Explora5501's Blog

Google Docs Investigation

explora5501 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:07:41 +0000

What Google Docs do?

Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and form application offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Google Docs combines the features of two services, Whitely and Spreadsheets, which were merged into a single product on October 10, 2006. A third product for presentations, incorporating technology designed by Tonic Systems, was released on September 17, 2007.

What else you might use it for?

Another purpose for using Google Docs could be the use by teachers and students. Teachers could use Google Docs both to publish announcements about upcoming assignments and to monitor student progress via an interactive process which allows you to give guidance when it might be of maximum benefit. Students could use Google Docs to complete the tasks set by teachers or just for fun, or something to do.

What other tools might serve a similar purpose?

Microsoft’s Office 2007 are quite similar to Google docs as it is on-line competitor to Microsoft Office 2007.

Web Publishing Term Glossary

explora5501 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:58:17 +0000

Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML): is used is the encoding scheme used to create and format a web document. A user need not be an expert programmer to make use of HTML for creating hypertext documents that can be put on the internet.

Post Office Protocol (POP-3): is used computing, and is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP): is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. Its use for retrieving inter-linked resources, called hypertext documents.

File Transverse Protocol (FTP): is a standard network protocol used to exchange and manipulate files over a TCP/IP based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server applications.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP): is an Internet standard for electronic mail (e-mail) transmission across Internet Protocol (IP) networks.

Hyperlink (or link): is a reference to a document that the reader can directly follow. The reference points to another document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks. Such text is usually viewed with a computer. A software system for viewing and creating hypertext is a hypertext system.

Applet: any small application that performs one specific task; sometimes running within the context a larger program perhaps as a plug-in However, the term typically also refers to programs written in the Java programming language which are included in an HTML page.

Active Servers Pages (ASP): is a web-scripting interface by Microsoft.

.jpeg (named after the Joint Photographic Experts Group): is a commonly used method of compression for photographic images. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality.

.gif - (stands for: Graphic Interchange Format): is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability. The format supports up to 8 bits per pixel, allowing a single image to reference a palette of up to 256 distinct colors chosen from the 24-bit RGB color space. It also supports animations and allows a separate palette of 256 colors for each frame.

.bmp – (stands for BMP File Format, and often called bitmap or DIB File Format): is an image file format used to store bitmap digital images, especially on Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems.

.png – (stands for Portable Network Graphics): is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics (that is, the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written.

Dynamic Web pages: is a hypertext document rendered to a World Wide Web user presenting content that has been customized or actualized for each individual viewing or rendition or that continually updates information as the page is displayed to the user.

Static Web pages: static web page is a web page that always comprises the same information in response to all download requests from all users. Contrast with Dynamic web page.

Keywords: words that are used to reveal the internal structure of an author’s reasoning. While they are used primarily for rhetoric, they are also used in a strictly grammatical sense for structural composition, reasoning, and comprehension. Indeed, they are an essential part of any language.

Meta-tags: are HTML or XHTML elements used to provide structured metadata about a Web page. Such elements must be placed as tags in the head section of an HTML or XHTML document. Meta elements can be used to specify page description, keywords and any other metadata not provided through the other head elements and attributes.

.mp3 (stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3: is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on digital audio players.

Web server: is a computer program that delivers (serves) content, such as this web page, using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The term web server can also refer to the computer or virtual machine running the program.

Web Browser: is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content.

What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWIG): The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed during editing appears very similar to the final output, which might be a printed document, web page, slide presentation or even the lighting for a theatrical event.

Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML): is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely used Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language in which web pages are written.

Extensible Markup Language (XML): is a set of rules for encoding documents electronically. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C and several other related specifications; all are fee-free open standards

References:

Wikis Investigation

explora5501 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:49:41 +0000

What is a wiki?

A wiki is a website that allows easy creation and editing of any number of times of interlinked Web pages, using a WYSIWYG text editor or a simplified markup lanaguage, within the browser. Wikis are powered by wiki software.

