Narelle Denman

Wednesday 10/03/2010

2010-03-10T01:42:00.000-08:00

It is now 7.42pm at night and my 4 year old girl still is talking none stop and will do anything in her power not to go to bed. My patience is wearing thin, might have to go and threaten selling the beanie bears again.
Ah Ha I have finally succeeded in getting her to stop talking, peace and quiet at last, yahooo.
Anyway i must go and have my cup of tea that i made over 1 hour ago (reheated of course) and fold the load of laundry that I got off the line when I got home as I have to hang out another load of laundry tomorrow morning that is in the washing machine tonight. I am sure that I am married to the washing machine first and my husband second, that or I am having an affair with the washing amchine as I seem to be spending more time with it than I am with my husband.

Peer to Peer Case Study

2008-08-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

P2P as software / technical network

See ‘How the old Napster worked’

An Introduction to Peer-to-Peer Computing - David Barkai (Intel)

In my last subject titled “Managing the Digital Organisation”, I learned a little bit about P2P architecture and P2P payment systems. PayPal which is used by eBay as a form of cash transfer if the customer does not have a credit card.

My husband works for the Brisbane City Council and uses a P2P software package, where files are shared and accessed without having to go through a server, this makes his job easier and faster as he works from home but is part of a LAN (Local area network).

File sharing can be beneficial purse if a community of students studying the same subject wish to share research material. However one must ask whether file sharing is ethical or illegal.

Privacy is Good

The utube version -part one - the links on the page will lead to all other parts

Recently a sneak peak of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games was leaked to the public. A uproar followed as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) says that the Olympic Games is free to all forms of media including the Internet. But the uproar was unwarranted as everyone still turned up in person to see it live. I personally think that the real thing is better than a copy especially when it comes to movies or books.

About 5 years ago a copy of one of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks was emailed to me, I had a brief look at it online, but chose not to print it out and wait to purchase the real thing. There is nothing like reading a book for the first time, the smell of the paper and the feeling of accomplishment when you finally turn the last page.

Unfortunately in this day and age and the technological advancements that occur regularly, piracy will always be an issue, but if one uses there common sense and does not participate in any unethical or illegal activities, they are at least not taking money out of the pockets of the people who write or create such books or movies.

Information transfer & Community

P2P Networking: An Information-Sharing Alternative Parameswaran, Susarla & Whinston

Peer-to-Peer for Academia – Andy Oram

‘Henry Jenkins, Playing Our Song? - Henry Jenkins on the ‘community’ aspects of Napster.

This goes hand in hand as users feel part of a community when they transfer information. However they must be aware of any copyright issues pertaining to the information they want to share with other users.

Napster was proven to be very popular as it generated 60 million visitors per month (I was not one of them), but was shut down due to copyright breaches. They now have a new site which is a pay-for music site.

Legal issues: copyright

"Copying is Theft ..." And other legal myths in the looming battle over peer-to-peer. Mark Rasch

Rip, Mix, Burn: The Politics of Peer to Peer and Copyright Law by Kathy Bowrey and Matthew Rimmer -

Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Since Napster

Even though there is decrypting software available to decrypt DVD’s and CD’s of movies and music so that you may copy them. One has to ask themselves whether the risk of doing so is worth it.

Copyright laws are very clear and users who wish to download or share files do so at there own risk. You can pay the small fee and download a song you like knowing that you have not breached any copyright laws and that the law will not be chasing you for breach of copyright.

Security and privacy

Pcstats Beginners Guides: Spyware Protection and Removal

Gene and Katie Hamilton, Is Your Computer Talking To Strangers?

Protect Your Privacy With Antitracking Software, Smart Computing, January 2002 • Vol.13 Issue 1, pp. 48-51.

spychecker have lists of known spyware, and downloads of various anti-spyware tools

With file sharing you leave yourself wide open to viruses, worms and phishing emails. So protecting your computer with the latest antivirus software and using common sense with emails is essential.

Protecting your privacy should always be paramount as you do not know who is on the other end of the communication. Be vigilant and you should survive any attempted attack.

Socio-political considerations

http://p2pnet.net

http://www.janisian.com/article- internet_debacle.html

P2P file sharing will always be apart of the cyber society. Marketers need it so that entices you into purchasing their products by giving you something for free, then hitting you up to cough up the cash to purchase the entire product.

Since the way of the future is going more and more online, P2P will be more than just a place to download music etc. Big business might see the advantages and introduce it into their global intranet, if they have not done so already.

Ecologies

2008-08-15T03:55:00.000-07:00

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

Ecology – the study of the interactive relationship between living things and their ENVIRONMENT (Collins internet-linked dictionary of Sociology).

After reading ‘Information Ecologies’ by Felix Stadler and ‘Towards an Information Ecology’ by Rafael Capurro, here is what I interrupt the metaphor of an ‘ecology’ when I use the Internet. Firstly an Internet ecology is the relationship and interactions between people and the online environment, in particular the Web.

I mostly use the Internet to do research, interact with fellow students and retrieve my university workload. So I think in information ecologies, the spotlight is not on technology, but on human activities that are served by technology.

An ecology responds to local environmental changes and local interventions. An ecology is a place that is scaled to individuals. In an ecology, we are not cogs in sweeping sociological processes. Instead, we are individuals with real relationships to other individuals. The scale of an ecology allows us to find individual points of leverage, ways into the system, and avenues of intervention.

What I will take away from NET11 is that, firstly the Internet is an ever evolving system and that changes can occur all the time. My research skills have increased due to the way that I interrupt the results I get from the type of keywords that I use. Therefore I am more aware of how my interaction with the Internet will determine what reaction I will get from it.

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

An information ecology is a complex system of parts and relationships. It exhibits diversity and experiences continual evolution. Different parts of an ecology coevolve, changing together according to the relationships in the system. Several keystone species necessary to the survival of the ecology are present. Information ecologies have a sense of locality.

An information ecology is marked by strong interrelationships and dependencies among its different parts. The parts of an information ecology may be as different from each other as the sand, sunlight, saltwater, and starfish of a marine ecology, but they are as closely bound together. Change in an ecology is systemic. When one element is changed, effects can be felt throughout the whole system. To get a mental image, imagine dropping a pebble into a pond and watching the ripple effect spread towards the edges of the pond.

Communication within a ecology depends on the type of information received. If a sender does not communicate that they would like a response, then they are unlikely to get a response. We as humans need to communicate; this is taught to us from birth, that if we want something we need to communicate it with verbal words otherwise we get nothing. The same is said for when we interact with technology, we must communicate what we want in order to get it.

