ICT at my library

The library in my local area has a large amount of computers that are avilable to any member of the public who holds a library card, that a very easy to apply for. Members are allowed to use the computers and printers and scanners for as long as they wish and for what they wish within reason. It has brought more people to the library and the library now has a nice atmosphere and has a made a great impact on library life.

ICT access in my local community.

We have very good ICT access in our local community, their are many computers for use in our public library which anyone can use. Children have a large number of computers they can use at their school, where they learn alot about how to work and use a computer. We have good internet access in the local area and people can also use computers in the community centre. Any disadvantaged groups in the area can easily get access to a computer and learn more about them.

wirless technologies

Its purpose is to make things easier to use and safer. It certainly does help the digital divide as it makes it increasingly harder for the poorer countries to catch up with the rest of the world. Its main target auidence is businesses and people who have an interest in computers and use them often . It doesnt really improve the way the computer works and can sometimes cause problems, when battries run out or the connection is lost. I dont think it has many certaing strength but not many certain weaknesses either. Improvments are constantly being made and they continue to for years and years, but i do not see any obvious improvements they can do with wireless technololgies as of yet.

who studie computing subjects?

Post 16 there are certainly more boys than girls studying computing subjects. Not mainly because it interests boys more than girls but girls tend not to understand their way around a computer as much as a boy does. A boy finds more interest in a computer as they play computer games and stuff unlike a girl does, as they generally just use word and the internet and learn about any other programmes when necessary. In todays world most jobs include using a computer and similar technologies and therefore this is why it is easier for boys to get higher paid jobs as they have studied computers unlike most girls, who then have to learn more about computers later on in life and find it harder than if they had learnt about it earlier on in their life. It ceratinly has an impact on society, as it makes men more superior again, as they can fix things and tend to be in the higher paid jobs because they know how to use a computer probably and have a qualification in it.

Impact of the internet acces for the homeless

Acces to the internet could help change the life of a homeless person, as they could use the internet to educate themselves more and improve their intelligence about things, such as english, maths, history and science. They can also look on the internet about ways in which they can restart their life, by finding somewhere suitable to stay, they can look on websites to help them find jobs and such things. Acces to the internet would be extremely useful for a homeless person.
When someone does have the internet it tends to put them on the wrong side of the social side of life and obviously this is extremely unjust but it is just the way things go into todays world unfortunately. Also, it is not as easy for them to find out information and such things.
Obviously , they are plenty of things that are more important to a person rather than having access to the internet. Clearly, you have family, friends and health and all that but after those sort of things, there is a phone and food and such things that people would find it hard to live without.

What did the world summit achieve

The Summit aims to connect people worldwide with learning opportunities and creative ideas from the UK, and to build lasting relationships between the UK and other countries.
While the Summit has done some good it has also caused harm to some things, however, i think it is a good thing to have in place as even when it does cause harm their reasoning behind it was to make a difference, they have good intentions and this something we shouldnt turn our noses up at. We should allow them to help us build good relationships with other countries, it will certainly help us in the long run and there are no reasons to be at war with the majority of countries.

Email in the solomons

The digital divide is currently really bad, with America and such countries constantly releasing and improving technology the other poorer countries are finding it increasingly more difficult to catch up, this is becoming more of a worry for the world. There are charities in place, computer aid, in order to try and help the less developed countries to get new technology that would be beneficial to them. Thd digital divide is having a big impact on the world but they are trying to overcome it but they just cant keep up and i think it is unlikely that they will.

The success of wireless technology

Wireless technology has been very successful as more people are willing to have such technologys as they now do not have to wires everywhere making things safer and have a better appearance. Wireless technology has helped considerably in the digital divide, as it is even better for poorer countries as they do not have much electricity and plug sockets and this allows them to use technology with minimal use of plug sockets which are limited in their countries anyway making life much easier for them.
I think the growth of wireless technology will certainly make a significant difference in toadys world but it ceratinly will not solve any problems but may just help them on their way to a solution. I think it will certainly have affect on the social side of things but not necessarily for the good, as it will become a sort of competition between people over who has the best technology and so forth. I also do not see that it will dramatically improve eductaion as they would be able to use the technology for education whether it was wireless or not. However. it will also do not harm to it either. Wireless products come at a much higher price, ovbiously effecting our economy, which isnt good. I think cultural it will not be good as it means that the digital divide is getting wider and wider as the poorer countries cant even afford the basics not matter about wireless.

