So for this week we had to create our own Technorati account, at first I was confused as I had no idea what the heck Technorati was. After having a look at the website and talking to fellow classates who had previously signed up for it I kind of started to understand it.
Technorati seems to be a kind of search engine - the article on Wikipedia says it is and works the same as Google. In some ways I think Technorati is similar to Google as it does work along the lines of a search engine only rather than searching through every websites tags for what you are looking for, it only searches through registered blogs for whatever you are looking for.
At the moment my Authority is 10 and my Rank is 517,486. My authority (which is a horrible word!) means how many people have saved my blog as a favourite and my rank is where I come in the technorati ranking system for the most amount of authority and favourites...I think. The smaller your Rank number the closer to the top you are.
Over the next few weeks I will keep watch on my authority and rank number to see if it improves. If you would like to see my Technorati then feel free to have a look!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Aesthetics...?
What is Aesthic?
Answers.com defines aesthics as "An artistically beautiful or pleasing appearance" which I feel is a good start to the understanding of what aesthics means. I feel there are many componants within defining aethetics such as there should be quality within the look, it should be pleasing visually and the overall feel should be one that doesn't make you feel violenty ill! Aethics is ultimately all about the way something looks and whether or not the viewer finds it attractive or not.
Aestheically pleasing website...
I think the Splendour in the Grass website is one that is visually pleasing, especially for my age group. It uses bright fun colours on a black background but keeps the colours to a minimum of 3 - pink and green for text and red for the fruit. I think it is a lively website that makes you think feel like Splendour is going to be fun weekend outdoors but is not overpowering. It has rotating images of the headlining artists which looks good and is informing at the same time.
I think that Accept Jesus, Forever Forgive is quite possibly the worst website ever for aethtics, this site makes me feel violently ill just being there. The biggest piece of crap I have ever seen with constant flashing background in the colours of the rainbow. What were these people thinking? Apart from that it only has a cluster of links to other pages within the site etc. at the top of the page nothing at all what so ever describing the site or anything. This is a piece of rubbish!
What makes a good website is firstly the content contained within the pages followed by the way it looks, whether or not it is visually pleasing or makes you want to vomit! Also whether or not a site is easy to navigate around and that it is quick at downloading each page.
The difference between web aesthetics and print aesthetics is mainly the font style, as websites need fairly standard font so everyone can read it from all computers as well as it not looking retarded on the screen as it might if it was in cursive script and wouldn't be very easy to read. Where as print is hardcopy so it can have all kinds of fonts and be legiable. Also print can have more detailed images as it doesn't need to consider bandwidth!
Answers.com defines aesthics as "An artistically beautiful or pleasing appearance" which I feel is a good start to the understanding of what aesthics means. I feel there are many componants within defining aethetics such as there should be quality within the look, it should be pleasing visually and the overall feel should be one that doesn't make you feel violenty ill! Aethics is ultimately all about the way something looks and whether or not the viewer finds it attractive or not.
Aestheically pleasing website...
I think the Splendour in the Grass website is one that is visually pleasing, especially for my age group. It uses bright fun colours on a black background but keeps the colours to a minimum of 3 - pink and green for text and red for the fruit. I think it is a lively website that makes you think feel like Splendour is going to be fun weekend outdoors but is not overpowering. It has rotating images of the headlining artists which looks good and is informing at the same time.
I think that Accept Jesus, Forever Forgive is quite possibly the worst website ever for aethtics, this site makes me feel violently ill just being there. The biggest piece of crap I have ever seen with constant flashing background in the colours of the rainbow. What were these people thinking? Apart from that it only has a cluster of links to other pages within the site etc. at the top of the page nothing at all what so ever describing the site or anything. This is a piece of rubbish!
What makes a good website is firstly the content contained within the pages followed by the way it looks, whether or not it is visually pleasing or makes you want to vomit! Also whether or not a site is easy to navigate around and that it is quick at downloading each page.
