Evaluating the Web

The results I got from searching for sites about Amstrad CPC 464 from university sources hasn’t really given me what I need to do this task. The sites were only hits because they mention the Amstrad CPC 464 and they are not actual articles about it.

I understand the importance of verifying that any information on the net comes from an accurate source. Although websites like Wikipedia can be very useful and most of the information is probably accurate they can’t be relied upon because the source of the information is not known.

I’m still looking at different programs to manage my bookmarks. I think a brief sentence about the website would be enough for me to determine if it would be useful to me. A snapshot can become out date very soon because websites can change quickly. When doing a Google search the first line of text from each result is usually displayed, this will often be useful when deciding if I will visit the site. From this text I can usually tell if the site is in English, if it is a commercial site and many other details.

Organising search information task

The results I got for information about the Amstrad CPC 464 from university websites aren’t specifically about the computer but just mention it. Here is the best three sources:

URL: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/view_profile.php?userid=190896
Author: Tim Radcliffe
Institution: Burkeley University of California
Summary: This website is the profile page for Tim Radcliffe who is participating in the Seti@Home project. In his profile he mentions that his first computer was an Amstrad CPC 464.

URL: http://infosys.cwru.edu/goraya/
Author: Tanvir Y. Goraya
Institution: Case Western Reserve University Cleveland
Summary: This is the online resume for Tanvir Y. Goraya, one his past occupations was the development of a card game for the Amstrad CPC 464.

URL: http://nuttybar.drama.uga.edu/pipermail/dirgames-l/2002-June.txt.gz
Author: Various authors
Institution: University of Georgia
Summary: This links to a text file containing an archive of correspondence on the “dirGames-L” mailing list from June 2002. In one of the messages a contributor named Jonas advises of computers he has owned including an Amstrad CPC 464.

I haven’t used software to keep track of bookmarks before, I usually keep the the bookmarks in Firefox well organised. I installed an open-source program called Bookmark Manager to try it out. After installing it I ran it and found it came with a list of religious bookmarks included, I thought this was a bit sneaky, then I found they couldn’t be deleted! I uninstalled the program and I will just continue to use the bookmarks in Firefox while I look at other programs.

Boolean searching task

In order to get more hits related to my keywords from university sources I first tried the following search in Google: “amstrad cpc 464″ +university. I put the words “amstrad cpc 464″ in quotation marks so I would get an match for those exact words and not each word individually. I added “+ university” to also search for the word university, however the results I got were not just from universities. After some trial and error I got the required results by using Google to search for: “amstrad cpc 464″ +site:*.edu, the result was only three sites all from Universities.

I did the same search in Copernic and although I got more results the same three sites that appeared in the Google search still seemed to be the best match.

Search Engine Task

I have been using Google for all my search for a long time now. I used to use Yahoo and Alta Vista before Google existed. For this task I did a search for websites about my favorite retro computer. I typed amstrad cpc 464 in to Google and the first hit was Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_CPC

Google said there was “about 433,000″ results for this search.

Next I used Copernic to search for amstrad cpc 464 again using all the search engines available int the Basic Version of Copernic Agent.

The first hit I got on Copernic was for eBay: www.ebay.com.au/Amstrad+CPC+464

The next hit was for Wikipedia, the same as Google. It gave me a total of 45 results. There was some useful hits, but there was some that were just advertising sites and site in other languages. This may mean I have to check some of the settings in Copernic to only include sites in English and maybe I should exclude some of the search engines.

For this search Google gave the best results, I think that Copernic was attempting to display only the hits it though were relevant. I’m sure with some fine tuning Copernic would perform better, I will be looking at the filter and analyse options to do this.

Downloading tools / plug-ins Task

I have installed many plug-ins while browsing. Many websites now require plug-ins to view them correctly. I haven’t used an off-line browser yet so I will be downloading “Page Sucker” to try. I will also be downloading “Copernic” to complete the other tasks for this module.

I noticed the three most popular media players listed as Windows Media Player, Apple Quicktime Player and the Real One Player. I have Windows Media Player 11 installed and I use this to organise music files, however for video I prefer a free open-source program called “Media Player Classic“. I looks like the older version of media player but still has lots of features and will play lots of video formats as long as the video codecs are installed including Quicktime and RealVideo, so only one media player program needs to be installed.

