Concept 23 – Human-Computer Interfaces
The Internet lessens the recognition of difference between human and computers because, at a distance, it often feels similar to communicate and act on the internet regardless of whether one is speaking with a human or a machine.
More and more our interactions on the internet are with computers. These days when purchasing an airline ticket, we would no longer ever consider walking to a travel agency to discuss flight options with a staff member and pay in cash. We are now quite able to research options from the comfort of home, a search engine collates and provides prices for possible itineraries after we have entered our criteria, and often provides cheaper alternatives as well.
The way we interact with businesses online is also evolving though. Often now we have the option of contacting a business by email – which will prompt an automated reply, or by an online chat.
BT (British Telecom) has developed Anna, a bot (or robot) to assist with enquiries. She looks nice and helpful, blinks and moves her head around a little to appear more human. For each question you ask she will provide a few options providing links to the page that will (hopefully) hold the information you are seeking. When you select one of these links you are navigated to information pages, and Emma disappears. I think this is a weakness in the navigation, I felt a bit deserted when she left without saying goodbye! Here’s a link to BT’s Ask Emma: http://bt.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/bt.cfg/php/enduser/cci/bt_homepage.php?p_sid=m83sazaj
To enable a bot to effectively answer a query, a large number of predictions need to made about the information that will be sought. Responses need to be modelled on a ranges of keywords, and also need to cover options including spelling errors.
You can now develop your own bot at home, with your very own personalised responses. Because recording responses to all possible queries is an exceptionally time intensive process, you can take a bot with either pre-programmed responses (default brain) or you can build your bot entirely from the start (no brain).
I had some discussions with a few of the more popular bots linked to this site, and I was a little disappointed. Some of the responses were very strange and not at all linked to the question I asked, and some of them are programmed to be just plain cheeky and sarcastic! Overall, it felt quite clear that I was talking with a computer, it just wasn’t right.
I had a better experience when trying to install a new internet connection recently. There were some problems getting started up, and the help files on the cd were presented in a very relaxed, simple question and answer style. For each response I provided the cd would invoke a process to check a certain part of the hardware of software that it felt could be root of my connection problems. There was very little looping in the questions, it was very polite at all times, and I felt quite secure that there was progress happening.
As business continue to reduce resourcing of labour intensive roles, more and more we will be communicating with computers in our every day lives.
Supporting Site 1:
Create AIM Bots, stay on AIM 24/7 and web chat solutions - http://www.ai-buddy.com/
This site is where you can get your very own Bot. Here they are being promoted as excellent receptionists for your email or IM services while you are asleep, as they can provide pre-programmed information to your senders. It also contains a information on how to set variables to questions that may be asked – also reminding to allow for common spelling mistakes.
I have found that if you ask really silly questions some bots end the discussion. I haven’t been able to resurrect a discussion with a bot I have annoyed so far. They can be quite moody.
Supporting Site 1:
Wikipedia: Human Computer Chess Matches - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-computer_chess_matches m/
Proof that computers can be programmed to think strategically, Wikipedia gives a nice description of the evolution of chess programmes, and how they have now become more superior than humans at the game. Grandmaster chess player Kasparov thought he saw “deep intelligence and creativity“ in Deep Blue, a computer designed for chess games, thought there must have been human involvement.
It appears that after many wins over the last few years, computers are now seen as the superior players. The page quotes a McGill University computer science professor, Monty Newborn, when referring to the lessening interest in the human-computer chess games due to the computer’s superiority, "the science is done"
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Concept Research and Refelection Project - Part 2
Concept 26 – Privacy and Security
The internet is a profoundly ‘open’ system and advanced internet users are cautious about either accepting or sending material from and to unknown sources and are careful in releasing information about themselves in any form. Conceptually, the internet challenges us to take greater responsibility for the protection of privacy and security than perhaps we are used to when dealing with the media.
The breadth and decentralisation of the internet allows a great deal of freedom for users, but unfortunately it also provides an excellent environment for fraudsters to commit crime. Internet users need to stay aware of online threats, and of the new technologies associated with them.
In the recent past a number of methods of online fraud have been developed. Experienced internet users have become very familiar with them, and it is natural now to place enforce strict security rules to your online profiles and firewalls. There are some frauds, however, that manage to pass through these controls and require a greater vigilance by the internet user.
Phishing, for example, can be performed in a number of ways. One example is for a fraudster to send an email that is mimics the website of a trusted institution, banks are common. The message will have some kind of scary subject such as the email below, I received yesterday, titled “Your HSBC Financial Group account has been violated!”
