Week 13 Assessment and Review

So what have we covered for the semester??

This semester we have investigated multitude of applications and the specific technology they employ, this includes social networking devices and techniques. This has culminated in the construction of a functional website.

The website has 5 separate pages which include:

• original text and original images that were compiled and shot on film
• a page which generates an RSS feed
• an RSS feed subscription to my own MPI104 Blog and the MPI104 course blog
• working links between all pages
• a home page
• an up-counter

Content wise, in order to increase the interestingness of the page for myself and others included material that appeals to me such as links to various external websites, my personal blog, delicious and my flickr account. The regular uploading of text and images to flickr, utilisation of delicious as a transitory bookmarking tool and commenting on peers blogs instilled good work ethics around the need for continual site maintenance. This reiterates the notion of continuous development the of Internet.

Really Simple Syndication commonly abbreviated to RSS is a method of sharing or publishing frequently updated works. The type of sites that are utilising RSS include news, blogs, audio and video. It allows users to be informed of this information update without actually having to visit the site. Updates can be linked to a central site such Google reader or any other frequently used blog. There is no limit to the number of RSS feeds that can be linked. This technology has provided time efficiencies for users.

Counters are, when related to digital logic, a mechanism that stores and displays the number of times that a particular event has occurred. This type of counter is an up-counter (increment counter) which increases in value. The rationale for the use of an increment counter in web design would be to actually log the number of times that a page is viewed. This could then be utilised as part of a marketing strategy or analysis of a web design project during research phase.

File Transfer protocol (FTP) is a method by which files may be shared over a computer network such as the Internet. To make use of FTP the user must have access to a server in order to upload and download files. The main objectives of FTP are:

• to promote sharing of files (computer programs and/or data).
• to encourage indirect or implicit use of remote computers
• to shield a user from variations in file storage systems among different hosts.
• to transfer data reliably, and efficiently.

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) is a method of producing and altering web pages quickly and easily. It mainly focuses on those pages written in HTML and XHTML. It allows the user to change the overall layout of a web page without altering the actual content. This is done by keeping the document content and document structure separate.

Templates do not allow the change of any content displayed on the web page. Major changes such as font, font size or colours may only be changed to individual specification through HTML edits. Some aspects of the actual layout are limited when using CSS. An example of this is highly graphical backgrounds where the lack of variables restricts the ability to "change all" or where structure is limited to rectangular shapes.

HTML is a mark up language that is utilised in the construction of Internet sites, via

Overall it has been an extremely informative semester covering various fundamentals which will provide a solid basis to which further multimedia skills can be developed.

Week 12 Revision

Well this week was revision time and iWeb page construction!! Finally everything works on angus' travels !!! Just need to select the photos that i want to use and drop them in!!

Just have to review the semester, few more photos on flickr update delicious and comments on blogs and i am done!!

Week 11 Technorati, Ping and other stuff

Ping is discussed in depth on wikipedia. Quite simply, Ping is a program that tests the quality of a network between two computers, via an IP address. It also tests how long the roundtrip takes and how much information is lost during the process.

Technorati, authority?? What does it all mean. Well Technorati is a way that your blog can be noticed or found by using the Technorati search engine. Your page is assessed and read by the search engine, however there is a difference. It reads the entire HTML, not just the first few hundred words. There is however some conflict in the effectivness or legitamcy of a the authority or ranking attached via Technorati. It has been suggested that it failed to take into account the 56 million MySpace pages. It is almost as though Technorati is quite selective or has created and artificial ranking. To increase your ranking and gain authority your blog must incorporate links to other blogs or sites.

Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has. (Technorati)

Technorati Rank is calculated based on how far you are from the top. The blog with the hightest Technorati Authority is the #1 ranked blog. The smaller your Technorati Rank, the closer you are to the top. (Technorati)

The best way to increase your Technorati Authority is to write things that are interesting to other bloggers so they'll link to you. Linking to source material when you blog is also a great way to engage in conversation and help others find what you find interesting. (Technorati)

Week 10 RSS and Counters

Counters are when related to digital logic a mechanism that stores and displays the number of times that a particular event has occurred. This type of counter is an up-counter (increment counter) which increases in value. The rationale for the use of an increment counter in web design would be to actually log the number of times that a page is viewed. This could then be utilised as part of a marketing strategy or analysis of a web design project during research phase.

