Week 4, we are getting going

Week four

Well I didn’t need to sit on the bus two hours each way to university.

It’s the Easter weekend.

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah,
zip-a-dee-ay,
My, oh, my, what a wonderful day.
Plenty of sunshine headin' my way,
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!
- Lyrics: Ray Gilbert

Interesting Fact:
Four is the only number in the English language for which the number of letters in its name is equal to the number itself. This is also true in several other languages.

Reading up on the information provided in these lecture slides explained about the different complications when researching on the internet.
‘Make sure that when you are asked to conduct research, you understand and follow the steps in a logical and organized manner.’ (Week Four, Using the WWW)

Did you know the web was ‘developed by Tim Berners-Lee (a researcher at CERN) in 1989’ (Slides, Using the WWW). Actually he wasn’t the first one but he was the person credited for it. That is the same year the Little Mermaid was publicized by the Disney Studio (useless fact that you had to read).

I liked this information (it taught me something I didn’t know):
.com – commercial (of a commercial nature)
.org – organization (non-profit)
.net – network (when .com not available)
.gov – government
.edu - education
Knowing where the web page comes from will help you clarify if the text will be a good reference or not.

This will help me in my group project.

Web Browsers- Definition
According to http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/b/browser.html
‘A software application used to locate and display Web pages.’
I know this website isn’t an educational web page. I wouldn’t use it as a reference, but it’s a blog and I thought I had better say where I got the fact from.

There are also different Types of Web browsers.
§ Internet Explorer
§ Netscape Navigator
§ Firefox
At home I have Firefox, its supposed to be the ‘new’ improved Explorer web browser.

The slides for this week also had a page with all the ‘common interface shortcuts’.
For example;

Ctrl - C = Copy

Ctrl - P = Print

Ctrl - S = Save

Tutorial, glooming actual work.

http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.com/

1. This website should not be taken seriously, look at the cover. The animals look as if someone has crossed a platypus with a turtle (for a female) or a platypus and a possum (for a male).
2. Farquhar Farquharson, look at his description.
   - Born- Probably.
   - Sex- We profoundly hope not.
   - Physique- Muckle and hairy.
   These are a sure sign someone is playing a practical joke.
3. In Farquhar Farquharsons description it was stated that his hobby was to hunt haggis. Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish; it wouldn’t make sense to hunt a recipe.
4. One of the pages also has a Haggis Fact, Like the “TRex – which it not often compared – the haggis has eyes that react to movement”(Scotsman, 2008).
5. The URL for this site has .com for commercial use; an official country with an official government would have .gov. This indicates this is a commercial site not a government site.

http://www.molossia.org/

2. Come on, The Dead Dog War. ‘Siege was laid against our enemy, using our secret weapon, the ceaseless chatter of a hyperactive thirteen-year-old boy’ (Republic of Molossia, 2008).
3. If you click on the menu key- Special Links you will find a website http://www.geocities.com/micronations/ this website tells you how to create our own imaginary nation.
4. Also there is an icon entitling it is not a real city it is a intermicronational city. Another aspect was that I searched in Google the word intermicronational, it had no definitions, it only brought back the new updates on this site (every real word comes up with a definition on Google).
   
5. The URL ends with .org meaning organization (non-profit) when if it was a real nation it would have a .gov for a government.
6. I searched the name of the nation on Google; the only website available was this one. This means there is no other backing up information to support this nation’s authenticity.

The icon-

www.martinlutherking.org

The URL for this site pretty much tells you what to expect. As most URL’s are based on what is going to be on the site for example: www.myspace.com is MySpace and www.hotmail.com is Hotmail. This URL states Martin Luther King, so the site should theoretically give information about this famous black leader who helped dramatically with the American civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr..

My first impression of this site was that it was bias, as it only wanted to say that Martin Luther King Jr. was a terrible person, a traitor and a fraud.

After researching further and checking out accuracy of information I found that:

1. This site was constructed by Stormfront, in 2008. A ‘White Pride World Wide’ organization. If that isn’t a bias opinion I do not know what is.
2. After reading through this site I found spelling mistakes for example: “Ok first of I know this is according to wikpdeia ,but these number show some truth to them and iam shure there not much off........” (Stormfront, 2008).
3. There are references, but some information is being quoted by themselves, from their previous work (Storm, 1991).
4. When researching one of the references, a journal article, the only source I could find was from the website itself (Strom, n.d.). This article could not be found to be from any other online database and it had expired hyperlinks. This could jeopardize the authenticity of this article.
5. “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent his last night on Earth having sex with two women at the motel and physically beating and abusing a third”(Storm, n.d.). I could not find any evidence of this. So I am questioning the source.

