Text-based real-time chat is in a completely different category of communication to telephone conversations, emails and letters.
Instant text messaging provides the user with the ability to censor his or herself and create a desired impression with ease. This stems largely from the fact that the user can take the time to choose and shape his or her words – and no impressions are left on the other party due to body language, inflection and tone, and pauses. Though possibly not as fast as a conversation would be in real life, an instant messaging conversation is faster than email and can be relatively fast paced.

With instant messaging, a user has a large amount of control over what he or she says to the other party or parties involved in the conversation. One might argue this is the case in real life or over the phone too – but in most circumstances one doesn’t have a great deal of time to consider what to reply with or how to phrase things. Instant messaging hides a user from the other people involved in the conversation and grants time to consider possible ways of saying things.

This grants many benefits for a user, but can also work against them in that it may be hard to discern the motives of another participant in the conversation.
One way in which it may be useful is in the discussion of topics of a ‘touchy’ nature. Because IM allows you to consider your responses, it can make arguments less heated and help you resolve a conflict.
In some cases, the impersonal nature of IM can also be a blessing – it can help some users tell another user things that they may have found difficult to say in person or over the phone, but still allows for the benefit of real time conversation unlike email or a letter.

Regardless of this however, IM is still considered an informal method of communication.  This may stem from the fact that it is perceived to be the realm of teenagers – there is a large number of young people using instant messaging  – or because of its perceived ephemerality.  Emails can be considered a formal method of communication (depending on how they are written), because they appear to have substance – they come as an object and remain in your inbox until you choose to do something with them, whereas many people see IM conversations as something that isn’t going to remain anywhere.
Advanced users will remember that a lot of information is retained, unbeknownst to the users, and that a lot of users also retain logs of conversations they’ve had via IM.
Chat logs are a controversial topic – is it fair to keep logs of conversations you’ve had with others and might it be considered a breach of privacy? Many people would feel uncomfortable if when having a conversation with someone, they were being recorded. This aside, chat logs are a useful tool. They allow users to refer back to conversations and reference things – it makes for less mistakes when recalling conversations and allows users to reflect better on past conversations.

Guidry, Kevin R. (2004). Instant Messaging: Its Impact on and Recommendations for Student Affairs. Fall 2004: vol. 5, no. 4. University of West Florida

Retrieved from http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Fall_2004/InstantMessaging.html

This document goes over the history of instant messaging, defines it for people who may not be aware of it and details the major IM clients used around the world today. It then goes on to discuss the impact of instant messaging not only on students, but also on employees.  The different points covered include grammar and the type of language that IM encourages, but also the impersonal nature of IM leading to ‘hyperpersonalisation’ – meaning that users of IM tend to be more open when discussing things over this medium than they would be otherwise.
A series of policy recommendations are then brought forward.

O’connor, Amanda. (2005). Instant Messaging: Friend or Foe of Student Writing?

Retrieved from http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/literacy/oconnor.htm

This discussion of the impact of instant messaging on students and young people has somewhat of a negative (if justified) view of instant messaging. The author discusses what constitutes instant messaging and the amount of young people who use it. She then goes on to discuss the effects of instant messaging on young people, focusing particularly on language – or rather the bastardisation and misuse thereof.  The author concludes that instant messaging doesn’t have to be seen in a negative light – it can be beneficial if students recognize the distinction between language that is acceptable over instant messaging as opposed to in formal writing.

28. The paradox of the World Wide Web

The web is constantly evolving – more technologies are emerging, enabling users to perform more varied and complex functions.

At the same time, as more and more users make using the internet a part of their daily lives, emphasis is placed upon simplicity and ease of use.
This contradiction embodies the paradox of the world wide web.

Users with very little experience and knowledge of the uses of the web will be very limited in what they can do or what they can access, and the level of participation they can have in collaborative works such as wiki projects and forums.
Because the WWW is now becoming a collaborative work that is accessable internationally, increasing the amount of aware users who participate actively will work toward increasing the productivity, functionality and knowledge base that is found on the world wide web.
It becomes difficult to reconcile the paradox of the world wide web as the complexity of tasks and range of functions increases – new users have to learn more than they did 5 years ago, and advanced users have to keep updating their knowledge.

Those with a lot of knowledge and insight into the way the WWW works have been able to make a lot of use of it and turn it to their advantage – for example those who know of flash videos that are accessed frequently have made a single-page site with a relevant url, optimized it for search engines, and have placed relevant advertisements on the page in the hope of making revenue. For a less experienced user, this would seem a daunting task.