When was Wikipedia established?

Wikipedia has been around for 10 years with industry leading product, references and history, but can’t seem to get listed into Wikipedia.

How does Wikipedia differ from a conventional encyclopedia?

Wikipedia calls itself an encyclopedia because it serves the same goals as any conventional encyclopedia, but it isn’t written like one, nor will it ever be.

How reliable is Wikipedia? Why?

“While most of Wikipedia’s information is accurate, the site isn’t as reliable, as say a book, because anyone is able to edit information and make things up. The Wikipedia website says: The reliability of Wikipedia, compared to both other encyclopedias and more specialized sources, is often assessed in several ways, including statistically, by comparative review, by analysis of the historical patterns, and by strengths and weaknesses inherent in the Wikipedia process.”

How good is the Wikipedia entry for your home town?

The page on my hometown on the Wikipedia website is very accurate and detailed. It has the accurate loctaion, images and information.

Are there any inaccuracies?

There aren’t really an inaccuracies but, on some pages they might not be accurate as people can edit information and make things up.

Could you improve or add to it?

I probably, could improve the wikipedia website but, would take many hours. I could add and improve the content of the website with more revevant information.

When “Nature” magazine compared Wikipedia with Encyclopedia Britannica what did they find?

According to a study by journal Nature, Wikipedia stuff-ups — such as this week’s one on President Kennedy’s assassination — are “the exception rather than the rule”, and the resource is almost as accurate as the online Encyclopaedia Britannica, at least when it comes to science.

Nature took stories from Wikipedia and Britannica on 42 science-related topics and submitted them to experts for review. The experts were not told which encyclopedia the stories were from. “The exercise revealed numerous errors in both encyclopedias, but among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; Britannica, around three,” according to Nature.

The entries covered topics including Agent Orange, quarks and synchrotrons. “Only eight serious errors, such as misinterpretations of important concepts, were detected in the pairs of articles reviewed, four from each encyclopedia … but reviewers also found many factual errors, omissions or misleading statements: 162 and 123 in Wikipedia and Britannica respectively.”

What are the dangers of using Wikipedia as a research source of information?

The main danger of using Wikipedia as a research tool is that information isn’t always accurate. A Japanese student while cramming for his exam picked up information on Shimabara Rebellion in 17th-century, in Japan. He figured out the problem soon enough. The obscure, though incorrect, information was from Wikipedia, the collaborative online encyclopedia.

How can you mitigate against these dangers?

You can mitigate aganist the danger of inaccuate information, by looking for an author and date of the last publishment date and is a sure sign the infromation is very accurate.

What safeguards does Wikipedia have to protect against or correct spurious and inaccurate information?

Safeguards to ensure accurate information of Wikipedia is by having a login in system where only certain people can edit the information found on the website.

Try creating a Wikipedia account. What happens? Why?

When you click on the log- in button, it says to create an account. When you click on this link it says that “Account creation from this IP address (203.38.184.18) has been temporarily restricted.”

What else can Wikis be used for?

Wikis can also be used to create a website of any sort, that is able to be edited by a certain person, with restricted access to others.

References:

Types of Information Systems

explora5501 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:52:23 +0000

The overall information system of an organisation might consist of a number of different types of information systems, including:

a transaction-processing system
an office automation system
a management information system
an executive information system
a decision support system
an expert system.

Most organisations combine both transtion-processing and management information system capabilities, and some also incorporate executive information and decision support system features. While expert systems operate primarily as seperate systems, most organisations combine and intergrate an organisation’s information needs into a single system.

Reference: IT@WORK: H., Andersen, P., Christopersen, R., Timmer- Arends, Information Processing and Management, Second Edition, Macmillan Publishing, 1999, pg: 228.

Censoring the Web

explora5501 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:45:11 +0000

You can find anything on the web if you know the place to look but, is it a good thing, or should there be any restrictions on what’s available? Some content found on the Internet is far more unpleasant than what can be found in books, films, magazines on television. Most countries have laws about what can be published in print or shown on screen. Should the web be any different?

