NET11- Unit Reflection

My journey began 13 weeks ago and if I am honest I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about what I was letting myself in for. But after introducing myself to Cynthia and the other students on the discussion boards and reading some of there posts I soon felt at ease at the realisation that my fellow classmates had a variety of skill levels so I wasn't alone in my newness to it all. The good thing about this group is that they were never judgemental , if someone, of say my level of knowledge, needed help with a particular problem no matter how small there was always someone to help out.
We even had a class clown in the guise of Yani (jon) who was always quick with a joke as well as he was with his support to his fellow class mates so good on ya Yani !

The experience of studying NET11 has been very rewarding , I feel I have come along way in the past 13 weeks with my studies, I've tried aspects of the internet I've never attempted before, as well as learning how to think differently about it. I must also thank Cynthia for her guidance and support throughout this unit... Well that's about it , I'll keep this blog updated as I may need it for my next unit, which is NET 12 . Bye for now :-)

Module 5 - Info-Communication Concepts

This will be probably be my last post in this blog for NET11 Advanced Internet Techniques, as I have already mention in my last entry I will now be concentrating on finishing my concepts essay.

Below are the main points of Module 5 and I will most definitely have a closer look at these topics over the next couple of weeks. I find of particular interest the case study of P2P file sharing because of the legal wranglings currently going on. ;-) keep it to yourself but I have been known to use Limewire from time to time.

Information Ecologies

“We define an information ecology to be a system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a particular local environment. In information ecologies, the spotlight is not on technology, but on human activities that are served by technology.”(Nardi & O’Day, 1999)

Case Study: Peer to Peer

Peer to Peer software and file sharing has become a central Internet issue – mostly publicised through the ongoing legal action against those downloading free music through P2P networks. P2P provides a useful ‘case study’ for thinking through the various systems, roles and functions involved in what is an increasingly common form of internet usage.

Preparing for ‘future shock”

“The incubator for many of the emerging technologies that are shaping the future is known as Internet2 . Formed in 1996 and administered by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), Internet2 is a partnership between universities, corporations and government agencies. …
Internet2 is a not a single network, but a consortium of hundreds of high-speed networks linked by fiber optic backbones that span the United States and and link to other countries. It transmits data at speeds up to 2.4 gigabits per second--45,000 times faster than a 56 Kbps modem…”
http:// www.learnthenet.com/english/html/03future.htm

Module 5: Info-Communication Concepts

Well here I am nearly at the end of my journey through the Unit, Currently doing Module 5, reading through the concepts document, which I'll have to read a couple of times just to make sure it sticks, also checking out the recommended websites and p2p case study, but my priority is getting my essay assignment finished, which I have to admit I was having trouble getting started. I've written essays before but I had some kind of writers block, so I emailed Cynthia ( Tutor and Internet Guru ) and she soon put me on the right path with some great advice.

A couple of nights ago I listened to Helen Merrick's ilecture, Information Ecology's, interesting stuff, gave me a lot to think about.

Module 4 - Evaluating the Web

Vicnet (Victoria’s Information Community Portal) (nd)
Retrieved 16/2/07
http://www.vicnet.net.au/training/advance.html

This above link will take to an excellent section of a website from the State Library of Victoria. The site contains many links to an abundance of information about the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). There are tutorials and helpful hints for beginners to advanced Internet users and comprehensive list of Australian and International Search Tools. The site also has a link to an even more comprehensive list of online resources from YAHOO. As this website is community information portal, it is hosted and managed by Vicnet, a division of the State Library of Victoria, so the content is constantly monitored and updated regularly. The site will give anyone the opportunity to develop the necessary skills for a good grounding in Internet use. I have no hesitation in recommending this site beginner to advanced user alike.

Question: in terms of your own future use, which 'body ' of information (ie. the original 'snapshot' of the site, or your own, annotated, analytical version) would be most useful to refer back to?
Answer: I think my annotated, analytical version would be more useful as I have checked out and analysed the site and given my opinion it becomes more relevant to me when looking back over the annotation.

Question: In term of external users (i.e. if you included this site as a hyperlink or resource on a website) which body of information would best help them judge if the site was useful or of interest to them?
Answer : I feel my explanation and annotation of the site would be helpful for anyone searching for the information about the Internet/WWW use.

