MPI104 Wrap Up..What Have I learnt?

So MPI104 has been quite an interesting subject so far, I have learnt heaps of new techniques and tricks for using the net. Since our last assessment back in Week 8, there have been many new additions to the interestingness of MPI104!

Firstly, we learnt about FTP and & Athene, basically FTP stands for 'File Transfer Protocol'. This is a software tool used to share files through a computer network; such as the Internet. There are four main intentions of FTP, they are:

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

In order to see how this worked, we created a Word Document with a few images, and then used a Software Program called 'Fetch' to upload the page onto the CSU server; known as Athene. It was really easy to see how FTP works through this means, as it demonstrated to us that even though you may not have web development and creation software (such a iWeb or Adobe Dreamweaver etc), anyone with access to Word could simply create a page for the Internet.

We began to create our web pages through iWeb and found this to be quite an in depth program, very user friendly and easy to use. I have previously created a web page in Dreamweaver, however the iWeb program was easier to work with as it does a lot of the work for you! Its mainly a layout and typography based program, all the user seems to have to do is add colours, fonts and images, whilst iWeb automatically creates the links between pages!

This lead us to the RSS and Counters section in the course. I personally really liked this part of the course, as I had never really understood the concept of RSS and it was explained and demonstrated very easily and logically! RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' and what it does is even cooler! It is a 'family of web feed formats' that are constantly updating and refreshing as new content is added to the internet site of interest. So how it works? You go to your favourite site, and check if it has an RSS symbol (as pictured) in the URL (the typed web address) bar. You simply click this, and it will become one of the RSS feeds you are able to see. Your computer stores this (usually under the 'Favourites' Tab) on your computer.

You can take this one step further by adding feeds to your own blog pages. You do this by following the top steps, and once you click the RSS button and get the new URL, then if you're using 'Blogger' you can simply add a 'Feed' to your Blog page...and its all done! The information shown is always up to date, this would be great for someone wanting to keep up to date with the latest trends, news, music...the list goes on. Yet another trick is to turn this into JavaScript and add feeds to your own webpage! I simply used a Feed 2 JS website to write the HTML code for me, then added it to my web page as a 'HTML snippet'.

The counters were also quite interesting! I think they are a great idea to keep an eye on how much traffic you have visit your website! This would be particularly valuable to a business' website so that they could make sure their business/products/services were being advertised and marketed correctly. I had fun with this part of the lesson, and am quite happy with the counters on my Blog and Athene Webpage.

We then learnt about a website called Technorati, which is one of the most annoying websites I think I have ever had the displeasure of using! Definately not a site I would voluntarily use! It was quite complex at times to navigate around and the functionality of the site is quite... well useless in my opinion! Ok, perhaps a bit harsh of me to say! Basically its a search engine that searches through blogs and then gives them a rank and an authority. In class we tried to gain some kind of rank and some authority and pretty much failed miserably! I am not sold on this idea of Technorati yet, but something tells me that I will get the hang of it at some stage!!

After all this learning, all that was left to do was create a web page! My Web Page has 7 different pages including:

* Home
* About Me
* My Designs
* Favourite Photos
* Blog
* RSS Feed - Deviant Art, MPI104, Apple
* Contact Me

I think I have created an appealing site, what do you think?

I am looking forward to my next Multimedia subject as I think with the World of technology we are ever changing and constantly upgrading! So bring it on I say!

Sarah

Week 12: Revision and Assessment Preperation

OK, So its that time of the Course again... yes...that time! Assessment... if ego's not a dirty word then assesment certainly should be!! Anyways... enough prattling.. although I laugh because only a small amount of people will actually get my previous joke... and the other will think I was high or something when I wrote this... I'm NOT! Just trying to not think of that A word....

ANYWAYS>... So the assesment prep... well I been working my butt off the last few days to make sure my iWeb page is reasonably ok looking and not too shite on content!! See for yourself HERE!! I would appreciate people's thought and feedback on it, so if you have something to say please do so... but please try to make it constructive!!
I have also uploaded some images on my FLICKR account. I Added some more of my fave photos from the road trip Yesterday (well Friday- as I have just realised it's technically Sunday!), and have just also added some of my artwork pieces for my VPA101 course.
My Delicious account has actually been quite handy, fancy that? Actually learning about something that I WILL use in the future (not like algebra at school!)I have found it quite damn good that I can have my favourite sites wherever I go! I plan on adding all my classmate's athene accounts to this, as I think it will be good to do so!

I have also had a play around with the design of my site, I felt that the colours needed to be changed, and the image is awesome... a sunset pic taken in Darwin! Love the clouds.. what do you think??

Ok enough crazy talk for 2am on a Sunday... until tomorrow... or well... later today even?
......Over and Out....

Week 11: Technorati

This week we looked at a site called Technorati that is a website which basically monitors your blog and the activity occurring on your blog, and then ranks blogs and gives them a number, otherwise known as Authority. The Wikipedia Definition seems to be a very limited one, as it states that Technorati is 'an Internet search engine for searching blogs, competing with Google and Yahoo!' but I think that it may go a little further than this.
On the Technorati Site they say:
What is Technorati?
Technorati is the leading monitor of the world of weblogs. Technorati is a real-time search engine that is the largest source of fresh information about the global and local conversations going on all across the Web. Technorati allows you to find out what people are saying about you, your company, your products, your competitors, your politics and, other areas of interest, on the Internet in real time.


In regards to your Rank and Authority, my blog is currently Ranked 0 and has no authority....YAY.... shall have to work on that! Here is an interesting article on rank and authority from Technorati and some strange looking dude... so he must know what he's going on about!