The difference between web aesthetics and print aesthetics is mainly the font style, as websites need fairly standard font so everyone can read it from all computers as well as it not looking retarded on the screen as it might if it was in cursive script and wouldn't be very easy to read. Where as print is hardcopy so it can have all kinds of fonts and be legiable. Also print can have more detailed images as it doesn't need to consider bandwidth!
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
XML, RSS, Reader...What The?!
What is XML?
XML is a markup language for documents containing structured information such as words, pictures etc. A markup language is a mechanism to identify structures in a document. The XML specification defines a standard way to add markup to documents.
In order to appreciate XML, it is important to understand why it was created. XML was created so that richly structured documents could be used over the web. The only viable alternatives, HTML and SGML, are not practical for this purpose.
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What is RSS?
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.
Users of RSS content use software programs called "feed readers" or "feed aggregators". The user subscribes to a feed by entering a link of the feed into the reader program. The reader can then check the user's subscribed feeds to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time it checked, and if so, retrieve that content and present it to the user.
The initials "RSS" are variously used to refer to the following standards:
Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)
RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
RSS formats are specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats). RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an "RSS feed," "webfeed," "RSS stream," or "RSS channel".
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RSS Reader:
Johannes asked us to create a RSS Reader with either Blogline or through our google account. As just before I had to make the decision of which to choose everyone started playing around with their iGoogle accounts and Hannah some how accidentally created her RSS Reader through that which seemed easy enough and she showed me how too so I went along with it and thus my decision was made as to use google or blogline.
I am interested to see how this RSS reader will help me or keep me intriguied by finding new and interesting items for me to view. I'm hoping it will be a great web tool.
Until next time kids...Peace Out and in the words of Maffew: JJ lol!
XML is a markup language for documents containing structured information such as words, pictures etc. A markup language is a mechanism to identify structures in a document. The XML specification defines a standard way to add markup to documents.
In order to appreciate XML, it is important to understand why it was created. XML was created so that richly structured documents could be used over the web. The only viable alternatives, HTML and SGML, are not practical for this purpose.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is RSS?
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.
Users of RSS content use software programs called "feed readers" or "feed aggregators". The user subscribes to a feed by entering a link of the feed into the reader program. The reader can then check the user's subscribed feeds to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time it checked, and if so, retrieve that content and present it to the user.
The initials "RSS" are variously used to refer to the following standards:
Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)
RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
RSS formats are specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats). RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an "RSS feed," "webfeed," "RSS stream," or "RSS channel".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSS Reader:
Johannes asked us to create a RSS Reader with either Blogline or through our google account. As just before I had to make the decision of which to choose everyone started playing around with their iGoogle accounts and Hannah some how accidentally created her RSS Reader through that which seemed easy enough and she showed me how too so I went along with it and thus my decision was made as to use google or blogline.
I am interested to see how this RSS reader will help me or keep me intriguied by finding new and interesting items for me to view. I'm hoping it will be a great web tool.
Until next time kids...Peace Out and in the words of Maffew: JJ lol!
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Time to summarize for Assessment 1 MPI104-2007
Alright so it is now that time of the term where we are due to be assessed on the work we have done for this class and I am to detail what I have done in this post. It is probably of no interest to anyone except Johannes or whoever marks it, unless you are looking to see how I have set things out, in that case have a squiz and also look at the Metablog for what you are to write about!
For this assignment I had to create a Gmail, Blogger, Flickr and Del.icio.us accounts. I was to go through the checklist and complete tasks (detailed below) as well as show interestingness within my findings. I also had to get involved with the online communities which I feel I have been within the MPI104 classes as well as outside these.
To begin with I need to talk about how my Blog, Del.icio.us and Flickr accounts have been interesting. I feel they have all been interesting as I haven't just stuck with the same topics and styles of sites the whole way through. I've written on different topics, I found many different websites in lots of different areas, and I have hosted lots of different photo's from different events in my life. I've tried to make my accounts broad but also at the same time show an insight to what I am interested in, not just what I think might interest others!
I have frequently added and updated and tried to do the 10 hours a week requirement and I feel I have achieved this, though it is hard to tell as up until Thursday just gone I was on dial up at home and it took a lot longer to do things there then here.