In some ways, the WWW paradox is reconciling itself. As technology becomes more and more complex, developers are making ways to simplify what would otherwise be complicated tasks. Collaborative projects made possible by the internet – open source software production – has brought together the efforts of many different people from around the world to create software packages that are accessable and useable by even fairly inexperienced users, allowing them to achieve things that would otherwise be out of their grasp. Dreamweaver and microsoft’s web design software are examples of technology making using the web a simpler task. Users no longer have to have any knowledge of html (not to mention a strictly up to date knowledge of html) to be able to create a professional looking web-page.
An example of collaborations making the web an easier place to use would be Firefox, wordpress, os commerce and joomla. Just a small selection of open source projects that make doing things on the web so much easier. For example, to construct a content management system as complex as joomla would require an extensive knowledge of php and mySQL, which the majority of internet users don’t have. Joomla provides a simple way for users to implement a content management system. Similarly, OS commerce provides users with a fully functioning php-based online store. WordPress provides users with an excellent and highly customizable blogging platform. So in this sense, as the complexity of the world wide web increases, users are given more options with less effort and time required to learn.

Coar, Ken. (2006). The Open Source Definition (Annotated). Open Source Initiative

Retrieved from http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php

This page goes into detail regarding the policies and frameworks of open source – what it means and what constitutes as an open source product. Open source software is software from which the source code is freely available – and anyone is allowed to modify it. However there are several rules associated with this, preventing businesses or corporations from taking advantage of open source software. These include the rule that if you take open source software and modify it, the resulting product must then come under the same license as the original software – meaning that you cannot label it as your own and then market it.

Spivack, Nova.  (2006). The Third Generation Web is Coming

Retrieved from http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0689.html?m%3D3

This is a good example of the evolution of the web and the rate at which it changes. At the moment we’re supposedly experiencing web 2.0, however this article talks about the advent of web 3.0 – featuring what it calls ‘smart web’.  It describes web 1.0 – talking about all the features that were definitive to web 1.0 and then does the same for web 2.0 and 3.0. Web 3.0 features are then discussed in more detail – covering such topics as ubiquitous connectivity, network computing, open technologies (including open source software and wikis), open identities and the intelligent web.

30. Frames: the information-display Challenge

No matter what they’re designing for, a web designer will always face the ‘information-display challenge’.
The web is more than just a series of documents with information – the visual aspects of the web move beyond simple word document formatting. Visual standards for the web are always evolving and changing.
Frames were introduced in the 1990’s as a method of displaying information in a more convenient manner. There are some benefits of frames including the ability to display multiple things at once and have them browsable independently of each other, however this has now been outdated with the advent of div id’s and div tags, with which you can specify a size and create a scroll function for any overflow of content.
There are so many issues with frames that it makes it totally non feasible to use them as a base for a standard web page.
Frames completely null the idea of a web page as a single object – rather turning it into a series of  windows which display different html pages at the same time. The focus is on layout rather than structure – there is no specification of the role of each frame, and indeed the role of each frame can change depending on the target set for each hyperlink.
Frames also pose issues for viewers regarding bookmarking – because the url of a frame based page only specifies the frameset rather than the content, a user who wants to bookmark content they’ve found by searching deep into a frame based page can’t, because the url in the address bar at the top of the browser doesn’t specify the content they are looking at.
In addition to the above issues, frames aren’t compatible with all browsers and all screen resolutions.  A designer might specify a certain frame to not display scroll bars, and a user with a lower resolution screen will have no way to view the rest of the content that the frame is supposed to display. Frames are also not in with the W3c standards – the idea is to separate style and layout from the content – using xhtml to define objects and classes and using css to define the layout and styles.
Frames also pose a problem for categorisation and indexing of websites by search engines – therefore reducing online presence and accessibility. A lot of search engine spiders don’t index framed websites, or can index the individual html pages – meaning a user could be linked to a html page that is meant to display in a frameset, and have no way of finding their way to the original frameset and seeing what the designer intended to be the complete page.
Overlooking this, there are some uses for frames – google image search uses frames to indicate the original location of the image and give the user an option to see the image in its original context. Frames are good for that – to display content from other pages when directly referring to that content (as opposed to parading the information as your own intellectual property).

Tobias, Daniel R. (2007). Dan’s web tips: Frames

Retrieved from http://webtips.dan.info/frames.html

This web resources reviews frames – it makes note of a lot of the negative aspects of frames, including the fact that the url of a frameset in no way specifies the content and that frames also don’t give context to content. It also discusses the compatibility of frames over various browsers and screen resolution.
The website also notes the uses for frames apart from as functioning as a layout mechanism for a website – the idea that frames can be used to show other websites and the context for images sourced from other websites. It also goes into some technical detail concerning html and frames.