Module 4 - Organizing search information task

Being a beginner to advanced Internet techniques I have never used any additional Bookmark Managers. The way that I organised my bookmarks is by using the inbuilt facility that comes standard with most search engines. I usually click on the bookmark button on the tool bar and save the URL into an appropriate folder I have named e.g.Curtin University, sometimes with a sub folder like NET 11 This method has served me well to date.

But for this task I have downloaded and installed to types of Bookmark Managers the first being a Firefox add-on called Hyper BK Bookmarks. This Bookmark Manager has features which include automatic classification and history enhancement. It will automatically categorize a webpage with respect to the bookmarks thus the history is sorted out by category. Also it offers lots of features regarding bookmarks like verification, caching and page thumbnail.

The other Bookmark Manager is called Check and Get (Freeware Edition) http://activeurls.com/ Check & Get lets you monitor web pages for updates and notifies you when changes were made to the page. It can save a snapshot of the page for offline viewing, detect dead-links, duplicated and mirrored web pages and allows you to search and sort your bookmarks by URL, description and keywords. You can import your existing Favorites from Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape and Opera, and manually add new items to the list as well. It offers customizable settings per site, each with individual schedule and criteria that trigger an update notification. The notification options include sound, email, and popup alert. Additional features include keyword search and highlighting, integrated browser display etc.

Snapfiles (nd)
Retrieved February, 16^th, 2007 from
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/checkget.html

Because I’ve only recently downloaded these two programs I haven’t had time to familiarize myself properly with all of their features, so an opinion of their performance would be premature. Although having said that, once familiar they may be helpful in managing my bookmarks ( especially Check & Get )…time will tell.

As well as using the Firefox default Bookmark Manager for general book marking, I would, if the information was of greater importance, save the URL information as a word document file placing it in an appropriate folder in “My Documents”. The following is how I would organise this information.

Vicnet (Victoria’s Information Community Portal) (nd)
Retrieved 16/2/07
http://www.vicnet.net.au/training/advance.html
Been connected to the Internet for a while? Want to get more out of the services it offers?Here's a select list of the many excellent Web-based courses you can work through at your own pace.

Rocky Mountain Web Studio (nd)
Retrieved 16/2/07 from
http://www.rockymtnweb.com/free/advanced/index.htm
Some links for more advanced internet users, How To’s and Hints

CIESE (Centre For Advanced Engineering & Science Eduction) (nd)
Retrieved 16/2/07 from
http://www.k12science.org/tutorials/advanced/
Choosing a link below will bring you to a web page that describes a specific procedure or aspect of browsing the internet. This tutorial ultimately directs you to the browsers help menu for specific directions. After you learn about your chosen topic, try the recommended Practice Exercises to sharpen your skills. Information about using your internet browser's Help Menu is available and linked from each tutorial web page.

Module 4 - Boolean Search Task continued

Question: Sources relating to skill-based information on advanced internet users?

Answer: The question seems vague, what skill-based sources?
So for this Task I substituted skill-based for web design using Google with Full Boolean and logical operator ‘and’ my results were 85,000,000 hits for advanced internet user and web design. (0.14 seconds)
The Boolean logical operator ‘and’, picks out the search results to include the words “web design”

Question: Information on 'advanced internet users' coming only from university sources.

Answer: For this one I just added edu.au (part of domain name) to my Google search.

Using the Full Boolean search and with the logical operator “and”, my results were 796,000 for advanced internet users and edu.au and university. (0.08 seconds) This of course are results for Australian education establishments only.

Module 4 - Boolean Task

Boolean Search Task using Google search engine

Full Boolean Search

OR: 316,000,000 for advanced or internet or users. (0.47 seconds)
AND: 279,000,000 for advanced and internet and users. (0.31 seconds)
NOT: 136,000,000 for advanced not internet not users. (0.07 seconds)
NEAR: 17,500,000 for advanced near internet near users. (0.23 seconds)

Implied Boolean Search
+ (and): 88,000,000 for advanced +internet +users. (0.35 seconds)
- (not): 14,400 for advanced - internet - users. (0.14 seconds)

Google Advanced Internet Search

Google Advanced Search, offers numerous options for making your searches more precisely enabling the user to get more useful results. I have used the Google Advanced Search facility below.

with all of the words: 81,500,000 for advanced internet users. (0.05 seconds)
with the exact phrase: 13,800 for "advanced internet users". (0.16 seconds)
with at least one of the words: 2,730,000,000 for advanced OR internet OR users. (0.32 seconds)

Advanced search help http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/help/refinesearch.html

Question: the biggest number of hits relating to advanced internet users?