BLOGGER: My Blog account - Vivalin's Blog
☑ user has links in sidebar
☑ user has more than the minimum posts
☑ user has links in posts
☑ user has commented on other people’s posts
☑ user has updated profile
☑ user has uploaded picture for profile
☑ user has experimented with templates
☑ user has experimented with fonts
☑ user has experimented with colours
☑ user has picture/s in post/s
☑ posts have titles
☑ blog has description
☑ has added a list or other page element to their blog
❑ has listed on technorati or similar service
☑ has counter
Initially when we made our blogger, I was like "yep another blog... (as I already used MySpace to blog with)" but I've come to realise it is a lot handier then MySpace at times as it has more features ie. using Flickr to create posts, better layout, easier to archive. I feel I have done well with my blogging for this assessment and have progressed with my style of writing (cutting out some of the rambling) as well as the subjects I write on. I am most please with the following posts: Splendour in the Grass, Something a little more interesting maybe?! and Last post for Assessment 1!. I think all in all I have done 16 posts, which I believe is quite good. I have even done a couple of posts using Flickr to get to Blogger!
Aesthetically at first I was using a template with green as it's theme (as I prefer simple styles) but change to a pink themed one a little while ago. I have put in side links, as well as uploaded an image to the blog and my profile. I also have included a Del.icio.us link roll on the side and a tag one at the bottom of the page (which is in blue writing and partly the reason I changed the template to pink as I felt they went better together), I also put up a slide show of images of my friends and I just to personalise it a bit more.
I have tried to tag each blog according to what I was writing on, and hope I have done it correctly. I've consistently gone and read others blogs from the MPI104 classes and made comments. Occasionally having to use this as a form of "chatting" with someone!
FLICKR: My Flickr account - Vivalin
☑has uploaded pictures
☑has progressively uploaded more pictures
☑ pictures have titles
☑ pictures have descriptions
☑ pictures have MPI104-2007 tag
☑ pictures have tags other than MPI104-2007
☑ user has joined MPI104-2007 group
☑ user has pushed picture/s to MPI104-2007 group
☑ user has contacts
☑ user has joined other groups
☑ user has nominated favorites
☑ user has commented on other user’s pictures
☑ user has profile
☑ user has flickr post on their blog
☑ user has posted working link to this post (or flickr account) on metablog
I created my Flickr account before we set it up in class (only the weekend before mind!) as I had just put my photos from overseas on to the computer and wanted to share them with my friends and they were all using Flickr because of the tagging set up. I really enjoy using Flickr I think it is a great tool for the web to be able to host and show my images to people anywhere in the world and to find other people with similar interests in the style/subject matter of their photos!
Aesthetically I played around with the different formats they had, but as it is a free account they were fairly limited. I chose small images ( I wanted to show more on a page) with sets down the side, I don't like the fact that free accounts get a maximum of 3 sets, I think thats rubbish!
I commented on a few images that I liked or made me laugh: Hannah's Flickr, Erin's Flickr, Matt's Flickr. Also on Flickr I made sure to tag all of my photo's with what they were about ie. For my trip through Europe I mark the appropriate ones with MPI104-2007, along with where the photo was taken (city) and with topdeckgrandeuropeanoct2006 as this was so my fellow travellers on this tour could find and view my photo's just like I had found theirs by searching for that tag.
As I said before I've been uploading images from my trip through Europe as my fellow travellers on the tour I did have all used Flickr to host their images so everyone on the tour can see them and all with the same tag. I've also put up some photo's from my adventures with friends from uni at parties and going out, along with images with my friends from back home and funny images to make people laugh that another mate found on the net with the main subject being animals.