Nielson, Jakob. (1996). Frames Suck Most of the Time (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox December 1996)

Retrieved from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9612.html

This website is slightly out-dated, speaking about users and assigning a percentage of web users as using a netscape browser – which has long since left the scene.
However a lot of the points it raises are still relevant – it is a largely anti-frames website, detailing the numorous problems that are encountered when using frames as a layout tool for your website. It cautions beginner web designers to steer clear of frames, and cautions experienced web designers to be extremely sparing with their use of frames.
Despite being largely anti-frame, the page does have a section in which it covers instances when it is acceptable to use frames.

I’m quite familiar with the basic elements of html, I started out fiddling with this code when I was 12. Since then I’ve seen standards develop and change. The popularity of table and frame-based websites has dropped in favor of standardised css and xhtml, using div ids and classes to arrange elements on the page.

Simple things have become increasingly complex; a simple img tag has grown to include both alt and title texts as an expected part of search engine optimisation of your site and must now finish with a / – for example <img src=”url of image” alt=”this is an example lol” title=”example image” />.

The ability to use html gives great empowerment to today’s users of the internet. The web is an excellent way to display and collect information and together with the knowledge of ftp and web hosting, a basic knowledge of html gives you the ability to put together your own website, which would otherwise cost thousands of dollars.

Standards and writing/designing for the web

A web page may look simple and easy to make, but there is a lot involved in making a good web page.

Getting the typography and layout right as well as the colour scheme and graphics can be a complicated procedure. And it differs from print concepts of good design. For example, in print it’s better to use a serif font as it’s easier to read and follow, but in web design it’s better to use a sans-serif font as these are easier to read on a computer screen.

Another important thing to remember is that the content is the focus of your website – in no way should the navigation, graphic design or typography intrude on the readability of your content. Websites today are tending toward a sleek minimalist design with focus on content and readability – a good example would be the apple website.

The unseen code is also a very important aspect to consider – standards are getting stricter and stricter for html pages so validation is an important aspect to remember before uploading your site. It is also important to remember search engine optimisation rules – images and hyperlinks need to have alt text and titles, the titles of your pages need to be relevant and you need to remember to include metadata. The content is also important to consider – the keywords in your content should match the keywords specified in your metadata.

Uploading your site

To upload your site, you need to have a web host, as well as a domain name and an ftp client. Cuteftp is great for windows users.

Here’s a site I’ve uploaded: indievegan.com

Blogging

I am of the opinion that blogging is great. Blogging changes a static, stagnant website into something that is alive and constantly changing. Readers are encouraged to frequent sites that continuously update information in the form of a blog as there is always something new. Implementing a blog into your site also improves your search ranking as spiders deem your site more active and visit more often.
Blogging has also flooded the web with so much information – many bloggers post about specific things that are of interest to them, or specific problems that they have encountered, providing a knowledge base for anyone to access.

web 2.0

Blogging is the epitomisation of web 2.0. Web 2.0 is the transformation of the web into a space that is functional -  where people can collaborate, share information, express creativity. Blogging represents that, as does chat programs, forums, wiki sites (most notably Wikipedia).

Though it does also signal the increasing complexity of the web – to create dynamic, interactive websites, one must have a knowledge of php and/or javascript.

Mailing lists are fairly common – for example a lot of yahoo groups use mailing lists, in conjuction with discussion boards.

Mailing lists are good in that when subscribed, users get notifications directly at their email inbox, either of new posts or replies to posts. It also allows for direct private discussion. Discussion boards can be better in some ways though – users can choose what topics they read whereas with a mailing list, all posts get sent indiscriminitely.

Newsgroups

I had a go posting in a newsgroup that I found interesting – http://groups.google.com/group/sci.med.nutrition/browse_thread/thread/4738cb43cfe5b094/11cd617334efe0cf?lnk=raot#11cd617334efe0cf

here’s what I posted:

Might update if someone replies. =P

Chat

IRC – old school chat. IRC is probably more of a group chat focussed instant messaging method. It allows for different servers focussing on different interests, with different, more specific chatrooms therein. This is as opposed to msn for example, where users sign in and predominantly have private discussions with other users.
IRC still has a private chat function though.

I am most familiar with msn chat (and aim and yahoo, they being all quite similar). This familiarity makes me tend toward being biased, even though IRC and ICQ may have other benefits. Another problem is that most of my peers dont use IRC or ICQ, they use msn for the most part.

