WK9 FINAL ENTRY REQUIREMENT: Overall course evaluation

Fast paced!

That is no longer a concern of mine as I believe one of the objectives of our Convener, lecturers and our clever tutorial staff (yes that is an attempt to gain half a point) is to provide an atmosphere that enables us to think, discover and learn in the area of new communications technology.

I now believe this is a must as new communications technology is such a fast and ever changing, enhancing, morphing and updating real

m. If we were not encouraged to research further and to 'have a go' we would not be able to keep up with emerging technologies and concepts.

In addition to all our readings, links, lectures and hands on help we have been gifted with useful advise in regard to what we, ourselves, can be capable of in this genre. That is to say, prior to participating in this course I really thought I needed to engage the help of a professional IT technician for just about everything related to computing and the internet. I am not saying I now don't need that help, but now I can confidently say I only need that help when I have exhausted my own investigation/s.

We have also been provided with useful websites to enhance our abilities and knowledge as well as save us valuable time and MONEY! I speak of freeware here and on-line help avenue's.

Finally I would like to contribute by saying that I believe this course is very relevant in our modern culture and will enhance all other other areas of my study as well. It has also raised my confidence (and it did need raising) in regard to applying for employment and ideally creating my own business using contemporary avenues.

Sincerely.....Thank you.

WK9 TASK: Create Something in a Chosen Software

This was created using Gimp - freeware I down

loaded because of a previous task. I used the 'banner' option which I manually resized and manually chose colour codes from the internet and used. The text is in

two separate text boxes so I could move them around.

I know - not ground breaking, but I didn't even know how to create a blog 9 weeks ago!

I have to admit that when given this task I tried to produce something in Flash, because I thought that would be more impressive and af

ter todays lecture from Jason Nelson realized that Flash would be an asset for Digital Writing (if I still decide this is a course for me). I did what Jason suggested and tried to 'self learn' this new software program for me. I had touched on this Flash during a course last semester, but still, after a

bit of time within tutorial time and a few hours in computer room G31-2.18, I could not get the timed banner I produced to successfully upload. I made the decision to postpone this endeavor until the christmas break.

So I 'mucked around' in the Gimp software and because I had just a little more use Photoshop, I managed to produce this banner above.

I have also added a photo that I took during a recent trip to Western Australia of a rose in someone's home garden during a walk . I used my mac iphoto edit (I have only used it to crop and invert before) to alter it. After some experimenting (cropping, playing with colour etc) I came accoss the sepia options which lets you focus on the roses form rather than the colour . My favorite altered picture has been cropped, edges blurred and colour altered, then boosted, as the original lacked the colour intensity of the real thing.

WK9 TWITTERED by opinion on "No Clean Feed"

s2715810Save the net for our children, not the children from the net - that's where good parenting should prevail.3 minutes ago from web

WK9 POLITICAL REPLY!

Tickled to receive a reply (all be it an automated one) from my comment to my local member MP John-Paul Langbroek, on his speech in parliament regarding a bill to ensure honesty and disclosure from all members of government - which believe it or not... is not enforced at present!

23 September 2009


Ms Jackie Clarke

S2715810@gmail.com

Dear Ms Clarke,

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank you for writing to me to express such kind words of encouragement. I certainly appreciate your support.

I have taken on board your comments and views and appreciate your feedback on this important issue.

Once again, I am grateful for the effort you have taken to bring your views to my attention so that we can work together to improve Queensland’s future.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if there is any other State Government issue with which I can assist you.


Yours sincerely


JOHN-PAUL LANGBROEK MP
Leader of the Opposition

Leader of the LNP

Member for Surfers Paradise

This email, together with any attachments, is intended for the named recipient(s) only; and may contain privileged and confidential information. If received in error, you are asked to inform the sender as quickly as possible and delete this email and any copies of this from your computer system network.

If not an intended recipient of this email, you must not copy, distribute or take any action(s) that relies on it; any form of disclosure, modification, distribution and /or publication of this email is also prohibited.

Unless stated otherwise, this email represents only the views of the sender and not the views of the Queensland Government.

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

WK9 LECTURE 24.09.09 "TEACH YOURSELF SOFTWARE"

Jason Nelson spoke on how to discover and learn software packages - for ourselves.

