Topic 1.2 ...And the World Wide Web

It has been interesting reading and listening about the differences between what internet actually is compared to the World Wide Web.    The Web uses the internet to carry out its function as a method of linking hypertext and thus allowing us to access unlimited information.

It isn't very old in the scheme of things, even newer than Australia!   With Vannevar Bush's vision to create a system by which information could be sourced easily by mechanical methods.   The use of hypertext, which is the system that allows us to jump from one area to another by mouse click, with no apparent order.

Part 2 took us on a tour of HTML and the Web, explaining URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), as actual 'addresses', where the inform exists within the Web.   The Domain Name Server will then convert this to the IP address, and thus successfully finding the sought after information.

It was interesting investigating how HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and having an experiment (Activity One) to test it out.   We called them macros in WordPerfect back in the 80s and early 90s, where effectively HTML language was used to produce a memorised sequence of keys.    A huge timer saver for those of us who produced a lot of similar documents, and in hindsight was in fact HTML.

I found reading the excerpts almost disturbing, in that I want to quickly finish one page to continue to the next.  Consequently I did not read what was there adequately - I kept thinking about where I was going at the end of the page.  This happens to me regularly on the Web, so I often miss basic instructions.  It's almost like reading the last page first in a novel - I need to know where I am going so I can enjoy the journey.  Often the Web is more of a maze than an orderly sequence of events.

Activity Two - Going Way Back.
This was fun!   It is interesting to see the progression of web pages over the last couple of decades.  How similar they all were in the 80s and 90s, with basic white backgrounds and lots of boxes.  The graphics were sharp, square, basic and not very exciting.   Today's web pages are far more fluid, with much more exciting use of colour, often with light text against a dark background - something not feasible in hard copy, the ink is too expensive.   Also easier to navigate - with side panels, pretty indices, almost like a family tree arrangement.   This is most probably a perception rather than a reality, I am now far more familiar with how to use websites than I was 20 years ago.

I have forgotten how to reference the course notes, so I will need to go check and come back to correctly finish this entry.

Week 2 - 1.1 What is the Internet

Week 2 already. This week we leant about the history of the Internet, how it all started in 1957 and has been developing ever since.    The internet is a series of computer networks linked together by servers. Internet Protocol (IP) is the process by which these networks are able to talk to each other.  This creates a client/server model, where a number of clients are connected to a server and in turn each server becomes a client to a larger server and so it goes.   Peer to peer networks also exist where all computers can run an application simultanously.  An IP address allows the physical location of the computer to be identified.

We've learnt that messages sent within the Internet are 'packaged' - each message is broken into a number of small parcels that are sent individually throughout the network and re-assembled on arrival at their intended destination.  If any pieces go missing, they are re-sent from the original computer.

Bandwidth is the actual measure by which the amount of data can move at any given time.  The faster the connection the quicker data can be moved.   My computer has a download speed of 16055kbps (2006.9KB / sec transfer rate) and an upload speed of 671kbps (83.9Kb/sec transfer rate).  (http://broadbandguide.com.au/broadband-speed-test).   What this means was harder to establish as the website did not analyse by speed.  My understanding is that I have a fast wireless connection.

We where sent to find our own IP addresses - I googled this and found a video explaining how to do this.  It involved connecting to ipconfig which then gave three different addresses.  It did identify that I was connected through Bigpond and gave ma an iPv6 address and as well as an IPv4 address, a subnet mask and a default gateway.   This last address I recognised from sessions with Bigpond when I have accessed technical support for issues with my connection.   Domain Names are alpha interpretations of IP addresses.

Part 2 : Activities
The exercise was to  firstly, establish the geographical location of web page hosts.    It was interesting to see the connections between the better known website such as Twitter, Facebook and Google.   One popular website not hosted in either the US or Australia, is Facebook, which is hosted in Canada.

The second activity was to establish ownership of certain domain names.   Google, YouTube and Gooogle are all owned by Google.    Yahoo has claim to Yahoo, flickr and Yaho.

The ownership of both Gooogle and Yaho to Google and Yahoo respectively would indicate a protection of their primary sites in the event of deliberate or accidental use of misspelling.

References:

http://hexillion.com/asp/samples/AutoWhois.vbs.asp
http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/visual-tracert/
http://broadbandguide.com.au/broadband-speed-test

Week 1

I'm a little late in posting my first learning entry.   It's taken me several goes at several sites to get this far. 

First stop was to check namechk.com to try to establish the same name across all sites.  In the past I have dabbled with several of these, which meant I had a presence on them.   My new name of kirstyatcurtin was available in all sites except those that everyone seems to have a problem with.   When I tried to establish a new Twitter account with my new name, but my original email address it caused problems that I have yet to overcome - it kept going back to my kirstyfest name.    I will continue to work on this.

So far I have Twitter and this blog vaguely under control - I think.  Here's the Twitter link:  https://twitter.com/#!/kirstyfest.   My YouTube videos are already linked to this blog (Boy, that was exhausting!)

Flicka will be my next challenge as I am an avid hobby photographer and would like to share the several good photos (of the many hundreds taken) of the surrounds I live in, Far North Queensland, which is a magnificent part of the country.  One photo is already on this site.

I, like others, was not going to study over the Christmas period, but this subject of particular interest.  The Feast of the Senses Festival that I manage runs in March (so I will take the next study period off).  It is a ten day celebration of the local produce of FNQ, lots of fun and lots and lots of hard work!  But I love it (there's a YouTube link here for the Festival).  I also need to engage seriously with social media and this year I am determined that Twitter and Facebook and a blog will all run together to work for the Festival.

So yes, I do have a YouTube channel (Kirstyfest) which I started last SP in NET102, so my remediation assignment is there as is the Festival video and shortly there will be a rock and roll one too!

Once I have mastered these five:  Twitter, Blog, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook I will check out some of the over 154 sites!!   WordPress is next.

My First Blog

Well, we all have to start somewhere.
This is my very first blog and my first foray into a new world.  Hopefully there will be many more.

I have established this for my uni studies, BA (Internet Communications).  I will be using this for my learning portfolio and will literally learn as I go......