DELICIOUS: My Del.icio.us account - Vivalin's Del.icio.us
☑ has saved bookmarks
☑ has progressively saved more bookmarks
☑ user has integrated delicious into their workflow as a tool
☑ bookmarks have descriptions
☑ bookmarks have tags
☑ user has bundled tags
☑ user has subscribed to tags
☑ appropriate bookmarks have MPI104-2007 tag
☑ user has joined a network
☑ user has saved links for others
☑ user has bookmarked their flickr home page
☑ user has bookmarked their blog home page
☑ user has delicious post in their blog
☑ user has posted working link to this post (or delicious account) on metablog
☑ user has included link roll (or rss feed) on their blog
At first I was a little dumbed out by what to make of Del.icio.us as it didn't really make sense, but after fiddeling around for a short while I worked out it was quite useful. I was able to search for a type of site and it would come up with a big lsit of other peoples and its saved time immensly as most people are only going to save useful sites and it is a lot easier then trudging through all the sites search engines bring up.
So far I have 35 bookmarks saved, but I'm sure this will grow as I keep using. I've saved the regular sites that interest me (mainly bands), but also saved sites about fire twirling as I am beginning to get into this and Del.icio.us was a great place to look for good sites, I've saved bookmarks for Harry Potter fan sites as they keep up to date info from all Harry Potter related sites, and is particularly useful to ind out hidden knowledge for the up coming last book! I've also bookmarked sites that intergrate with my workflow ie. Photobucket, ImageShack etc. a long with sites to do with getting a forklift license as my dad wants me to get one and a site for vegetarian recipes so I can find appealing meals and ask my mum to cook them for me.
I've found Del.icio.us to be the hardest to get into so far but am slowly getting there and gradually understanding what it's all about and am keen to keep using it!
Overall I feel I have completed this task well, I've done nearly all of the checklist points (minus technorati as I wasn't sure what this was) but have at least attempted to try most things and put in the hours! I hope my hard work and effort will also display "interestingness" and be graded accordingly, if not it was a good learning curve!
For this assignment I had to create a Gmail, Blogger, Flickr and Del.icio.us accounts. I was to go through the checklist and complete tasks (detailed below) as well as show interestingness within my findings. I also had to get involved with the online communities which I feel I have been within the MPI104 classes as well as outside these.
To begin with I need to talk about how my Blog, Del.icio.us and Flickr accounts have been interesting. I feel they have all been interesting as I haven't just stuck with the same topics and styles of sites the whole way through. I've written on different topics, I found many different websites in lots of different areas, and I have hosted lots of different photo's from different events in my life. I've tried to make my accounts broad but also at the same time show an insight to what I am interested in, not just what I think might interest others!
I have frequently added and updated and tried to do the 10 hours a week requirement and I feel I have achieved this, though it is hard to tell as up until Thursday just gone I was on dial up at home and it took a lot longer to do things there then here.
BLOGGER: My Blog account - Vivalin's Blog
☑ user has links in sidebar
☑ user has more than the minimum posts
☑ user has links in posts
☑ user has commented on other people’s posts
☑ user has updated profile
☑ user has uploaded picture for profile
☑ user has experimented with templates
☑ user has experimented with fonts
☑ user has experimented with colours
☑ user has picture/s in post/s
☑ posts have titles
☑ blog has description
☑ has added a list or other page element to their blog
❑ has listed on technorati or similar service
☑ has counter
Initially when we made our blogger, I was like "yep another blog... (as I already used MySpace to blog with)" but I've come to realise it is a lot handier then MySpace at times as it has more features ie. using Flickr to create posts, better layout, easier to archive. I feel I have done well with my blogging for this assessment and have progressed with my style of writing (cutting out some of the rambling) as well as the subjects I write on. I am most please with the following posts: Splendour in the Grass, Something a little more interesting maybe?! and Last post for Assessment 1!. I think all in all I have done 16 posts, which I believe is quite good. I have even done a couple of posts using Flickr to get to Blogger!
Aesthetically at first I was using a template with green as it's theme (as I prefer simple styles) but change to a pink themed one a little while ago. I have put in side links, as well as uploaded an image to the blog and my profile. I also have included a Del.icio.us link roll on the side and a tag one at the bottom of the page (which is in blue writing and partly the reason I changed the template to pink as I felt they went better together), I also put up a slide show of images of my friends and I just to personalise it a bit more.