We need to figure out:
what we need

what we want

Then "play around" - begin something! Just start anything.
Remember you cant learn new software in a few days - takes time and effort.

Jason exampled FLASH software to give tips on discovering/learning it:

(note to self: Self teach this software if want to take on 'Digital Writing' in year 2 as Jason advised if that course is undertaken, Flash is extensively used!)

* Use 'help' option (but is mainly targeting the intermediate and advanced user)

* Use the 'try' and 'experiment method (note the saving tip below)

* Use 'google' (best to google good sites rather than expressions)

*Join forums (make sure a good active community with lots of timely reply's

eg: www.flashkit.com forum)

* Use video tutorials (eg: Lynda - but costs, so not sure why this was recommended)

* Also (and this is my thought) ask friends who know the software.

REM: To save work to a different version (ie not over same file) at every new step.

REM: Don't pay for any help

REM: The easy stuff to do a a particular software is used by everyone - so can be boring! Try to do something that doesn't look like it has been edited by a particular software and again check the forums for inspiration and some guidance.

WK8 TASK: "Clean Feed" by Australian Government

The Australian Federal Government is investigating the option to regulate Internet Service Providers to censor the Internet for all Australians in a bit to block 'harmful and inappropriate' content not only for children, but for all internet users in Australia.

Even with my limited understanding of the internet, I think this would be impossible to achieve at 100% efficiency. To filter all content with 'producers' cleverly naming/grouping their 'harmful or inappropriate' content to avoid the filters doesn't sound to difficult. Also with 'hackers' willingness to break code I think that the filter/s would soon be obsolete and the constant need to keep on top of this would surely prove costly in time and money.

Ideally censorship of the internet for children should come from their parents, but I know that with broken families, working families etc etc this does not always happen, but I don't believe it is something that should be taken on by our government. What next...... censoring our mail that comes in via Australia Post - see concerns from the group "No Clean Feed" on

http://nocleanfeed.com/learn.html

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet&id=776

I believe that we need to save free speech and the internet for our children, not save our children from it. Thats where good parenting should prevail (I know I live in a Utopia!). I know I don't want my children to be NARROW MINDED because they do not have the ability to grasp/search a worldly TRUE view of a topic.

Censorship's place in a democracy: Does it have a place? Do we want to model out internet use on the way China does? Chinese government can and have just pull(ed) the plug on the entire internet for the chinese people when they deem something available/reported on the internet is not appropriate or damming to themselves! Control of the people, instead of people controlling their own lives. I realize that to various degrees all governments, through propaganda etc etc ETC, control us, but this is something we can recognize and protest.

WK8 TASK: Lecture Readings - Pursue topic

My eyes are tired, I have read, read and read through Dr Stockwell's notes, suggested readings, links (all the while referrencing 'Dictionary.com') and looking up 'other' information via the internet. I am overwhelmed.

I did 'tune in' to the debate of "Direct Democracy" and "Representative Democracy". Direct democracy being a form of government under which we (the public) vote directly on issues, rather than the the existing Representative Democracy in which we elect a government to make all 'the' decisions for us.

I was unaware that Switzerland have been practicing Direct Democracy for over 150 years! Wow. When first reading on I thought that this practice would be ideal, but would surely be expensive and impractible, but upon further reading (via a link from lecture notes) it seams not and infact, Switzerland is moving toward voting, at their quarterly 'referendums', via an on-line medium.

This then brings to mind the debate on types of public opinion. [Now which come first - the chicken or the egg / direct democracy or the ideal (in my opinion) deliberative democracy?]

Deliberative democracy which is founded on the principles of reasoned ideas/talk and deliberation. Where as teledemocracy or democracy at a distance, is political discourse with the 'new' use of technologies such as satellites, TV, computer networks etc. Enabaling things such as interactive satellite hook-ups, radio call-in programs, and live computer conferencing.

I can't decide right now what heading 'twitter' would fall under.....

WK8 ACMI EXHIBITION in Melbourne - "Screen Worlds" - Opens 20th September 2009

A free

permanent interactive exhibition

called "Screen Worlds"

It charts the history of screen-based entertainment, from cinema’s early beginnings to the rise of television, games, the internet, new media and the digital age.