First off we’re going to have a closer look at emailing. Now, every email comes with a bit of metadata that is usually not visible when you open your mail client and start reading your emails. Thank god the Mac OSX mail client has a setting that allows you to see the full email heading at the top of every email. Here’s what it looks like:

You can clearly find a lot of information about the person sending an email to you from the header – email is by no means a confidential and private way to communicate with anyone (the above picture may not be a good example considering it was an automated email)

The bcc and cc email functions are good when you’re sending an email to someone and want to notify someone else of the exact message – reply all is good also if you received an email addressed to a group and want to notify everyone the email was sent to. Althought it isnt a private form of communication, email is fast and functional.

It’s important to take note of the formatting you use in your email – some mail clients can’t process html and so don’t support text formatting like change in size and style. It’s best to keep it simple. Attachments should be compatible with older platforms (eg ms word documents) and images should be archived to save bandwidth.

It’s also important to beware of hoax emails and phishing – this means setting up filters. Opening junk mail can alert scammers to the fact that your email is a real email due to embedded images in the mail. So be careful!

Last of all, its important to organise your emails. over the course of time you’ll receive many, and if you don’t organise them it may be hard to filter through them when you need to go back and reference them in the future.

the large hadron collider must have screwed it up, clearly.

We’re learning about databases in business information systems, and about things like oracle and so on. It ties in nicely with the concept of the ‘deep web’ explained in module 4. =D

I remember posting twice about WEP and hacking it with a mac, and I got so many visitors to that particular blog. Even today those posts keep drawing visitors.

if you searched that on google (‘hacking WEP with a macbook”) you might well find my blog. That’s cause wordpress is structured so that it’s well optimised for search engine spiders. =)

2. Make sure you set out your blog so that it’s pleasant and easy to read/navigate. Choose unoffensive colours and images, and make sure there are links to your various pages on your home page.

3. Keep your posts optimised for search engines and blog surfers – remember to keep your entries relevant and littered with keywords, tag and categorise them appropriately. Build a blogroll of reciprocated links.

4. Choose something to write about that interests you or excites you – most often someone else will also find it interesting. This also helps keep you writing posts. More often than not, journal style blogs peter away and die because a) no one wants to read them and b) the author gets sick of posting/loses motivation.

5. keep your posts concise and image based – this helps encourage visitors to actually read your posts. The amount read is inversely proprtional to the amount of content

so there you have it. 5 important points from a veteran blogger. Now go and make me proud

Using Telnet on a Mac

I downloaded the recommended version of telnet only to find that it didn’t work on my version of mac OS. After a bit of research I discovered that apparently telnet was built into mac OSX and hence I only had to work out how to use it in the terminal. Here’s an example of my intial attempts:

terminal.app screenshot

unfortunately it took me a while to figure out that I neither needed the ‘http://” at the beginning of the address, nor the port number. Using these had resulted in me accessing the website or something, hence whenever I typed in a command, I’d be issused with a 400 bad request.
Here’s what it looked like correct:

more terminal screenshots

AND THEN I GOT

yay

As you can see, it asked me a few questions and then listed a menu reminiscent of the old DOS library catalogues from when I was in primary school. I finished off the instructions given in the module (Find books with the author name Bennahum then in the Options menu, choose print this title. You will then be prompted to enter an email address to which this record will be sent. Enter your curtin email address) and then that was it!

They told us to telnet over to towel.blinkenlights.nl and it was cute – probably took a lot of time to do but it was certainly cute.
Personally I think that since the introduction of web applications usable in browsers and programs like vnc, telnet is definitely obsolete. But I guess it’s fun to do it oldschool sometimes. =P

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Using FTP

FTP stands for file transfer protocol – I am familiar with this because I watch my brother manage the files on our web host at Lunar Pages. He uses cuteFTP which works ok for him but I’m going to have to use something different since I’m on a mac.

The module recommends Fetch, and it looks cute enough.
Unfortunately when I open it for the first time I am confronted with this:

ohnoes

Great. Guess I’ll have to find another FTP client to use after 15 days.
Anyway, when I open it properly it asks for a host name and the module instructions ask to put in recall.curtin.edu.au.
The module asks us to dl the readme file and answer what word goes in the blank – it’s CAPITALIZATION. With a ‘z’ yes.

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Internet Tools

Time to do some tracing – it took http://network-tools.com/ 21 hops to get to curtin.edu.au, the average time was… you can find out by calculating the times here – http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=trace&host=curtin.edu.au

Now, curtin’s IP is 134.7.179.53. I have a handy program on my mac called network utility that allows me to do a number of useful processes.

Network utility

Note: I accidentally pinged the wrong place in that screenshot – we were meant to ping webct.curtin.edu.au.

Anyway the average ping from my computer turned out to be 746 ms, whereas from network-tools.com it was 289.6 ms

ps. I’m still tracerouting from my computer to curtin.edu.au. I’ll update this when it finishes.

And IP addresses.
http://whatsmyip.org/