i remember one of my last assignments in yr 12 was to do some really tricky work on excel. i did well on the assignment but knowing that it was over i immediately lost all knowledge of using the program. therefore i think i will struggle today.
i actually picked it up ok. but i did get a bit confused with the formula for the gain or loss. i never really got it in the end. so sorry but excel isnt my thing. i tried. but for some reason i dont think the formula worked out very well. but i did do well with the other basic activities so yay for me.
then onto all important exam revision.
this is my last task so i believe a summary of the course is in order.
i actually enjoyed this course. i thought it was good to be able to go to a tute and do practical work on the computers especially when it came to the photoshopping.
and with the blogging i found it really helped me learn as i tend to zone out in lectures and it kind of helps me bring in my thoughts especially when the essay came around.
chris was always really helpful. and so were the friends i made in class.
i found majority of the material in this course interesting which was good because i havent ever really attempted a subject like this so i have managed to learn something about myself in that sense.
thanks for a good semester.
ta
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
microsoft word.
ive been regularly using microsoft word since primary school to complete homework, assignment, make notices, cards and well pretty much anything. i thought this task would be simple as i thought i was quite good at finding my way around the program. i was wrong.
now i found opening, closing, saving, bold italics and all that amazingly easy. i have been doing that forever.
the real challenge came when asked to insert a header and footer - never been done.
its pretty simple. i just never bothered doing it. but now i know - its in the view column.
i attempted to do the track changes task and realised id have to read through this one carefully. too many steps for me in one process but after going through it i know it would really come in handy in future with my uni work. i'll have to remember this one.
after completing the mail merging task i realised how stupid i had been for not knowing this before. i work in an office and regularly have to send information letter to various clients it takes forever to do and gets really frustrating when you start getting confused. but now i can do this it will take less time and therefore i have more time to bludge at work.
it has been a helpful informative day and im now extremely happy i have the option of bludging at work and that i can now make my uni work easier.
now i found opening, closing, saving, bold italics and all that amazingly easy. i have been doing that forever.
the real challenge came when asked to insert a header and footer - never been done.
its pretty simple. i just never bothered doing it. but now i know - its in the view column.
i attempted to do the track changes task and realised id have to read through this one carefully. too many steps for me in one process but after going through it i know it would really come in handy in future with my uni work. i'll have to remember this one.
after completing the mail merging task i realised how stupid i had been for not knowing this before. i work in an office and regularly have to send information letter to various clients it takes forever to do and gets really frustrating when you start getting confused. but now i can do this it will take less time and therefore i have more time to bludge at work.
it has been a helpful informative day and im now extremely happy i have the option of bludging at work and that i can now make my uni work easier.
wk 8 cyberspace
it was a real change logging onto habbo hotel rather than my usual msn or myspace.
with msn or similar instant messaging programs you're pretty much logging on as yourself and for the average person, most of your contacts know you for being you. but logging onto habbo hotel is rather different. upon registering as a member you are able to choose your own virtual reality appearance, a character representing you, that you can essentially make look like whoever you want bringing a feel of anonymity. this i believe is an important qualitative difference as you are able to express yourself in ways you normally would not be able to.
though, when the idea of being able to become whom ever you want is abused it becomes quite worrying. i think that virtual reality programs such as habbo hotel can become quite dangerous in the hands of the wrong person. such as online predators.
as i travelled in and out of different rooms within the hotel i found the most common introduction was 'asl' age sex location. and the idea that kids (i found most users were in fact teenagers) can and do give out important information to people they really do not know. it can become quite dangerous.
though for some people harmlessly using these programs to make friends and fill time i personally would still prefer making friends in the real world as opposed to a virtual version.
with msn or similar instant messaging programs you're pretty much logging on as yourself and for the average person, most of your contacts know you for being you. but logging onto habbo hotel is rather different. upon registering as a member you are able to choose your own virtual reality appearance, a character representing you, that you can essentially make look like whoever you want bringing a feel of anonymity. this i believe is an important qualitative difference as you are able to express yourself in ways you normally would not be able to.
though, when the idea of being able to become whom ever you want is abused it becomes quite worrying. i think that virtual reality programs such as habbo hotel can become quite dangerous in the hands of the wrong person. such as online predators.
as i travelled in and out of different rooms within the hotel i found the most common introduction was 'asl' age sex location. and the idea that kids (i found most users were in fact teenagers) can and do give out important information to people they really do not know. it can become quite dangerous.
though for some people harmlessly using these programs to make friends and fill time i personally would still prefer making friends in the real world as opposed to a virtual version.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
wk 6
this week i was forced to use photos from Flickr.com because my camera has gone missing. which isnt the best.
ive still managed to find photos that i think represent certain themes like friends and communication etc. and so i am able to complete this weeks task.