The law stops children from buying or renting videos, or seeing films that are rated to be explicit or not suitable for their age group. But children may be exposed to undesirable material, unrestricted, on the web.

Censorship:

Censorship is the restriction of what people are allowed to hear, see or read. It can be used to protect people from material that can damage or upset them. It can be used to restrict people’s freedom, by controlling their accesses to information that might use in undesirable ways.

There is no worldwide censorship of the web, but many countries have laws that apply to the web and media. For example, in the UK, certain types of pornography are illegal. The material can’t be sold in print, shown in films or on any UK website. There is nothing to stop others from viewing these things that have been published elsewhere. As the internet is international, anyone in the UK can look at a site hosted abroad.

What should we censor?

Countries have different views on censoring the web. In the West, our aims tend to be protect children and other impressionable people; to restrict pornographic or violent material; to block information that encourage’s crime; and to prevent people saying abusive things about other individuals or groups. However, this is not the same worldwide. In same countries, the state might want to censor sites that suggest a way of life they don’t agree with.

Against censorship:

Some people think that although it’s right to protect children, by using censorship, adults should be free to do as they please. They say that adults are able to act responsibly and don’t need to be protected from anything. For example we expect most people will drive cars safely, even though they could kill someone while driving. People who are against censorship believe in freedom of information. They also feel that there should be no limits to what people can say, or hear or view, in the media or Internet, or by means of communication.

For censorship:

Other people think that we should all be protected from most unpleasant material. People for censorship believe that if we see too much violence, we may become hardened to it and accept or carry out violence in the real world more readily. There are also arguments that sexual or violence in films, websites or computers games can be upsetting and damaging to the mind. So they believe there should be a ban on what is dangerous for protection, of oneself that can cause physical harm.

Reference: A. Rooney, Tomorrow’s Science: Internet Technologies, Chrysalis Children’s Books, London, 2003, pgs: 16-17

The Internet and it’s changing patterns

explora5501 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:07:59 +0000

Who’s online?

The change of computers and the access to them hasn’t been the same globally. While people who live in the USA, Western Europe, Australasia and Southeast Asia have became more and more reliant on the internet and the use of it, most people in Africa, Eastern Europe, South America, Russia and parts of Asia have still never used a computer.

For those who don’t use the Internet a lot, things have changed rapidly over the past decade.

Some companies try to have ways on getting everyone to use the computer but, most of these people are so outdated with technology that they need to learn of this new technology.

Reference: A. Rooney, Tomorrow’s Science: Internet Technologies, Chrysalis Children’s Books, London, 2003, pgs: 6-7

Computers, the Internet and the Web

explora5501 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:52:07 +0000

Computers:

Computers have been around since the 1950′s and to begin with weren’t very big and slow, and very few people used them. Personal (PCs) became very few people. Computers began popular and further develop rapidly in the 1980′s till 90′s.

Internet or Web?

Many people use the terms ‘Internet’ and “3w” to mean the same thing but, in fact the two terms mean very different things. The Internet is the name of the worldwide network of computers that are connected and communicate to one another. The web is the set of linked pages, or websites, that can be accessed using the internet.

The Growth of the Internet:

The Internet began in the 1960′s, before the world wide web. It was used by universities and some large businesses. They could send e-mail, use bulletin boards and newsgroups and play simple games, but all this was text- based. It1990 , when the web was set up, the Internet became more colourful and caught the public imaginaion. Along with sending e-mail, browsing the web became popular online activity, many uses have been found for the web, including games, shopping, chat and instant messaging.