After reviewing and researching I am unsure about the quality of information in this page. I have found other information saying that Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized many documents throughout his career, but it is hard to believe such a strong role model would do such a thing. This website truly changes the way people would look at Martin Luther King Jr.. I do not know if we should question his intentions, yes he may have plagiarized, but he created so much happiness and such a difference with the black civil rights in America. Martin Luther King Jr. deserves to keep his name and his honor.

Weekly readings:

‘A brief history of the internet’

Obtains information on the origins of the internet. The founder J.C.R. Lickliders, the first to actually write down the idea of networking in 1962 discussing his “Galactic Network” concept. This was the globally interconnected set of computers is which everyone could access data and programs from any site, which is similar to the internet we have today.

As history recalls internetting concepts, ARPANET (advanced research projects agency network) developed by DARPA was the world’s first operational packet switching network which then grew to become the internet. By the mid 1970s computer networks begun to come about wherever funding could be found for the purpose. BITNET and USENET were purpose built for schools and universities. The rapid growth of the internet is due to the open access to free documents.

‘History of the World-Wide-Web’

Samuel Morse in 1844 made the first step towards modern computers through the communication using electronic impulses, a special code that a sequences of pulses to letters of the alphabet. The second step was made my Charles Babbage who thought to build a “Difference Engine”. He made small errors in his calculations to make this so he never managed to build the engine although in 1991 the science museum in Kensington built a copy. In 1944 the first large scale automatic electromechanical calculator was built. These were some of the most important steps to how the internet started. This began the innovation that enabled communication and transmission of data between computers at different locations.

Alright that’s all the activities for this week, hope you can tune in and read me soon.

References:

Republic of Molossia (2008). Republic of Molossia Offical Website. Retrieved March 22, 2008, from

http://www.molossia.org/countryeng.html

Scotsman (2008). Haggis Hunt 2007/ 08. Scotsman.com. Retrieved March 22, 2008, from

http://haggishunt.scotsman.com/

Strom, K. A. (1991). King's Plagiarism: Imitation, Insecurity and Transformation. The Journal of American History, 87.

Storm, K. A. (n.d). Martin Luther King: A True Historical Examination. Retrieved May 08, 2008, from

www.martinlutherking.org

Storm, K. A. (2008). White Pride World Wide. Stormfront.org. Retrieved May 08, 2008, from Scotsman

http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php/white-numbers-population- seem-strong-493547.html?s=3d994d0f16aa3a34a56fa32d527890fb&

The Little Mermaid (2008). Answers.com: Entertainment. Retrieved May, 08, 2008, from

http://www.answers.com/topic/the-little-mermaid-1989-film?cat=entertainment

Three, Slowly Coming Along

Here we go....

Week three, we learned about numerous online Libraries and Databases. Dr. Helen Cripps made us form pairs or groups to discuss what we thought were online databases. She then asked the students for an abbreviated definition of an online database. I think only one person spoke, everyone else didn’t know.

Online databases

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/

Face Book: http://www.facebook.com/

Itunes: Download site- http://www.apple.com/downloads/

E.C.U’s database system:

E.C.U’s website has an online Database/ Library.

Procedure for using it

1. internet page - ecu.edu.au


2. click - Library


3. click – current students


4. find – Journal Articles


5. Select your category
   

When you have selected the text, look for boxes for the full text (Either blue or red).

The little Australian symbol indicates the information source is Australian.

When searching other university’s you will have to click on a box which will find the text for you.

This process indicated there is a lot of trouble finding specific information it was indeed quite difficult. This process as a student I needed to know, definitely because I have another unit that needs online database text (journals) to research in. Now I can just refer back to my notes if I ever get stuck. You will be surprised how much information E.C.U’s online database is giving us.

To search any website or online database you need to know

helpful search tips and functions.

1. Use several search engines, directories or online databases.

2. Read the search tips or use help information at each search engine.

3. Use several words or narrowed down key words

4. Guess a location, which category e.g. Phsycology, Law etc

5. Select by thinking about what you want

6. Back up to find where you are

7. Use advances search functions to narrow down the search

8. Check authenticity by researching; author and publisher

9. Check authenticity by checking the attitude throughout site, is it bias?

10. Reference every piece of writing, even your notes.

In the tutorial, as a class Rachel Mahncke (my tutorial teacher, that will be reading this) took us through E.C.U’s database and also showed us a couple of other sites that will the useful to us.