Without communication there would be no information.

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

As my last sentence in the previous question states “Without communication there would be no information”. Therefore communication falls under the banner of information as I see it anyway.

Different communication ecologies are constructed to achieve different goals. For example, when finding health information is the goal, a different set of communication preferences will be generated than when the goal is to figure out where to get the best buys or how to stay on top of the local community.

On the Internet these days, users have various forms in which they may communicate such as, email, chat, and forums to name a few. But with all types of communication on the Internet users must abide by netiquette rules. Online communication is fast and precise, but it has it pitfalls as well, like systems crashing, loss of data, and miscommunication due to the lack of visual body language.

Evaluating the Web

2008-08-14T02:44:00.000-07:00

For this task I chose to evaluate a online textbook that is about human-computer interaction. I found it to be very useful as it explains the foundations right through to models and theories.

URL: http://www.hcibook.com/e3/
AUTHOR: Dix, A, Finlay, J, Abowd, GD & Beal, R
INSTITUTION: Pearson, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
This book is also used as a textbook, but it also offers a wealth of resources, exercises and also one can click on each segment of each chapter. It looks at other emerging technologies but is firmly rooted in strong principles and models independent of the passing technologies of the day. It can be used for introductory or advanced courses on human-computer interaction, Interaction Design, Usability or Interactive Systems Design. It would also prove as an invaluable reference for professionals wishing to design usable computing devices. The site is easy to use and finding information within the book can be done with just a click of the mouse.

I thought that this site was reliable due to the fact that it can be used as a textbook and the authors are a combination of 2 professors, 1 associate professor and a 1 lecturer from 3 UK and 1 USA university. This is the 3rd edition of the textbook and the previous editions are also available online from within the site.

I found that clicking on the chapters icon, I could view what was in each chapter and pick and choose what I wanted to read. Each chapter effortlessly flows into the next building an understanding of human-computer interaction for the reader. As it can be used from introductory to advanced courses in human-computer interaction, interaction design, usability or interactive systems design, it is easy to understand and gave me a better understanding of the subject. Personally I think that this online book is balanced as it is written specifically as a textbook which has to be balanced so that the student can form their own opinion of the subject.

In terms of future use, if I was doing an IT degree than my annotated bibliography would be more beneficial for me to refer back to as I think that it gives a quick overview of what the site has on offer. But alas I am doing a BA of Accountancy and I do not think there is much use for this type of site in my future, but I am grateful that I now have a better understanding of the Internet, thanks to NET11.

From an external point of view, if I was reading my annotated bibliography and I was after more information regarding human-computer interaction, I would use the hyperlink to look at the site, being that it is written as a textbook makes it even easier for a novice to understand human-computer interaction and they would find it useful and of interest to them as a stepping stone towards more a more in depth look at human-computer interaction.

Module 4 completed, thank god. Now onto module 5 and then onto conquering the accounting world. lol.

Searching the Web

2008-08-12T02:39:00.000-07:00

SEARCH ENGINE TASK
I used Google for this task as it is really all that I have been using for the past 1 1/2. My keywords were "human-computer interaction". I got 5,620,000 hits and the 1st hit was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-computer_interaction.

Using Copernic I got 36 hits by using 9 search engines for "human-computer interaction".

The main differences were the number of hits of course, plus Google gave me better results with using all words on the first page. Copernic gave me more credible results, apart from the fact that some sites appeared on both Google and Copernic. Copernic gave me % campatibility which is ok if you take notice of those types of things. By using Copernic I can narrow the results by using less or more search engines.

Copernic as most of the results were from universities and they are more credible sites to use when writing academic papers. I think so anyway.

Below are the first 5 hits I got in Google.

Below are the first 5 hits I got in Copernic.

BOOLEAN SEARCHING TASK

Here are my results using Boolean techniques on Google.
human-computer interaction = 5,630,000 results.
"human-computer interaction" = 10,100,000 results.
human-computer -interaction = 964,000 results (NOT).
human OR computer interaction = 37,400,000 results.
human interaction = 24,700,000 results.
computer interaction = 24,300,000 results.

Using Google Scholar I got 31,000 results using the keywords human-computer interfaces. It gave me a lot of good books and sites with the number of citations for each result. The citations help me determine whether to look at the result or not.

Using UniSA library, limiting search to electronic resources, I got 141 entries. Monash University library gave me 1031 entries as I did not use any limits.

ORGANISING SEARCH INFORMATION TASK

I used a program called EndNote to capture the following information. I was first introduced to EndNote last year through one of my subjects (cannot remember which one), it allows you to input a in-text citation in a word document while at the same time it creates a full reference for the bibliography or reference list at the end of the document.

Here are my best 3 sources that I found relating to human-computer interaction.

URL: http://www.hcibook.com/e3/
Author: Dix, A, Finlay, J, Abowd, GD & Beal, R
Institution: Pearson, Upper Saddle River, N.J
Screen Shot/Summary/Blurb: Much has changed since the first edition of Human-Computer Interaction was published. Ubiquitous computing and rich sensor-filled environments are finding their way out of the laboratory, not just into movies but also into our workplaces and homes. The computer has broken out of its plastic and glass bounds providing us with networked societies where personal computing devices from mobile phones to smart cards fill our pockets and electronic devices surround us at home and work. The web too has grown from a largely academic network into the hub of business and everyday lives. As the distinctions between the physical and the digital, and between work and leisure start to break down, human-computer interaction is also changing radically.

The excitement of these changes is captured in this new edition, which also looks forward to other emerging technologies. However, the book is firmly rooted in strong principles and models independent of the passing technologies of the day: these foundations will be the means by which today's students will understand tomorrow's technology.

The third edition of Human-Computer Interaction can be used for introductory and advanced courses on HCI, Interaction Design, Usability or Interactive Systems Design. It will also prove an invaluable reference for professionals wishing to design usable computing devices.

URL: http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/index.html
Author: Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science
Institution: Carnegie Mellon University
Screen Shot/Summary/Blurb: The Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) is an interdisciplinary community of students and faculty at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). This community is dedicated to research and education in topics related to computer technology in support of human activity and society. Although the HCII is headquartered within the School of Computer Science, members of the community represent a broad spectrum of the CMU campus including the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Graduate School of Industrial Administration, College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Software Engineering Institute, as well as the School of Computer Science. Collaborators and sponsors are from other universities in Pittsburgh and around the world, small startup companies, and multi-national corporations.

URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V0D-4BJ7BGV-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=14de0d05a9c5f3dccb9f7f0c332995ed
Author: Timo Partala and Veikko Surakka
Institution: Interacting with Computers (Journal)
Screen Shot/Summary/Blurb: The present study investigated the psychophysiological effects of positive and negative affective interventions in human–computer interaction during and after the interventions. Eighteen subjects were exposed to pre-programmed mouse delays in an interactive problem-solving task. Following the mouse delays three types of conditions were used: positive or negative interventions given via speech synthesizer, and no intervention. Facial electromyographic responses were recorded from the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscle sites. These muscles control smiling and frowning, respectively. Smiling activity was significantly higher during the positive than the other conditions. It was also significantly higher after the positive interventions than the no intervention condition. The frowning activity attenuated significantly more after the positive interventions than the no intervention condition. Following the positive interventions the users' problem solving performance was significantly better than after no intervention. In all, the results suggest that both types of affective intervention had beneficial effects over ignoring the user. The results suggest further that positive intervention may be especially useful.

EndNote is an easy to use program that can be accessed while using word through the toolbar at the top of the page. If you fill in every detail in EndNote you would have a very through reference in deed. It gives you many options to choose from about what type of reference you are recording e.g. journal article, magazine article or web page.

Evaluating the web task will be on the next post, so that must mean that I am nearly finished module 4 tasks, Yahoooo.

Conceptual Research & Reflection Project

2008-08-07T03:19:00.000-07:00

Concept # 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.).

Just like in real life, there is an informal set of guidelines for appropriate behaviour on the Internet which is called Network Etiquette, or commonly known as Netiquette. These guidelines need to be learnt just like in real life. They are an essential part of communication on the Internet, as in face to face communication one can see and read the other persons body language and via telephone can hear the audible tones that you can interpret as behaviour, but on the Internet one cannot hear or see the other persons body language, so interpreting the senders message becomes very difficult and miscommunication can be very common.

In 1995 Sally Hambridge created a document called the RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines which provided a minimum set of guidelines for Network Etiquette (netiquette) to help new users to become familiar with the Internet culture and the behaviour that is acceptable on the Internet. It was the product of the Responsible Use of the Network (RUN) Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Even though some of the guidelines are common sense others need to be learnt (Hambridge, 1995).

Netiquette put quite simply is about remembering that there is human on the other end of any transmission made on the Internet. It is a sad, sad day when one has to be told how to act via a computer when we are instilled with all of our manners from birth. As a society do we constantly need to be reminded of our manners? Apparently so; due to of all of the different netiquette rules that are out there.

Virginia Shea (1997), published her book titled ‘Netiquette’, in which she has covered all areas of electronic communication. Again her first core rule of netiquette is ‘Remember the human’, in which she reminds us that we were taught to “Do unto others as you'd have others do unto you. Imagine how you'd feel if you were in the other person's shoes. Stand up for yourself, but try not to hurt people's feelings” (Shea, 1997 p. 35). Even though this should be common sense, it is quite frightening how easy it is to forget that there is a human on the other end of the communication and that they have feelings like you.

In this day and age of increasing technology, where one could loose themselves in virtual lives etc, Netiquette plays a big part of how one portrays themselves to other users. No matter what material you look at in regards to netiquette, the first rule is always ‘Remember the human’. That in itself says a lot about our society in this technological age. Whether one like’s it or not, documents containing netiquette guidelines are here to stay, to remind us all of the behaviour that is acceptable on the Internet.

Site 1: RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines
Hambridge, S. (1995, October). Netiquette Guidelines. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http://www.stanton.dtcc.edu/stanton/cs/rfc1855.html

Evaluation:
This document would be extremely useful to new users or ‘newbie’s’ as they are called on the Internet. It offers a basic list of guidelines of what is acceptable behaviour on the Internet. It was created by the Responsible Use of the Network (RUN) Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Even though it talks about some legacy systems, and was last updated in October 1995, it is still applicable to today when using the World Wide Web (www). It is laid out very simply so that one can find the information easily and it is written in plain English with no technological talk to confuse new users.

Site 2: Netiquette
Shea, V. (1997). Netiquette. San Francisco: Albion Books. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/0963702513p4.html

Evaluation:
Virginia Shea covers the usual basics of netiquette with the usual list of rules, some discussion of email, email style, discussion groups, and flames. It expands beyond that, however, to information retrieval, significant violations, corporate, home and school etiquette, and discussions of sexual relationships, privacy and copyright. It is one of the most complete books on netiquette and offers some common sense on the subject of netiquette. It is easy to read and understand as there is no complicated terminology that would confuse new users to the World Wide Web. Virginia Shea attended Princeton University and worked in Silicon Valley and has studied human nature her entire life.

Concept # 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” (Allen, n.d.).

In one way or another humans have interacted with computers since the 1940s right through to today’s Internet. Over those years humans have gradually accepted artificial intelligence or machines that can think. Even today humans are trying to make a robot as human as possible, take for instance Asimo the humanoid robot made by Honda. It can replicate human actions but is still yet to achieve human emotion. Asimo is at the forefront of robotic technology and travels the world interacting with humans to display how far robotic technology has come and what the future of robotics will look like. Asimo’s newly developed intelligence technologies enables it to operate in an environment with people and other ASIMOs, which brings Honda one step closer to the development of a humanoid robot that can be put to practical use in a real world environment requiring coexistence with people. (Honda, 2007).

New users to the Internet can indirectly interact with other humans via social networking programs, such as facebook, msn, skype etc. They still have a core set of friends as the CBC news (2007) stated “while many users have hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances on their accounts, their core group of close friends is till unchanged at around five people”. Even though these relationships are impersonal compared to face-to-face relationships they at least allow a link which would otherwise be lost. Or are they creating friend collectors, a person who collects little-known acquaintances for the sake of having a large number of contacts on their profile.

Humans are accepting that they are interacting with computers in many different ways. Whether it is through online banking, or blogging and even email. Even when humans ring companies they are interacting with computers by the speech recognition software asking for our choices so that we as humans can interact with the companies’ data bases.

Web 2.0 is even more about the human-computer interaction as it allows users to create, cut and paste, drop and click information within web pages. New users are been overcome with the desire to create more and more blogs, you tube posts etc. as they become addicted to being able to modify data and create something that the whole world will see. The thought of having billions of people look at what you have created can be an addictive drug for new users. They feel that they must spend an enormous amount of time on the computer just in case they miss the next big thing. It can cause them being isolated from the rest of the human race and they could feel overwhelmed when they do have to interact with other humans instead of staying in their comfort zone of interacting with computers that do what they are told to do.

