Searching

With most searches the easiest way to get the most hits is to just type each keyword in separated by spaces. This searches for every website with 1 or more of these keywords and orders them from sites with all 3 keywords to sites with 1 keyword, (sites with the most common keyword being listed last). If I were to use a boolean search and add an & in between each keyword I'll only only be shown pages containing all 3 words and nothing else. If I wanted to be more specific I could put the keywords in quotation marks ("") to search for sites containing that exact string of letters in that order which will further minimize the results shown. If I was to only look for pages relating to my search that only came from university sources, I could either add University as another keyword, or I could restrict my search to domains of only .edu . But I feel a simple broader search should be performed first as in a lot of cases the information you desire will be relatively easy to find. If at first you can't find it then I suggest moving onto more in depth searching techniques. In my search for "First Mcdonalds Toy", I used no boolean and my search generated many results as it was very broad (how many sites contain the words First, Mcdonalds or Toy?). However the first result of my google search gave me exactly what I desired to find out and thus I didn't feel the need to take the searching to the next level.

Pagesucker feels left out

I felt amidst all this searching I better put aside the time to show pagesucker some respect that it doesn't deserve. This program is bad, it says its free but everytime it starts up it asks you to register. And thats a waste of a few good clicks of my time. Upon first glance I couldn't straight away figure out what was going on, thus I felt it was not user friendly. It does do what it needs to, but I feel that its much easier to just click File, Save As. It does not increase efficiency at all, if anything it slows me down. And until now I hadn't heard anything about the program so I'm under the assumption that its not very popular or common. Due to its poor nature, I shall not discuss the program anymore and resume normal searching entertainment

Search of my choosing

For the search of my choosing I decided to search for something obscure, namely "the first Mcdonalds toy". The results in Copernic were appalling. Giving pages on where I can buy them, or purchase the Mcdonalds characters as plush toys. The number of pages found was significantly lower then that of googles, but googles first results were more related to the search I was doing, with the Wikipedia page on Happy Meals containing the exact information I desired. This could be possibly due to Copernic being the free version and maybe they have to include advertising pages as the first results.


heres the first 5 results using Copernic




And the first 5 from google

Meta Data, Meta Searching, I want to Meta Myself

After all the bad mouthing of Meta Searching using Copernic, I do admit that Meta Searching can be more user friendly where in some cases there are tidy boxes that ask you what to include and what not to include in your searches etc. This feature is useful as it means you don't have to type out Boolean searches eg. Supermodel && Carmen Electra. And limiting to certain domain types is another feature I was unfamiliar with and never actually thought of when searching, which is particularly useful when searching for University websites (.edu) or government (.gov). This feature I was impressed with. And in future in those particular circumstances I might turn to Meta Searching, but at this point in time for most of my general searching needs, A refined google search does the trick.

Sppppecccial

Another form of search engines we discussed were Specialized Databases. I'm a fan of these. If there's particular information I desire and I know the Specialized database for it I'm there. IMDB is great for when I'm looking for anything Movie or Actor related. I use torrent databases such as Mininova.org or Isohunt.com for my torrent searches. And I use Packetnews.com for my IRC searching. These are just a few examples and really beats trying to weed out the garbage that google throws at ya when your searching for a particular torrent or what not. And all the information is there for ya ordered nicely and in well laid out pages.

Sniff Sniff

After playing around with Copernic for a bit and running through a few of the tutorials and tasks I was to be honest, not very impressed. In every single search I did Google performed better and gave me the results I sought after. Now either it's a problem on my behalf in setting Copernic up or the software just doesn't cut it for a seasoned searcher such as myself (I have years of experience finding the exact information I desire very quickly). I felt that Copernic was not as user friendly as I was expecting, and every search I did started with sponsored pages. In most cases I generally turn to Wikipedia for information, and in most of my searches the first or second results on Google were from Wikipedia, whereas with Copernic it wasn't until the 5th or more webpage that it was a Wiki page.


Here was the search results of Earthquake using Copernic


Whereas here was the results from google

Tools

I have vast experience with most of the tools listed, but there were several I was unfamiliar with. The 2 I chose were Copernic Meta and Pagesucker. I already feel that the purposes of these programs I can already complete myself so I doubt I will find any use of it, but lets keep an open mind.