PageSucker downloaded and installed without a problem. It has limited features until you register. I chose to test it on the website: http://www.aussiehands.org/. It worked, including downloading some of the links to PDF files on the page. However the trial version only download a limited amount and most of the links didn’t work off-line. I believe the full version of this program would be very useful, especially if you are using a dial-up connection so you can access a saved version or a website without having to connect to the internet.

Copernic also download and installed easily. I tested it by doing some searches and it seems to work well. I’m looking forward to learning more about it in the next tasks in this module. I think this is a program I will continue to use after I finish this subject.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is all about allowing users contribute to the internet with no need for technical knowledge. In the case of the “Blinklist” this kind of website is much more suited to the Web 2.0 format because it allows multiple users to edit it without having to access the HTML code.

If the “Blinklist” was only able to be updated by editing the HTML code it would require all the users to have knowledge of HTML and would require them to download the source of the page, edit it, then upload it again whenever they wanted to make a change. Web 2.0 takes away the need for this,

Websites like Blinklist, blogs, etc make the web a much more user friendly place where the sites are driven by user contribution.

Conceptual Research & Reflection Project

Concept: 14. Cyberspace is informationally created ’space’

“This sense of space, and the capacity of the talking human body to be represented within it, is formed out of descriptions and word-pictures (real pictures in the case of graphical worlds). The sense of space is essential for humans – or at least many humans – to be able to express their identities in special and rich ways.

Websites, indeed the Web generally, tend to work most effectively when they consciously declaim themselves as a space through which you move. However, we should also be alert to the way that the metaphors of navigation, moving, visiting, etc which make the web a ‘space’ can also mislead us: metaphors do not describe an experience but, rather, are one aspect of trying to understand it”  (Allen. n.d.)

Blogs

Studying this unit has been my first real experience with blogs. Although I created a blog when the phenomenon first began I only ever made one introductory entry. I had never considered myself a regular reader of blogs but I now realise that many of the website I view often have elements similar to blogs. Many websites have a “News” section that consist of dated entries of new similar to posts on a blog. For example the following site is formatted like a blog: http://genesis8.free.fr/index.php

After having used a blog I can now see many uses for them. The ease of use makes them accessible to almost anyone who want to say something via the internet. This is my first post in a few weeks but I can recommence posting straight away, rather than having to edit HTML code and upload it.

Blogs are a great way for people to express their idea and opinions to a wide audience. Personally I don’t have any radical philosophies I want to broadcast to the world but I’m quite happy to read others and may occasionally comment on them. I have plans to start using blogging for a more personal use (if I ever get the time to set it up). I am hoping to create a password protected blog. I will provide the password to family and friends and use the blog to post family photos and stories. I think this will be a more interactive and fun form of communication than group emails or Facebook, etc.

My opinion is that blogging is a great use of the internet. It’s a global forum full of all kinds of people expressing themselves. There are millions of blogs to filter through but somewhere out there must be something for everyone, and if there isn’t you can easily start your own blog.

FTP

I have uploaded the web page I have created to my space on the Curtin website. The address should be: http://student.curtin.edu.au/~14080782.

HTML Tutorial

I have just finished the HTML Tutorial – So, you want to make a Web Page! by Joe Barta.

I thoroughly enjoyed going through the tutorial and found it very easy to follow. I have now created a web page using a variety of the tags covered in the tutorial. It is really just a mess of different things I’ve included so I could test out the various tags. I will create something more useful to upload to the presentation page of WebCT.

I have previously done a short course at TAFE about web page design in HTML. However that was about three years ago and I’ve never had the need to use HTML since then. So although I had a basic understanding of HTML before doing the tutorial, it has helped me to remember a lot. I am going to do some more practice before I try doing anything with frames or CSS.

Seeing the code I have typed into Notepad appear as a proper web page in my browser does give me a sense of achievement, much more than if I had just created it in Front Page.  The only problem I had was missing a quotation mark in a <a herf=”…..”> tag. As a result nothing after the tag worked properly. With a little bit of searching I was able to find the problem.

There are major differences between blogging and creating a page in HTML. Blogging is a much simpler way of publishing information on the internet. Very little technical knowledge is require to blog. Although blog sites allow some customization and the ability to include HTML code in posts you are still limited by the format of the blog. With HTML you have total control over the appearance and layout of your website.