the first photo depicts 'friends' and i have found an image of two young girls playing,surrounded by a soft golden light. i hav edited this with photo shop to highlight the girls and blur the background. i did this to show that their surroundings arent of importance whereas they are becuase of their friendship.
the second is of communication and these days the most common form of communication is the mobile phone, closely followed by the internet though lately u can find mobile phones with the internet.
i blurred this photo because i didnt want to have an exact image as technology is always changing.
the third depicts an australian theme. in which i chose the outback, a desert wit an empty straight road and before i edited it it showed a bright red dusty desert with pure australian soil.
after a quick 5 minute lesson on photoshop from remy i realised how i have been wasting my time with paint and microsoft office picture editor. On paint it would take roughly around 1 million years to edit any picture and still not come close to the quality that can be acheived in 3 seconds of adobe photoshop. its really quite frustrating that i wasnt introduced to this earlier.
The task for this week is to edit pictures of a specific topic and the first would be friends.
The second is university life.
wk 3
what have communication studies evolved into after a century of development??A number of sometimes competing, sometimes compatible academic disciplines have sprung up due to the incredible uprise and devlopment of different forms of communication throughout the 20th century. It saw the development of mass society and an explosion of broadcast media forms such as newspapers, cinema, radio, and television, where messages were distributed from centralised sources to audiences around the world.From this many studies arose (communication studies, media studies and cultural studies) and as they were establishing themselves it seems that more job orientated studies were also developing such as:- Journalism- Public Relations- Advertising- Marketing- DesignThe advance in technology over the last ten years has lead to the further expansion in communication studies to include more computer orientated investigations.- New Media Studies- CyberStudies- Internet Studies- Cyberculture Studies- Web StudiesThough, it is understood that this all began in the 1900’s with a man named Ferdinand De Saussure who studied semiotics.But what exactly is semiotics?The shortest definition is that it is the study of sign. Semiotics is the study of language, signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. It includes the study of how meaning is constructed and understood (Semiotics.15/3/07 URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics).If it is believed that the study of communication began in the 1900’s with it also being documented in the USA, UK and throughout Europe, could it be that it began well before this as humans have used different ways of communicating since the beginning of time?Communication can range from very subtle processes of exchange, to full conversations and mass communication. Human communication was revolutionized with speech about 200,000 years ago. Symbols were developed about 30,000 years ago, and writing about 7,000 (History of communication. 15/3/07, URL: http://www.answers.com/topic/history-of-communication). Therefore if signs and symbols were widespread so long ago would there not have been an early form of semiotics being studied?As communication technology continues to change and develop so will the number of communication related studies available. It seems inevitable that this will continue on and no doubt I will most likely be writing about them also in future blogs.
At this point the thing that most interests me in new comm tech would have to be the week 3 lecture where it was explained that in world war 2 they created a mathmatics based computer to break secret German 'enigma' codes yet after they broke those codes they were still powerless to stop what was to come. therefore this will most likely be the topic of my essay. if not that then just the general evolution of the computer.Random questions using search engines other than google:1. What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin?According to Cucurbits, the official journal of the World Pumpkin Confederation, a 1993 record-breaking pumpkin weighed in at 836 pounds.http://www.ask.com/web?q=what+is+the+weight+of+the+worlds+biggest+pumpkin&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Grant Hackett?If you want to contact Grant, please write to the Miami Swimming Club, their address is:Miami Swimming ClubPO BOX 2461BURLEIGH QLD 4220http://www.ask.com/web?q=quickest+way+to+contact+grant+hackett&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?two incheshttp://www.ask.com/web?q=length+of+giraffe%27s+tongue&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir4. How would you define the word 'ontology'? In your own words, what does it really mean ?An ontology is a specification of a conceptualization.Ontology is the theory of objects and their ties.http://www.ask.com/web?q=what+is+ontology&qsrc=1&o=0&l=dir5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film?Transfer” 1966http://www.ask.com/web?q=what+is+david+cronenberg%27s+first+feature+film&qsrc=1&o=0&l=dir6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?jan 8 1986http://www.ask.com/web?q=when+was+the+original+%27hacker%27s+manifesto%27+written+&qsrc=1&o=0&l=dir7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?It began 30 years ago when the use of exchange names as part of the telephone number was still popular in the USA. Dials had letters as well as numbers and the first 3 letters of the exchange name were dialled followed by numbers. An example might be CENtral 78978. You dialled CEN 78978 or, using all numbers, 236 78978. It so happened that 5 on the dial corresponded with J K and L and you can’t make any English place names using any combination of J, K and L as the first 3 letters. So the 555 code was allocated to service levels such as Directory Assistance, Operator, Repair Service, etc. Due to the "low fill" of the 555 code, Hollywood was encouraged to quote 555 numbers in their productions to prevent real subscribers being harassed by members of the public trying out the numbers quoted on the