Two alternative methods of conducting web based analysis or "a traffic report of web pages or servers" is to use web server logfile analysis or through the use of page tagging . Web server logfiles are a method of storing information with regard to the pages that are visited and build data with regards to the popularity of website. Page tagging, uses JavaScript on each page to notify a third-party server when a page is rendered by a web browser. These two methods both have advantages and disadvantages.

The Wikipedia RSS definition is listed through this link. Really Simple Syndication or RSS for short is a method of sharing or publishing frequently updated works. The type of sites that are utilising RSS are news, blogs, audio and video. It allows users to be informed of this information update without actually having to visit the site. Updates can be linked to a central site such as a blog that the blogger uses frequently. There is no limit to the number of RSS feeds that can be linked. This technology has provide time efficenies for users.

Google reader is a web based RSS feed reader. It works by accessing the URL of a particular site and the RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds all within Google reader.

Week 9 Experimentation

This is a simple test to see if i can upload photos with music to blogger.



Here is a link for all those that have not downloaded the Adobe CS3 Photoshop short cuts

Week 9 FTP and Athene

Wikipedia define FTP as File Transfer protocol, which is a method by which files may be shared over a computer network, such as the internet. To make use of FTP the user must have access to a server to be able upload and download files on that server.

A rudimentary interpretation of this is that FTP is a pipeline through which files may be uploaded and downloaded from a server. It does however require FTP soft ware such as Fetch or WSFTP .

Throw this one in for all those that are struggling, new use for computer!!!

The main objectives of FTP are,

• To promote sharing of files (computer programs and/or data).


• To encourage indirect or implicit use of remote computers


• To shield a user from variations in file storage systems among different hosts.


• To transfer data reliably, and efficiently.

Without an FTP it is impossible to make content from a local (own) computer freely available to a remote (in this case the CSU server).

There are several modes of operation for the FTP,

• Active mode~the FTP client opens a dynamic port and sends the server information via the FTP.


• Passive mode~ the FTP server opens a dynamic port and sends the FTP client the server's IP address to connect to, then information is exchanged via the FTP


• Extended passive mode~the FTP server operates exactly the same as passive mode, however it only transmits the port number (rather than the IP address) and the client is to assume that it connects to the same IP address that was originally connected to.

There appeared to be one limitation with regards to FTP and using a simple text editor or program such as Microsoft Word in that, picture files were not so simple to upload by simply including in the text and saving as a htm or html format.

Using a standard FTP can leave the client open to data interception by any other person using the same network. Hence the need to use a secure connection to prevent the interception using Secure File Transfer Protocol SFTP .

Now thats all the mundane work done!! Now for the interestingness... It is great to be a stage that we are actually going to be able to build an interesting web page and it will do something. If only to use a template provided by iWeb program. It is a step forward from blogging. But it all seems to be coming together.

Week 8 Assessment and Other Stuff

During the week had our first assesment for MPI104, quite daunting at first probably due to the unknown nature of the subject. Think i did reasonably well, only time will tell.

Here is a link to the World Press Photo of the Year !! Well worth a look for some inspiration.

Also have taken the time to clean up my own digital images and found stuff i thought i had lost, this one is the Huka Falls in Taupo NZ, just a little bit of water flowing there!!

Week 7 Review

Blogger
I have made seven posts including this one on my blog detailing the material that has been presented and examined in class. I found some of these topics to be quite interesting, in particular flickr and delicious and CSS. I found these topics to be particularly interesting. It seemed to be the start of actually uploading pictures, saving URL's of interest and being able to manipulate the way a page looked.

Whilst i only worked on the basic aesthetic's of my blog, I feel that it was sufficent to make the blog easier to navigate and installed some of my own interestingness to the blog. Using CSS i made some colour changes to main background, blog title and description and link hover. I also edited over all size and colour of the header and header description font. Personalized slide show and some of my own pictures were added. I have also added some gadgets to my blog, but only those that i consider to have added to the aesthetics of my page.

I have used many different tags. These include CSS, MPI104, Templates, bookmarks, delicious, photography, del.icio.us, delicious, Flickr, Blogger, HTML, Google, . I have tried to use multiple tags on each post so as to expand the possiblity of another blogger conecting with or reading my blog on a particular subject.

I have made comments on the following blogs Day in the Life of Ally, Amanda , Wes and Emma .

