Wednesday, April 22, 2009

www and blogs

Just spent the day reading Module 3 - a heap of information which is all slightly familiar but which I needed to delve further into using the links to fully become aware of the topic.
Got just a little side tracked - Loved "The book of sand" and had to complete the puzzle.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

chat task: icq

Wow, just had my first chat on icq! Was quite good. I set up yesterday with a list of icq numbers from the discussion board. Janice was online tonight and I had a conversation with her. At first it seemed a bit disjointed compared to a phone conversation, but after a while I realised that you have to allow a bit of time for response and its ok if there is no immediate conversation or feedback. I can see it feel a little bit like email whereby when you send something you dont know if it will be read immediately.
I can image if there were many people in the conversation it the flow could become even more disjointed and confusing.

A conversation without reliance upon voice tone and visual expression means that it could be easy to misinterpret what is being said. I tended to type question after question and reading back what I said made me sound like I was interrogating poor Janice!
Anyway she was a champ and helped me with my many questions about the functions of icq.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Email: Newsgroups, Lists

Thanks to the discussion board I was able to subscribe to an email list involving our study group, so I am looking forward to receiving email and checking out posts once I am "accepted" into the group.
I am already on an email list for work - retailers in the same industry as myself ask for and send information regarding current industry issues, topic and problems.
The list is connected to a yahoo group. I have tried to post to the group a couple of weeks ago but cannot remember my password or log in code. You need to provide an email address to get your password - the email address from when you first signed up. I can't remember mine so I have given up.
Passwords and signing up for many different groups creates a lot of problem in my everyday life. I try to stick to a few different passwords so I can guess what they may be if i forget but with the different requirements - 8 or 10 digits, alpha numeric and a certain length, combination of numeric, upper and lower case, it is getting harder and harder to remember. I dont want to record the passwords on my laptop so I resort to my memory and my phone for a couple of critical ones.

After lots of reading and contemplating newsgroups I have decided not to do any further work with this task. I went to usenet and clicked on a couple of sites then had all this WIN, WIN , WIN sort of messages appear in about 10 windows.... I hope I havent caught anything!!!!
It took me ages to close all the windows as they jump around the screen.

I found the link to how stuff works to be helpful to explain the different types of email communications.

MODULE 2 Email

Getting up to date with my blog posts after a week of playing catch up!
Email Tasks:
Information about the sender and the path a message took can be obtained from the header infomation in the email, and if you look in View , Options, Internet Headers: when the message is open in Microsoft Outlook.
There is a lot of data in the internet headers you don't see when you use the program. I suppose this is a good thing as most people would find just sorting through their emails on a regular basis is reading enough!

The cc, bcc and reply all functions on email are a fantastic tool to allow you to pass along information to other people in the information chain who need to know about the communication you are sending. Reply all is great because you dont have to individual address your reply email to those who already part of the email "conversation.
Reply all can be a bit cumbersome if used lazily. I have instances where a question is asked and everyone replies to all " Thanks for that". This type of communication causes un-needed clutter in the inbox.

Email Attachments can be very useful - fantastic to send documents and files quickly. If I'm not sure of the software the receiver will have I will send a .pdf file for a document or spreadsheet etc. maybe a .jpg file if it is a picture or .rtf if its a straight text document. These documents are easy to send size wise as well - as a pdf is usually smaller than a publisher file, and a .jpg can be resized for the senders purpose or to keep your picture secure. eg: if you dont want your picture reproduced for posters you can just send a thumbnail size .jpg to give the reader an idea of the picture but they could not steal your image and reproduce it because the quality would be too poor.

Email filters and rules are a godsend if you have lots of emails coming into you inbox. I sort supplier files and incoming regular correspondence using message rules. Supplier files get automatically forwarded to others, then deleted. Certain contacts get filed into their own files for dealing with later as they are not urgent.
I have two types of filters - one is before mail gets to my inbox and is filtered by my ISPs bigpond and tpg. Then I have CA scan emails as they come in with suspicious ones going to a seperated file for review, then approval or deletion.

My folders in my email program at home are organised into various categories of my life - family & friends, community work, work, studies, health & fitness, computer information, home management. Then I have subfolders for some folders eg: study has NET11 and SSK12. Community work has progress association, tafe mentoring etc.
The most important folder is the TO DO folder file. This is the one that has urgent, don't forget to do this stuff soon items in it!



I found the tutorial via link to University of Ohio quite basic - but informative for the absolute beginner. I wonder why this university would us a University of Ohio tutorial? Surely with all the academics in this field curtin would have a basic document explaining the same as this?

Friday, April 10, 2009

Week 6

Well its nearly the end of week 6 in NET11 unit and I am very behind. I am doing two subjects this semester. This one, and a Murdoch uni humanities / social science introductory unit. I thought both units would take about 10 hours per week each. The Murdoch unit involves a lot of reading, listening to lectures and set exercise tasks. I have already had 2 deadlines for assessment tasks in week 2 and two deadlines for week 5. I have been spending around 15 hours per week on the Murdoch unit. Consequently I have not devoted nearly enough time to the NET11 unit. I am really interested in this unit and wish I didn't have so much pressure on me to devote time to my other unit.
I feel it is very easy to let this unit 'take a back seat' when there are no work requirements due unit week ten. I am aware that you need to be self-motivated but it is easy to let this unit slide when the other unit and work and family all need attention as well.
This week just gone I have been on holidays with my family camping so have done nothing online at all.
Busy day at work tomorrow then it is going to be a fresh start for this unit - 2 - 4 hours per day until I catch up.
Happy and safe easter to everyone :)