screen.http://www.ask.com/web?q=why+do+all+hollywood+numbers+start+with+555&qsrc=1&o=0&l=dir8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes?Flight = $229.14 Expediahttp://www.ask.com/web?q=what+is+the+cheapest+form+of+travel+from+crete+to+rhodes&qsrc=1&o=0&l=dir9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?Do the Clam by Elvis Preseley (although I'm not certain about that, the website it really difficult to understand.)http://www.ask.com/web?q=why+do+all+hollywood+numbers+start+with+555&qsrc=1&o=0&l=dir10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?Black Assassins.http://www.ask.com/web?q=why+do+all+hollywood+numbers+start+with+555&qsrc=1&o=0&l=dirsearch enginesInternet search engines (eg Google, AltaVista) help users find web pages on a given subject. The search engines maintain databases of web sites and use programs to collect information, which is then indexed by the search engine. Similar services are provided by "directories," which maintain ordered lists of websites, eg Yahoo!how are results ranked on ur search engine?One of the the main rules in a ranking algorithm involves the location and frequency of keywords on a web page. Call it the location/frequency method, for short.Pages with the search terms appearing in the HTML title tag are often assumed to be more relevant than others to the topic.Search engines will also check to see if the search keywords appear near the top of a web page, such as in the headline or in the first few paragraphs of text. They assume that any page relevant to the topic will mention those words right from the beginning.i personally use google and ask jeeves if i need to search something. i actually dont have a reason why i use google over the others i think it has something to do with the fact that it is my homepage and someone once told me it has less virus's. i still dont know whether that is true or not.a recent news article i found stated - comScore, a leader in digital media measurement, today released its monthly qSearch analysis of activity across competitive search engines. In February 2007, Google Sites captured 48.1 percent of the U.S. search market, gaining 0.6 share points from the previous month. Yahoo! Sites maintained its second place ranking with 28.1 percent of U.S. searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (10.5 percent), Ask Network (5.0 percent) and Time Warner Network (4.9 percent).(ComScore releases, 15/3/07, URL:http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-electronics/20070321/CGW03821032007-1.html)
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
week 1 blog. thurs 8-10
I officially enrolled in university at the start of 2007 after being accepted into Griffith University, Bachelor of Communication. Not entirely sure of what I was in that specific course for I chose a wide variety of electives.
Within this wide variety of electives was new communication technology. I believe I’m pretty much computer illiterate in most cases other than the wonderful world of Myspace or Msn and therefore this subject would be mighty helpful to me.
I have been told this course will benefit me greatly and build my knowledge of general computer programs such as Photoshop and educate me in the ways of the online blogging community.
This knowledge is much appreciated in my case seeing as I am hopeless with these programs and I’m often shown up by my friends who really just use the computer for fun and happen to be a great deal better than me. This was probably largely the reason for taking this class other than the fact I will most probably need to use computer programs in future jobs.
This is all besides the point I seem to have drifted off, I intended to write about my experience in this class so far. And so, moving on from my rambles about being jealous of my friend’s computer skills I would like to announce that I actually enjoy this subject so far. I have been to one lecture and this is my first tute.
The first lecture was actually interesting to me, explaining the different forms of communication in media etc. and how technology has evolved from print to telegraph to telephone and so on and how we interact and interpret this.
I have already improved so far with my lack of computing skills because today in my first tutorial I created a blogging account and for me this is a big step. Now the challenge is to work out how to access this account and add to this (uninteresting to anyone but myself) blog which I now apologise for :)
So in closing for this week I have enjoyed the experience so far and look forward to more in coming weeks which I’m sure I will write about.
Ta.
Within this wide variety of electives was new communication technology. I believe I’m pretty much computer illiterate in most cases other than the wonderful world of Myspace or Msn and therefore this subject would be mighty helpful to me.
I have been told this course will benefit me greatly and build my knowledge of general computer programs such as Photoshop and educate me in the ways of the online blogging community.
This knowledge is much appreciated in my case seeing as I am hopeless with these programs and I’m often shown up by my friends who really just use the computer for fun and happen to be a great deal better than me. This was probably largely the reason for taking this class other than the fact I will most probably need to use computer programs in future jobs.
This is all besides the point I seem to have drifted off, I intended to write about my experience in this class so far. And so, moving on from my rambles about being jealous of my friend’s computer skills I would like to announce that I actually enjoy this subject so far. I have been to one lecture and this is my first tute.
The first lecture was actually interesting to me, explaining the different forms of communication in media etc. and how technology has evolved from print to telegraph to telephone and so on and how we interact and interpret this.
I have already improved so far with my lack of computing skills because today in my first tutorial I created a blogging account and for me this is a big step. Now the challenge is to work out how to access this account and add to this (uninteresting to anyone but myself) blog which I now apologise for :)
So in closing for this week I have enjoyed the experience so far and look forward to more in coming weeks which I’m sure I will write about.
Ta.
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