The Review

I thought I should make a few quick notes about the course.
I really enjoy all the internet units at Curtin (despite them not being my field of study), and I was very sad to hear that they're moving the course over to CBS Blackboard (which isn't being taken care of properly). I much prefer WebCT over Blackboard, but that can just be another Curtin "what are they thinking?!".

I really, really liked the communication and discussion parts of this class. It's so sad to do units where you feel so isolated because lecturers take three days to reply to your communications, and students have no way of communicating one another apart from mass emails.
This class however really utilises it's resources (which you would hope since it is an online class).
I also loved delving into areas of study which I have never had the courage to explore before. For example FTP has always frightened me, but it's a lot easier than I thought it would be. Also writing in a blog has shown why I wouldn't do it, but forced me to try it at the same time (note: wouldn't use it because of my lack of consistency).

I also loved this class because it was rare that the tutor had to intervene to redirect us. It is also a great group focussed/self taught class that has really been tuned well.

Just some thoughts I had.

The End..?

Well, we're winding up the semester.
Ultimately what I've been taught this semester is that in such a fast past area, and a constantly growing technology, one really can't afford to fall behind in the game and potentially become a negligent and vulnerable user. One must constantly read and absorb information about this tool and how it's growing and expanding. So that's my goal after the holidays :) to stay informed.

Exams

Well, we're winding up the semester, and along with that comes exams. I feel surprisingly content at the moment, and have succeeded in minimising the rattling nerves which I so often succumb to during this time period. And I think I owe this to early preparation of my mind by extensive reading on handling the situation. I thought it might be a good idea to compile a few helpful links about stress and the exam period, to help some, but to help me too.

Counselling Services: Effortless Exams
This source discusses utilising your stress as a positive tool, rather than a negative one. To focus your energy and using that stress to propel you further.

Studying for Exams
This site talks about how to prepare for different exams types, such as open book, essay or multiple choice. The only thing I hate about these websites is when they say "you should begin studying about four weeks before your exams", when really, if I'm looking at these sites then I've usually got less time than 4 weeks already.

Surviving Exams
And Lastly, the top ten tips to tackling exams.

And lastly a few of my own tips.
1. Try hypnotism
2. Eat (don't forget)
3. What you do during your study, do during your exam, ie. if you drink water. (note: there are usually restrictions to what you can do in the exam, so perhaps revers the process, and do during your studying, what you'll do during the exam)

If these tips help no one else, then they'll just help remind me of what I should do.

Assignment: Conceptual Reflection and Research Project

Netiquette, Security and Interactions

7. Netiquette

Netiquette is the online, correct way to interact with other people and the online world around oneself. While it is not mediated by any one person or organisation, it is a broadly monitored aspect of the online world. Just like in the offline world there are expectations from people of what is right and wrong in the online world and what behaviour is inappropriate for anyone to partake in. Face to face communication has the luxury of voice tone, and facial expression, but the internet primarily uses text (with the exception of VOIP and similar programs). It is crucial then for people to pay close attention to what they’re typing.

Poor netiquette can create a harsh and offensive environment for many people, and usually the public tool they’re using (if they’re using a public tool) will notice a demise in users due to their being offended (Patterson, 2002). This action appears to be the best way to deal with poor behaviour. Also, a poorly designed, slow loading web page, which is often a poor setup in the online world, will suffer as people become impatient and leave. This is the same for public chatrooms when they become rude or irrelevant (often followed by mass exodus). It’s difficult for poor behaviour not to have some ramification in the online world, if only for the user who is behaving poorly being left alone in the world.

It is often understood by advanced users, that appropriate behaviour is used to help create a world where users feel comfortable and safe, however many don’t abide by these techniques. A good example of this is that of online Role-Paying games. While these games are mediated, many also get away with poor actions, as other may feel it’s inappropriate to ‘dob’ them in. One example of poor behaviour however was that of Cynewolf, who ganked (killing newbies mercilessly), and as such was punished in the game of Roma Victor by being crucified on a cross. Usually punishment consists of a harsh email or ban from the game, but here other creative forms have been used to help instill the fear of punishment.