Companies such IBM are researching human-computer interaction and their work is concentrated around the behavioural, aesthetic, and value-sensitive aspects of the design of interactive systems (IBM, 2008). Thus allowing them to provide more avenues for humans and computer to interact with each other. Who knows how far this interaction between humans and computers will go in the future. Only time and the limits of ones imagination will tell.

References:

Honda 2007, Honda Develops Intelligence Technologies Enabling Multiple ASIMO Robots to Work Together in Coordination, media release, Honda World News, 11 December. Retrieved July 11, 2008, from http://world.honda.com/news/2007/c071211Enabling-Multiple-ASIMO-to-Work/

CBC news 2007, It's hard to make close friends on Facebook, study says, 10 September. Retrieved July 11, 2008, from http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/09/10/science-websites.html

IBM n.d., Human-Computer Interaction Research Area, IBM. Retrieved July 11, 2008, from http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research.nsf/pages/r.hci.html

Site 1: Dix, A, Finlay, J, Abowd, GD & Beal, R 2004, Human-Computer Interaction, 3^rd edn, Pearson, Upper Saddle River, N.J. Retrieved July 11, 2008, from http://www.hcibook.com/e3/

Evaluation:
This book is also used as a textbook, but it also offers a wealth of resources, exercises and also one can click on each segment of each chapter. It looks at other emerging technologies but is firmly rooted in strong principles and models independent of the passing technologies of the day. It can be used for introductory or advanced courses on human-computer interaction, Interaction Design, Usability or Interactive Systems Design. It would also prove as an invaluable reference for professionals wishing to design usable computing devices. The site is easy to use and finding information within the book can be done with just a click of the mouse.

Site 2: Human-Computer Interaction Resource Network n.d. Retrieved July 11, 2008, from http://www.hcirn.com/index.php

Evaluation:
This website is a fountain of information about human-computer interaction. It not only has an alphabetical list from A-Z on human-computer interaction topics, but it also has tutorials, a collection of short essays, resources, links to other sources of information on human-computer interaction, and job opportunities for human-computer interaction professionals. Once could spend all day just looking at each article from the A-Z index, but for a new person who does not know exactly what they are looking for this could be a deterrent. The added advantage of having a job bank is novel and would only be beneficial to professionals.

Concept # 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” (Allen, n.d.).

SECURITY

The Internet has enabled individuals across the world to become increasingly connected over the past decade (Adeyinka, 2008). Unfortunately with this connectivity so to does the issue regarding security and privacy on the Internet.

Some of the most common attack methods used is as follows:

Viruses – they are self replicating programs that infect and propagate through files (Adeyinka, 2008). Most computer viruses deliver a ‘payload’, which may be benign, or it may be highly destructive (Laudon & Laudon, 2007).

Eavesdropping or war driving – this occurs when persons drive by buildings or park outside and try to intercept wireless network traffic (Laudon & Laudon, 2007). Having no security key for wireless connections makes it easier for the persons to intercept your information.

Hacking – a hacker is an individual who intends to gain unauthorised access into a computer system, they are highly skilled at finding and attacking weaknesses in the security protections employed by computer systems and web sites (Laudon & Laudon, 2007).

Worms – are independent computer programs that copy themselves from one computer to another over a network (Laudon & Laudon, 2007). Two main types of worms are mass-mailing worms, which spreads through e-mail, and network-aware worms (Adeyinka, 2008):

Trojans – are software programs that appear to be benign but then they do something unexpected. Trojans are not viruses but merely the way for a virus or malicious code to be introduced into a computer system (Laudon & Laudon, 2007).

Spoofing – is when hackers use a fake identity, appearing to use a trusted computer, and therefore are able to gain unauthorised access to other computers (Adeyinka, 2008).

Denial of Service – hackers flood a network server or web server with many thousands of false communications or requests for services to crash the network (Laudon & Laudon, 2007).

Even though the Code Red worm infected more than 250,000 systems in just 9 hours on 19 July 2001, the economic impact was $2.6 billion (Householder et al., 2002). The largest impact of security events is the time and resource requirements to deal with them.

PRIVACY

Privacy is something that we took for granted back in the good old days, but in this age of technology privacy is something that we need to protect. “It simply means that the subject of information should be able to control the information” (Adeyinka, 2008).

We can most safely use the Internet by learning as much as possible about two areas:

• What the risk of using the Internet are; and
• Tips on how to successfully protect yourself (Attaran & Van Laar, 1999).

Some of the tips for safeguarding your privacy online are:

• keep all personal information private.
• check companies’ online privacy policy.
• take steps to remove your personal information.
• guard your password (perhaps the most important of all).
• do not get attached to attachments.
• watch what you download.
• keep up-to-date.
• protect your family from inappropriate sites (Attaran & Van Laar, 1999).

The best solution is privacy through technology as technology is a big part of the everyday life of everyone around the world. “The objective must be to bring privacy to the Internet, and bring the Internet to everyday privacy policies” (Attaran & Van Laar, 1999).

Privacy on the Internet is the responsibility of the individual. One must be vigilant at all times when entering anything private information onto the world wide web, one must never completely trust technology with personal and sensitive information, as hackers are always trying to find weaknesses and when they do, they will exploit that weakness and could even steal your identity to fraudulently purchase goods and services, or even siphon money from your bank accounts.

References:
Adeyinka, O. (2008, May 103-15). Internet attack methods an Internet Security Technology. Paper presented at the 2008 Second Asia International Conference on modelling & Simulation. Retrieved July 24, 2008, from IEEExplore database. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/iel5/4530427/4530428/04530455.pdf?tp=&arnumber=4530455&isnumber=4530428

Attaran, M., & Van Laar, I. (1999). Privacy and security on the Internet: how to secure your personal information and company data. Information Management and Computer Security, 7(5), 241-247. Retrieved July 24, 2008, from Emerald Insight database. http://www.emeraldinsight.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/Insight/viewPDF.jsp?Filename=html/Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/0460070505.pdf

Householder, A., Houle, K., & Dougherty, C. (2002). Computer attack trends challenge internet security. Computer, 35(4), 5-7. Retrieved July 24, 2008, from IEEExplore database. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/iel5/2/21810/01012422.pdf?tp=&arnumber=1012422&isnumber=21810

Laudon, K.C., & Laudon, J.P. (2007). Management Information Systems Managing The Digital Firm (10^th edn). New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

Site 1: CDT’s guide to online privacy (n.d.). Retrieved 24 July, 2008, from http://www.cdt.org/privacy/guide/start/

Evaluation:
The Centre for Democracy and Technology created this web page to educate Internet users about online privacy and provide practical suggestions and policy recommendations. It is easy to navigate around and pin point exact information. The top ten ways to protect your privacy online is beneficial to new users on the Internet. It provides the basics about privacy, while giving you explanations of what privacy is and why one should care, the courts and privacy, legislative protections, technical initiatives, proxies, firewalls, cookies and anonymizers, and much more. Offers debates and trails on the privacy subject. Site is written in plain English so that all levels of users will be able to understand.