Reducing the divide

The advantages for the developed world briding the digital divide are that it is better for everyone and makes us globally better prepared for things. It will also give other and less developed countries the use of equipment that can help them find out when hurricanes and earthquakes are near in order to alert people this would be great and cause less upset and problems for the world. It also gives them the chance to learn about more things using the internet and so forth, this is better for the world also.
There are of course many advantages for the poorest of countries. It means they will be able to educate themselves better and once again be better prepared in a time of crisis and just altogether be better off in their way of living as having technology will enable them to gain power and money hopefully.
I do not think Clinton was right as levels of internet access can be seen as more useful than levels telephone access and i do not see that any of this will affect income equality. There is no reason why it should, anyway.
I think charities such as computer aid do more good than harm, as they try and most often succeed in putting new technology and mainly computers into poor countries. The problem is there are so many poor countries that do not have technology that it is impossible for them to get computers for all of them, however, they certainly try and have already made a significant difference.

Impact of access to telecoms

In the UK we have 33.682 million main telephone lines, this is a very large for a small country and s a siginificant difference to the amount they have in other countries. Central African Republic had only 12,000 and this are such a larger country with a greater population the difference between the access to telecoms the UK have compared to Central Africe is astonishing. Costa Rica have 1.437 million this is a large amount also compared to Central African but still a small and insiginificant amount compared to the UK access to them . Once again Singapores has a lot of access but not much in comparison with the small country of the UK, Singapore has 1.859 million. This all shows the vast difference between the countries and the different styles of living. It clearly demonstrates the difference in technology across the world, which is quite astonishing.

Data response

Some of the reasons for the lack of ICT is the lack of electricity in these places and the simple fact that they do not have the funds to invest in the upto date technology.
Computer-aid projects have been very successful due to the fact that they cant afford to give the countries the most upto date technology as it is constantly improving and even when computer aid projects send computers over to these countries, the people do not know how to use one or how to build it into their normal lives to make things easier and do not know how to put them to good use. It would be necessary for the people of these countires to also recieve some much needed help and advise in how to use a computer and how to put it to good use for business use, it is important for them to get this help to help them move over to the other side of the divide.

Wrong side of the divide

Some countries are on the wrong side of the digital divide due to many factors, such as. they do not have sufficient funds in order to catch up with the technology the rest of the world now have. They have to put their money into housing and food before things such as the digital world. Also, for some coutnries they can survive without, unlike man y countries who are just greedy and are never happy and continue to improve things. So the matter of their countries economy not being developed enough can be a reason for them being on the wrong side of the digital divide. Also, the countries that are on the wrong side tend to be countries that are very small and do not have a massive population and stricken with poverty. Also, such countries do not have great electricity supply and this is necessary in order to run the majority of current technology. Although to a certain degree techinology may help these countries it isnt a necessaity and they are fine sitting on the other side of the divide for the moment and even if they transfer over to the other side they will never be able to keep up with the ever growing and improving technology in todays informtaion age.

Investigation ICT Legislation

The main provisions of the Data Protection Act are :
Data must:
-Be processed within the law
-Only be used for specific purposes
-Be adequate, relevant and not excessive
-Be accurate and up to date
-Be kept for no longer than is necessary
-Be processed within your legal rights
-Be kept secure
-Not to be transferred to countries that do not have similar Data Protection laws.
The main benefits of the Data Protection Act for individuals as well as groups in the information age are:
-Anyone misusing your personal data can be prosecuted as it is against the law
-People feel safer as they are more reassured that their data will be kept secure

The disadvantages of the Data Protection Act for people in the information age are:
-It is easier than ever for people to use someones elses data and get away with it for a long time, so the data protection act is certainly mistreated and people do not always reasuured by the act.

Monitoring internet and e-mail use

It certainly has some advantages, such as, it prevents employees from wasting time on the internet and looking work unrelated things, also, the employers are able to find out whether any workers are thinking about moving to a new job and it also makes their internet work space safer and lessens the risk of contracting viruses or getting any unwanted websites up and so forth.
It will most importantly have some negative impacts on the business as it is crowding workers independence and they are unlikely to want to work that way and it will probably force them more into looking for a new job which they wont search at work so the employers won't know about it and demonstartes that the employers have little trust in the workers and not many people are likely to want to work under these conditions.
I do not think it has many advantages for the employees accept them seem like good workers to the employers if they do not get reported for doing anything wrong ans the line manager will be able to send a positive report about them to their employer.
Sometimes it is necessary to use the internet for different things that usually wont be deemed for business purposes but on occasions it is and the employeees then have difficultly in doing so due to the monitoring system. An employee who only uses it for business purposes and feels that there is no need for their computers to be tracked and therefore will feel like it is an invasion of privacy and this can cause problems in the work place.

Discussion Teen Arrive Alive GPS Tracking system

I do not think it is a good idea, it stops teenagers idependence and parents should have faith in their children to behave while driving, if they dont then they shouldnt buy or give them a car to use and if they wasnt safe they wouldnt have passed their test. Also, some teenagers may react badly to their lack of indepenence and purposely drive wrecklessly to maybe prove a point. However, if it does work efficiently it could protect teenagers as if they know someone is watching them they are more likely to drive safely and also if they do get into trouble and have an accident some can call for help and still be able to give the emergency services directions as to where they are. However, parents will not be able to constantly watch where their children and also the techonlogy is sure not to work constantly and it is unlikely that many teenagers will agree to it.