On that note, newbie’s are often the problem with online netiquette. They’re usually the ones who type in Caps Lock when they want to bring something to the attention of others, without realizing that this is interpreted as yelling. Patience is required with newbie’s, and while it can often be noted that correcting someone’s typing is considered poor netiquette, it can be a good idea to point out these mistakes to a new user. This should not offend new users the same way it may offend advanced users, as it is a learning experience, and useful knowledge, especially when this knowledge is required in formal communications. Once these tools have been taught to the new user, the cycle continues, with the new user then able to pass on this knowledge to the next user.

So what helps define what can and should not be done? People generally should only do what they would like done to themselves. This is a good rule of thumb for any new user, and is often the rule followed by advanced users. Be polite, and helpful, and don’t yell or abuse others in personal or public forums.

Annotations

*Cyber Creations. (2008). Retrieved October 1, 2008 from http://www.mmorpg.com

This website is a compilation of information and articles about online role-playing games. It mentions online gaming netiquette in articles and forums, and is a good place for people to get a good understanding of how these games work, and the behaviour expected when playing them. The site gives an up to date account of most MMORPG’s. The website is a little cluttered and disorganized but offers a lot of tools for users.

*Email Etiquette. (2008) Retrieved October 1, 2008, from http://www.netmanners.com.

This website is a great little tool to learn all about etiquette. It mostly mentions emails, but this tips can be used across a range of online mediums. It offers Email Etiquette 101 as a course for beginners, and also has sections for advanced internet users. It also is trying to encourage uniformity amongst users, offering the ‘pledge’ for users to put on their sites to state that they abide by these rules. The site is clean, easy to use, and very helpful for any user, no matter what their skill.

23. Human-Computer Interfaces

The internet is well known as a tool which has been designed for human use, by humans (Leiner et al, 2003). With the development of the internet comes a new world with a highly complex social organisation that many people fear due to the unknown factors which come with this world. What seems to be forgotten when this fear arises in people is that all technology designed to be used as a tool by users has been thought about and directed in a certain fashion to create these products, and to further develop them (Tay 2008).

With this online world also comes artificial intelligence, new forms of interaction and the possible demise of human values and decision making (Tay, 2008). The interfaces may seem colder to some, but perhaps this is due to users bringing personal expectations to this world. An example is of a study of distance communication on the internet. When two people were told that they were talking long distance (over a thousand kilometres away) and two other told they were talking within the room to each other, the long distance communication was more likely to be deceptive, than the close communication (Moon, 1998). Despite the fact that both forms of conversation were virtually no closer than each other, it appears that it is the user which brings social expectations to this online world.

People expect behaviour from people as if they were talking face to face with one another. So do people feel fooled when they mistake artificial intelligence to be human, or feel comforted by their computer games, despite having no human interaction?

Artificial intelligence is a tool to be used by humans to make life that little bit easier, and maybe it is colder than humans expect, or maybe it is just human expectation which makes it seem cold. What it really is offering is another form of communication and interaction which is so new, that humans have not yet developed proper online expectations, and often seem disappointed by what they achieve otherwise.

Mistaken identity was apart of the offline world also. An elderly man might think a statue is actually a person, a child might think that the life-like-dog-robot is real. Mistaken identity is nothing new. But perhaps this technology and artificial intelligence can offer something that can’t be received in the offline world. When someone is alone and seeking comfort, perhaps they can achieve that through artificial intelligence. It may not be a human, or they may mistake AI for being human but it does offer interaction. Humans may simply be accepting machines because they are convenient, but maybe this technology is also filling a void in humans, creating a more productive, efficient lifestyle.

Annotations

*Gary, P. (2008) Human-Computer Interaction Bibliography. Retrieved October 1, 2008 from http://hcibib.org/.

This website offers a highly exhaustive list of Human-Computer Interaction sources. This website also offers to users the use of columns, articles, and helpful tools, but it can be daunting to use as it is full of information, but has a poor website design. The author has compiled 40,000 publications fom different sources and organised them under useful headings to help users sort through them.

*AIResearch (2008) Retrieved October 1, 2008 from http://www.a-i.com/

The authors of the website research Artificial Intelligence, and this website demonstrates their analytical results and findings. The website holds Alan, a pattern matching conversational machine who talks back to the user, and Hal, who is a reinforced learning algorithm machine. The site also has forums, papers, online labs and demonstrations of their current studies, and is a neat and clean site to use. This website is useful for people learning about Artificial Intelligence, but is quite shallow for advanced users in this field.