Reference: A. Rooney, Tomorrow’s Science: Internet Technologies, Chrysalis Children’s Books, London, 2003, pgs: 4-5

Keeping Safe on the Internet

explora5501 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:44:14 +0000

The law on your side:

There are laws in place in many counties all over the world that protect people and keep them safe. For example,in the UK, the Data’s Protection Act sates that people who want to store information about others must first register with the Information Commissioner. They have a say what they are going to do with the information, agree to use the information only for the specified purpose, and let any person see a copy of the information held on them. This means that at say, at a school, they are allowed to hold information about someone that’s useful to them in educating or looking after, this someone. What a school isn’t allowed to do with this information, is sell this person’s details to a company that could encourage you, for example, join a film club.

National boundaries:

Laws about what can be done with personal details is different from country to country. An organisation in the UK has to follow UK rules. But, if information about someone is kept on a computer in another country, British law may not be able to protect you. Someone will have to tell you if they move your details to, say, the US – but once they are there, the US rules apply. The European Union and the US are currently arguing about what can be done with information about people.

Ask yourself:

Is it fair that your personal details can be sold and stored all around the world?
Do you have a right to know who has information stored about you and, where it is kept?
Do you have a right to look at information and change it or remove it if you wish?
How could this be managed globally?

Reference: A. Rooney, Tomorrow’s Science: Internet Technologies, Chrysalis Children’s Books, London, 2003, pgs:12-13.

Search Engines

explora5501 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:52:27 +0000

Search Engines are software programs that are able to locate infomation in a database. Search engines can be used within specific websites or mulitmedia presentations. To use a search engine such as Google or Yahoo you need to have a key word of what you’re searching. Alternatively, the user may choose an option from a drop-list box, to narrow the search. Examples of these search engines can be found at:

www.realestate.com.au or www.mycareer.com.au. The result from the search engines is a number of entries to match the search request.

Reference: IT@WORK: H., Andersen, P., Christopersen, R., Timmer- Arends, Information Processing and Management, Second Edition, Macmillan Publishing, 1999, pg: 68.

A Brief Internet Timeline

explora5501 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:33:09 +0000

1962: AT&T launches the first commercial modem, with a speed of 300 bits per second. J Licklider of MIT proposes the idea of a ‘galactic network’.

1968: First sighting of the computer mouse.

1969: Arpanet launched to share research data between four university nodes.

1972: The first email message arrives.

1973: The first big network crash occurs on Christmas day.

1979: The Usenet creates online newsgroups and bulletin boards.

1983: TCP/IP leads to the rise of the Internet. Microsoft launches Windows.

1990: File Transfer Protocol (FTP) makes it easier to exchange files online.

1991: The web is launched, and begins to spread via universities.

1993: Mosaic, the first commercial browser.

1994: E-shopping arrives. The web is still only the second most popular internet application after FTP.

1995: The ‘browser wars’: Internet Explorer vs Netscape Navigator. Explorer wins.

1998: First murder directly linked to the web.

2004: The web reaches one billion users. Tim Berners-Lee knighted.

The Effect of the Internet on Higher Education

explora5501 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:26:48 +0000

The Internet has had a massive effect on education in the 21st century. Almost all aspects of learning are changing as technology develops. An American group created a project in Miami where they found out things about the role of computers and the Internet and these surveyor’s lives. With nearly 3 out of 4 people said they strongly disagrees that they wouldn’t be able to survive with the educational demands for the need of a computer. About 84% of all participants had similar feelings towards the Internet.

Reference: http://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/cyberspace/education/index.shtml

About The World Wide Web

explora5501 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:31:30 +0000

The World Wide Web, sometimes called ‘WWW’, ”W3″ or “Web” is a accessible- network of information, based on human knowledge or research. The Web began as a networked infomation system as a project with the CERN, where the Director of the World Wide Consortium, Tim Berners-Lee, created this faboulous idea!

The Web has softwares, protocols and conventions. Through the use of hypertext and media techniques, the web has become a tool, very easy to browse and contribute to. The early talk about the Web gives us a background into how it was created.

Reference: http://www.w3.org/WWW/

Reference (image): http://www.w3c.de/PubPraes/w3c-tbl.jpg