Answer: The Full Boolean search gave me 316,000,000 hits using the logical operator “OR”
But using Google’s Advanced Search facility I got a MASSIVE 2,730,000,000 hits using the “with at least one of the words” Template Terminology.

Module 4 - Search Engine Task

Search Engine Task

For this task I am using Goolgle and Surfwax search engines.

Web Results 1 - 10 of about 93,900,000 for advanced internet users. (0.07 seconds)

Advanced Internet Users Tutorial - CIESE
Information about using your internet browser's Help Menu is available and linked ... Choose what web page will be shown when you start Internet Explorer. ...
www.k12science.org/tutorials/advanced/ - 16k - Cached - Similar pages

Advanced User's Internet Training Resources
VICNET Internet Training - More Advanced Users. Been connected to the Internet for a while? Want to get more out of the services it offers? ...
www.vicnet.net.au/training/advance.html - 16k - 11 Feb 2007 - Cached - Similar pages

Advanced Internet Users, School of Continuing Education ...
Advanced Internet Users. Nearly everyone knows how to use the Internet, but are you an expert? Can you find the number of people currently living in the ...
www3.uwm.edu/sce/course.cfm?id=6835 - 13k - Cached - Similar pages

News @ Cisco: China Supports Advanced Applications for Internet ...
Professor Li Xing, deputy director, of the CERNET Network Center said, "With the increase in the number of Internet users and the development of advanced ...
newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/global/asiapac/news/2005/pr_09-21.html - 48k - Cached - Similar pages

StatCounter Free invisible Web tracker, Hit counter and Web stats
Detailed visitor stats and a choice of graphical counters. An invisible counter is also available.
www.statcounter.com/ - 20k - Cached - Similar pages

Below are the Meta search (Surfwax) engine results showing 52 200 000 hits

SurfWax® Search Results © 2003-2006 SurfWax, Inc.

[ Full Text of Results | Results Stats ]

Displaying 30 of about 52,200,000 pages found

Advanced Internet Users Tutorial - CIESE [AllTheWeb]
pressbox - uk press - release distribution - press stor... [WiseNut] www.k12science.org/tutorials/advancedWindows 98 Using W... [CNN]
Advanced Internet Kiosk Free Download- Build Internet k... [WiseNut]
Windows 98 Using Windows 98: Exploring the Internet-Tip...[AllTheWeb]
Designing For Advanced Users [AllTheWeb]

Results Stats:
Timing (in milliseconds)
Prepare: 9
Search: 5180
Processing: 20 (19 for safety checking)
Display: 19
Total Time: 5228

[Found: 42, Displayed: 30, Invalid: 11, Bandwidth: 0, Duplicates: 1, Stale: 0 ]
AllTheWeb: 10 pages found in 322 ms (parsed in 1 ms)
WiseNut: 10 pages found in 278 ms (parsed in 1 ms)
CNN: 12 pages found in 1071 ms (parsed in 9 ms)
LookSmart: 10 pages found in 5165 ms (parsed in 3 ms)

The Google results seemed more promising with 93,900,000 hits against Surfwax meta search engines' 52,200,000 hits a possible reason for this,

Few meta-searchers allow you to delve into the largest, most useful search engine databases. They tend to return results from smaller and/or free search engines and miscellaneous free directories, often small and highly commercial.

UC Berkeley - Teaching Library Internet Workshops (nd)
Retrieved February, 13th, 2007 from
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/MetaSearch.html

Module 4 - Internet tools Task

Another Internet tool I have been using recently is Cooliris Previews, http://www.cooliris.com/Site/index.html. Cooliris Previews is a free browser add-on (I use with Firefox)that lets you preview links without clicking or leaving your current page. At first I found that it took some getting used to, because I was so used to clicking onto another site to search for information, but once you get into the habit of using it it's pretty cool. It enables you to browse the Web just that little bit faster.

Cost: Free !

Ease of Use: Really easy to use, beginner friendly.

Functionality: everything is there, ready to go.

Utility: effective in saving time browsing the Web.

Commonality: Not sure?

Module 4 - Internet tools Task - Video

On my system at the present I am running Windows Media Player 11, which I use exclusively for playing music and videos. I find that Media Player is perfect for my current needs whether listening to the web radio (Just love those 70’s stations) or watching the occasional DVD.