26. Privacy and Security

It’s naive to believe that one, even an advanced user, is safe and secure once they connect to the internet. Hackers are often a step ahead in the war against intruders. These hacks can become quite creative, but can also often be a new twist on an old problem. Current issues are buffer overflows (when malicious users send more information than can be held by a machine and causes it to either crash or lose data integrity), USB bugs, and recently the DNS hack (a current major security flaw in the design of the internet ). The DNS is the ‘white pages of the internet’ (Lemos, 2004). It translates the address a user types in to the IP address. Hackers have then ‘poisoned’ the DNS to allow them to re-route a user to wherever they wish. This is a vulnerability which can allow theft of information without anyone noticing, and many organisations are still unpatched, despite being warned of this vulnerability (check out the DNS checker to see if you’re secure).Privacy is in a similar boat. No one is reliably protected online. For example the recent webmail hack on Sarah Palin’s email account which consisted of using information made available through articles written about her, and then using this information to attack her account.

Advanced users are cautious about giving out their personal information, and protecting themselves as best as possible, but this is often not enough. An advanced user is still vulnerable towards DNS attacks, and USB bugs. Computers left unlocked for any period of time are targets of attackers with keyloggers. (Locking accounts when left unattended help by increasing security but it should be noted that hackers don't need an unlocked computer to use a keylogger). A hacker left alone with any computer for just a few minutes can access data, or install malicious software. Secret Questions which have their answers online are unsafe (remember Sarah Palin above). Care should be taken when articles are written about organisations employees. Unnecessary information being published is a liability and should be avoided as much as possible. Similarly, care should be taken when talking to people in person. Information given to strangers in conversations are also dangerous. This information can be used in a similar fashion as that information which is given out online, and should be avoided. This act of getting information from employees face to face is a tool used to test corporate security. Physical security in an organisation, or even at home, should be secured just as strongly as the online security. Quite often people (the users) are the weak link in the chain, not the software or hardware.

If a determined attacker has a target (they have information they want) and they have enough time and money, then it is unlikely that they will be stopped. The best tips are to use secure, random passwords, do not let people write about you in public forums, be careful of who you are friends with on social sites, try to maintain a minimal-access firewall, and regularly use up to date anti virus programs.

Annotations

*Ethical Hacker. (2008). Retrieved September 30, 2008, http://ethicalhacker.net/

Ethical Hacker offers an up to date forum for the online community to discuss security, privacy and online vulnerabilities. It’s free and offers columns, features, and certification for users. It is widely used by the hacking community and is beneficial to many who need answers to their security questions. This community encourages the sharing of knowledge, and the developing of the knowledge of new users.

*Internet Privacy. (2008). http://www.privacy.gov.au/internet/internet_privacy/

This is an Australian government website which offers free information about internet privacy including Australian Privacy Law. It’s a good source of information for anyone seeking information about privacy online. It offers advice for anyone who is anxious about their security. Also available at this site is the “do not call” register, Step Guides to online privacy, and a complaint section for people who are having issues.

References

Lemos, R. (2004). Internet’s “White Pages” Allow Data Attacks. Retrieved October 1, 2008 from http://news.cnet.com/Internet%27s-%27white-pages%27-allow-data-attacks/2100-1002_3-5291874.html.

Wood, J. (2006). Ganker Crucified. Retrieved October 2, 2008, from http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?loadnews=4849%2F&bhcp=1

Moon, Y. (1998). The Effects of Distance in Local Versus Remote Human-Computer Interaction. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 103-108. Retrieved October 1, 2008, from ACM Database.

Tay, L. (2008). Protecting Human Values from Human-Computer Interaction. ITNews. Retrieved October 1, 2008 from http://www.itnews.com.au/Feature/4411,protecting-human-values-from-humancomputer-interaction.aspx

Leiner, Barry. M., Cerf. V., Clark. D., Kahn. R., Kleinrock, L., et al. (2003). Internet Society: Histories of the Internet. Retrieved October 1, 2008 from http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml

Patterson, G. (2002). How to Avoid Being Labelled a Spammer. PGTS Journal. Retrieved October 2, 2008, from http://www.pgts.com.au/pgtsj/pgtsj0211d.html

Task 4: Evaluating the Web

To start with, the recommend reading was unavailable, and has been for the last few days, so I was unable to do the readings, and unable to evaluate my source. I've written an annotation anyway.