The internet is a profoundly ‘open’ system and advanced internet users are cautious about either accepting or sending material from and to unknown sources and are careful in releasing information about themselves in any form. Conceptually, the internet challenges us to take greater responsibility for the protection of privacy and security than perhaps we are used to when dealing with the media.
The breadth and decentralisation of the internet allows a great deal of freedom for users, but unfortunately it also provides an excellent environment for fraudsters to commit crime. Internet users need to stay aware of online threats, and of the new technologies associated with them.
In the recent past a number of methods of online fraud have been developed. Experienced internet users have become very familiar with them, and it is natural now to place enforce strict security rules to your online profiles and firewalls. There are some frauds, however, that manage to pass through these controls and require a greater vigilance by the internet user.
Phishing, for example, can be performed in a number of ways. One example is for a fraudster to send an email that is mimics the website of a trusted institution, banks are common. The message will have some kind of scary subject such as the email below, I received yesterday, titled “Your HSBC Financial Group account has been violated!”
The link leads to a phoney site that records the information entered, which is then used for fraud activities. This might be considered old hat to the more experienced internet users, but in my work in a large bank I dealt with a complaint from a customer two weeks ago who had fallen victim to a phishing scam and had £9000 stolen from his credit card. Because he had voluntarily given his account details to an ‘unknown’ 3rd party, contravening the conditions of his bank account, he is required to repay the bank the full amount. Phishing is quite a lucrative industry for fraudsters, in Great Britain alone it is estimated that over £20 million is stolen annually.
Email security features and user training are proving effective in combating this kind of scam, but there are others in development that are much harder to recognise. XSS, or Cross-Site Scripting, is a new tool for internet fraud that is extremely hard to identify.
XSS can be used in a number of ways to defraud people. Essentially it is the process by which a fraudster inserts code into a webpage that can, invisibly, and without any indication of its presence, copy the users details and information being keyed. The result is that the fraudster can then assume the online identity of the user.
TJ Maxx, the clothing retailer, suffered from a XSS scam last year, where the fraudsters were able to access their systems and download hundreds of thousands of credit card numbers, the eventual cost to the business expected to be in excess of £100 million. XSS holes in websites are continually being found and fixed by developers, but not all sites are safe. Internet users can take security measures such as disabling scripts to help avoid XSS attacks.
Social Engineering is another form of attack, but unlike the two examples above, it relies purely on human error. The term covers a lot of different methods of attack, but one of them, and the favourite for the computer criminal Kevin Mitnick, is ‘pretexting’. This is often performed by calling an employee of a company posing as technical help. While ‘assisting’ the user with their query, the fraudster asks for their password or other security data which is then used to access the company’s computer systems.
Internet users need to keep updated with developments in website privacy and security, to ensure that they are communicating with websites and others in a secure way.
Email security features and user training are proving effective in combating this kind of scam, but there are others in development that are much harder to recognise. XSS, or Cross-Site Scripting, is a new tool for internet fraud that is extremely hard to identify.
XSS can be used in a number of ways to defraud people. Essentially it is the process by which a fraudster inserts code into a webpage that can, invisibly, and without any indication of its presence, copy the users details and information being keyed. The result is that the fraudster can then assume the online identity of the user.
TJ Maxx, the clothing retailer, suffered from a XSS scam last year, where the fraudsters were able to access their systems and download hundreds of thousands of credit card numbers, the eventual cost to the business expected to be in excess of £100 million. XSS holes in websites are continually being found and fixed by developers, but not all sites are safe. Internet users can take security measures such as disabling scripts to help avoid XSS attacks.
Social Engineering is another form of attack, but unlike the two examples above, it relies purely on human error. The term covers a lot of different methods of attack, but one of them, and the favourite for the computer criminal Kevin Mitnick, is ‘pretexting’. This is often performed by calling an employee of a company posing as technical help. While ‘assisting’ the user with their query, the fraudster asks for their password or other security data which is then used to access the company’s computer systems.
Internet users need to keep updated with developments in website privacy and security, to ensure that they are communicating with websites and others in a secure way.
Supporting Site 1:
Top Pagerank List - http://www.xssed.com/pagerank
This site provides a list of websites with known vulnerabilities to XSS attacks. They are listed according to Alexa page ranking – an organisation that measures traffic flow through websites. Users have the option of logging in to their email address or purchasing music through this Yahoo site, which is of a real concern to users as an XSS code in the page text can easily duplicate this information and send it to a fraudster.
