Pre-assessment 2!

Well then, it's kinda over. Once this is finished I will be a happy chicken! It will signify the end all I can do in this assessment!

Throughout the semester I have learnt ever so much in MPI104. When I went into the class I was Mac savvy and Internet competent... but that was it. I knew nothing of HTML or encoding - embarrassing I know!

I have learnt about new and exciting websites that I can use to keep in touch with people and keep them updated on my life - flickr.com, where we can upload photos, tag them and show them off.

Del.icio.us, where we can bookmark pages on the web that we need and/or like so we can have easy access to them and know when they have been updated. I now use this one for my uni work.

We also have started to use Technorati... I still don't quite get this to its full extent... but I do know it sort of gets your blog out there. Lets people know when you have updated your blog and the more authority you get with a higher blog count the more likely people are going to see your blog.

I've learnt a lot more about google. I always just saw it as a search engine but it is so much more. I'm going to be using the extra features a lot more - especially the Calender and the google documents.

I have learnt so much about HTML. To me, before, it used to be an unknown entity but now I'm quite competent at the basics. Putting in links, changing backgrounds on templates and changing what has been written. I'm very happy about this! I feel smart...

I still don't get FTP though... I think it shall confuse me for a while.

I do get RSS feeds though. It shows you, on your page, when something on another page has been updated. Which is a very useful tool to have.

I'm very happy with how I have gone in MPI104.

Athene

Here is the link to my Athene webspace . Hopefully it's working... I'll be very sad if it isn't!

I have got four pages so far... the home page, about me, blog and links.

Home pages - has a picture of me, my counter and a few well chosen words.
About me - quite self explanatory! It has facts about me, places i like to go, music i like, places in the world, links and a few photos.
Blog - again rather self explanatory. I have 3 blogs on there, one for mpi104, one for the easter show and one for full board on the grass.
Links - 3 guesses people! I have a link to my blog, to flickr, to del.icio.us, to the mpi104-2008 blog and my rss feed for my blog.

Counters...

Counters on the web. Here is the link to wiki's definition of what a web counter is.

Basically they are a type of software used to record the amount of visits or hits on a particular webpage. We would use these to keep track of how many people are going on our websites so we know whether they are successful or not. They show the popularity of a page.

Other web analysis tools are ones such as Omniture, WebTrends, CoreMetrics and WebSideStory. All of which are used by many businesses.

In general...

Basically a blog to update all you people who read these things....

Nothing new has really happened these past few weeks.... I celebrated my 1 month anno with my partner - Jess - this week, on wednesday. It was extremely good! I'm so happy with her.

Uni has gotten a little bit harder but still bearable. I'm so glad I'm here. The people and the place is fantastic. I've really fallen in love with Wagga Wagga.

My friend, Seb, who lives downstairs just came into my room and I have now forgotten what I was going to say... i'll just attach a photo of Jess and myself and leave it at that I think.

RSS

The world has created this nifty invention called RSS, I get that is a feed of some sort for blogs but that's about it. I am mighty confused! Here is the link to the wiki article
Can anyone help me understand it???

technorati...

Well I don't konw about anyone else but technorati confuses the hell outta me! I really don't understand it. It took me a very long time to be able to sign in but once I got in it was a bit easier to use. I have claimed this blog on it... ...

I'll write another blog later on when I understand the full extent of technorati.

FTP... +1

After much research and reading I think I finally understand what FTP is! exciting, right? Thus too my understanding FTP has absolutely nothing to do with html coding. This was my problem before, I thought it had something to do with html coding and webpages. But really it isn't. It is just a way of sending large files from user to user through network such as the internet. There are many webapges that use this kind of protocol, such as yousendit which allows you to send large files that wont fit on an email. As far as I am aware this is what it is... please if it isn't correct me!!
I hope if anyone else didn't understand the whole FTP shin-dig this can help...