Wigand, R., Benjamin, R., and Birkland, J. 2008. Web 2.0 and Beyond: Implications for Electronic Commerce. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series 342 (7): Article 7. ACM. http://portal.acm.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/citation.cfm?id=1409550&jmp=cit&coll=portal&dl=ACM&CFID=15605080&CFTOKEN=55032916#abstract

This article was produced by three authors, Wigand being from the university of Arkansas and Benjamin and Birkland from Syracuse. They collated the article to be presented at the ACM International Conference to demonstrate that Web 2.0 is impacting the direction of the internet and creating, and transforming electronic commerce (e-commerce). The intended audience for this article is those who are involved in the internet seeking further internet into the dynamics of Web 2.0. The main purpose of the article is to provide an understanding of consumers and commerce on the web. This is tackled by first defining Web 2.0, then discussing human psychology and its relationship to using the internet, followed by the implications which this creates. The standpoint made is that the world needs to embrace the way the internet is evolving and use it to develop the communities and networks in this space. The article is short and sweet and touches on all crucial points in a basic way. These authors have also used their previous works as reference to this article. While the article is very basic, it states its point clearly and concisely that the internet world is moving to satisfy peoples needs online.

I believe that annotations are more indepth than simply hyperlinking a site and that it is a useful skill to have.

Task 4: Organising Search Information

To record websites and web information to my computer I used my recently acquired tool "Webcopier", because I can title the page and keep copies of it at the time I used it..
The sites I saved were:
1. "Security Practicum: Essential Home Wireless Security Practices" by Ken Fisher of Ars Technica. This site gave tips and recommendations to help internet users secure their computers as much as possible.

2. "WLAN security: Looking Beyond WEP" by John Cox of Network World. This article talks about the redundancy of WEP and how it should no longer be used.

3. "Locking Down Your Wirless Network" by Jonathon Yarden, TechRepublic. This article again talks about how to secure a wireless network, and questions the insecurity of WEP.

Task 4: Boolean Search

MMM.... Boolean...
The biggest search I was able to create with WEP(and its keywords) was "WEP OR Wired OR Equivalent OR Privacy" with 31,800,000 hits, but I a lot of the results I received were irrelevant. The next biggest search I received was for "WEP" at 16,200,000 hits.

To find the most relevant information I found searching for "WEP OR (Wired AND Equivalent AND privacy) AND internet" (199,000 hits).

To receive a few results from universities I found the most successful results came from searching "WEP AND University" (926,000 hits).

Boolean language is a very useful tool, and I'll always use it whenever I'm looking for a specific result.

Task 4: Search Engines

Top 5 Google search hits for 'Wep':

Wired Equivalent Piracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_Equivalent_Privacy

What is WEP? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer
www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/WEP.html

(In)Security of the WEP algorithm
www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/wep-faq.html

802.11 WEP: Concepts and Vulnerability
www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1368661

WeP Peripherals Ltd.
www.wepindia.com

Top 5 Copernic hits for 'Wep':

WEP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WEP

What is WEP? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/WEP.html

Wired Equivalent Piracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_Equivalent_Privacy

(In)Security of the WEP algorithm
http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/wep-faq.html

WEP. World Events Productions Makes TV the world remembers.
http://www.wep.com/

Both these searches gave some strange results (as usual) but neither more effective than the other. At first glance the multisearch looked promising, but if you look at wep.com, it's actually a television production website, and wepindia.com actually sells printers and consumables. Apart from that the searches came up with three common sites, and the others were information also about WEP. I don't think either search comes up with better results, they're both as flawed as the other, but Google, while limiting my searches as iTNews says, it'sjust so much simpler, faster, and more convenient to use.