I have tried to tag each blog according to what I was writing on, and hope I have done it correctly. I've consistently gone and read others blogs from the MPI104 classes and made comments. Occasionally having to use this as a form of "chatting" with someone!
FLICKR: My Flickr account - Vivalin
☑has uploaded pictures
☑has progressively uploaded more pictures
☑ pictures have titles
☑ pictures have descriptions
☑ pictures have MPI104-2007 tag
☑ pictures have tags other than MPI104-2007
☑ user has joined MPI104-2007 group
☑ user has pushed picture/s to MPI104-2007 group
☑ user has contacts
☑ user has joined other groups
☑ user has nominated favorites
☑ user has commented on other user’s pictures
☑ user has profile
☑ user has flickr post on their blog
☑ user has posted working link to this post (or flickr account) on metablog
I created my Flickr account before we set it up in class (only the weekend before mind!) as I had just put my photos from overseas on to the computer and wanted to share them with my friends and they were all using Flickr because of the tagging set up. I really enjoy using Flickr I think it is a great tool for the web to be able to host and show my images to people anywhere in the world and to find other people with similar interests in the style/subject matter of their photos!
Aesthetically I played around with the different formats they had, but as it is a free account they were fairly limited. I chose small images ( I wanted to show more on a page) with sets down the side, I don't like the fact that free accounts get a maximum of 3 sets, I think thats rubbish!
I commented on a few images that I liked or made me laugh: Hannah's Flickr, Erin's Flickr, Matt's Flickr. Also on Flickr I made sure to tag all of my photo's with what they were about ie. For my trip through Europe I mark the appropriate ones with MPI104-2007, along with where the photo was taken (city) and with topdeckgrandeuropeanoct2006 as this was so my fellow travellers on this tour could find and view my photo's just like I had found theirs by searching for that tag.
As I said before I've been uploading images from my trip through Europe as my fellow travellers on the tour I did have all used Flickr to host their images so everyone on the tour can see them and all with the same tag. I've also put up some photo's from my adventures with friends from uni at parties and going out, along with images with my friends from back home and funny images to make people laugh that another mate found on the net with the main subject being animals.
DELICIOUS: My Del.icio.us account - Vivalin's Del.icio.us
☑ has saved bookmarks
☑ has progressively saved more bookmarks
☑ user has integrated delicious into their workflow as a tool
☑ bookmarks have descriptions
☑ bookmarks have tags
☑ user has bundled tags
☑ user has subscribed to tags
☑ appropriate bookmarks have MPI104-2007 tag
☑ user has joined a network
☑ user has saved links for others
☑ user has bookmarked their flickr home page
☑ user has bookmarked their blog home page
☑ user has delicious post in their blog
☑ user has posted working link to this post (or delicious account) on metablog
☑ user has included link roll (or rss feed) on their blog
At first I was a little dumbed out by what to make of Del.icio.us as it didn't really make sense, but after fiddeling around for a short while I worked out it was quite useful. I was able to search for a type of site and it would come up with a big lsit of other peoples and its saved time immensly as most people are only going to save useful sites and it is a lot easier then trudging through all the sites search engines bring up.
So far I have 35 bookmarks saved, but I'm sure this will grow as I keep using. I've saved the regular sites that interest me (mainly bands), but also saved sites about fire twirling as I am beginning to get into this and Del.icio.us was a great place to look for good sites, I've saved bookmarks for Harry Potter fan sites as they keep up to date info from all Harry Potter related sites, and is particularly useful to ind out hidden knowledge for the up coming last book! I've also bookmarked sites that intergrate with my workflow ie. Photobucket, ImageShack etc. a long with sites to do with getting a forklift license as my dad wants me to get one and a site for vegetarian recipes so I can find appealing meals and ask my mum to cook them for me.
I've found Del.icio.us to be the hardest to get into so far but am slowly getting there and gradually understanding what it's all about and am keen to keep using it!
Overall I feel I have completed this task well, I've done nearly all of the checklist points (minus technorati as I wasn't sure what this was) but have at least attempted to try most things and put in the hours! I hope my hard work and effort will also display "interestingness" and be graded accordingly, if not it was a good learning curve!
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