There is even a section for the TOP 100 blogs on Technorati. There are some really interesting things on this page!! Having had a look though, it seems that the top 30 at least are all company related, or have something to do with a company ... i.e the number 1 is Huffington Post..and the number 2 is Tech Crunch (well at the moment).

So far it has been interesting, and now we are all going to click on each others blog 'fave this blog with technorati' thingo like 100 times each.... so we will be in the top 1 million next week maybe!

Toodles

Week 10: RSS & Counters....

So this week we learnt how to put counters into our web pages and blog pages! Pretty awesome huh! I went to a site called Bravenet to create some counters. If you click HERE you can go to the site and create your own account and start creating them now!

The idea of the counter is to see how many 'hits' (browsers who visit) your page gets. I can see how this will be good for a website, because you can monitor how well your site is going. This being said, however, the number is calculated simply by people opening that page... so for example..anyone who clicks HERE will go to my iWeb page..and this will bump up another number on my hits. It doesnt mean my site is good though does it? It means you may have gone to a totally crap site and the fact that you went there made the count go up.... so not a true indication of how the site is working. I think I would like to further my counter and look into adding another page element to poll people as to whether or not the site was what they expected/ were looking for/ interested them at all.




RSS is also another element I found quite interesting, and if you look at my main blog page, you'll see I have added some RSS feeds from Apple and Deviant Art. Ok so what is an RSS feed your asking? Well RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, not even kidding about that! And what RSS does is a 'family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format' as per the Wikipedia definition.
Its just a way to keep updated on sites that you like, and this way you always have new stuff on your blog and web pages! What's even better...is its all up to date!

So on that note, I am off.... but I really like this RSS and counter stuff.... shall look into it further!

Cya...Sarah :-)

Week 9: FTP & Athene

Ok, I forgot to post my blog last week in class on FTP and the CSU's server (Athene).

So basically FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, which is a software tool used to exchange and manipulate files from an internet server. The Wikipedia definition states that the purpose for FTP is:

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

So whilst in class we decided to give this new found information a go, and we created a Microsoft Word document with the aim of uploading it to our Athene account. "What's this?" I hear you ask, well the Athene is the server we use here at CSU. We used a software based tool called 'Fetch' to upload our Word document to the server, therefor making it a web page. This was a very simple way of creating a web page, however once the document was on the server we found that the images that we had included in our documents had dissappeared or been distorted. Hence goes the saying...if it sounds easy..its obviously not the right way to do it!!Or so I say anyway!

Then we were introduced to a FANTASTIC (and trust me I dont mention that word alot when I talk about Mac's) program called iWeb. This program alone has made me want to go out and buy a MAC!! Anyway, getting back to why it was so awesome...it let me create a web page and then upload it to the net via Fetch. My site is still very much under construction as I have not been back in the Mac labs for the last week, but will definately be making it more interesting and me!

So in conclusion, go check out my Athene Web Page and let me know what you think.

Also I will be uploading some more interesting pics on my FLICKR Account

And I think I will also have a play around with my blog format, I think this look is getting old....so until next time...

Cheerio

Sarah xoxo

MPI104 So Far....

Ok, so far in my MPI104 course I have learnt quite a few different things! The first of which is the diversity of the Google features and the huge web space that Google seem to dominate, from Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google News...Google seems to have everything. I was aware that they had an email system, one that was a rival to msn, however after having signed up to an account and delved into the world that is Google, I have discovered that Google is almost a world in cyber space unto itself. The fact that several of my now running applications (which will be mentioned soon) are all linked with my one Google account, not only makes it fast and easy to upload new things to my sites... but it does also make me wonder what would happen if this empire were to collapse? But that doesnt look like happening anytime soon, Google is the first place I go to when I need an answer to a seemingly mysterious question, or even images for an assignment! I dare say that I am not the only person with the mentality of "I'll just Google it".

This brings me to my next learning curve online, that is the writing of HTML and Blogger...I find it fascinating to actually be able to create a web page out of a simple word document and then actually have it work! This then followed onto the chaning of the appearance of my blog page, which was as challenging as it was tedious! Needless to say..after going through the coding, I found out there was a much simpler way... but oh well at least now I know both ways! I find it great that I can alter the appearance of my page without losing or changing any of the content what-so-ever! Its great!

Then I was introduced to Flickr, even though I had heard of it, I had never actually had a look at the site...as facebook seemed to have my needs covered with the sharing of images online! But who knew that you could have so much fun playing around with your images in picnik?!! I have had fun with this part of the subject, although am starting to run out of images to upload...must take more!!

I also love the idea of del.icio.us!! The fact that I can save my fave websites no matter what they are...is fantastic!! Awesome even! I have actually found myself using this site a little in times where I want to remember a website but havent got a pen handy...what an ingenious invention!!

That brings me to the end of my story so far in MPI104...tomorrow..or today I should say is my first in class assesment.... hmmm hope it works out well for me!

Sarah xox

Holidays in the "Non-Contact Period"

So, I have almost had 3 weeks off... and most of my other uni mates are only given 2 weeks...so bring on the 'slack a*s' comments! Also...after having worked full time... where you are given 4 weeks off for THE WHOLE YEAR...in other words... those 4 weeks are precious... Im kinda over the holidays that we arent allowed to call holidays.... now I'm gonna cop it from everyone!!
But on my holidays I have actually had quite a fun and relaxed time... I made it to the Cootamundra Boots n All BnS Ball... and that was fun..even if it was raining and muddy and I was covered in food dye and am STILL trying to get the colour out of my hair (looks like a bad attempt of dying hair at this stage!)!! I also got away from it all for a week and spent time out on the farm... then came back to reality and started on my essays and assignments....FUN FUN FUN!!
Revision has been going great for this topic... I have crammed it all into my brain... now I just hope it stays there!! Bring on the next Saga in MPI104!!