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

traceroute task & pings


used traceroute tool from http://network-tools.com/ to find route to lms.curtin.edu.au

tried to paste to this screen but columns all bunched up and ugly! 19 hops in 282 milliseconds!
TraceRoute to 134.7.180.137 [lms.curtin.edu.au] the curtin IP is listed.
This task shows what an amazing job routers do to get us connected and communicating around the world - or just down the street.
Pings: using network-tools

Ping 134.7.180.137
[lms.curtin.edu.au]
Round trip time to 134.7.180.137: 268 msRound trip time to 134.7.180.137: 253 msRound trip time to 134.7.180.137: 256 msRound trip time to 134.7.180.137: 267 msRound trip time to 134.7.180.137: 254 msRound trip time to 134.7.180.137: 254 msRound trip time to 134.7.180.137: 256 msRound trip time to 134.7.180.137: 272 msRound trip time to 134.7.180.137: 266 msRound trip time to 134.7.180.137: 257 ms
Average time over 10 pings: 260.3 ms

I downloaded A-toolbar and did traceroute to lms.curtin.edu.au - did it in 11 hops but 1048596 milliseconds! the last hop took ages - maybe firewall or something?
ping via A-toolbar: in 4 out of 5 pings 1048596ms one was 168ms. Tried pinging this blogger site and that turned out to be large - 1048596ms as well sometimes. Wonder if it could be my wireless internet causing the delay?

Playing Catch up

Already at the start of week four feeling the pressure, have spent all day on my other very demanding unit. Promise will be devoting some time tomorrow to this unit. Tackling final lot of week 3 work tonight! The most helpful part of the unit is the discussion boards. I read every post so I don't miss a thing. Wondering if there are many other students that are reading the posts and gaining knowledge like myself - but behind a bit and feeling I have not got anything to contribute to the discussion board because some are already ahead and sorted out the problems. Also feel like I lack knowledge in this subject and just playing the role of follower!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

FTP - file transfer protocol

This server runs on a unix platform, so CAPITALIZATION MATTERS!
A file named "file.txt" IS NOT THE SAME as "FILE.TXT"

Downloaded filezilla OK. Could not log in as I was trying to login as anonymous and my email as the password as I had read somewhere.
The discussion board put me on the right track there!

When I logged in using no username and password everything worked fine.
found the file and dragged it to my desktop - worked a treat.
Very surprising the ease of getting into the server computer and access to the files there.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Blogger - things to do

Note to self
fix up header for this blog! not happy with the blank windows at the side.
At the very least would like to choose different colors or abstract pattern to put there.
Might have to tackle that this weekend - If I get thru all the set tasks on my schedule this week.
I find it annoying when you add a picture blogger places it at the top of the blog entry. You then have to move it, and it leaves behind a blank line. Easy enough to fix, but annoying.

Telnet

So pleased that I have completed this exercise. The link in the task window didn't work, so I went to plan b - check the discussion board. The advice here is invaluable. From reading the 40 posts I was able to decide on my course of action. Firstly I did a search of my computer to see if I had Telnet on my system. The search showed 2 help files and 3 .app files. I opened the help files and read what I could on commands - it all started to gel with what the discussion board posts were saying. I kept the help screens open...

I crossed my fingers and doubled clicked on the window system32 telnet application and a dos window opened. Yay, I was on my way. Referring to the help screen I typed open library.deakin.edu.au I was in! I was able to follow the telnet screen instructions to search for Bennahum. Here is what happened:
I was on a roll - after checking that the email went thru ok I check the bibliographic information for each record.



It was tricky backing out of the program, ie. getting to a point where Q for quit would work but after going back to the original search screen I could use the quit command.

Quite amazing how used to the windows environment we are - Its like we have forgotton that DOS type systems even exist. This exercise showed how quickly and easily it can work - providing you know the correct commands.


towel.blinkenlights.nl was awesome - my kids will love it as they are so into star wars. Dont know if they've ever watched anything in black & white before.





Monday, March 9, 2009

Net11 Module 1

I have just finished reading Module 1 and am duly impressed by the way everything works to made the world wide web and emails happen. The fore-sight of Tim Berners Lee in 1992* to conceptualise the URL and HTTP, and the fact that the protocols still exist today is amazing.
I am not sure if I should be referencing / citing anything that I discuss on this blog, but decided to put the link in until I am fully aware of the correct procedure for this blog.
DJ :)


*Source:
http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_14736_1%26url%3d

DJ's Top 5 tips for new bloggers

1: Decide the best blog for you - I chose blogger because it's simple with templates, and was recommended by others in my class who seemed to know what they were doing. The templates were a real time saver - however I need to spend a bit more time customising my page.
2: Check out other peoples blogs - there are so many creative people out there with inspirational blogs get your ideas flowing
3: Don't disclose personal details - unless you want those details exposed and published for the whole world to see, download, forward, copy .........
4: Don't Stress - you are not the only blogger out there - enjoy yourself - my idea of a good blog is one which is easy to read and entertaining
5: Just Do It - ya gotta start somewhere

- DJ :)

What a week!

Just commencing the second week of study by completing the first weeks work!
Already feeling behind the eight ball - so much reading. Totally underestimated the amount of time it would take to read the discussion boards and all the threads for the two units I am studying.
Just reviewed Week one of NET11 and see I haven't done my top 5 tips for first time bloggers - See my next post!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Here we go

Welcome to my first blog post!
thought I better make a start but too tired to put anything interesting in it tonight - Just glad I was able to get this far!
Templates and setup was easy - need to check out all the options for settings and layout to make more personalised. Looking forward to checking out others blogs from my unit NET11.
Regards Debra J.