Task 4 - Downloading Tools

The first program I thought I might try was Glooton, but because the website was entirely in french, and hence I really had no idea what I was downloading, I decided to try out Copernic instead. I've never heard of a program like this, so it was a new experience for me, but I also don't think I'll use it again. It is very clever and if I were looking for something to search the net so accurately then I might, but I don't do this frequently, and when I do, I'm embarrassed to say I use Google. I like the layout of Copernic but I found all the category options very overwhelming. It seems a little gimmicky to me, it's unnecessary, especially as a download. Why can't this tool be available as an online service? Kind of like Meebo is for chat programs.

The next application I'm trying is WebCopier "Trial Version" and can I ask straight up, why has it asked for my internet connection information? I'm curious.. Second why is it linked to Internet Explorer? I don't use internet Explorer. I don't like to encourage Microsoft, so I use Mozilla or Opera. And I recommend these tools to anyone.
This tool is interesting. It'll be interesting to use when I'm not in range of the internet. However I have portal internet (a little usb dongle) which I run my internet off, and so it's rare that I'm out of range. I also have a great 'roaming' download limit. I'm not too sure how often I will use this, but perhaps in a year or two ;) but I definately won't be buying this program.

Task 3: WWW Standards

After looking at a few sites for making a website, there seems to be a common understanding that there are certain rules that will help the site be used successfully by users. These can be minimal writing, appropriate use of links, writing for 'scanner' users, keep things simple and user friendly, and keep it interesting. I know my site doesn't utilise all these tools, and that I'm sure a lot of sites don't, but I think they could be on to something. I know I scan webpages, I never read them word for word. I also only giving pages a few seconds to load; if they don't then I go back to where I came from. IT'll be something I take into consideration next time I make a site.

When it comes to my site and copyright, then the only problem I can see (As long as the colour blue is copyrighted) is the chef picture I used. I'm unsure as to whether it's opensource or if it's someone's work :S. Which makes me a little nervous, but I'm sure if I was told by the html tutorial to use the image then I would presume that it's opensource... or I could be completely wrong and have stolen it. Either way I am now quite aware of what needs to be considered copyright and what can be used. I recently started putting together a website for my photography work (I used CMSimple, and a template) and noticed that to use the template I had to give permission to the artist to have his name at the bottom of my site, I really understand why this is required now.

Task 3: Ftp

The url of my uploaded page for those of you at Curtin:
http://student.curtin.edu.au/~13664648/

Task 3: Blogs

What's blogging like? Blogging is a little like writing in a diary except it's public. Why would someone write a public diary? There are actually a lot of uses for it. I've seen people try and get publicity for their businesses and themselves. They sell products in blogs, they journalise on public events, they detail tips they have, express information which they have, they make their opinions public to others, they stay in touch with friends and families. There isn't much bloggers don't do, and they're a very simple way for any user to make use of the internet. I think they can be very useful, and make up a large portion of the internet information out there.

Here a few blogs:
Nothern Norway
Texas Hockey
House for Sale

Task 3: Web 2.0

The comparison of Web 2.0 and Web 1.0 can be seen by looking at these two sites.
Internet Communications Blinklist

Html Version

Wow! This is a great example of how web 2.0 encourages information sharing, and communication, the expression of opinions and interaction. The html version is simple, basic, but quite limited. The web 2.0 version offers discussion between users, reviews and opinions through "blinks" and is some what more interactive and aesthetically pleasing to use. You can personalise your watchlists and contacts as well. The html version works, especially for older people who might find learning interactive versions quite overwhelming, but with the younger generation experiencing facebook, youtube, and friendster how can people go back? We have become accustomed to the lack of boundaries. This is the progression of technology and we can only expect to keep going forward, not back.

Task 3: HTML Tags

Task three of this course was quite interesting. I have learnt some basic html coding before, but never got excessively far after giving up in frustration. This time it was nice having some basic grounding. I didn't get frustrated straight away and actually had fun playing with the quirks of the coding. When I made mistakes I was happy to find I could find them quite quickly. The problems did start to arise however when I went to load the webpage to the presentations section of Curtins webct. First I had to figure out how to link the images correctly - which unfortunately took a while. Once I got them done, I had a bit of a tough time trying to get it to link to the public section so everyone could see it. I wasted a lot of time on this unfortunately :( But all's well that ends well. As you can see from the picture above, I got it finished and uploaded :)
It felt kind of good to work it all out. The site isn't flashy at all but I got it down :D and next time someone asks me to type html hopefully I'll be able to do a little bit more.
To compare this to blogging: let's face it blogging is a lot more intuitive and user friendly, but I get the sneaky suspicion that coding allows you to have more control over what you're doing. Perhaps you could compare it to driving a manual car to driving an automatic; more difficult to learn, but more fun to drive. At the end of the day there are uses for both of these tools, coding and WYSIWYG, so I guess it helps to know how to use both.