I could not find a response from Yahoo regarding this vulnerability, it seems very strange that such a big company would allow this to continue.
Supporting Site 2:
Home Texts: Internet Security - http://elfguy.net/security.html
I have often referred to the presentations in this website to understand various issues dealing with the internet, I find the information very easy to read and digest.
I have chosen this site because it provides step by step instructions, in laymans terms, on how to secure your computer against general forms of internet fraud. Further information is also provided regarding the future of internet security, with clear explanations on some of the lesser known security issues in the general internet user community, such as social engineering and XSS. It’s a great resource.
Top Pagerank List - http://www.xssed.com/pagerank
This site provides a list of websites with known vulnerabilities to XSS attacks. They are listed according to Alexa page ranking – an organisation that measures traffic flow through websites. Users have the option of logging in to their email address or purchasing music through this Yahoo site, which is of a real concern to users as an XSS code in the page text can easily duplicate this information and send it to a fraudster.
I could not find a response from Yahoo regarding this vulnerability, it seems very strange that such a big company would allow this to continue.
Supporting Site 2:
Home Texts: Internet Security - http://elfguy.net/security.html
I have often referred to the presentations in this website to understand various issues dealing with the internet, I find the information very easy to read and digest.
I have chosen this site because it provides step by step instructions, in laymans terms, on how to secure your computer against general forms of internet fraud. Further information is also provided regarding the future of internet security, with clear explanations on some of the lesser known security issues in the general internet user community, such as social engineering and XSS. It’s a great resource.
Conceptual Research and Reflection Project - Part 1
Concept 33
In the era of the ‘attention economy’ readers and users of Internet information must carefully craft, in their own minds, the kind of metadata which will – almost instinctively – ‘fit’ with the metadata of the information sources they want, so that – in the few brief moments of initial exchange, when a seeker of information encounters information being sought, rapid, effective judgements are made that ‘pay off’ in terms of further reading, accessing and saving.
The creation of the internet has helped encourage the concept of the ‘attention economy’, a new model identifying our changing interactions and way of living, which is entirely different from our traditional economic models. Simply put, the massive amount of information available on the internet is making us more discerning viewers, thus our attention is becoming extremely valuable.
Accordingly, the way that our attention is sought in the current world is vastly different from the traditional advertising methods. Early instances of networking via the internet, such as Usenet, allowed new kinds of attention seeking to be developed, such as spam. As we have become accustomed to these kinds of direct approaches, be it a sales pitch or a political message, internet users are now quite fast at identifying metadata that is irrelevant or unwanted to us. But as we become knowledgeable in our avoidance and blocking of this attention, our attention seekers must get more creative.
Increasingly we rely on search engines to assist us in locating the information we are searching for by providing a number of key words to gain a catalogue of possible options in response. Internet users have developed cunning skill at identifying appropriate responses, for example if you are looking to purchase a flight from Munich to Geneva, it is quite natural to select a link to a travel wholesaler, automatically avoiding the alternatives such as a blog discussing the same flight that someone has made in the past. Entering any criteria into a search engine that could has the slightest sexual connotation is widely avoided.
Some fun loving attention seekers have enjoyed utilising our metadata by creating ‘Google Bombs’. This technique was created to influence a search engine’s ranking (in the original case Google) of a webpage within the search results, leading to an unexpected site. It is noted that this is usually done with humorous intent, a famous example is to enter ‘miserable failure’ into Google the top result would lead the user to a website promoting George Bush (now disabled). Whilst generally used in jest, this is a great lesson of how metadata can be manipulated to direct the unwitting searcher or consumer to an unintended site.
Metadata is also increasingly used for fraud. Users are becoming familiar with the metadata associated with Nigerian scams, and phishing, a technique that involves a fraudulent body masquerading as trusted bank or company, seeking credit card or personal details.
Web developers will continue to improve their relevance to metadata searches, and continue to improve the attractiveness of their sites. The attention economy model will really find its relevance, as a single, home based website developer with creative flair may be able to hold as much influence in the internet world as a multinational corporation. For internet surfers, the future metadata will look further into webpages than just relying on text, they will be able to find information relating to graphics, videos and animations. And our attention will become more and more valuable with each development.
Supporting Site 1:
Attent with Serios - http://www.seriosity.com/attent.html
This site is offering a further enhancement to interpreting metadata, by allowing users to attach Serios, a form of online currency, to their emails to enable people and businesses to prioritise their reading. The more Serios attached to an email, the user can assume that the email is more important, relevant or popular then the others all seeking attention in his or her inbox.