Site 2: The Australian Government NetAlert (n.d.). Retrieved 24 July, 2008 from http://www.netalert.gov.au/home.html

Evaluation:
Created by the Australian Government, but managed by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE); it provides families and children with a safe online environment by providing useful advice and information. This site provides information about security issues like viruses, and Firewalls etc., gives explanations of what they are and where one can find appropriate software to protect ones computer. The features on this site are: advice, filters (content), programs, news and events, about NetAlert, NetAlert survey, and frequently asked questions.

With a national helpline that supports the website, one can keep up-to-date on what the government is doing to help families, libraries and children protect themselves online.

Concept # 1: Asynchronicity

“Asynchronous electronic communication is not the opposite of real-time, synchronous communication: rather it describes forms of communication that appear differently ‘located in time’ depending on the perspective of the sender and receiver” (Allen, n.d.).

Until I started NET11 I did not realise fully how much of the online world depended on asynchronous communication. Throughout my working career and home life, the computer and its varying forms of communication just seemed something that I took for granted and never questioned. I actually never even heard of the word ‘Asynchronous’ or “Synchronous’ before starting NET11.

For those who do not know what Asynchronous means, The Free Dictionary (n.d.) states that Asynchronous means “pertaining to a transmission technique that does not require a common clock between the communicating devices, timing signals are derived from special characters in the data stream itself”. Basically to put it a way that a newbie would be able to understand, is that asynchronous communication is the way that we are learning NET11 with the discussion board and the various other forms of communication that we have had to do for this subject, for example forums.

Learning online can also be a blend of synchronous and asynchronous communication. However asynchronous communication allows the student to check in and check out on their own time (Kerim Friedman, 2007). Asynchronous discussion forums are often used to provide the learner with assistance, support and the social structures more readily available in the face-to-face environment (Sheard, 2004). Using asynchronous communication like discussion groups allows one to either join in or sit back and be a spectator.

Asynchronous communication has allowed foreign students the ability to study outside of their country without leaving the country itself. For this reason alone asynchronous communication plays an integral part in the distance learning experience. Throughout my studies with Open Universities Australia, I have run across students from London, Spain, Italy, and Papua New Guinea. All of them would not be able to complete their studies had it not been for the Internet and asynchronous communication.

E-mail is another form of asynchronous communication as there is no need to synchronize timing or worry about waking the other party up, and there is no cross-Atlantic time zones (Wozniak, 2004). Some people think that e-mail is a form of synchronous communication as they receive a response to the e-mail they sent immediately, but it is still classified as asynchronous communication as e-mail does not rely on a synchronized clock to perform its job. We must also remember that the receiver of our e-mail may have received hundreds of other e-mails apart form the one that we just sent, so if we want our e-mail to stand out and get immediate attention, then we have to give it some form of importance to the receiver by placing in its subject field ‘important’ or some other highlight.

The business sector can take advantage of asynchronous communication. Telstra is such an example by the customer being able to hear the whole top 40 whilst they are on hold. Being able to read frequently asked questions is an advantage to the customer as well, because they do not need to speak to representative face-to-face, and can seek out a solution to their problem at their own leisure or if they cannot find a solution they can contact the help centre for immediate help.

References:
Kerim Friedman, (2007). Asynchronicity. Retrieved August 2, 2008, from http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2007/04/01/asynchronicity/

Sheard, (2004). Electronic learning communities: strategies for establishment and management. Paper presented at the 9^th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, Leeds, UK. Retrieved July 31, 2008, from The ACM Digital Library, http://delivery.acm.org.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/10.1145/1010000/1008009/p37-sheard.pdf?key1=1008009&key2=3237767121&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=38995388&CFTOKEN=31236444

The Free Dictionary, (n.d.). Retrieved July 31, 2008, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/asynchronous

Wozniak, (2004). E-mail, incremental reading, creativity, and time-management. Retrieved August 2, 2008, from http://www.supermemo.com/articles/e-mail.htm

Site 1: Golberg, M. (2000). Synchronous vs. Asynchronous: Some Thoughts. Retrieved July 31, 2008, from http://www.webct.com/OTL/ViewContent?contentID=2339346

Evaluation:
Golberg gives a brief explanation of what synchronous and asynchronous communication are as well as pointing out the advantages in teaching and learning about asynchronous communication like email and bulletin boards.

He comments on how asynchronous communication tools remove both the geographical and temporal barriers. He comments on how the removal of the temporal barrier has enabled people to consider the discussion they are part of a little more carefully.

As an educator himself he stated that he may be a bit biased as he only uses asynchronous tools in his electronic course offerings. The article is easy to read and gives a fairly balanced argument.

Site 2: Johnson, L., & Lamb, A. (n.d.). Teaching and Learning at a Distance. Retrieved August 2, 2008, from http://eduscapes.com/distance/

Evaluation:
This website is all about connecting teachers and students with online resources, virtual communications etc. The website is organized well and gives you the basics of online training through its workshop, which is designed for instructional designers, faculty members, and other educators interested in developing online courses for high school through to college level.

Online learning is becoming popular due to the fact that each student and teacher has different learning styles and learning online caters for all of them, whether it is synchronous communication like podcasts or asynchronous communication like bulletin boards. The resources page gives links to further information and virtual schools and libraries.

Module 4 - Task 1

2008-07-21T03:44:00.000-07:00

In this task we had to choose 2 programs that we did not already have, so that we could experiment with them to see if they would be helpful not only for our assignment but for future study.

I chose to download Copernic Agent Basic and WebCopier Pro.

Copernic Agent Basic was the only free version I could download. At first I thought that it was really excellent compared to the google search I have been using since January 2007. But after a few searches and some light reading on the discussion board I have found that Connotea is better for academic papers and I really love the one click feature and the library. Also CiteUlike is excellent because of all the different journals that you can access.

I can honestly say that I did not know or hear about meta data prior to this subject as all of my previous subjects were to do with maths, law, marketing and management. If all I take away from this subject is all of the different programs that our out there to help with my research skills than I will be one happy puppy.

Getting back to Copernic Agent (Basic). I found it fairly easy to get around and after a few attempts, I got the hang of the basic use of the program, but I will be using CiteUlike and Connotea as well in the future as the more searches you use the wider the field covered.