Task 2: Chat

Chatting is a great way to stay in touch and I've been using it for as long as I can remember. For me it started in the days of Ultima Online, (I was about 12 when I played - pre WoW and Ventrilo) and the means of effective communication was ICQ. It seems to have come a long way since those days however, with greetings, "Zlango" (pic talk), and ICQ2Go, but I can't help hold its still primitive look and feel.

I have previously used Yahoo Messenger but have never touched it since (for personal choices), but regularly use MSN messenger and Google Talk. Google Talk has it's highs and lows. It works in your email (or your Google Desktop if your computer can handle it), and so doesn't require you to download another program, but on the other hand, if you're using it through your email, then you have to have your email open during your chat, which is ok but it can be just one more annoying window open when you don't want it.
MSN messenger on the other hand works as a software program (requires downloading), but allows you to access your email from this tool. Both these programs have their benefits. I like MSN. I use it the most because most people I know use it, and that's what usually determines which dominant messenger is used today (how many people do you know who use it). And for me that MSN and Google Chat.
I should also point out that Google chat is also good because it quite frequently bypasses office firewall filters. This is what started my use of it because when offices would block all other messengers (outside designated hours), people could use their email to continue chatting (naughty but effective). Meebo also does a similar thing as it does not require downloading, but allows people access to their chat tools through a website. But back to topic.

I met with my peers in the WebCT chat rooms and we had a few difficulties. One was disconnections. Another was the Javascripts. It was an interesting experiences - but not quite as fluid and smooth as the WebCT almost seemed to be a beta version. It was nice to chat to other students in the class. We talked about chat programs and preferences, but being one of the first online I was also the first to leave after suffering from disconnections (perhaps because I was using a faulty internet connection). I think I'll stick to MSN and Google, but I will try my hand at IRC (just for the fun of it ;) )

Task 2: Newsgroup

For the Newsgroup Task I joined "BookCrazy" and I've included my first post;

#102560	From: "curtined" Date: Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:09 am Subject: Re: Question!
	Hi All, (If you don't recognise me it's because I'm new here, so Hi :D ). I'm a little embarrassed to say but I do reread, but only books that I just can't get enough of, such as the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer and Jane Austen. Some books I just can't read once, I have to engross myself in them. I also reread because I'm not the most attentive reader. When I get to the more exciting (or scary) parts of books I start reading quickly (unconsciously) trying to find out what happens, but in the mean time I miss the good stuff. So sad, but true. Have a fine day :) ~ Veronica

I think I'll keep up with this group just for fun :)

Task 2: Lists

An email list is a way of communicating to a large amount of people in a single email. Members choose to receive emails on certain topics. This form of communication is powerful because participation only involves checking email, and it also allows for personal ways to receive the emails, such as individually, or digest format. It also puts the information in the users face - in a busy world this ability is powerful. The negatives of this form of communication is that active participation is required to stay on top of all the information shared, the large amounts of emails can also be frustrating, and it's possible for your email to quickly fill with unwanted or irrelevant information.

A discussion board is a forum on a website which allows people to discuss common interests through group communication. It is separate from your email, and all the group can read and usually participate in messaging. The benefits of discussion boards is that the discussion board is available when it is convenient, and the forums are usually conveniently archived. The negatives are that a discussion board user can easily fall behind if they don't check the discussion board and that posters to the discussion boards often forget to proofread their work leading to confusion and misinterpretation.

Both these tools are useful in different situations. The discussion boards are helpful when a user is only interested, or a passer-by. It's a less committing way to interact with the community which holds the desired information. It also allows archiving for users, allowing researchers to recover information. Email lists on the other hand are great for users who are active, and desire to always be in the loop with little effort. This is especially helpful for smaller groups.