Module 4

Well its time to start module 4 and my latest assignment. The end is getting near. Better put my head down and get cracking. :)

Module 3 Done

Woohoo! another module down, only 2 to go. I believe this is the module I spent the most time on so far, and had the most difficulty with. Due mainly to just uploading my page. Grrrrr!!!! If it wasn't one problem it was another and in the end I finally gave in and posted the pics instead. Now to move on to module 4 and commence my next assignment. How exciting.

More puppy

And he even has his own songs that my girlfriend picked out for him



Heres an example of an external webpage being viewed within the second frame of my webpage.



And the links I used in relation to my pages theme and other assorted useful links

And more hot dog

The next couple of pics show how the navigation system on the left works





And how the thumbnails can be clicked to reveal bigger pictures

Puppyography

Well I did say I was going to add pictures of my webpage, its been a while since I said that but I finally got around to it. So here goes.
My Index Page





Now lets move onto my next pic which is the navigation home page. Come on how cool is it. It has frames, frames are like the coolest way to navigate, effectively now you can do your whole interneting experience with my puppy at your side. And all my useful links. :P

Wow, ive got my work cut out for me.

Hmmmm after inspecting some other peoples Blogs I feel I havn't been putting in the same amount of effort as some. Some people go crazy with their blogs. lol. Good on ya for the effort, you know who you are. I better pick up my game or else I might not pass. :S

I concede

After all that jazz I concede to the setting up a webspace and will post pics soon of my website. And I really wanted the world to see my lovely puppy. Oh the pain. :(

that didnt go down well either

I guess ill now try the oasis one. Stupid stupid stupid ISP, they think 15meg is too much. SIF!!!! I need my pretty pictures. :( ill try again.

DONT GO TO MY SITE

Instead of being sneaky and editing my post before anyone sees it, I felt id come out with the truth. My site sucked!!! note to all, never use free online spaces. They suck!!! lol, im currently in the process of uploading my site to my isp. If all goes well i shall repost the URL.

My Website is Up

The URL for my page is www.diablopuppy.0catch.com hope you all enjoy

W3C standards

Like I suspected my webpage didnt conform to their standards. I believe this may be because for starters I didn't add the DOCTYPE at the start of my html. Ahhh well. Also I'm not a pro at writing web pages so the way I looked at things was, if it looks how I want it too then its ok and who cares bout the code. :P It was only a rough website so what can I expect.

Format counts

Finding the differences between the two webpages is like finding the differences between a Dog and a Cat. Obviously ones more formatted and visually appealing. The layout is much better. Titles stand out more etc. The second is basically raw information. I much prefer the first page, because it stands out and I don't have to read as much useless information to get to what I want. When writing a webpage you always have to appeal to the reader. For example your looking for information on a homework assignment. You go to two different pages layed out similarly like the examples we were given. The first page looked beautiful but contained less information. The second very dull but more information. I'd say the reader is more inclined to read and use the information from the better looking site then the raw material presented on the second. I guess though the second site has one major benefit, its small, and thus its quick to load. Only gives you what you need.

What I really think of Blogging

It seems ironic to pay out on blogs inside a blog, but if you really want to know how I feel about the whole matter i'll let you know. I'm really not fond of them. I'm not really one to care about what someone did this day or what not. To me its like Myspace or Facebook. The opitimy of all evil. Did you know a radio station in Melbourne opened up a bank account using the details on ones Myspace page and they didn't know. I guess Blogs would be a great way for a serial killer to find their targets daily routine the way some people habitually add to their blog. As for seeing any useful uses for a blog, i've seen none. If you could point in the direction of one, maybe my opinion might change. But at this point I stand quite firm.

Copyrights

All the images used on my webpage are taken by me or members of my family. Although I havn’t asked my puppy for permission on whether he wants to be known to the world. But he’s too cute to hide. So all in all none of the work on my webpage contravened any copyright laws.