Location: Melbourne’s Federation Square

Opening: This Sunday 20th September 2009

In the “emergence” section of the new Screen Worlds exhibition, visitors will be able to get hands-on with the pioneering Magnavox Odyssey as well as classic games like Space Invaders, Tempest, Super Mario Bros 3, Tomb Raider and pioneering Australian classic Way of the Exploding Fist.

(I think Mr Josh Nicholas may find this especially interesting...?)

See ACMI site for further details:

http://www.acmi.net.au/open_day.aspx

or click word link

WK8 TASK: Contacting MP Langbroek on latest speech to parliament

My comment was sent via the link:

http://www.jplangbroek.com/contact/

Also: this is a video of MP Langbroek speaking to ABC Stateline in April 2009 on various issues (including Day Light Saving).

WK8 TASK: Qld Hansard - Langbroek last spoke in parliament

My local representative, Mr John-Paul Langbroek, last spoke in in parliament on Wednesday 19th August, 2009 (at the time of this post).

He moved that a bill be read for the second time. This bill if passed is to restore "true honesty and integrity into the Queensland parliament."

In 2006 'honesty' by members of parliament

was destroyed by the government when it used its numbers decriminalise the offence of

providing false evidence to parliament or its committees.

The need for codification of criminal offences concerning parliamentarians in the Australian Law Journal in 2008 where our very own namesake Sir Samuel Griffith was cited: "In terms of ‘best practice’ legislative drafting, the approach

of Sir Samuel Griffith in drafting the Criminal Code provisions to include parliamentary offences was almost a century ahead of its time."

Given the time constraints, Mr Langbroek seeked leave to have the remainder of his speech incorporated in Hansard. Leave was granted and he introduced amendments to the Criminal Code 1899 and Parliament of Queensland Act 2001.

The amendment to the Criminal Code will intro

duce the offence of providing false evidence to Parliament. This offence is a crime and carries a maximum 7 years imprisonment. The community should be able to expect that as members of this House who sit in parliament or before one of its committees they do so knowing that they will be required to tell the truth and be honest......GO FIGURE!

Link to the official speech:

http://parlinfo.parliament.qld.gov.au/search/

WK8 Premier Anna Bligh - PR in OVERDRIVE!

What next??? (Well at least it's not more Anna at the football!)

This is Anna on TV show "Masterchef"

WK8 TASK: My local, state & federal representatives are:

LOCAL:

MP Mr John-Paul Langbroek

Contact Details:

PH: 07 55389 833

Fax: 07 5538 5560

Contact Form: http://www.jplangbroek.com/contact/

STATE:

Hon. Anna (Maria) Bligh

Contact Details:

PH: 07 3224 4500

Fax: 07 3221 3631

Email: anna.bligh@queenslandlabor.org

Email: premier@ministerial.qld.gov.au

FEDERAL:

Prime Minister Mr Kevin Rudd

Contact Details:

Parliament House

Suite MG 8

PH: 02 6277 7700

Fax: 02 6273 4100

Web: www.pm.gov.au

PLUS: Kevin's on almost every social network forum you can think off! Fair Shake...

WK8 TASK: Respond to Professional Blogger of Major News Site

The Sydney Morning Herald

NEWS SITE OF CHOICE FOR THIS TASK:

This took hours!

Read and read and then read some more. Not usually one to voice my opinion, (unless on a personal issue after a few glasses of a good 'red') I had to find a topic I felt I had an opinion on and one in which I thought my opinion may be of any interest to a professional blogger of a major news site.

So in the end I 'twittered' (had to join 1st!) in reply to The Sydney Morning Herald reporter Kirsty Needham on her topic "Ferry stoush brewing" posted in a smh blog on September 18th, 2009.

She blogged about the group "Save Our Sydney Ferries" and the privatization of this heritage ferry service.

My response was: s2715810#fdftqa http://smh.com.au/national-... Has anyone investigated any link between Labour and Veolia before this is even considered?

9 minutes ago from web

WK8 TASK: What is Barrack Obama up to today?

"What ever needs doing!"

For the most current information, please click on one or all of the links below

http://twitter.com/BARACKOBAMA

http://www.barackobama.com/

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/696264

WK8 TASK: Sign an e-petition

Well my political for and against's is abysmal - I wanted to focus on a current local topic that effects me/business - so I signed a (current) petition for DAY LIGHT SAVING to be followed by SE Queensland (more specifically the early referendum for a say).

