| Learning Log #11 - various uses of blogs |
[Jul. 13th, 2009|01:08 pm] |
The first use a blog that springs to mind is obviously as a personal journal, which is the way the first appeared online in the mid 1990s. Justin Hall's online journal, regarded as one of the first of its kind, anticipated the tone most contemporary personal blogs would have featuring stories of relationships, family, travels, work and even illnesses. Sites such as Livejournal, Xanga, Blogspot caught on with this trend around 10 years ago and contributed to the blogging explosion.
In the 21st century, several news related blogs surfaced; some of them were independent and many were attached to major news sites, such as BBC, New York Times and most major newspapers around the world written by journalists working for these news corporations.
Eventually, corporations from other industries (namely Google, GM, Dell) adopted the blog format to inform their consumers about new releases, innovations or events sponsored by them. Even some CEOs of big companies have their own blogs as well.
Users might start a blog to talk about subjects dear to themselves without any monetary incentives: to write essays about art, movies, music and philosophy; focus mostly on food and restaurants; the type of clothes they like and what they are wearing as they post an entry. Some may use their blog as a large tutorial to share their knowledge on a certain topic, while forming a community around it.
As a blogger for the last 5 years, I've often contributed to web by sometimes talking about myself, often posting pictures I took or songs I recorded and to meet new people. On Livejournal I became acquainted with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) stanleylieber and silenceinspades and others who also share their musical and visual creations online and had the opportunity to form this virtual community I now participate in. |
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| Learning Log #10 - WWW standards |
[Jul. 13th, 2009|11:34 am] |
On my latest assignment, I used a html markup validator to check whether this journal is following web standards recommended by W3.org.
Markup validation of http://dzima.livejournal.com
There were a total of 46 errors and 350 warnings found.
- The 350 warnings were related to SHORTTAG YES. Upon researching on webmasters and webdesigners forums, this warning is seen as "technically correct but obtuse" or not very important since the only problem is the lack of a closing bracket ">" at the end of a tag;
- a few non-existing errors were caused by the validator confusing the use of the "&" character as an incomplete tag;
- a few other non-existing errors were prompted by a mistake I made with break br tag;
- the validator counts as an error if there's no ALT attribute specified for images. The text description for image links is required for "text browsers, text-to-speech, braille for the visually impaired".
W3.org recommendations to the ALT tag are as follows:
How to specify alternate text
Attribute definitions
alt = text [CS]
For user agents that cannot display images, forms, or applets, this attribute specifies alternate text. The language of the alternate text is specified by the lang attribute.
Several non-textual elements (IMG, AREA, APPLET, and INPUT) let authors specify alternate text to serve as content when the element cannot be rendered normally. Specifying alternate text assists users without graphic display terminals, users whose browsers don't support forms, visually impaired users, those who use speech synthesizers, those who have configured their graphical user agents not to display images, etc.
The alt attribute must be specified for the IMG and AREA elements. It is optional for the INPUT and APPLET elements.
While alternate text may be very helpful, it must be handled with care. Authors should observe the following guidelines:
* Do not specify irrelevant alternate text when including images intended to format a page, for instance, alt="red ball" would be inappropriate for an image that adds a red ball for decorating a heading or paragraph. In such cases, the alternate text should be the empty string (""). Authors are in any case advised to avoid using images to format pages; style sheets should be used instead.
* Do not specify meaningless alternate text (e.g., "dummy text"). Not only will this frustrate users, it will slow down user agents that must convert text to speech or braille output.
Implementors should consult the section on accessibility for information about how to handle cases of omitted alternate text.
There were no other errors pointed out. |
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| Learning log #8 - group chat |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|12:49 pm] |
The time zone differences didn't deter a group chat I had with my classmates Stephen, Tara and Sarah, all of us in different cities.
As opposed to a one on one chat, it's a lot more difficult to have a linear conversation on a group chat context. A topic cannot be extended for more than one question and one maybe two answers at most.
On a formal context, I think the group chat format would work if all parties were given a brief and an opportunity to speak each on their own time, just like a presentation. On a more informal context, it would be useful for friends organising an event, such as a party, but didn't have the opportunity to meet up face to face before said event. |
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| Learning log #9 - html task |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|12:43 am] |
So for my latest uni assignment, I decided to make a Pete Toms fan site.
While I agree that blogs, Flickr, Youtube, etc, have made it simpler for the average person to produce content on the Internet, you do not have to be a computer wizard in order to create a simple website writing html code. The problem is that most Internet users aren't that keen on learning html so pre-formatted tools were required for them.
Being relatively familiar with html, I read the http://www.pagetutor.com tutorial already knowing some of the more common tags shown there. I ended up searching online for some tags I was oblivious of for my own web site (like to create the grey block in the centre and justify my text inside of it).
Creating websites is something I'd like to delve into a bit more, this task has been a reminder that I have a lot to learn yet. I didn't necessarily feel a sense of achievement though.
It's difficult to compare blogging and html since they are so different. The former is pure content; the latter is the skeleton which will give you the structure to produce content. |
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| Learning log #7 - chat |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|05:36 pm] |
Just had a chat to my classmate Sarah which was a meta-conversation about the very medium we were using to communicate: text chat.
We both agreed that it's medium ideal for informal conversations with friends and also for work purposes, though neither of us has ever used chat for the latter.
Chat seems to be a medium in between email or voice/video chat: it might have an element of asynchronicity to it, depending on how involved both parties are in the conversation but it also might work as an instant response medium.