If I was to put the Curtin logo on the webpage, that might be a different matter. I’d say if I was to put a Curtin logo at the top of my assignment it would be a breach of copyright, as my webpage is not a direct affiliate of Curtin university. Although its unlikely they would pursue the manner. It wouldn’t be copyright if permission was given by Curtin though.

5 best tips for writing a Web Page

1. Don’t have huge blocks of information!!!

2. Keep it ordered to some degree so the user can get to what they want.

3. Keep page length to a minimum as to avoid the user scrolling too much and suing for pain in hands.

4. Try not to put links in the middle of paragraphs as it is visually detering.

5. Keep Navigation Consistent, have links to the homepage and what not. Frames is always a good bet.

My webpage

Well my webpage went well. I’ve had some experience in building web pages before so all this was I guess a piece of cake. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I’m advanced or anything though. That’s why I’m learning Java and all the C languages so I can expand my current knowledge in all these fields and eventually bring them all together. I view html as any other programming language, just not as powerful. And like other programming languages, yes you do get a sense of achievement when you complete something. Coming up to the completion your always looking at little tweaks or additions that can be made to make it better. With Html I feel colour scheming plays a big part, its like any form of media, you need it to be visually appealing. The major difference between html and blogging is that with html requires a hell of a lot more coding. A blog by definition is in fact html, you could write your blog completely in html, it would just take a whole lot longer. I feel if you are going to try and make a meaningful site about a particular subject that is not in a monologue type format then html is the way to go. Blogging on the other hand, although customizations can be made, generally always holds the same structure and has that monologue feel to it. So as a personal diary or log I guess a Blog would be more suited. To be honest I’m not too keen on either, but if I had to pick I’d honestly say html as it has that much more coded feel to it, and the better degree of customization. I will post my webpage and the link at a later stage, once i've done some finishing touches to it. How much time and effort is meant to go into this? is it going to be graded??

Im on a roll

Well I had nothing to do so I thought I'd maybe get a head start on module 3. It seems simple enough. And a bit of relief after module 2. Bring on the programming.

Conclusion of Module 2

Well that Concludes Module 2, except for getting out there and chatting with fellow Net11'ers. I joined that IRC channel in the Discussion board but its like a ghost town. :( ahhh well.

Chat

Good ol' chat programs, i've used them all extensively, so i decided i'll write my reflections of each of them.

The first chat program i used was ICQ. I must admit it was great. It took many years for MSN to get some of the features ICQ had. Some of the options i liked about ICQ was the search feature, where you could search for people with similar interests, age groups etc. If a message is sent to a user that is offline, that user will receive the message then next time they come online. I prefer the older versions of ICQ over newer ones as I feel the newer ones have too many 'wanky' features similar to that of Windows Messenger Live. It still stands strong in my mind that the best version of ICQ was 99b, the amount of cool plugins it had just made it great.

IRC was the next chat client I used. Throughout highschool we had chat rooms set up for each highschool in the area and it was a great way to catch up with people. The client i used was mIRC and once again there was many great plugins that really came in handy. Another thing i really liked about mIRC was the DCC features, or downloading. I found it as a great alternative to torrents and found I would consistently get great download speeds. All the files downloaded were legal of course *cough*.

Finally we come to MSN. To be honest, i'm not too fond of it, but I admit I do use it. More so I feel forced to use it because it seems the most popular and all my friends use it. One feature that took a very long time to be implemented was if you send a message to a person whos offline that they will receive it the next time they come on. And once again as the newer versions keep coming out they have more and more useless features which get annoying. Just give me a simple chat client dammit.

MSN is probably the easiest to set up and get chatting with though, and IRC is definately the most difficult to both set up and get used to. If your really out there to meet new people who can relate to you then maybe ICQ is the way to go. But they all have their ups and downs and ultimately you need to find the right chat client for you.