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/daylight-saving-for-southeast-qld/sign.html

Done.

WK8 LECTURE THURSDAY 17.09.09 "Political Possibilities"

Overloaded with Information by Dr Stephen Stockwell (a genius to use his own words).

We have numerous "suggested readings" and books and movies to plough through to get a true sense of this topic of Political Possibilities. Dr Stockwell briefed over them and gave us a TASK of blogging a suggested reading. (I assume to get us to actually read them!)

The term "Golden Thread" was used by Dr Stockwell which he explained as being free and frank speech through the history of democracy.

Defining Democracy:

Cyber Politics vs. eDemocracy

Cyber Politics is the politics of the internet. The organization ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) was mentioned with this topic. The mediums of Forums, On-line Games, "Second Life", blogs etc are used to interact with politics within 'Cyberspace'.

eDemocracy is the real world politics (ie. off the internet). NGO's (non government organizations) seeking to change government policies/decisions etc. Dr Stockwell referenced the ancient Greek tradition of 'the males' (around 6000 of them) would meet near the Market Place in Athens to discuss and debate political decisions. They were likened to the sovereign force or the base of the political power.

Note: Cyber politics was a move to move this type of ancient debates and the modern street pickiting forums to the internet.

SO: What are the effects?

Three more pages of notes remain....but overall Democracy was defined, but the many more links and references will have to be explored!

WK8 Gold Coast Mornings around 5:30am via Smartphone

A friend of mine is a personal trainer and meets some of his clients at the beach nearly every morning around 5:30am. He is thoughtful enough to share the current glorious sunrise's with me by taking a photo with his mobile phone and sending it to my mobie

phone. I have uploaded some of the shots .....because I can! ENJOY!

Wednesday 16th September 2009

25th August 2009

16th June 2009

I have suggested to him to upload a shot every morning to his own website/facebook business a/c.

WK7 TASK: Use Freeware Apps and review

I chose to look around www.portableApps.com for this task.

I chose the freeware "GIMP PORTABLE" (Download 2.6.7 Rev 3) to download and review.

http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/gimp_portable

I chose this freeware application because I am interested in 'photoshopping' images, but not enough to come up with a few hundred dollars to purchase the software PHOTOSHOP from Adobe.

I am not really experienced with using Adobe Photoshop (or any other image software for that matter), so I still struggled with using Gimp, BUT for my needs - all the tools needed seem to be there.

I did have some trouble downloading the freeware (just my inexperience I guess), but once onto USB - fun!

WK7 LECTURE: THURSDAY 10.09.09 "OPENWARE"

Another entertaining lecture given by Mr Jason Nelson!

Jason spoke of free software available online, such as

http://portableapps.com/
http://sourceforge.net/
http://www.freewaregenius.com/

Good to know that there are alternatives to buying expensive software. A good example is OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office.

I learnt that you can find deleted files on a hard drive - yourself (No tech needed!) by downloading a free application from a openware/opensource site. For instance from www.portableapps.com this is an application called ERASER PORTABLE that can be downloaded and used to retrieve deleted files. (Something every wife should have! - oh so jaded).

Jason also went over the drawbacks for using freeware, such as virus's, having to manually update the software and no help available (unless through a blog style forum). Lastly the creators of the software don't really much money, so there is a move toward MICROCHARGING which will enable a governing body to charge 'everyone' for a software package - pool the amount - and distribute to the software owners as per usage.

WK7 New Product: Nokia N97

I know I should not be impressed with this as I 'knew' it, but had not given it thought until Josh Nicholas mentioned during one of his lectures earlier in the semester, that a smartphone now is really a PC that you can also make a phone call with.


This product released by Nokia has just show cased this for me.

As per Nokia's website "The era of convergence is here." There's that word again!

The N97 is a true mobile computer which puts the ‘personal Internet’ in your hand. You can choose between 3G HSDPA and Wi-Fi for the fast connection to Web sites on a 3.5 inch screen (and full QWERTY keyboard) with full support for Flash video services such as YouTube. You can also customise the N97’s home screen with ‘widgets’ to show anything you want to see at a glance such as live news and weather, FaceBook updates and your email inbox.