In my opinion, Gmail chat is the most convenient method to communicate, its only fault being the fact that one cannot "add" someone as a chat contact easily. MSN seems a bit outdated and cumbersome since you have to download it to use and it always forces you to use Internet Explorer as a browser (I prefer Firefox); ICQ has gone over the top with too bells and whistles on top of that and I don't see any reason to change from Gmail chat to ICQ or MSN. Simplicity has won me over in the end. |
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| Learning log #6 - lists |
[Jun. 28th, 2009|05:55 pm] |
What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?
Both mailing lists and discussion boards allow you to "meet" and discuss with like minded fellows, giving one the opportunity to join communities unbound by geographical distances.
In the early days of the Internet, when download speeds were slow and even text files might take a long time to load, the most helpful feature of a mailing list was the fact that they allowed you to receive individual emails whenever a new post was made to said list. Having messages stored in your computer was a quicker and more convenient way to access them for future reference. Nevertheless, the one-dimensional nature of moderated mailing lists (only one topic was acceptable) might have been a stifling to let that form of communication truly grow. Discussion board may have different forums all revolving around different facets of a certain topic while at the same time providing a forum for 'off-topic' threads.
On the other hand, now that connections have sped up and people have a more "multimedia" approach to the Internet, mailing lists lost a part of their appeal since one cannot display pictures, gifs or videos in the body of a message, which is possible on discussion boards.
Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other? |
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| Learning log #5 - email task |
[Jun. 13th, 2009|03:27 pm] |
1. What information about a user's email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?
By consulting this and this websites, I was able to learn a bit more about tracing the origin of an email by using information provided by email headers and also how spammers try to hide their IP address.
Basically, the sender's IP address will be specified under the 'received' section of the header though different IPs might be added as the message makes its way through the net. However, locating someone's IP doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to pin it to specific physical location. Reverse DNS might be useful to achieve this.
For example here, Gmail has its own SPF (Sender Policy Framework) to filter out any possible spam.
2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?
Upon researching about cc and bcc, I just found out that they stand for "carbon copy" and "blank carbon copy", terminology borrowed from the age of typewriters which had been now updated to "courtesy copy" and "blank courtesy copy".
One of bcc's main usage is obviously to protect the privacy of an email's recipients. This website points out a few other usages applicable for the workplace: make emails seems more personal, keeping management informed or as concealed way of backing up email.
The difference between 'cc' and 'Reply all' is the 'cc' has only one main recipient, meaning that all other recipients are only made aware of the message but wouldn't have to action on it or reply to it all. 'Reply all' bundles all recipients under the "To" field.
'Reply All' is not really a recommendable feature. It should only be used for informal communication. For example, a small group of friends organising a birthday party or students arranging an assignment together. 'Reply all' could become the cause of serious blunders or gaffes if people who aren't meant to read one's reply get it in their mailbox.
3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
Back in the 90s, I remember having to convert huge chunks of text data from an email in to a .txt file in my computer and then proceeding to convert it to either .jpg, .mov or .mp3 file.
Nowadays, it seems as if a vast majority of computers will be able to handle most mainstream type of file extensions which might attached on an email.
However, there are still measure that can be taken to insure your recipient will be able to access your attachment. For example, the ever ubiquitous BlackBerry can open several widely used file extensions but is not compatible with newer Microsoft Office .doc document and .xls spreadsheet files (reference here and here).
Also, large file attachments might clog email server and are both difficult to send and to receive. For files larger than 10MB, it's recommendable to upload it to a free online file storage, such as Sendspace, and forward the file URL to your recipients.
4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?
auto sort mailing lists into unique labels. spam. that's about it.
5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
no folders. just labels. |
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| Learning Log #2 |
[Jun. 12th, 2009|12:07 am] |
Telnet makes browsing the web a much more manual operation. By using it, it makes the internet turn into a handcraft and we are left to figure out how to navigate those handwoven bits and pieces. |
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| Learning log #3 |
[Jun. 8th, 2009|09:54 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | net11 | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | cornelius pavement dinosaur jr beck massive attack aphex twin tricky unkle oval | ] |
(only chez dzima number 3 comes before number 2)
So, on my journey back to 90s Internet I just found out that CAPITALISATION MATTERS when naming files for MAC, OS/2, MS-DOS and MS-WINDOWS.
I wasn't particularly impressed by ftp since I still use often enough to this day, thanks to Stanley Lieber. It was fun to peruse files from 10 years ago on Curtin's site though. The Internet is timeless. (rockist alarms go off)
The reason why websites like Flickr or Sendspace are successful is because they give Internet users free file storage (you'd be paying for a host otherwise [unless you're Stanley Lieber]) and a much simpler interface than FTP to upload files (plus the instant gratification of having your images on display on Flickr).
But, as with Telnet, it makes me feel at more at one with the computer instead of using all the automated software we are used to nowadays. |
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| Learning log #1 |
[Jun. 5th, 2009|07:40 pm] |
So I'm joining Aleks here and keeping the LiveJournal dream alive. It's a new beginning, a new incarnation for this blog, just like Terminator Salvation.
Henceforth it will turn into a full-fledged school assignment. I'll leave the comments open even though I don't anyone will be reading it.
My virtual classmates, feel free to peruse it. There are years of unnecessary posts in here.
TOP FIVE TIPS FOR BLOGGERS
1 - Finding a niche topic or readership;
2 - Regularly updating it;
3 - Blogger should reply to comments often/be easy to reach;
4 - Blog should have a hint of personal touch but shouldn't revolve around daily life, unless you want to keep a diary;
5 - Forming a community around blog. |
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