Dicusssion US Passports and RFID

The US department of homeland security has decided that 1 millin US passports will contain radio frequency ID chips in 2005, moving to a universal system from 2006.
While this idea will be faster and more convenient it does have dnagers and flaws. How do you decide which 1 million people have the radio chip inserted into their passport and it they may not be relevant or useful to the system at all, sop will it actually be achieveing much? Also, it can be danger to the people and they can be traced from a wide range, sometimes helping to contain crimes but sometimes causing more trouble than they are worth.

The pros and cons of ID cards

ID cards will provide an easy and secure way for legal UK residents to prove who they are when they apply for services at private businesses or for government benefits or in order to purchase alcohol or cigarettes,etc. The cards are linked to their owners by unique biometic identifiers(fingerprints. This is reliable way to ensure the cards are legitimate and helps protect everyone from identity theft.
These new and improved ID cards are available for any UK resident over the age of 16. These ID cards, which are certainly more safe than the previous ones, were praised by the queen in her May 2005 speech and The identitity cards act became law in March 2006. They are expecting to be rolling out the first ID cards for British Citzens in 2009. Starting from 2010, ID cards will be offered to young people on a voluntary basis.
This is all to clamp down on Identity theft and fake ID cards, I think it will definitely have an impact on Britain. But whether they will make a difference for the best i dont know. I think it is important that the government have put careful consideration into this and i hope that will be successful. I think the majority of people would like something in place in order to stop their identitys being stolen and i think the new and upcoming system may work, however, the people who still identitys are very clever and will soon work out a way to carry on committing the crime, however, we can still try and prevent and i personally certainly see the need for ID cards, not only for this reason but also as a form of age prove and other such things. I definietly think they are a must of the current society and even if the latest system doesnt stop identity theft we will eventually find a way and they are useful for other things meanwhile.

Information overload

Spreadsheets can help considerably with an information overload because they can deal with a lot of informtaion being entered. They also keep all the information neat and orderly and also you can hide information, so that is not in the way.

Making Choices

I think the Nokia 6300 would be most suitable for a grandmother. It is a basic mobile phone, which is all an elderly person would need, it is easy to use and uncomplicated to make phone calls and is the easiest of phones today in order to write and send text messages and therefore is ideal for an old person, who only wants a phone to make phone calls in an emergency or for the freedom it can bring. It is also fairly light and small, so therefore not weighing their bags down. It also has a small camera on it, which is useful if they want to capture a moment, it really is simple to use compared to the majority of phones. It also has a large screen, making it easier for the person to see what is on the screen. It is about £130 at the moment, but it is constantly dropping in price as newer phones come out, this is a reasonable price for a phone in todays world and would be the perfect phone for any elderly person.

Computer games

Computer games are a extremely popular form of entertainment and are played by a wide age group. There are millions sold every year and they are popular due to the enjoyment they bring, with the factor of competition and excitment. I think it is fair to say that some computer games can encourage children to be more violent and also some people get high rate when playing some games. Fighting and shooting games are always going to demonstrate violence which is bound to have an affect. Some people are obsessed with the games and therefore isolate themselves from their friends and just concentrate on their computer games, when other use it as a reason to socalise, they use it as a common topic of conversation. Networked computer games, can have two affects, once again they can make you more social while they can also make you antisocial.

Pirated Entertainments

There are many advantages to paying a supplier such as apple for legal music downloads. It ensures you do not get into any trouble for having illegal downloads. Also, it know that you are actually recieving the official version of the song you actual want and it is certain to be good quality unlike pirated copies. The disadvantage of buying a pirate DVD from a market stall; is that is is bound to be poor quality and you are unable to take back to the stall and complain because it is your own fault for buying a pirate copy and the stall owner will not care and also once again you can easily get in trouble for buying pirated copies. Tne disadvantage of getting a pirated copy og the latest hollywood blockbuster before its UK release; is the copy is bound to be filmed from from a video recorder at the back of a cinema in a different country and will therefore be really wobbly and bad quality and may even have people walking in front the camera and will really not do any justice to the film and therefore people normally end up going to the cinema to watch it anyway. The disadvantage to visiting a illict music download site, is more often than not you do not actually download the song you intended to download, you can also get yourself in serious trouble and it is generally more hassel than it worth. The illict downloading sites discourage the funding of new talent because people would rather download the music illegal for free and take the risk of not getting the official song and maybe getting caught rather than paying the money for the real song and therefore artists are not getting the money that rightly deserve.

