THe MPI104 Experience

From this subject MPI104 I have learnt and discovered many new features and services the Internet can provide. Not just how a webpage is made, but how the internet services of Blogger, Flickr, Del.ic.ious work.

Blogger

The blogspot is a great service if you want to get your message out to the wide world. It allows you to express anything and everything. We've seen how powerful it can be with people blogging about the volatile situations in Burma and Iraq. Blogger not only allows you to do the basic stuff such as adding hyperlinks and pictures. I've learnt you can customise colour schemes, fonts backgrounds which deviate from the given templates by learning some basic scripting in HTML. For example I've changed font colour to yellow and added by own background by tiling a picture through HTML.   

Flickr

The site brings the image community together - from professional to amateur. Its intuitive to the user who uploads photos, batches them to a set and shares it with the community through Flickr's networking features. I can share my pool of photos to specific groups with similar interests and allowing me to favourite and comment on other users' photos. 

Del.icio.us

The bookmarking site goes beyond the simple toolbar. It allows users to share there bookmarks, thereby rating a site by how many others have also favourited the site. The site also includes tags which helps a lot searching through sites. I've found this service particularly useful when it came to switching computers, because the bookmarks would be stored online.

Other

RSS is a great way of keeping up to date with the latest headlines from a range of interests and websites. For myself I've been able to keep up with the latest anime being released. This function is specifically organised in Google reader where you can share and favourite feeds and specific articles to groups. In conjunction building my own site in iWeb, I've learnt more about the server side of websites with FTP and how the protocol is used to send/receive data. CSS has been particulary useful to learn, as I've found it to be fundamental when it comes to authoring your own site in a stylistic and unique way.

Counter and RSS Feeds

Counter

It is a tool used for counting visits to a web page. Certain settings can be refined to unique visits, that is vists not from the same IP address. A counter can give status to your popularity to a user visiting your web page and also indicates to you whether any promotion to visiting your site is working on the www. Other web analysis tools include: 

- Clicktale

- Microsoft Gatineau

RSS

It stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a web feed which can be published in different formats and used for fast, frequent updating of content. The content could be updates from webpages, blogs, news headlines or podcasts.

Google Reader

The reader is a web based aggregator which reads rss feeds offline and online. It allows you to share with your contacts and other groups of your feeds, specific articles from the feeds and favourite them. Basically an organsier specifically for feeds.

Technorati

Technorati boasts it is the "leading monitor of the world of weblogs", maybe to scare its competitors google and yahoo. It is a real-time search engine of blogs with a category directory to further refine your search to your interests. Technorati also has features such as photo, video sharing and searching. What makes it stand out a little bit more is its ranking of blogs. But then again, this isn't anywhere new. Digg are much more renown for its ranking of sites and blogs. 

In comparison to google:- does this mean google and all its features? igoogle? or google's blog search or the fact google own's youtube and blogspot? I'm guessing its google's search feature for blogs. If so, google's advanced search is very good when you're looking specifically for something. You can search for keywords in the blog, title, url, author and also give a posting date range to search between. Technorati is just a procrastination. You can't even sort your search results by its favourites or ranking. So what is the point of having it?! Granted, google does have rankings. But if you feel that by popularity always means a good blog, then go to digg.com

My Rank at the moment: 10,280,644

Authority: None

What's it mean?

Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. My ranking is the difference between where I am on a ladder of blogs from the number one position.

FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. Like http with loading web pages, FTP uses TCP/IP protocols to transfer data securely. FTP is usually used to download or upload files from/to a server. Some examples include game servers, voice servers and internet hosts.

The advantages of FTP are:

• The fact you share files between computers and programs
• Allow a more flexible way to store files. Say that you live in Australia, but want to store your files on a sever in America
• Also there's a certain reliability and efficiency with FTP which will only get better with more secure and faster methods in sending/receiving data.

FTP Criticisms

• Personal information such as passwords and file contents are sent in clear text. Meaning there's no encryption or security for sensitive information typed in by user. This allows hackers to easily retrive this information.
• It is difficult to filter traffic on FTP connections, even with a firewall.
• There's no error message to the receiver side of a transfer, if for example a transfer was interrupted.
• Also there is no timestamp on uploaded files.  

Templates

I picked a tictac blue template because of its simple layout. I've changed the banner graphic to one of my choosing. I've tried to change the template header, but found that the fading gray surrounging the blue 'tictac' graphic is the one image. Replacing it with anything else would lose itssmooth, integrated appearence. This is as opposed to it being 'blocky' or sticking out. I've searched for suitable texture that wouls add a unique feel to my blog. I've used ox skin as the background for topic headings. I've played around with fonts and its colour. I chose yellow for topic headings because it sticks out from the black texture. The backgroung is a tiled image which creates a pattern, adding a visual dynamic which distracts you from the dull gray in the body fields.

CSS

The great feature of style sheets is that it applies to the whole layout of the website, saving heaps of time for hardcoding. Layout, formatting and graphics are all defined in the style sheet. Easily accessible and usually fexible, css allows for quick updating or customisation of the site.

Other sites which collect bookmarks

www.connotea.org
www.furl.net/
www.netvouz.com/

My Accounts

Flickr
Del.icio.us

del.icio.us

Del.icio.us I believe dose not beat a search engine. I understand that it seeks tags in accordance with what you are searching for to list recommended websites, but it usually doesn't get what your looking for. Say a photoshop tutorial which includes video tutorials or something specific like a good recipe for lunch. It doesn't lookup what you'd want. Its only good for procrastination on the net. In other words, a waste of time.

Flickr

Metamorphosis by Kazuhiko Nakamura. See more cool 3d artsy stuff at Hammerhead01's Flicker Account

The photo version of YouTube, Flickr is a great way to explore and find the photos you want. With the groups and topics, its convenient to find categorical photos and get involved with other enthusiasts for the same type of photos. Its also good for getting your work known to the wider world which employers can view easily. The privacy feature is good to share photos to friends and family members only. For example your having a holiday on Fiji and want to share your fun experiences right away, but to those who you know. Its layout isn't perfect, but with so many little features and settings, its no big surprise. For example I was trying to find where to upload more photos. Since its the main purpose for this site, I would have thought there would be a big button 'Upload photos'. Instead its under the 'You' tag. Overall thumbs up, but google's Picasa might be better but definitely Zoomer is superior to any other online photo sharing.

Need to kill some time? Just for a few minutes? Then check out roosterteeth.com and there famed machinima (what is it? click here ) series Red vs Blue. Each episode is full of gags and jokes about Halo and pokes fun at the average gamer. Not to be missed by any halo fan.