For this task I signed up to a few email lists. I started by looking at a few public messages on yahoo groups, but decided quite quickly that I would sign up for an account and get the messages sent to my email. I joined BookCrazy as a digest subscriber and A_N_I_M_E_ as an individual email subscriber. I soon noticed that this was a great way of communicating to a large amount of people quickly and easily, without external effort, all that was required was reading my email (which I atleast do every hour or so). One problem I've found is the lack of poofreading of users and that the messages (although I have not had a problem so far) probably can't be moderated easily (but luckily people seem to be fairly sensible and to the topic).

Task 2: Email

After doing the net.TUTOR "email basics" tutorial, I am now able to answer the task questions on email.

From an email message, you are able to find out the email messages recipients, the subject (through the subject line), any attachments which may be included in the email, and then you will also receive the text body, and the contact information/ signature of the sender.

Commonly used functions of email are Cc, Bcc and "reply to all". Cc is used to send a copy of a message to someone. Bcc is used as a 'blind copy'. A blind copy allows you to send a copy of the message but recipients are not visible. The "reply to all" function allows the sender to send to all recipients of the original message which they are replying to.

To help ensure an email attachment is received successfully by a recipient, keep it in a format that can be opened by the recipient's software (if you don't know what software the recipient has then keep it is a common format such as .rtf), compress large files, and name your attachments appropriately.

Filters work to search and divide mail. This way you can selectively read your incoming mail when it is convenient. For instance you can set up a junk filter to exclude spam messages from your inbox, or you can filter your inbox for certain words or senders. I always keep the junk filter on.

My email is sorted according to subject. This allows me to keep my inbox empty, but I can also easily find any email I am looking for by using the search mail option in my email.

Task 1: TraceRoute

I've done one of these before. I love playing WoW, but recently our switch to portable internet on what I believe is known as a USB Dongle has holted my gaming. We have discovered what the problem is (it's with the ISP), but to get to the conclusion we were asked to do a Traceroute by the gentlemen at Blizzard. Due to my little, but reasonable experience, I found this exercise quite simple. I used network-tools.com and this was a screen dump of my results:As I hope you can see (maybe just) that there are 21 hops (I think the timed out ones count). The average time from the network-tools site to Curtin is 13.9 ms. I think you can also see in this screen dump the Curtin IP address which 134.7.179.53.

Task 1: FTP

I found this task great because I often send photos in to photo labs to get prints, but they also offer an FTP, but not knowing how to use this I have usually dismissed this tool. After this exercise I will definitely use this option to get photos printed.

I used FileZilla for this exercise, but I later found out that the Mozilla Firefox browser has an FTP Client addon called FireFTP (I will try this later to see if I like it better). After connecting to curtin I found the file and read the answer as CAPITALIZATION MATTERS.
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After trying FireFTP I found it much easier to work with. There was a greater work space, and a clear 'find tool' to search your computer directory. Finding the 'Readme' file again was much easier this time being located at /Anonymous/MSC/readme.txt. I'll remember to use FireFTP next time I'm using FTP.
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This was quite a fun excerise and I hope there are more FTP experiences to come.

Task 1: Telnet (B)

TASK B
I didn't just look at the towel.blinkenlights.nl (Star Wars), but also had a look at other recommended telnet sites just for a bit of fun, but received mixed experiences. Star Wars was brilliant, and when I say that there's been a lot of work put into that presentation, it's an understatement. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to see a brilliant piece of art. Looking at other sites though (dr.nostrum.com, Marvin - Eliza like Bot), I found that most were now dead links.At first I thought it was because I was using a Mozilla Firefox browser, and so I tried them on Internet Explorer and they still didn't work. I was quite disappointed at this point as other people on Digg (http://digg.com/tech_news/Great_Sites_to_Telnet_Into_for_Fun) had been commenting on them (some newer posts having issues like me). But one helpful thing that came from this was the comments on Digg, such as "what we used to use before this fancy web stuff" (helfire), and "Brings back great memories of the internet before the web" (no2gates). These comments I think helped me to place my mind in context and understand that in its day this was the 'cream' of the computer. This was their internet, and for its day it worked really well. But as the internet has moved on many of these sites are now dead links, which is sad because some of these sites had obviously been brilliantly entertaining.