Original entertainment

With all the technology around now it has become apparently easier to create original entertainment so the statement, 'it has never been easier to publish original entertainment. ' I think it has become much easier to publish original entertainment in todays 'information age'. However, it is believed that it is now harder than ever to hear and see original entertainment. I agree with this to a ceratin degree, i think it is harder than before to find a good piece of original entertainment, however, it isn't impossible to find.

Valid Information

There isn't much that indicates the website www.about.com is relaiable and holds valid information. It does not have any signs of reliability and it is doubtful that it actually is. Also, the following website, http://www.dreamweaverstudios.com/moonbeam/moon.htm seems extremely unreliable at first sight. There is no indication of its validity and demonstrates that the information isn't a reliable source. These two sources as well as many others are unreliable websites that shouldn't be relied on to be a valid source and therefore i would not advice for use

Business Commmunications

Business' use e-mail, instant messaging, mobile phones and lots more on a regular basis. E-mail's are used a lot in the workplace in order to communicate internally and externally, e-mails have replaced the old fashioned way of communicating internally, memos. E-mails are a much more quicker and efficient way of getting a message to many people in the workplace and allows people to send the same message multiple. Also, business make a large amount of phone calls in a day from mobile phones and office phones, it is a quick way of communicating and a good way of ensuring a client or collgeaue has got the message you wanted them to have and a fast way of getting a response.

Other communcation services.

I use MSN messenger as a way of communcation for the social benefits, this allows me to talk to my friends at only the price of my broadband and i an able to talk for as long as i want and it is easy to have a full length normal conversation. I also use facebook, social network, this is a really good way of communcation and allows you to do so in a number of different ways; personal messages, e-mails, instant message or message posts. It is available for all to use and is fairly easy to navigate round. I also send e-mails to friends and family abroad, this is a quick and cheap way of communcating with people in other countries. I often use e-mails at college to, to e-mail my peers about work related things, sometimes in order to gain help or to help them.

When do you use mobile phones?

You use a mobile phone in order to contact people and to have a point of communcation in case of an emergency. People can use there mobile phones anyway as long as there is a strong enough signal reception. However, you are unable to use them in places such as hospitals as it interfers with medical equipment. It is easy to send text messages or dial calls anytime throughout the day or night and it is very easy to use the majority of the time. The major benefit of using a mobile phone is it is cheaper to communicate with people by sending text messages and it enables you to ring people whereever you are and once again it allows you to have an instant point of contact in an emergency and is veru useful on a day to day basis. Mobile phones aren't always easy to use however, quite often it is not easy to see what is the one screen and the buttons are too small and in certain places you are unable to get signal whiich is incredibly fustrating. Mobile phones do certainly fulfil their intended purposes, they enable to ring and talk to people freely and easily just like they were designed for.

When do you use E-mail?

You use E-mails inorder to send a quick message to someone in order to usually recieve a instant repsonse. Also, it is common to use E-mail in a work situation, as it is much quicker than actually finding the person and then having a conversation with them. Also, it is more efficient to use E-mails to talk to someone abroad, as it is free unlike the expensive phone calls it would take to talk to them over international phone lines.

Digital Communication vs Voice Conversation

Communticating with SMS in text language does have some disadvantages. Sometimes, the receiever of your messages does not understans what you mean when writing in text language and this can cause complications and mean that you have to use more texts explaining what you actually meant, writing it in proper english the second time round. Also, it is hard for someone to detect when somebody is using sarcasism or is actually being serious and this can sometimes cause problems. However, it is much cheaper to send text messages but more often than not it takes you 5 or more texts to have a conversation you could have within 3 minutes on the phone. So it does take more effort and a much longer time period to have a conversation via text message.
When having a proper voice conversation, phone call, it is a much quicker way of having a conversation, due to the fact that both communicators are able to understand each easily, it is easier to detect what some really means as you can hear the tone of their voice, detecting if they are joking or not and you can talk in proper english which takes alot less thought and effort.
Also, the downside to sending a wuick e-mail against having a short conversation is, the reciever of the e-mail does not always recieve the e-mail quickly enough and the repsonse is very delayed, some people are confident enough with computers to send one back. Once again, it is hard to detect what people actually mean. Also, secondly, it is much simpler to have a short face to face conversation with someone, as you then definietly know that they have the message you wanted them to have, you have their response and there is no confusion.