Newsgroups

Well i was having a look around at the google groups under programming because i've been hitting the programming hard lately. And I came across a group called android. I must say it intrigued me, and judging by the topics I am under the impression it is a language similar to Java as it uses the Eclipse IDE. Here is a copy of the message I posted on the board


Rob Bader view profile more options Mar 25th 6:22pm

Hi Guys,
I'm under the impression Android is a programming language similar to Java. What actual uses does it have I must ask. ATM im simultaneously learning Java, C, C++, C# and UScript. How much more can it hurt to learn another ey? If its similar to any of these languages it should be pretty easy to pick up.
anyways thanks for the help.
-rob


My first attempt to copy this message ended badly as it had html elements, so i had to retype some parts such as the name etc. But you get the drift. I guess this can be seen as a disadvantage of using a web based news group. :P

Lists

What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?
Email lists are good, because you upload information and it automatically gets emailed to everyone on the list. And people generally check their emails regularly so thus you can be assured that at some point the person will receive the information sent. Discussion Boards on the other hand generally require the person to actively go the webpage where the Discussion board is and log in to view it. Most discussion boards have an option that an email notification is sent if someone adds to the discussion but in most cases this default option is set to off. I feel email lists are more effective for getting information across. Discussion boards have a more ordered feel to the subject at hand as the information is managed into threads with all messages related to the particular subject displayed in an ordered manner. In conclusion the purpose of Email Lists is to get important information across and Discussion Boards are more for people to discuss information at their own leisure.

Email Tasks

1. What information about a user's email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?
Information such as the sender, the time and date the email was sent and the subject matter can all be inferred straight away from looking at the email in your inbox. If you open up the email and expand the header message, the complete path the email took will be shown.

2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?
CC stands for Carbon Copy, it would be used when you are sending an email to multiple people. If CC is used the receiver can see who else the email has been sent to. In certain cases it could be useful, eg. if you are sending a chain email to your friends, the CC function could come in handy, because when your friend goes to pass it on, if you have some contacts that are the same, your friend can then omit those contacts so as the secondary receiver doesn't receive multiple copies of the same email from you and your friend.

BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy, this would be used if you are sending an email to multiple people and do not wish the receiver to view the other addresses you sent it to. By using this it can help prevent your friends email addresses from circulating the internet and ending up on a spam list.

Reply All function can be used if you receive an email and feel you have a valuble contribution to everyone or all members of the recipient list need the information being sent.

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
Send attachments that are usable by standard applications that come with most computers. If the attachment is of a different nature, you can always attach the software required if possible, or leave information instructing the receiver as to how to open the attachment.

4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?
I generally only use hotmail so i just make use of the standard filters and rules set by hotmail. These filter out email as to whether its junk or not. But I admit these arn't the best filters as on a number of occasions I have found important emails or emails from friends in my junk email folder. But you can't expect filters to work perfectly.

5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
In my email inbox, my email all comes in to my inbox and I sort the emails manually. I put all my registrations (usernames/passwords) into their own folder. I generally delete promotional material after reading through it. And I have a folder for all read emails.

Coming Back to Work

Ahhh, just got back from my holiday in the mountains, sucks to be back, gotta go back to work, but on the bright side now I can commence MODULE 2. WOO HOO!!!!

Applications

One thing i've noticed is we keep having to install a lot of these useful appz which i have to download and I never plan on using again, like come on that A-toolbar was the biggest piece of junk i've ever had. Ok maybe not the biggest, this is my cue to put something in that was a bigger piece of junk, but ive got nothing, so maybe it is the biggest. :P

Conclusion Module 1

Well that concludes module 1, yay! all done, only what 11 to go. :( hope everyone is going well. ill try to keep people posted in the discussions if i have alternate methods of completing some of the tasks as i have with module 1.

Tracing, the stuff you hear about in movies

Trace Route from local computer

the trace route was completed using the tracert command in the command prompt
Tracing route to systems.curtin.edu.au [134.7.179.56]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 10.1.1.1
3 25 ms 24 ms 27 ms sun19.ba.optusnet.com.au [198.142.129.39]
4 25 ms 24 ms 24 ms sun4-vl420.gw.optusnet.com.au [211.31.131.2]
5 25 ms 25 ms 25 ms ge1-25.33vsc76me1.optus.net.au [61.88.144.161]
6 82 ms 82 ms 82 ms 61.88.226.113
7 82 ms 82 ms 82 ms AARNET.o6ssc76fe.optus.net.au [61.88.166.134]
8 83 ms 82 ms 83 ms ge-1-0-3.bb1.b.per.aarnet.net.au [202.158.198.6]