One flaw of telnet, like today is the far too easy ability to miss type your address (how frustrating), but you also couldn't cut and paste your address (perhaps using the 'start > run' you can, but as far as I'm aware not once you're in the client) so another bother for me. This has been slightly resolved with today's browsers by cut and paste. It's an interesting experience using this tool and a bit of a gimmick these days, but I really liked the feel of connecting the way the client does (perhaps because you can actually see it connecting), but perhaps it would be too slow for todays impatient age. No one really wants to wait 30 seconds every time they wanted to connect to another server.

Task 1: Telnet (A)

Part A

Step 1: My telnet client.
I hope you can see that, but my first step was to type "telnet://" into my address bar and to my surprise it worked :D (I later found that I could bypass a couple of the future steps by typing "telnet://library.deakin.edu.au" into the address bar, but I'll remember that next time I do this).

Step 2: Launch the application

As you can see from the screen dump, at this point you are presented with the option to launch the application which I did :D (I was very excited to get this far; things were happening)

Step 3: The address
As you can see here in my Microsoft Telnet Client that I typed in the address of what I was to connect to, which in this case was Deakin library. The address was "library.deakin.edu.au". Again, I now realise I could have typed this directly into my address bar in my browser, but instead I'll remember that for next time.

After this it connected to the telnet library at deakin and asked me which terminal I was using; UT100 or NCSA UT100. After a quick Google search, I decided to select the the UT100 terminal.

Step 4: Finding my way around the library
As you can see from the screen dump, as far as I'm aware I successfully found where I was meant to be; the Deakin library. Next I was to search for my author; Bennahum. I selected option A for Author at which point I was presented with two titles for books written by Bennahum, so I selected the email printer and sent it to my university email address.
Step 5: The email
Next I checked my inbox and 'lo and behold':
My email from "DEAKIN UNI LIB" was waiting for me with my selected book information.

My Thoughts: I quite enjoyed this first task as it allowed me to get my hands a little dirty, but I wonder what people would use this for? I understand that it's used to connect to computers from a distance, and that in the past this would have been very useful, but what do I use it for today? Wouldn't using a remote desktop do a similar thing? I'm not too sure. I plan to play around with this tool anyway, as there are some clever things out there which are accessible to Telnet, so hopefully I'll still find some use for it. Going through the interesting list at http://www.telnet.org/htm/places.htm will be my first goal and will hopefully help answer some of my questions.

Week One: The First Post

Hello to the world of blogging.
This is my first ever blog, so I hope you'll be patient with me this semester as I learn the ropes of this new tool I have at my finger tips. *smiles*

As I've never blogged before, I struggled with the first task. I don't have any tips from experience with blogging, and so I sought some help from other websites. I stumbled across one brilliant site "www.dailyblogtips.com", and so my 5 tips for blogging have come from this website, and common sense.

The tips:
1. Outline
Like writing an essay, or any other piece of work, an outline to kick things off helps. Even planning your outline in your head will do (but if your like me you're better off writing it down). The outline is something I use to direct my thoughts, and keep to the point. I like to think that it also helps increase the chances of actually writing something readable (one can hope).

2. Relax
It never helps to stress. You get flustered, and have a mental block. If you relax when you're finding things a little difficult, then you're probably doing your mind and body a world of good. There's nothing more frustrating than getting a stress headache when you're trying to finish your work. If times are stressful then take a break and come back to it in 10 minutes time. That break is often quite refreshing for your brain, so let it reboot and do what it needs to do.

3. Redirect your thoughts
When you're frustrated, stumped and can't think of how to write something, try to think of questions to ask yourself to provoke different answers. Going over questions which you don't know the answer to will usually increase your frustration. Take a break and re-approach your work from another angle.

4. Be Consistent
This is one I think I'll struggle with, but by being consistent you can train yourself to write and work better. Yes, breaks help, and I believe a well timed break can often be better for you than 'plugging' through but you don't want to drop the ball either.

5. Proofread
Don't you hate it when you write an essay, hand it in, and then realise all the mistakes you've made? Luckily blogging allows you to edit your work, but a good proofread before you publish is always wise if you want to avoid that embarrassment.


I hope those 5 tips help (thanks dailyblogtips.com).

~ Veronica