Analysing the 'good old days'

I think the business should begin to use Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel. By using Access they would be able to create a database to store all necessary information. Also, using Access it is easy to perform accurate calculations, furthermore, you can create validation rules, which make sure only vaild and correct information is entered into the database. Also, by using Excel it allows the business to create a spreadsheets that will safely hold all of their information and data.
It will be much more beenficial for the business to have all there important data held on a computer as it is easy to back it up several times in case of an emergency. Also, it is much more efficient and ensures the safety of the businesses data. I think Access will be more useful for the company over Excel, due to Access having a wider range of tools needed. The accurate calculations it will easily carry out,the validation rules and easy way to store data.
It is fair to say that not all people would find it easy to be confident with Access and Excel. However, with a bit of training the company's seceraty would soon be able to enter information safely into the database or spreadsheet. I do not think it would be necesassary to have a typist, as it would be suitable for the secetary to do both jobs, saving the company money.
The introduction to the office package will have a great affect on the business and allow them to complete things in a shorter time period and with more efficiency.

Ambulance Services

'Tool man'

If John used a laptop it would help him out considerably. As he would be able to keep a diary on his laptop, he could use it to listen to music while or while not working. There is also a calculator allowing him to do all his adding up without carrying around an extra calculator. He could also create a spreassheet to hold the price list from his catalogue. Also, if he had the internet on his laptop, he would then be able to use a map online whenever he got lost instead of carrying around a map and he could also create a website and this would enable to advertise his company better and also he could communicate with his clients via e-mai, also it would be beneficial to John to have a mobile phone, as he could keep all his contact numbers and addresses on there and he always has it in case of an emergency and also it enables him to contact clients. Also, if John has GPS it would enable him to find his way to his clients quicker and easier and therefore he would have no need for the map anymore.
Although, there some disadvantages to this, John would find it hard to learn how to use all the different programs on the laptop and how to work a mobile phone and GPS and also it isn't always really sometimes the mobile phone and laptop may run out of power this then becomes a problem for John as he doesn't have his necessary information.
However, I think overall it would be very useful for John to have this equipment, although i think he shouldnt just rely on them but it would condense the amount he carries around everyday.

Online Entertainment

The latest online entertainment I have used was the Playstation 3. It is very entertaining and suitable for a wide range of people. When it is connected to the internet it makes the experience better as you can play people all over the world and therefore the element of competition makes it more exciting and you can play a large variety of different games, from fighting to music games. One limitation is that it isnt always to maintain i good internet connection and can spoil your games at time.

Downloads

In our small groups, we discovered that all of us download music at home using itunes. However, this is only good if the person has an ipod, due to its format. It is easy to buy songs over the internet, as when you buy an ablum you do not necessarily want all the songs on the CD and therefore when you download music you only have to download the music wish to, however it is easy to run a big bill when buying music over the internet, as a song is 79p which initally seems cheap but to fill your an ipod with songs costs alot of money. We also, download the latest versions of programs such as itunes, it is usual to get a pop-up telling you to download the newest version, this is very easy to complete and is usually beneficial to the costumer in some way.

Government Online services

It is easy for a consumer to research for the Government online services and find out necessary information about anything they wish to find out or solve.
When looking a the governments information services by using www.directgov.co.uk, i found that they had 500 searches covering a wide range of subjects from pest control to UK flights. It is very easy for a consumer to find out information and is veru useful.
While when researching for online reporting and advice the selection of links are considerably smaller at only 51, it still may be useful and is likely to answer most peoples questions and explain how to report something. It displays information about terroists attacks to squatters to fraud.
One again there is a vast range of links, which enable a consumer to book things such as driving tests. Once again this is very useful, sometimes it is easier and you have a wider range of things that you are able to book on other websites, however, they may be less reliable as directgov.
The website directs to 500 links to give consumers advice and help and information on how to cope with their payments or even how to pay them. This is very useful to a consumer and gives them reassurance that they will be able to cope with their payments with the recent credit crunch.

According to the cabinet office report in 2004, the Government hopes to have saved £1.3 million within 3 years by migrating its services online and to have saved consumers £1 thousand million. How is this possible?


I do not think this is possible and seems a very unrealistic judgement to make, I do not see how they are saving cosumers £1 thousand million.

Recently, I have used the social networking www.facebook.co.uk and have reseached things on search engine websites such as www.google.com.

Education

One type of online learning is the www.bbc.co.uk/learning
This offers students the chance to complete many activites and tutorials. It has information on many subjects and ranges from KS2 up to A-level, so there for is suitable for all. It is also a very reliable source of learning. It had fun games as another way of learning and also short film clips for certain subjects. It suitable for everyone to use and is a good way of revising and practising work and there is plenty to learn.

There are also websites that shows you step by step ways of completing your work on the computer, such as ,www.macromedia.com. This is very useful and enables students to work indepently and also complete work at home. As, sometimes when a person explains how to use Dreamweaver it is not easy to understand and websites such as the Macromedia website explains how to do things step by step. It is a great source of learning for students, although it is difficult to fins these in many subjects.