9 82 ms 81 ms 82 ms gigabitethernet0.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au [2
02.158.198.178]
10 82 ms 83 ms 82 ms gw1.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au [202.158.198.18
6]
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 84 ms 85 ms 83 ms systems.curtin.edu.au [134.7.179.56]

Trace complete.
The number of hops was 2 less then the number of hops from the net tools site. The average hop time is much less with a maximum hop time being 85ms. And as you can see with the addresses all of them are end with the .au suffix meaning they are Australian servers. So as expected the trace route was quicker and less hops, and thus the ping was lower.

Ping Pong

Ping Blackboard from http://network- tools.com/

Ping 134.7.180.137
[lms.curtin.edu.au]
Round trip time to 134.7.180.137: 251 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.180.137: 244 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.180.137: 243 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.180.137: 243 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.180.137: 242 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.180.137: 247 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.180.137: 242 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.180.137: 241 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.180.137: 239 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.180.137: 241 ms
Average time over 10 pings: 243.3 ms

Ping from local computer
The ping was done using the Ping command in a command prompt.
C:\>ping -n 10 134.7.180.137

Pinging 134.7.180.137 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 134.7.180.137: bytes=32 time=83ms TTL=113
Reply from 134.7.180.137: bytes=32 time=84ms TTL=113
Reply from 134.7.180.137: bytes=32 time=83ms TTL=113
Reply from 134.7.180.137: bytes=32 time=84ms TTL=113
Reply from 134.7.180.137: bytes=32 time=84ms TTL=113
Reply from 134.7.180.137: bytes=32 time=84ms TTL=113
Reply from 134.7.180.137: bytes=32 time=84ms TTL=113
Reply from 134.7.180.137: bytes=32 time=83ms TTL=113
Reply from 134.7.180.137: bytes=32 time=83ms TTL=113
Reply from 134.7.180.137: bytes=32 time=84ms TTL=113

Ping statistics for 134.7.180.137:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 83ms, Maximum = 84ms, Average = 83ms

Local average ping = 83ms Net Tools Average Ping = 243.3ms
As I suspected the average ping from the local computer was less then the ping from the net tools site. My reasoning for this belief was that my local computer was situated much closer to the Curtain university server and thus required less ‘travel time’ and needed to travel through less networks. The one from the net tools site would have had to go through several different networks before reaching the curtain website. I’m under the impression the net tools site is located in the US, thus it would have had to go through its own local network, then through its ISP, then to a server in the US, then a number of servers to reach an Australian server then navigate to the curtain server. A simple trace route confirms this, whereas it was 13 hops to reach the curtain server from the net tools site, it was only 11 hops from the local computer.

Internet Tools

I must admit i was surprised at the things that were being covered in this first module, I taught myself a lot of this stuff back when i first started using ICQ, in like year 7. any who heres my results for our next task

134.7.179.56 is from Australia(AU) in region Oceana


TraceRoute to 134.7.179.56 [curtin.edu.au]
Hop (ms) (ms) (ms) IP Address Host name
1 11 42 160 72.249.0.65 -
2 7 8 11 207.88.185.37 207.88.185.37.ptr.us.xo.net
3 6 6 7 207.88.82.221 207.88.82.221.ptr.us.xo.net
4 Timed out Timed out Timed out -
5 46 50 42 129.250.2.168 as-2.r20.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
6 44 52 40 129.250.5.254 po-1.r00.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
7 50 48 53 204.1.253.166 -
8 195 197 204 202.158.194.157 so-4-0-0.bb1.b.syd.aarnet.net.au
9 205 210 218 202.158.194.33 so-2-0-0.bb1.a.mel.aarnet.net.au
10 213 213 216 202.158.194.17 so-2-0-0.bb1.a.adl.aarnet.net.au
11 241 237 237 202.158.194.5 so-0-1-0.bb1.a.per.aarnet.net.au
12 242 240 240 202.158.198.178 gigabitethernet0.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au
13 243 244 248 202.158.198.186 gw1.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au
14 Timed out Timed out Timed out -
15 Timed out Timed out Timed out -
16 Timed out Timed out Timed out -
17 256 240 241 134.7.179.56 systems.curtin.edu.au
Trace complete

Average hop time is 137

Number of Hops is 13

So therefore the average time in milliseconds between http://network- tools.com/ and the curtain website is 1781milliseconds

The IP address for the Host systems.curtain.edu.au is 134.7.179.56.