The next program that I downloaded was WebCopier Pro, as I thought that it would an interesting program to have a look at. Well I have to say that it took 9 minutes and 32 seconds to download the liblearn.osu.edu website and then I ls5 tutor file part that I really wanted to look at later was very hard to find and actually it was never downloaded in the first place. I was ectremely disappointed with this program and I thank god that I do not pay for my 3G internet connection so I do not have to worry about ever using this program again. I found this program to be confusing and if you do not know exactly where to look for the one part of the website that you really want to look at off line then you could waste alot of time just trying to look for it.

I think that I might try and download another program and see if I like it better, maybe the bookmarking program to help me organise my bookmarks better.

Anyway I feel I have conquered the first task and now onto the 2nd task and the next 2 concepts for the assignment.

Task 3 - Web 2.0

2008-07-07T03:33:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0 is an expression of all the changes that have occurred on the Web, plus other changes in the way people and business use the Web and think about human interaction on the Web. Web 2.0 can be summed up as trusting user as co-developers, services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability. It is not a program, but just a way of describing the movement towards more user interactivity on the Web.

When I looked at both the blinklist and the html web pages, the first thing I found different is that the blinklist was visually appealing, easier to read and gave high user interactivity as the html page was better for finding precise information, but I did not realise for the first few minutes that it contained all of the information that was on the blinklist page. Plus the html page did not allow for any user interactivity.

After much thought, I have to say that I prefer to the blinklist page, as I am used to the format to fins the information that I require, but would probably consider using the html page more to quickly find the information the I require.

Module 3 tasks done and dusted. Now to conquer module 4 - bring it on....

Task 3 - Blogs

2008-06-28T04:13:00.000-07:00

I have never thought about blogging before taking this subject. I have to say that personally I am not a blogger as writing my thoughts down in a diary format is just not my thing.

But in saying that, there is a blog for every subject. You can find blogs on topics such as travel, personal thoughts, journalism, political, art, photography etc.

While researching for an subject last year, I ran across a credible author of a blog site on Google. He was a retired journalist who has turned blogging into a full time job. I used some of his blog in an assignment as I could prove his credibility.

In today's society, where individuals feel more at ease typing what they think into a computer rather than talk to a human being, or just getting their point of view out there for the entire world to see, has it's place. I personally will not be continuing this blog after the subject is finished. Once again it is just not my thing. But will keep a look out for any other students who will continue to blog.

All in all I wish everyone Happy Blogging if that is your thing.

Task 3 - FTP

2008-06-28T03:54:00.000-07:00

Well After much time and trial I have finally used FTP for the first time ever to upload my web page. As I had already uploaded it into the presentations section of webct, ftp asked if I wanted to overwrite the file and I said 'yes'.

I was a bit nervous at first thinking that the file I had uploaded to presentations would somehow be swallowed up by the big bad internet monster, but alas my fears were put to rest when I went and checked the presentations section and low and behold my web page was still there in all of its glory.

Anyway, here is the url address for it: http://webct.curtin.edu.au/305033_b/student_pres/Group07/index.html

Hope everybody enjoys my very first attempt at creating a web page.

Now I must conquer the blogs task, before starting the assignment.

Task 3 - Legal Issues

2008-06-28T03:12:00.000-07:00

After checking and re-checking my web page, I cannot see that I have broken any copyright laws. I acknowledged any outside sources that I used and referenced my definition of an accountant. The image of the puppies was from a free my space images site and I acknowledged the actual url.

I work on this theory, if in doubt reference or acknowledge where you got the data/image/font/glitter etc from. Or if the data etc is not coming from a free site/source then you need to gain written permission to use the data etc. Verbal approval will not stand up in court. It is always better to get everything in written form.

In regard to using the curtin logo at the top of my web page. If I did not gain written permission then I would be breaking copyright law, as far as I can see after reading the copyright policy and procedures document. That is my interpretation anyway.

I have the philosophy that copyright breaches can be avoided if you just use your common sense.

Module 3 - HTML tags task.

2008-06-24T04:16:00.000-07:00

Well after the past 4 days I have to say that my web page is the very basic of web pages, and probably one of the most boring. This is due to the time I have spent on just coming to terms with using html.

Firstly I have to say that I had difficulty getting the swirlies background, but thanks to Katherine Lynch I finally got it, plus I found a site that gave me backgrounds, glitters etc.

The mere fact that I am a complete novice at this techno talk showed in my frustration about trying to get the gist of html. But the sense of achievement I felt when my photos of my dogs show on the web page was like taking a computer drug, you just want to have more and more.

From a novice's point of view, html is way harder than blogging. For one thing with blogging I do not need to know any html tags. In saying that, I think knowing how to edit html is a great insight into (basic) computer programming.

I have to say that I prefer the ease of blogging without having to edit html tags, as my degree is in Accountancy not IT. I am not to sure if I will ever use what I have learned in this course, but I am really glad that I am doing NET11.

I have not fully completed the task as yet, as I am waiting on more information in regards to uploading my very boring and basic web page. This is all very new to me and not having all of the information to complete a task (like the ftp address of curtin's server) can be a little irritating as I do not know exactly what I am doing and feel as if I might fail this task by not understanding what I am do to.

Anyway, onto the WWW Standards task and I will let you all know once I have uploaded my web page to the presentation area in webct.

Stay tuned for another riveting blog from the IT newbie....

My 5 Top Tips for New Bloggers.

2008-06-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, after much thought and analysis, below are my 5 tips for new bloggers, which I am one of them.

1. One must always keep it simple and proof read.
My philosophy is that everything in life should stay as simple as possible. It stops misunderstandings and if what you are reading is complex, eventually your brain will turn off and you will not remember anything of what you have just read.

Proof reading your post before publishing it, will avoid looking like and uneducated person. Good grammar and spelling is essential to all forms of writing. I am still re-learning the grammar side of things, so there is room for improvement. haaa.

2. One must always be polite.
Being polite is an essential ingredient any form of communication. One must always remember that there is actually a human being on the other end of the message/post/blog and that they have feelings as well. One idea would to be very clear in what you are writing and balanced.

3. Keep it light, fun, and interesting.
Nothing says boring like an uninteresting blog. I think blogs are meant to be light, fun, and interesting. Adding a bit of your personality lets the reader understand a bit more about the way you write. I think your blog should put a smile on the reader's face.

4. Stay true to yourself.
One must never pretend to be something one is not, as it will always come back and bite you on your bottom. If you do not know what you are writing about that will be apparent to the reader, and you will look silly. If you stay true to yourself you will win more and more readers, as I think everyone prefers honesty to dishonesty.