But I also have Apple’s Quicktime Player and RealOne just in case they are needed when surfing the web.

It seems to me that they are all very similar programs with the only difference is file format Quicktime (.mov), Real One (.rm) and Windows Media Player (.wmv)

It’s unfortunate that there isn’t one universal file format as I would prefer to have one program that play any video, that way I would also be using less hard disk space installing programs that I don’t use on a regular basis.

Module 4 - Meta Search Tool Task ( Take Two)

After my previous experience with Glooton I decided to download another meta search engine. This time downloading & installing Copernic Agent Basic, http://www.copernic.com/ and found it to be an excellent program, easy to use and understand and aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Cost: Free

Ease of use: Easy to use and understand, even for absolute beginner.

Functionality: As a stand alone meta search tool, very complete.

Utility: Yes, as it incorporates many search engines when surfing for information.

Commonality: Yes it is a standard meta search engine tool.

Module 4 - Tools For The Web Task

I downloaded and installed the Glooton Meta search engine http://www.glooton.com/. Using the default amount of 20 plug-ins and typed my name in the search bar with complete web search and after waiting for about 4 minutes and NO RESULTS showed. I then typed in Suzuki Baleno GTX (my next car…hopefullyJ) waiting 6 minutes with NO RESULTS showing again!
I gave it one more try; this time typing in cricket and putting sport in the preference bar, and guess what? NO RESULTS showed yet again!! Thinking it is something I’ve been doing wrong I re-read the Glooton documentation, finding I’ve followed the instructions to the letter. I’m stumped I think it’s time to call on my fellow NET11er’s on this one.

Cost:Free
Ease of use: It is easy to understand and use, but it doesn’t work! (For me anyway)
Functionality: Everything seems to be there for a meta search engine.
Utility: I’m not sure of it's effectiveness as I couldn’t get it to work properly.
Commonality: I think it may be a common program, but I have only heard of it a couple of times, never using it before.

Overall I wasn’t impressed with Glooton, not only because I couldn't get it to work properly, but it is bland/boring in appearance and it took ages for the searches (with no results) even though I have a reasonably fast broadband connection.

module 3 - FTP

I must admit when I came to do this task I found the instructions a little confusing, and from some of the posts on the discussion board I wasn't alone. My problem was I wasn't sure what I was to UPLOAD to my Curtin web space, was it the "lava web page" (14 HTML lessons) or did we have to hand code another web page for this task ? Anyway I decided to upload the Lava page again for this FTP task. (Even though I have already uploaded the lava web page to my presentations area in a previous module 3 task via the Webt upload facility.)

I downloaded Core FTP client, following the Help File instructions and armed with the following info FTP Server : ftp.student.curtin.edu.au, Username : 12701379, OASIS Password : It's a secret :-) uploaded my "lava" web page to the WWW file at Curtin, everything went smoothly....Until I tried to Google The page (http://www.student.curtin.edu.au/12701379), I kept getting page not found, after checking everything (numerous times) I still couldn't access the page. :-e Disappointing yes, but I will re-visit this task at a later date.

Overall I have learnt a lot during this module, and being an absolute beginner when it comes to FTP and HTML hand coding I am quite proud to say that I now have a good basic understanding of the subjects. yipee! :-)...but for now it's on to module 4.

Module 3 - Optional Blog Task

5 Rules for Creating a Great Blog (Well worth the read)

1. Transparency: Great blogs are blog that leave no question of their motives, who their parters and affiliates are, and who their authorship is. Transparency means that no matter what the blog is about, the readers know what they’re getting into. Because transparency is really about trust. Great blogs have earned the trust of their readers through their posts, their opinions, and their engagement. But they are also not misrepresenting themselves, or the reason why they’re blogging in the first place. At the end of the day, trust is the only real currency in the blogosphere, and people who read blogs have the expectation that they’re getting at the truth — in whatever form the truth is to them. And because there is the presumption of truth, readers will often react in an intense fashion to being manipulated, hoodwinked, and otherwise bamboozled.

ACTION: Do reveal as much as you can about yourself in the about page; Do reveal potential influences on your blog, particularly the monetary ones; Do communicate how advertising and content are separated; Do communicate when your content isn’t because its sponsored.