Delicious
I have book marked 28 web pages and blogs from fellow bloggers in MPI104. I have marked these as they are topics and sites that are of interest to me. I am a keen outdoor enthusiast, photographer and skier. I enjoy the outdoor and the lifestyle that it bring with it. I feel healthier than being couped up all day in front of a computer. I do enjoy and see the positive benefits of computing, in particular the internet. Three pages that I bookmarked and interest me are backcountry.com , perisher ski resort and ansell adams gallery .

Flickr
After starting to use Flickr it was clear that it was quite a useful site to share images and store them for free!! I uploaded 40 images and will continue to use this site after the completion of this subject. It is also a good way of have stored images so as to be able to use them in other applications when away from your home computer. The three images that i find to be favourites are ones that hold meaning to me.

The day i was lost in Niseko Japan skiing and ran into about ten other japanese telemark skiiers. Best skiing ever, waist deep all day!!

South coast of NSW near Meribula at a place call The Pinnacles. It is just a different and contrasting landscape to the rest of the wilderness there.

Skiing in New Zealand on Whakappa. Found this little ice flow that covered a cave. It was an awesome day with great friends out and about!!

Week 6 Templates

CSS (cascading style sheet) is a method of producing and altering web pages quickly and easily. It mainly focuses on those pages written in HTML and XHTML. It allows the user to change the overall layout of a web page without altering the actual content. This is done by keeping the document content and document structure separate.

The accessability of a web page refers to how easily the content may be viewed by as many people as possible. It is a question of how can a person navigate a site easily or how functional is the site. This is vital to ganing attention of user and maintaining there interest. If a page is difficult to navigate or find information required then as a user i would switch immediately to another site.

Some aspects of the web page layout can be changed using templates. New gadgets may be added such as pictures, film or advertisements. By using templates developed by other people simple changes may be made in the layout of a page.

Templates do not allow the change of any content displayed on the web page. Major changes such as font, font size or colours may only be changed to individual specification through HTML edits. Some aspects of the actual layout are limited when using CSS, for example highly graphical backgrounds, lack of variables to be able to "change all" or structure is limited to rectangular shapes.

I have added some gadgets to my page via template changes. These include slide show, ad sense and a photography gadget. There were approximately 100K possible gadgets that could have been added to the blog dependant on personal interest. I also added a photo as a background to my heading and a description of the blog content.

Using CSS i made some colour changes to main background, Blog title and description and link hover. I also edited over all size and colour of the header and header description font.

Week 5 del.icio.us bookmarks

Here is a link to a master of photography

Get out and discover urban photography

Why not take a look at digital imaging online

Week 5 del.icio.us

Delicious has a similar method to Flickr to organise favourite pages. Using self developed tagging system to assist in the recall of favourite pages or URL's. It is also a way of discovering new pages through the use of tags. Other people may have had the same idea for naming a page. Even if you dont have a computer your Del.icio.us account is mobile the world over. In other words your tags or bookmarks are mobile. Great system if you are moving between computers.

This is a link to my Del.icio.us account

Week 4 Flickr

Web 2.0 is where it really kicks in. It is a new generation of web development where social interaction, file sharing (video and photo) and blogs are based. It has created a business revolution where this information can be shared with ease.

Folksonomy is the method of tagging items being shared on Web 2.0. The individual makes an independent choice with regard to the keywords applied to information. It is especially important in the organisation of information on the Web.

Picnik is a web based photo editor. It eliminates the need for expensive programs for this editing process.

Flickr is a wonderful method of storing, editing and sharing photo images with friends, colleagues and public. Flickr have what they have dubbed interestingness!! This is a bunch of features that they have set up on Flickr to give the suscriber more for their time.

This is a link to my Flickr

This is a link to a Wagga geotagged search on Flickr

Week 3 Blogger and HTML

Today we are learning about blogs. The benefits of these as a tool for sharing ideas, commenting on documents and being able to work collaboratively. Blogs may be used for personal enjoyment or for business purposes. There are many different forms of blogs such as personal, corporate, music, media and genre to name some.

Wikipedia defines a blog as a regular commentary maintained by an individual including graphics, video and items of interest.

Wikipedia defines Blogger as the blog publishing service. It was developed by Pyra Labs and subsequently purchased by Google in 2003.

This is a link to MPI104-2009 class blogspot

Week 2 Google