5. Always reference your sources appropriately.
If you ever use someone elses work, make sure that you reference their work appropriately. This will avoid plagiarism and any legal ramifications. Plus it is just good form and shows that you respect the original author's views and opinions.

Anyway they are what I think every new blogger should think about before publishing a blog, unfortunately I did it backwards but hey sometimes it pays to just jump into the deep end and see if you either sink or swim.

Happy blogging.....

Module 2 - Group Task

2008-06-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

I have used msn for the past 1 ½ years and have found it to be easy to use. I have recently downloaded skype and made my first call via the program to Tina Valentine and I have to say it put a big smile on my face to be able to talk to her, as we have only ever communicated via msn. I now log in to both every time I am on the computer to accommodate those users who prefer msn and those who prefer skype.

I do not see much difference in all the chat programs as they essentially offer the same thing. It is just that others are probably harder to navigate around initially, until you get used to the way things work that is. But some are generally easy to navigate around from the get go.

This task was easy for me as I have gotten to know the art form of ‘chat’ quite intimately and can honestly say that I would be lost without it and that it is the way of the future.

Module 2 tasks are officially done and dusted. Yahooooo.

Module 2 - Chat

2008-06-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well in this task I had to download a chat program, luckily I already have msn and skype so the downloading part was done. But I have to say downloading both programs was easy and painless.

With MSN, your login screen looks like:

Once you have signed in successfully, all you have to do is add your friends contact details and wait for them to come online. The following is a snapshot of what the main window of messenger looks like.

When they are online all you have to do is right click on their name and choose ‘Send an instant message’ and the following screen appears.

You then proceed to start typing in the lower screen in the window, and when you hit the enter key or click on the send button, your message is then added to the top screen in the window. All you do is wait for a reply. You can also add emoticons to enhance your message if you so choose to.

Along the top tool bar on the conversation window, you have a choice of seven (7) other options, they are:

Invite someone to this conversation.
Share files.
Start or stop a video call.
Call a contact.
See a list of activities.
See a list of games.
Block this contact from seeing or contacting you.

So that is a very brief lesson on how to generate a conversation using messenger. You may go forth and experiment with the program. May the art form of chat be with you….

Module 2 - Newsgroups

2008-06-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

For this task I decided to join a newsgroup that dealt with the problem of the supernatural. No not really it was the TV shows newsgroup that I was interested in as the show is quite enjoyable to watch.

Unfortunately I think it should be renamed the Dean and Sam are hotties fan club. I agree they are great eye candy, but the story lines are interesting as well. I know I am showing my sci fi side, but hey we all have our faults.

Here is the copy of the message I posted onto the

I found this task to be pretty painless and unfortunately my newsgroup was pretty inactive over the couple of days that I followed the newsgroup, but it was interesting looking at all of the newsgroups that are out there.

There is a newsgroup to suit everyone’s taste, it is just a matter of whether you have the time and energy to put into the newsgroup.

Module 2 - Lists

2008-06-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

Until this task, I had never even looked at email lists, as I am not the sort of person to sit on the computer all the time talking to people about my interests etc.

What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?

I have looked at a variety of lists available on both yahoo and lists.topica, and I have to say that I really do not feel like joining any of them. Some of the lists had so many rules, and some were very outdated and others had just too many users. Is this wrong? I do not think so, as I have a great network of people that I speak to online about numerous topics, so I do not require lists to satisfy my interests.

The pros of email lists:

• You get a daily log of all messages from the desired list.

• You can reply either to the group as a whole or to the individual sender.

• Has asynchronous communication, thereby allowing people in all time differences the ability to communicate.

The cons of email lists:

• Can be very hard to get your message herd.

• List could have too many members and be overwhelming.

• You can still receive spam/junk email.

I have used discussion boards in every subject I have studied so far from UniSA, Monash University and now Curtin University. So far Monash’s discussion board has been the easiest to use as it has clear headings and you only get the unread messages all in one window.

Pros of discussion boards:

• You do not receive any junk email/spam.

• Some are very easy to navigate through.

• Through some of them you can reply personally to the sender so that your message is not seen on the discussion board. Similar to email lists.

• The threads are easy to understand and navigate through.

• As the discussion board is monitored by tutors/course directors, it is the fastest way to get an answer to any question.

• When posting a question/concern, you get multiple view points.

Cons of discussion boards:

• Some are very hard to navigate in.

• Pressure to read every message for participation grade.

• Pressure to check in every day as the fear of getting hundreds of messages is stressful.

• Feeling unintelligent by reading some of the messages, thereby creating fear about joining in.

Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?

I think that distance learning is better suited to a discussion board as you are only communicating with the other students who are studying the same subject as yourself and being able to communicate with the course director/tutor faster.

Email lists are better suited I think to a more social structure other than learning. Email lists expand your network of friends who have the same interests as yourself and I think that both have their place in society.

Being polite and remembering that there is a human being on the other end of the message you are going to post is critical in both forums. We have enough foul language and rudeness in the world without it being used in either email lists or discussion boards.

Now I am off to conquer Newsgroups..

Module 2 - Email Task

2008-06-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

In this task I had to do an email tutorial and it was easy peasy. I then had to answer the followign questions.

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?
Well an email address it constructed of 2 parts:
First there is the username, e.g. joeblogs
Second is the domain name, e.g. @hotamil.com

The domain name tells us whether it is:
A free host e.g. joeblogs@hotmail.com
A company host e.g. joeblogs@tycoint.com
A government host e.g. joeblogs@qld.gov.au
A education host e.g. joeblogs@curtin.edu.au

The .au on the end of the domain name means it is Australian, and having nothing on the end of the domain name means that it is international/universal. I think.

2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all' functions of email?
I have used the cc (carbon copy) function in the past for work purposes. It is used when you want to include someone into the email communication, while letting the recipient know that you have cc'd someone into their communication.

As an example, in my last subject I had to submit a report that was a group effort and I had to cc all of the group members into the email so that they got a copy of the attached completed report, and they could use the email as a receipt of submission.

I have to say I have never used the bcc (blind carbon copy) function before, as I have never needed to. I suppose it would be useful in a case where you are replying to a person and bcc’d a another person in on the communication but did not want the recipient to know that you have included anyone else in on the communication. It sounds a little like backstabbing in that example. Sorry, probably a very poor choice of examples.

The bcc function, could also be used to huge mailing lists, where the recipient only sees there name and is unaware that the email has been sent to anyone else.