There are also 'Learning objects' that many companies market to the educational market. These are very useful for teachers as well as students and is an easy way of demonstrating something clearly to the whole class. It is also a different and interesting way to learn that students can use at home or during school/college. Once again, you are limited to which topics you can find them on, however, they are still good sources of learning and can be a great way of improving a students skills on the computer, which can help them most subjects.

There is also 'simulations', such as www.netfrog.com. The website Netfrog allows students to look at a series of images showing the close dissection of a frog. This is very useful for students studying biology or animal rights. It is also very fascinating and it is possible to fins simulations on many different topics. However, it is not as beenficial as carrying out a dissection or watching it in real life, althought some people have issues with such things and therefore would prefer to watch it on the internet. I do not think it si the best way of learning, however, it can be used as a back-up to reienforce information already learnt, as it is a different way of learning.

Education-Use a Learning Object

Simple demonstrations, such as, a viewlet that displays "using the toolbar and format menu”. These types of flash and quicktime movies are marketed by a number of companies to the educational market as 'learning objects'. These are another way in which students can learn, making learning more unique and interesting. Also, it is an easier way of teaching the whole class all together about such things. I think it is a good and valuable way of learning and is very beneficial to students and teachers.

A good website to view this movies on is www.lynda.com

Internet Weather Predictions

Once again the weather has been just as predicted. Now reflecting back on the weather of the last 5 days, it has proved that the internet weather predictions are very accurate, although, we did have some rain on monday night and the internet weather predictions did not predcit that, apart from that the weather predictions have been very reliable and I would use them again.

Education- Macromedia Presentations

http://www.macromedia.com/

Your are able to visit the website above and have a lesson in using macromedia software, it is very good and shows you clearly how to use the programs. It is a very good idea, especially for students, who can do more independent working and look it up how to work the programs and therefore learn for themselves how to do their work.
However, it has its disadvantages, the lessons only show you one way to do things and there is normal several others, if you still dont understand when you get someone to explain it to you sometimes it can make things more confusing. The presentation may be too long and may go into detail that is not necessary for you to know in order to do your work. Also, it does not always work efficently and depending on the speed of your internet or what sort of compuet you are on or any faults with the macromedia website sometimes you are unable to view the presentation and this can be quite fustrating.

Education- Netfrog

http://frog.edschool.virginia.edu/Frog1/

I do not think that the website above is very good and it certainly doesnt make the dissection of a frog interesting.
However, it is a good idea to be able to look at how to dissect a frog before doing so, in order to make sure you are doing it and therefore able to see all the necessary things in the frog.
Also, if things like dissecting a frog make people ill there are able to look at what you see when dissecting frog instead of actually doing so, also you then dont have to kill frog.
However, the pictures on the website arent exactly great and as beneficial as you would like them to be but would help you in some way.

Education- Online learning

Online Education.

http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/learning_modules/

I looked around the website above, and found that it was very easy to navigate around, menaing it is suitable for students, who may not have time to try and figure out a website or may not be very good at computers. It has loads of relevant and interesting information. I think it fulfils its purpose very well.
However, I don't think that it is fun enough, meaning students will get bored easily and therefore may leave the site and give up on revising/learning online.
On the other hand, it is an alternative for those students that dont like learning other ways.

Online Banking

Online Banking.

The purpose of online banking is to prevent people from having to go into town to bank, this is to make things easier for people.
I have looked closely at the Lloyds TSB bank website, it although it fulfils its purpose and allows you to do all kind of things to do with your bank account. I think onlie banking is aimed at people who long hours and have a hectic life style and therefore struggle to find time to go to the bank during opening times, where as online banking sites allow them to bank whenever they wish.
I also looked at the HSBC site, which works in a similar way and people are able to bank online whenever they wish.
One down side to online banking is things can always go wrong and sometimes it is better to talk to a person about what you want to do and then it is always easier to put problems right. I have heard of many accounts in which people have had serious problems due to online banking so therefore it isnt always the best idea.
Also, you have to be good at computers and know what you are doing because it is a risky business entering in details and you are messing with your own money. Is it really worth the risk?
However, I think banking can be improved in the future, it can be made more efficient and problems need to be made easier to solve, with a place you can be directed too or ring up in order to sort problems rather than hasseling people at your local branch. Although, if you went to them in the first place, you might be better off.

Internet Weather Predictions

Once again the internet weather predictions are very accurate and in my area we have seen sun and slight bit of cloud. So, on my research so far i would say that the internet is fairly reliable.

Internet Weather Predictions

So far the weather predictions, that i posted on her yesterday, are right, friday was cloudy but sunny and today(saturday) it is sunny. So, at the moment the internet weather predictions seem to be fairly accurate.

eBay

I have been looking at eBay and how it fulfils its purpose.