For example:

Proquest

Mediquest

First when I searched these two online libraries I didn’t know exactly if I was on the right page. I was going backwards and forwards through all different pages, so beware that you’re in the right page, the web holds a lot of information sometimes too much.

This week wasn’t the most entertaining week but I did need to know the information so it was educational, yes I will say it “I learnt alot of interesting information that will further my studies”. Maybe this course will help me after all, no just joking. I knew this course would get me into another subject which will eventually get me a Law Degree, but the information supplied will also help me during my degree. Even the referencing, each Lecturer going over the same information is making my mind understand it clearly (its getting drilled my your head).

Readings for the week:

'Finding what you want on the web'-

BBC news published Bill Thompson’s article on the 2^nd of January 2004. This article brought up issues surrounding search engines and general searching on the www. I found there are many search engines I had never even heard of for example; Kartoo, Fazzle and Vivisimo. Some search engines you are required to pay for like FT.com, but there are benefits to these search engines that you have to pay for, “instead of having to filter out adverts or wonder whether the results you are seeing are skewed by undeclared pay-for-placement deals” (Thompson, 2004). After reading this article I felt as if I new more about search engines, as the web is growing it is becoming harder to find exactly what you want. I will need to practice my search strategies.

'Bare Bones Lesson 7: Basic Search Tips'-

This produced helpful tips to use while searching these online databases. Simple strategies like;

- Plus and minus signs in front of words

- Quotation marks around phrases

- Boolean Search- uses AND, OR and NOT to link words and phrases for a more effective narrower search.

On another note I found a joke that I thought I would share with everyone.

Are caterpillars good to eat?

Johnny: Daddy, are caterpillars good to eat?

Father: Have I not told you never to mention such things during meals!

Mother: Why did you say that, Junior? Why did you ask the question?

Johnny: It's because I saw one on daddy's lettuce, but now it's gone

(Web master, 2005).

That’s about it, did you enjoy it?

Well read about me soon.

BYE…………………

References

Thompson, B. (2004). Finding what you want on the web. BBC News. Retrieved March 3, 2008, from

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3362913.stm

Web master, (2005). Random Food Jokes. Aha Jokes.com. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from

http://www.ahajokes.com/random_food_jokes.shtml

Wow, week two

Week Two

The course is getting started.

Office Applications, using different programs to help to produce university grade assignments. Week Two, I was unable to be at the campus, but I still revised the lecture slides and tutorial information.

Every week Dr. Helen Cripps gets everyone involved in the Lectures. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to be there but I did read the slides. They demonstrated some computer programs that will be assisting us as a student through university. She illustrated an interesting graph on the third slide; it expressed tasks and then a program we could use to help complete the task.

This graph will help any new student get started when asked to present any of these tasks in this list.

The Lecture then just went over general aspects of these computing tasks.

I tried these next tutorial activities at home. I found that the Microsoft Word was quite simple, because I had used this program plenty of times. MS Word was really difficult to begin with. I downloaded the tip sheet and just had to sit down and play with it.

MS Word was a lot more complicated then I expected. The lines wouldn’t move for me, and the table wouldn’t produce the correct answers.

I constructed the table where I put all my activities for a whole week. Here it is.....

It was fun playing around with the settings, but it was also irritating when it didn’t do what I wanted. Eventually I got it; the tip sheet helped a lot.

From this table I formed a pie graph. Some aspects surprised me for example; I sleep 34% of my week and study 21%. No wonder I feel like there’s not enough time in one day.

For Microsoft word that was an easy one (I did use the tip sheet a little).

Our weekly readings:

'Using MS Word for APA tasks'.

There is a basic outline on what this is trying to say. The tool bar represents a tab which has the different groups inside it and each group has commands. If you cannot find a button that was on an older style Microsoft Word then you can click on the ‘dialog box launcher’ which has more that are not displayed tab. There are other options for example, you could use the smaller toolbar that you can pull up to another tab, to quickly format your work.

When you highlight your work a faded small toolbar appears and if you put your curser on top of it, it becomes solid.

There are short cuts when using Microsoft on the keyboard; each action tab has a keyboard short cut.

There are two other readings about adobe photo shop which explains all the different types of formats pictures can be saved in. The last reading was how to create a screen shot. I didn’t feel like I needed to read this because we went over the instructions in class.

Well that’s it for week two, thanks for reading and I will be writing more soon bye.

Until next time…………