2. Authenticity: Great blogs are ones which are startlingly “real”. They give the details and the raw juicy information in a way that only the author is able to deliver. In that way, authenticity is really about delivering a uniquely fascinating experience — with the emphasis on “unique”. And being the unique experience means that its the sum of all of the elements on your blog which are part of the authentic blog; and beyond the literal parts, such as the logo, the color scheme and the wordpress theme (if you’re using wordpress), it also reaches deep down into the special content that bloggers are privvy to, the voice that they communicate in, and the personality that the blog exudes. Authentic blogs are blogs with a great deal of unmistakable personality that you just can’t find anywhere else.

QUESTION: What is the blogging landscape that your blog lives in? Where does your blog fit in? Do you know what your voice is? What can you bring to your blog that no one else can? What kind of personality does your writing project? How can you make your entire blog congruent to that personality and voice? Where can you find content that is uniquely reflective of your own experiences?

3. Integrity: Great blogs know what they stand for, and what values are meaningful to them. Integrity means standing up for those values when the winds of change might call for any blog to be challenged by them. Often times, it means saying “No”, when everyone else is saying “Yes, Yes, YES!”, and the courage to do so even if you risk the chance of being unpopular. Having integrity can be particularly challenging when you’re starting out, as when you have the feeling no one reads your blog, you tend to devalue it yourself. Devaluing your own work is a step away from making all kinds of concessions because you start thinking that no one is looking — or no one will know. But if you’re in it for the long haul, caving in can have disastrous consequences as the record will exist for perpituitiy, and the blogosphere will remember. Blogs are funny that way. They’re derided as mentally delayed cousin of other more mainstream media, but even amongst their own, are often held to a higher standard. Whether its paid advertising from a company that you’ve called out on, entering a partnership with a blogger you’ve publicly denounced, or suddenly changing your value judgement on a critical news piece, integrity has a funny way of calling attention to you in a most unappealing light. Great blogs are able to stand tall for what they value, and have justly earned their respect for doing so.

THOUGHTS: What does your blog stand for? What does it NOT stand for? What are you willing to compromise for the sake of more publicity? Traffic? Money? Would you ever cave in “real” life if someone made the same offer to you? Why would your blog be any different?

4. Passion: Great blogs are written with an incredible passion for the topics at hand, and much like great sex, it can’t be faked. Passion and intensity for your topic is something that’s palpable and energizing, and what I call the “X-factor” behind a great blog. And its the litmus test behind your blogging efforts. If you find you can’t work up the energy and enthusiasm to get excited about your own blog, maybe its time to start asking yourself some hard questions about whether you need to change your goals (or blog). Because if you’re not excited, your readers will know — and they sure as heck won’t be. Passion is the energy of emotion. Its what motivates righteous anger and incandescent outrage. But it also adds verve to thoughtful insight, compassion to solicitous pleas for help, and a quivering sense of excitement behind a long awaited piece of news. Passion is what elevates blogs that have otherwise stale nonsensical content into something immenently readable, and it shoots into the stratosphere blogs that have something fresh, innovative, or insightful to say.

REFLECTIONS: How excited were you about your last post? Were you bored? Did you sound bored? Do you think your readers noticed? How many of them wrote comments to tell you what they thought about your post?

5. Engagement: Great blogs live in an ecosystem of thoughts, opinions, ideas and personalities, and are active participants in those relationships. They are engaged. Engagement means actively participating on other blogs. It also means replying back to emails and comments. It means growing and cultivating your own readership. It means contacting and creating relationships with like minded (and sometimes not) bloggers. And sometimes (often times), using your blog as a platform to rebut, support, or even start opinions on a given issue. Blogs that can afford to exist in vacuums are blogs that are powered by individuals who have fame or fortune outside of the blogosphere, and are bringing that to their blog. However, for the rest of us who are not celebrities, our blogs need to grow organically, using the rich loam of networks and relationships to grow, and the collegial debate of ideas to encourage it to be strong and resilient.

ProBlogger (nd)
Retrieved February, 6^th, 2007 from
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/01/09/the-rules-behind-creating-a-great-blog/

Module 3 - Legal Issues Task

Legal Issues/ Copyright Laws

Question1. Have you used images or words on your web page or website that contravene copyright laws?
Answer:On this learning Log, I have used the image of a PC with a wave splashing through it (left), that I downloaded from a clip-art website. The website states that the animations and graphics on the site are 'Free for personal use only, so I feel its OK for me to use this graphic as long as I don’t use it for commercial purposes.