The idea of Ebay is to allow people to buy and sell stuff. People have to bid within a time restriction the seller has set and the person who bids the highest wins the goods. Ebay is used world-wide and has an enormous auidence and users. It is aimed at a wide range of people from teenagers to elderly people and every one in between; however you can only but something if you have a debit or credit card. There is a extremely big range of things on sell and it is possible to find almost anything you search. It certainly fulfils its purpose in allowing people to buy and sell things. Some people have even given up their jobs to run thjeir own eBay business but basically just buying things and selling them on eBay and making a extremely good profit. You can buy second as well as first hand stuff and it is easy to navigator around. Obviously the only limitation with any commerical transactional website is you, you never get a clear idea of what the product looks like and sometimes this can be a problem.

Internet Weather Predictions

I am now researching the weather for my area for the next 5 days. I plan on noting down out the weather is actualy like and then comparing it with the websites predictions, so i can see how accurate it is.
I found the weather predictions www.bbc.co.uk/weather.

Friday-cloudy but sunny-19°C-moderate
Saturday-Sunny-17°C-moderate
Sunday-Sunny-17°C-good
Monday-Sunny-17°C-good
Tuesday-Cloudy but sunny-17°C-good

I will write back agains oon comparing the predictions with the actually wheather.

Planning my Journey

I had to plan a journey from my home town, stubbington, to Tottenham Court Road in London.
First of all, I researched the journey by train and underground.

Arrive at Fareham train station at 12:30
Get on the train to London Waterloo at 12:40
Arrive at London Waterloo at 2:28
Then catch the Underground Nothern Line to Tottenham Court Road.
Arrival Time 2:40

Secondly, I researched the jounery by car.


.00
Start out at Stubbington,Fareham
Unclassified

0.00
0.06
Turn left onto Metcalfe Avenue
Metcalfe Avenue

0.06
0.09
Turn left onto Burnt House Lane
Burnt House Lane

0.15
0.08
Turn left onto Gosport Road - B3334
B3334

0.23
0.15
At roundabout take the 4th exit onto Gosport Road - B3334
B3334

0.38
0.21
At roundabout take the 1st exit onto Titchfield Road - B3334
B3334

0.59
1.84
Turn left onto the A27
A27

2.43
0.68
Holiday Inn (Fareham-Solent)
A27

3.11
0.07
At roundabout take the 3rd exit onto the A27
A27

3.18
0.11
Shell Titchfield
A27

3.29
1.02
At roundabout take the 4th exit onto the A3051 (signposted Southampton, Portsmouth, M27)
A3051

4.31
0.41
At roundabout take the 1st exit, then join the M27 motorway (signposted Southampton) Traffic blackspot: Call 401100 from your mobile
M27

4.71
9.24
Turn left onto the M3
M3

13.95
2.12
Holiday Inn (Southampton-Eastleigh M3, Jct.13)
M3

16.08
7.98
Shell Winnall (Junction 9)
M3

24.06
4.05
Winchester Service Area (ROAD CHEF)
M3

28.11
22.74
Fleet Service Area (WELCOME BREAK)
M3

50.85
15.62
Leave the M3 at junction 2, then join the M25 motorway (signposted Heathrow Airport)
M25

66.47
6.88
Leave the M25 at junction 15, then join the M4 motorway (signposted London (WandC), Heathrow Terminals 1,2 and 3) Traffic blackspot: Call 401100 from your mobile
M4

73.36
2.05
Holiday Inn (London-Heathrow M4, Jct.4)
M4

75.41
1.55
Warning: Speed Cameras along the M4
M4

76.96
1.50
Heston Service Area (MOTO)
M4

78.46
5.19
Continue forward onto the A4
A4

83.65
1.13
At Hogarth Roundabout take the 2nd exit onto the A4 (signposted Central London, Hammersmith)
A4

84.77
0.32
Warning: Speed Cameras along the A4
A4

85.10
0.57
Express by Holiday Inn (London Hammersmith)
A4

85.67
0.10
At Hammersmith Flyover Junction continue forward onto the A4 (signposted Central London, Olympia)
A4

85.76
1.40
At traffic signals continue forward onto the A4
A4

87.16
0.25
At traffic signals continue forward onto the A4 (signposted Central London (West End), Knightsbridge) Central London Congestion Charges ApplyMon-Fri 7am-6pm
A4

87.41
0.44
Holiday Inn (London-Kensington Forum)
A4

87.85
0.06
Holiday Inn (London-Kensington)
A4

87.91
0.34
Natural History Museum
A4

88.25
0.32
At Brompton Oratory continue forward onto the A4
A4

88.56
0.31
Harrods Store
A4

88.87
0.22
At Scotch House Junction continue forward onto the A4 (signposted Central London)
A4

89.09
0.20
At Hyde Park Corner Junction, continue forward through underpass (signposted The City, West End, Piccadilly Circus)
A4

89.29
0.72
Holiday Inn (London-Mayfair)
A4

90.02
0.35
At Piccadilly Circus turn left then right and continue forward onto Shaftesbury Avenue
A401

90.37
0.35
At Cambridge Circus turn left onto the A400
A400

90.71
0.22
Arrive at Tottenham Court Road Underground Station,London
A40

90.94

If starting out at 12:30 I would arrive at Tottenham Court Road by 2:34 without any traffic.