I had no problems with this task, as I have experience in using trace route in MSDOS using the Tracert command. It’s very interesting as you get a good understanding of how intricate the networks are and the means of how you access other servers, how many different routers your packets travel through to reach their destination. A good analogy of this world be say traveling from one side of the world to another. You can’t just travel on one plane. You have stop overs in different countries, these stop overs could be considered as being hops

FTP

Ahhhh FTP, the fun i used to have back in the day, but we won't go there, might get a lawsuit on my hands, *cough* kopykatz *cough*

CAPITALIZATION MATTERS, Capitalization is the missing word. I’m familiar with using FTP as I used to use it to download a lot of files back when I first started using the internet. I admit I was unfamiliar with this program but it didn’t take me long to figure out how to use it. I feel that viewing an FTP through a web browser gives a better feel and understanding for FTP as it has a much more simplistic view to it.

Module 1 Telnet

Well i guess this blog is in past tense considering I wrote my reflections and outcomes elsewhere before setting this up, so i guess ill do the ol' cut and paste job, hope you don't mind. hope I don't get marked down for it :P but here goes

Task A

I was familiar with telnet, used to use it back in my early days of the internet, mucking around, telnetting to friends ports and what not. So this task was quite simple for me, but I noticed that no matter what email I entered to print the list to, I never received the list. So I feel there is an issue on their end. I’ll record in later logs if I do in time receive the email showing the list. This task was quite simple, but by no means shows the true potential of Telnet. But as stated in the notes, Telnet is relatively obsolete. Most things these days have alternatives which are much more user friendly and more visually appealing then a collection of ASCII characters.

ahhh I can update here, I did recieve the email on my hotmail account, still don't know why it never came through to my curtin account, maybe because I keep spelling curtin as curtain. lol. my bad

Task B

After viewing this I was quite impressed, and realized some people live sad, sad lives. I actually watched the whole thing, I had to see the light saber battle between Obi wan and Darth Vader. Like a lot of programming languages, some people always manage to get more out of it then its developers ever imagined. And it’s people like this that take it to the limits and bring about change, bring about bigger and better things and raise the bar for the next generation. Being an avid gamer, I’ve always admired Steven Polge’s work, with his first creation of the Reaper Bot for the game Quake. (Bots are typically computer controlled characters that are meant to play as well, if not better then a human.) Before his reaper bot, other bots acted clumsily and played very poorly, whereas his bots acted human like, and changed the ways of gaming AI forever. I feel the best way to describe Telnet would be to compare it to Windows Remote Desktop, such as comparing QBasic to Visual Basic. Essentially both programs are intended for the similar purposes but both have a different look and feel to its predecessor with the newer ones having more features and being more powerful. Being able to complete more complex tasks in fewer commands.

5 best tips for bloggers

1) number one rule is never give out any personal details, I've heard of radio stations opening up bank accounts in peoples names from information on their myspace, so that's a big no-no

2) If your new to blogging, get a feel for it, seek out other blogs, know the blog, understand the blog, be the blog.

3) the blog is the digital extension of your own thoughts and reflections so use your own style, don't try to steal someone elses.

4) think about what you want your blog to be about, have headings that are meaningful to the body of text

5) and last but not least, your blog is like a child, don't leave it unattended, check up on it from time to time, raise it. :P

Hey Guys

Hmmmm, I prob should have gotten around to this sooner, but ive been sooooo busy. anyways heres my blog, hope you all like it. Now i have to transfer all my reflections from my word docu to this. Hope everyones enjoying the course, if anyone needs help with anything you can always email me at robert.bader@student.curtin.edu.au :D