You can send and receive email through your personal or ISP account, business systems such as Microsoft Exchange as well as Google Gmail and your free Nokia Ovi Mail account.

Load up tracks – there’s plenty of room for thousands of songs on the inbuilt 32GB drive. Listen through your headphones or beam the music over the FM band with the N97’s inbuilt FM transmitter. You can also watch videos on the 16:9 screen or connect the N97 to any TV set with the supplied video cable kit.

The 5.0 megapixel digital camera fitted with a Carl Zeiss lens and bright dual LED flash ensures high-quality still photos and full motion video clips. Make use of the fast Internet connection to share the moment via email or instantly upload them to sites such as Flickr, YouTube and Share on Ovi.

Find where you are and get where you want to go with the N97’s assisted GPS receiver, multimedia city guides and Nokia Maps, including a free three month trial of Walk and Drive guided navigation. The digital compass automatically find true north and orients the map so it’s pointing the same direction that you are.

For fun you can enhance and personalise your N97 with the online Ovi Store. There are specialised applications covering dozens of categories as well as fast-paced mobile games, widgets, ringtones, wallpaper and videos. Going travelling? Get recommendations on relevant content for whatever city and country you’re in.

REF: http://www.cnet.com.au/explain-series/nokia/n97/

WK7 TASK: ireport.com "CULTURE JAMING"

UPLOADED TO "ireport.com" for a Culture Jaming Exercise.

My daughters just minding their own business - swooped by a UFO - yes a UFO!

As you can plainly see from there sincere real time account of the attack, they were scared out of their minds!

Link: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-326762#

WK6 TASK: Scetchcast

A little insight to my technological mind!

WK6 THURSDAY LECTURE 03.09.09 "Consumption & Production"

Today Josh spoke on the topic of Consumption and Production. He 'charted' the mediums of consumption on the Big Screen being Cinema, TV and the PC - their experience of being shared and/or private and the subsequent implications. Then the Small Screen being Personal Media Players, Mobile Phones (3G) and their link to what is then produced, by the consumer finding a niche market to consume new response/related work (on the small screen) either "on the go" or "on the fly" and their requirement of shorter 'screening' times.

Josh suggested we could produce content with our mobile phone - not only watch content via it. The current problem of SOUND quality though does inhibit this, but...

Some examples of content produced by consumers for other consumers can be found on:
http://www.fanfilm.net/

Some examples of 'Micro Stories' or 'Webisodic Drams'produced by editing/re-genring original footage/trailers can be found on:
http://www.thetrailermash.com/

We were also given the task of producing a 'fake' piece of news footage with our mobile phone and uploading to the site below. We can do this because the site has a disclaimer that advising that user loaded content is not checked or verified(only checked content is marked 'ON CNN'.
http://www.ireport.com/

WK6 Expanding my horizons!

Ok, I will admit I have a facebook account....but I am not really into the whole "social networking" as a passtime. I don't want to know everything about everyone and I dont think my life is interesting enough to warrant me posting everthing about myself. BUT: Going through the links that Jason Nelson put in his lecture notes I am amazed at the amount of 'useful networking' going on around our planet.

Already from the site http://mashable.com/ I found a posting from a credable human resourses director about using 'twitter' for hiring staff. A very interesting and informative read, so I forwarded the link to a friend of mine who runs Tuffstaff Enterprises on the Gold Coast and he was appreciative of the new information.

In addition, as I was going through the site http://turbulence.org and found a link to http://networkedbook.org/members and realised (yes I am a bit slow on the uptake) that I have to tools to meet and speak and learn from an infinate number of people on an infinate number of subjest.

So this smalltown Gold Coast girl can learn from experts and people with hands on experience in my chosen field of knowledge. Something countless number of costly networking workshops, dinners etc could not compete with - except for the fun factor I guess! Anyway a good balance of all things technically available can only enhance ones mind and capabilities.

Finally (for this post) I have had fun adding http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php to my Bookmarks Folder and feeling 'intouch' with the worlds crisis'. For instance just this weekend there was an earthquake in China scoring 5.0 on the scale. It was in a remote area and no report of major damage given, but as I am also studing Mandarin and now have a couple of Chinese friends, it gave me topic of conversation with them that they appreciated. Xiexie!