Planning my Journey

I had to plan a journey from my home town, stubbington,

Tsunami disaster

The tragic incident of the 2004 tsunami is a good example of presenting information in different ways. Many people queued up at internet cafes in order to be able to e-mail loved ones to tell them they were ok, the phone lines were jammed, as some many people were trying to contact others, also, there was a lot of text messages sent. This enabled them to share the information quickly, E-mails were delievered straight away to the reciever, phone calls were constantly being answered and also, text messages worked better than ever before, people were sending messages which would wait in the message centre until there was a break in the lines for the message to send, getting the informtaion to their family and friends as soon as possible. More money was raised over the internet by the public in different countries, than all the money the government's gave, this an amazing achievement. Organisations and indiviuals all concentrated hard on trying to raise as much as possible to help Asia deal with its horrific tragedy. Modern Communication Services were used rather than the old ones because they are more efficent and once you have sent, people do not have to worry so much as to whether the person has recieved the message, as they recieve it as soon as there is a free space in the lines. I think all of the services were very effective during this incident and helped the Asian community significantly and certainly fulfilled their prupose. Due to all the help of the internet and phone lines, people of Asia and tourists were able to tell their family's and friends they were ok. Also, One of the hospitals was taking pictures of every patient and uploading it to their website so that they could let people know they were safe and this resulted in a woman in Sweden recognising that her 2-year-old nephew was on the website and therefore she was able to help. This is just one story to tell that reflects the Modern Communication Services are very good and fulfil their purpose.

Digital divide

Today, I researched the 'digital divide' on http://www.groups.google.com/ .
Unfortunately I did not find anything of any help to me. The only one benefit these groups have is it enables people to all talk about a common interest they have, however, it is very difficult to find a suitable group to read or join, as they often re-direct to other sites or do not have any messages on them. I do not think that it fulfils its purpose very well.

Today, I sent an SMS containing a Haiku Poem. It read as follows:
B4 its 2 l8
i c u l8r
2nyt k?
The person I sent the message then sent a message back converting my Haiku into proper English, as follows:
Before it is to late,
I will see you later,
Is tonight ok?

E-mail is a better communication service due to it being a free service and it is easy to write in language that everyone understand and you are also not restricted to how much space you use. It is also more efficient to use E-mail to send messages to people living in other countries. Instant Messaging is also a very good and well used communication service. It is very easy to have a proper conversation with someone for free and is very simple to work. The most common sources of IM is MSN or Yahoo. Another, common way of communicating is SMS, it is very easy to use, however, it is costly and it is sometimes hard to understand people's messages.

So therefore, I think E-mail is the best source of communication services although it is not always convenient to use a computer throughout the day and therefore SMS is a better option.

Today, I sent an E-mail to a peer, with a document attached explaining what an E-mail is, including a diagram with description to how an E-mail works, as shown below.

About E-mails

E-mail is an abbreviated form the term ‘Electronic Mail.’ E-mail is a store-and-forward method of writing, sending, receiving and saving messages over electronic communication systems. The term ‘e-mail’ applies to the internet e-mail system based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, to network systems based on other protocols and to various mainframe, minicomputer or internet by a particular systems vendor, or on the same protocols used in public networks. E-mail is often used to deliver bulk unsolicited messages or ‘spam’ but filter systems exist which can automatically block or delete some or most of these.

(Diagram here)

The diagram above shows a typical sequence of events that takes place when someone composes a message using their mail user agent. They type in or select from an address book, the e-mail address of their correspondent and then press’ the send button. Their MUA formats the message in Internet e-mail format and uses the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to send the message to the local mail transfer agent (MTA).The MTA looks at the destination address provided in the SMTP protocol (not from the message header).An Internet e-mail address is a string of the form localpart@exampledomain.com, which is known as a Fully Qualified Domain Address (FQDA). The part before the @ sign is the local part of the address, often the username of the recipient, and the part after the @ sign is a domain name. The MTA looks up this domain name in the Domain Name System to find the mail exchange servers accepting messages for that domain. The DNS server for the b.org domain, ns.b.org, responds with an MX record listing the mail exchange servers for that domain, in this case mx.b.org, a server run by the correspondents ISP.
smtp.a.org sends the message to mx.b.org using SMTP, which delivers it to the mailbox of the user. The user presses the "get mail" button in his MUA, which picks up the message using the Post Office Protocol (POP3).

Today, I went on social networking site, www.facebook.com.

This is my first post.