The reply all function can be used when you receive an email from a group of people and you want your reply to be seen by everyone.

Example: A group of friends sends 1 friend an email inviting him/her to a party. That person wants all the senders in the group to see the reply to he/she would use the reply all function. This way the response would be sent to everyone who was the sender on the first email message.

You have to be careful when using the reply all function, as if you only want to reply to one recipient you would create a whole new email and copy and paste the original message and your response into the new message, so that your response does not go to everyone who was the senders on the first email you received.

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?

One way would be to confirm which type of computer program they are using, so that the attachment can be saved under a compatible format. You could also save the attachment as a ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), also known as “plain text”, this would make sure that the attachment could be read by the recipient no matter what type of computer or software they are using.

Making the title of the attachment interesting will make certain that the recipient will open it e.g. attached is the ‘boodylicious’ file that will want to look at.

Do not send large attachments, as they take far to long to download, so compress any large documents etc using winzip etc and then send them as an attachment, makes it much easier and less time consuming.

Think outside the box, as you can get very used to your own system and what it is capable of, and just assume that the person you are sending the attachment to has the same hardware and software that you have. Assume makes an ass out of u and me. Or assumption is the mother of all booboo’s.

4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?

I have a standard filter for incoming junk e-mail messages. This means that most junk e-mail is sent to the junk e-mail folder to be deleted later. This filter makes it easier for me when viewing my inbox, there are only legitimate messages to be viewed. However, I do look at the junk e-mail folder every week to make sure that no legitimate messages are being filtered there by accident.

I also have set up some filters fro incoming messages to be sorted into their appropriate folders automatically, this saves me the time in doing that. As I am a stay at home mum, I really do not get a lot of e-mails so do not need to use a lot of rules or filters, but it is good knowledge to have for when I re-enter the workforce.

5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?

I have folders for every type of email that I receive ranging from my family members, friends, uni, and I keep a folder for every subject that I am studying and remove it when I know that I have passed the subject.

This helps me keep a track of everything and helps me when searching for information. I also go through my sent items and drag them to the appropriate folders as well. This way each folder has both incoming and outgoing messages in it, for easier retrieval.

Traceroute

2008-06-13T03:16:00.000-07:00

To my surprise the web pages that I look at on the Internet do not magically appear on my computer screen. Much to my horror they go through multiple routers to arrive at their desired destination. The mystery behind the Internet has been exposed.

I am not to sure if I will ever use traceroute again after this course. It was very interesting finding out the amount of routers that are involved in sending packets of information around the globe.

Enough on my thoughts, down to the nitty gritty of the task. The first thing I was asked to do is find the network-tools.com web site and using traceroute trace path from network-tools.com to curtin.edu.au. There was 19 hops (number 20 was curtin.edu.au) and it took 267ms for the packet of information to move from network-tools.com to curtin.edu.au and back again. The IP address for curtin.edu.au is 134.7.179.53.

Next I was asked to ping webct and it was 270ms over 10 pings. So I gather that pinging is about cutting down the numebr of routers involved but it increased the ms time. Still hazy on what pinging is exactly, but the name suggests to me that it should be faster or is it acutally the set of golf clubs that my husband has in the garage. Only time will tell.

Lastly I was asked to traceroute curtin.edu.au from my computer. The first hurdle was trying to remember how to get the MS-DOS prompt. After wracking my brain and getting nowhere, I enlisted windows help. Thank god for help is all I can say. Back in the old days I could find the MS-DOS prompt easily, however today it is called the 'command propmpt' on windows vista business. Got there in the end and did a traceroute on curtin.edu.au and it took 21 hops (22 was curtin.edu.au) and 92ms. So even though it took only 19 hops from netwrok-tools.com to curtin the ms speed was higher (267ms). My computer is faster. I think.

Yahoooooo, I have completed module 1. Now onto bigger and better things......

Stay tuned for the next update.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

2008-06-12T05:38:00.000-07:00

Finally I have accomplished the FTP task. It has only taken me all night to figure out that I had to click on word wrap in the notepad window so that I could see the compressed message.

The question was "according to the readme file, '_________ MATTERS" - what word goes in the blank?"

My answer is CAPITALIZATION. I checked out a few of my classmates blogs only to find that I was correct.

A big thank you goes out to Zeak for his fantastic video on how to use FireFTP. Once I updated my Mozilla FireFox, I could download it and I have found it easy to use, once I figured out that I need to have the C drive set on Desktop.

I first tried to use FileZilla and kept coming up with a message asking me to overwrite the file etc. It would not let me upload it. So I enlisted the help of Owen McMahon, who suggested that I download FireFTP and watch Zeak's video. A big thank you to both.

I have to say that I found FireFTP easier to use than FileZilla, plus the layout was easier on the eyes (very tired old eyes).

Anyway it is time that I went to bed and tried to get some sleep, as tomorrow I tackle the Internet tools task. These tasks are taking more time than I thought, but then again I am great at accounting programs, but not so good on this sort of stuff.

Lets hope that by the end of this subject I may just know what all of my classmates are talking about on the discussion board eg: HTML. I know that it stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, but other than that I know nothing. haaa.

Stay tuned for the next exciting post from confused Narelle.

Task A & B- Telnet

2008-06-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

Task A done and dusted.

As you can see I have the email from the Deakin library in my inbox. Yes it worked. I must say that using telnet was easier than I thought. I am not so sure if I will ever need to use telnet in my chosen profession, but at least I know it exists if I ever do need to use it.

Using a screen that is black and white took me back to my first experience with a computer back in 1988. I think we are so accustomed to using today's technology, that as a user we I am unaware of alternatives to the Internet.

As another student pointed out, telnet gives us a look at what was probably the earliest form of today's Internet. I must say that I prefer today's version to that of telnet.

Task B

Okay, blinkenlights was interesting but very slow. I am in awe of the person/people who created it as they would have invested a lot of time and energy in producing such a elaborate show. But I have to say in all honesty that I did exit very early as I found it to be boring. Possibly because 1) I am not a fan of star wars and 2) I use the computer for work and have not and will never use the computer for games etc.

Call me boring but I am who I am.

General thoughts on NET11 so far.

2008-06-03T04:17:00.000-07:00

So far I have been trying to do the NET11 work as well as study for 2 exams that I have to do on the 5.6.08 and the 10.6.08. NET11 has opened up my eyes to how many people love the internet and some of the language other students use is foreign to me, but I am sure that by the end of this subject I will understand what everyone is talking about.

Did the telnet task last night and will post another blog in regards to that.

Well I have just completed my first ever blog and I must say that it was not that hard. lol.