Question2. Would you be in breach of copyright if you put the Curtin logo at the top of your web page for an assignment?
Answer:I’m actually using the Curtin Logo for with my university studies, http://malcolmsresourceproject.blogspot.com/ and I feel that using the Curtin logo in this case because I'm an enrolled student would be OK under the 'fair dealings' rule of the Australian Copyright Act.

Module 3 - Optional Standards Task

5 Rules for Website Writing/Design

Lead with Interesting Text : Online readers scan pages for information, if they don't find the information quickly they will get bored and look elsewhere, so capture their interest by putting the best content of the web page at the top of the page.

Inform with Interesting and Meaningful Links: Web visitors decide in a matter of seconds whether your page is worth reading, When you choose bland content neutral words for your hyperlinks they lose interest, make the links interesting, so they are enticed to investigate further.
Another way to make your links more interesting is to follow them with a Blurb. A blurb is a short paragraph that previews what's on the other end of the link.

Employ Consistent Navigation Throughout The Website : Put a Home link in the upper left corner of very of every page, but if your website has more than six pages put a link in at every other page. You should group your pages according to function (an archive, a marketing page, catalogue, membership directory etc.) and give each main section it's own local table of contents. You should provide links on every page to the main sections of your website.

Chunk The Text : Chunking means breaking up the text so readers do not see a solid block of text. Text that has been chunked effectively should stand alone and work well with the rest of the hypertext document. Chunked text improves screen reading by giving the eyes a rest and helps the reader retrieve and process information more quickly and remembering it longer.

Simple Website Design : Most Internet users don.t search for a WWW to be impressed by the graphics the web author has used, they go for the information contained there in. Sop when designing and laying out a website take it easy on the animated/ large graphics and flashing buttons, not only does it take longer for the page to download, but it can be annoying and detract from the information on the site. If a site is taking a long time to download some user will simply give up and look for the desired information elsewhere

Module 3 HTML task

Well I've now finished the HTML task for module 3 and it seemed quite straight forward. I found it easy to understand, although I had to read lesson 14 ( bulking and splitting ) a couple of time to get a handle on it. When it came to uploading the file I was going to use the FTP software I downloaded for module 1 but when I came to use it the 30 day trial period had passed. I removed t downloaded it again, but it seems I had to by the software to keep using it . So I decided to use Filezilla to upload the file to the presentations area at Curtin. Unfortunately I wasn't familiar with Filezilla and had to ask for assistance from my fellow students. After my confusing cries for help were answered, It was suggested that I use the upload facility at the presentations area. Why didn't I think of that <:) I did this and everything went smoothly... well not quite, I had to muck around with the files to get them to work properly and now everything is fine...well almost, I still have to fix the lava graphic that's gone AWOL, I've probably written the tag incorrectly.
Overall I have enjoyed & learnt quite a lot doing this module 3 task, but as I have said previously, it will take a lot of practice before I am proficient at writing HTML.

Study Update

Because of a few of life's dramas, I've been neglecting my blogging and have fallen a little behind with my studies, But now everything has been sorted and I can now catch up, which I don't see any problem doing .
In my last entry I had just started module 3, well I'm still on module 3 working my way through the lessons (currently on lesson 9) and have found them to be enjoyable and easily to comprehend... remembering HTML tags is another story, but I guess that will come with lots of practice.

I've also made a hard copy of all the HTML lessons so I can do some revision wherever I go. I think I may be turning geeky :-)... not that there's anything wrong with that!

ICQ Revisited

I had yet another attempt at the ICQ task and again NO RESULTS FOUND I'm starting to think that there is a glitch in the system somewhere stopping me from finishing that task.

Now for my change of heart ... At first I wasn't sure if I liked this type of thing, but I must say that since becoming more familiar with the software I can see how people can be drawn to it, it's a very interesting medium, and for anyone wanting to converse with someone on subjects ranging from Ants to Love to Zebras it's not a bad way of doing it. I do think that it's purely for adults, children if allowed to use the software should be monitored at all times, after all, there's some creepy people in cyberspace.

Module 3 update

Last night I finished reading the module 3 readings (links) and then printed out and read the html tutorial, I found it to be a well written tutorial, really interesting and the content surprisingly easy to understand, but having said that, I reckon a person would have to PRACTICE A HELL OF A LOT to become fluent in writing html, I suppose that's why you can get software like Dreamweaver to make the whole process easier.

But personally I would like one day to be able to be fluent with html as it would be much more beneficial for students studying the Internet to understand and implement the "behind the scenes" of web sites.