File transfer Protocol

FTP... yet another crazy internet thing-ma-jig that we need to learn. And I can safely say, 100%, that i have absolutely no idea what it is. I mean I know it is a network protocol used to transfer data from one computer to another through a network such as the internet... but really what does that mean? It makes no sense to me! At all
Obviously it must have pros, which I'm guessing are things such as allowing file transfer at fast rates to every network and the like. I've read the wikipedia page about it but it really doesn't help.
I did pick up on security problems from wiki though, basically because of the encoding user names, passwords and the like can be viewed by anyone... which isn't really all that good!
Thats pretty much all I was able to understand at this moment in time. Is anyone able to help me understand it better?

Here's the link to the wikipedia page about FTP

Post for assessment

This is the post we have been instructed to write before the start of our assessment on the 28th April 2008.

I have posted 6 posts on my blogspot. I can't remember 100% who I have commented on, except on Sam Heartmans most recent blog here . It's not very exciting but I hope it suffices! I haven't put any tags on my blogs, because I am still learning about blogger and didn't realise that we are able to do that! I'm sure Damian will have said this in class but I didn't really register it. I've never used an online blogger before, although I have been known to do the occasional post on my myspace.com account [I won’t be linking that for privacy issues]. In terms of aesthetic qualities I haven't really played around with my blog. I used a template provided by the website and didn’t dare change any of the html coding in case I stuffed it up. I did, however, put a photo onto the blog. It's not in a post but at the bottom of the blog. It is of Sam Hartman and I at the Sydney Easter Show.

On my Del.icio.us account I have 22 WebPages bookmarked. Some of these are classmates’ blogs and the rest are ones that interest me. My three favorite WebPages are;

-> 1001 Cocktails, which is here , need I say why really? I am a big lover of a good cocktail and this tells me how too make many kinds!
--> Manchester United Official Website, which is here , I have supported Man U since I can remember, this causes a bit of a problem at home because my Father and Brother both support Manchester City!
---> BBC UK, which is here , I am from the UK and this allows me to stay updated on not only world wide news but also what is happening in the UK... it is also another way for me to stay updated on Man U's progress *glee*

On my flckr account I have uploaded 14 images. I know this is a low amount but that is because I am still unsure of flickr and don't feel comfortable posting many images on there just yet. I already have 2 online profiles at Facebook and Myspace which I am comfortable with and prefer because of the privacy given by it. On Flickr I am unable to privatize my photos so they can be viewed only by my friends... as far as I am aware . My three favorite photos on there are;
-> a llama
--> my four baby mice
---> Aaaannnndddd my friend and I at my farewell

I hope I have met the criteria and you have enjoyed the experience that is my blog!!

Post with a photo

It was not until recently that I realised I haven't posted a blog with a photo. I am a tad unsure whether this was one of our tasks or not so I thought I shuold do it just uin case. Although it may be a tad later than other people it's an awesome photo of me at Taronga Zoo with my head in the desert fox ears. They weren't working at the time but I still love the photo so I'm posting it on here.

Templates

Templates are what websites are based on. It is what is designs the layout, we can then change it and customise it to become our individual template. Most people use the CSS application to make their templates. CSS Blog

At this moment in time I haven't changed anything manually for my blog. I don't have the guts to try. The idea if trying and screwing it up is playing on my mind...

Has any one else changed anything?

CSS

I have read the wikipedia page about CSS and I think I get the general gist. CSS is a Cascading Style Sheet, it is basically an application that uses HTML and XHTML to style web pages. It saves us time and makes it easier to create a style - this is something to do with the markup. but I don't get that part just yet.... I know it's something to do with templates ( Templates blog)

It provides more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content.

Can anyone help me understand CSS a bit better?

del.icio.us

I have now got a del.icio.us account.  I still don't understand completely the extent of what I can do on it, but I'm sure the more I use it the more likely I'll get it.

heres the link to my bookmarks. I haven't got very many at the mo. But I will!

I was unable to find the mpi104 link though.

I am updating this post, I have looked for a few other sites that are similiar to del.icio.us these are;

Ma.gnolia
Sharin @ Internet Center
Aaaannnddd Reddit

I hope you find these as interesting as I did!

Flickr

My flickr account link is...

Dragon Queen

Have fun kiddies!

My first proper blog post...

Here's a link to wiki's definition of a blog.

I hope you have lots of fun with it.