This new currency can assist businesses identify the most effective methods of sharing information, and is even being promoted as a reward to employees. At home it can direct readers to popular blogs or information sources. The reports provided by the Attent software can provide metadata analysis and trends to support policy planning. It feels like the new attention economy is creating its own micro-economies.
Supporting Site 2:
Search Engine - http://www.50matches.com/
This is a search engine with a difference – it only searches pages that have already been bookmarked by a social network such as de.icio.us, digg and reddit. This website can seriously cut down the amount of noise received when running a search on one of the commercial engines.
The search returns a maximum of 50 results, so you are not bombarded with hundreds of pages of increasingly less relevant material. An advantage is that the results are made from sites recommended by humans instead of machines crawling the net and returning a meta data matches with no regard for the quality of the content of the site.
In the era of the ‘attention economy’ readers and users of Internet information must carefully craft, in their own minds, the kind of metadata which will – almost instinctively – ‘fit’ with the metadata of the information sources they want, so that – in the few brief moments of initial exchange, when a seeker of information encounters information being sought, rapid, effective judgements are made that ‘pay off’ in terms of further reading, accessing and saving.
The creation of the internet has helped encourage the concept of the ‘attention economy’, a new model identifying our changing interactions and way of living, which is entirely different from our traditional economic models. Simply put, the massive amount of information available on the internet is making us more discerning viewers, thus our attention is becoming extremely valuable.
Accordingly, the way that our attention is sought in the current world is vastly different from the traditional advertising methods. Early instances of networking via the internet, such as Usenet, allowed new kinds of attention seeking to be developed, such as spam. As we have become accustomed to these kinds of direct approaches, be it a sales pitch or a political message, internet users are now quite fast at identifying metadata that is irrelevant or unwanted to us. But as we become knowledgeable in our avoidance and blocking of this attention, our attention seekers must get more creative.
Increasingly we rely on search engines to assist us in locating the information we are searching for by providing a number of key words to gain a catalogue of possible options in response. Internet users have developed cunning skill at identifying appropriate responses, for example if you are looking to purchase a flight from Munich to Geneva, it is quite natural to select a link to a travel wholesaler, automatically avoiding the alternatives such as a blog discussing the same flight that someone has made in the past. Entering any criteria into a search engine that could has the slightest sexual connotation is widely avoided.
Some fun loving attention seekers have enjoyed utilising our metadata by creating ‘Google Bombs’. This technique was created to influence a search engine’s ranking (in the original case Google) of a webpage within the search results, leading to an unexpected site. It is noted that this is usually done with humorous intent, a famous example is to enter ‘miserable failure’ into Google the top result would lead the user to a website promoting George Bush (now disabled). Whilst generally used in jest, this is a great lesson of how metadata can be manipulated to direct the unwitting searcher or consumer to an unintended site.
Metadata is also increasingly used for fraud. Users are becoming familiar with the metadata associated with Nigerian scams, and phishing, a technique that involves a fraudulent body masquerading as trusted bank or company, seeking credit card or personal details.
Web developers will continue to improve their relevance to metadata searches, and continue to improve the attractiveness of their sites. The attention economy model will really find its relevance, as a single, home based website developer with creative flair may be able to hold as much influence in the internet world as a multinational corporation. For internet surfers, the future metadata will look further into webpages than just relying on text, they will be able to find information relating to graphics, videos and animations. And our attention will become more and more valuable with each development.
Supporting Site 1:
Attent with Serios - http://www.seriosity.com/attent.html
This site is offering a further enhancement to interpreting metadata, by allowing users to attach Serios, a form of online currency, to their emails to enable people and businesses to prioritise their reading. The more Serios attached to an email, the user can assume that the email is more important, relevant or popular then the others all seeking attention in his or her inbox.
This new currency can assist businesses identify the most effective methods of sharing information, and is even being promoted as a reward to employees. At home it can direct readers to popular blogs or information sources. The reports provided by the Attent software can provide metadata analysis and trends to support policy planning. It feels like the new attention economy is creating its own micro-economies.
Supporting Site 2:
Search Engine - http://www.50matches.com/
This is a search engine with a difference – it only searches pages that have already been bookmarked by a social network such as de.icio.us, digg and reddit. This website can seriously cut down the amount of noise received when running a search on one of the commercial engines.
The search returns a maximum of 50 results, so you are not bombarded with hundreds of pages of increasingly less relevant material. An advantage is that the results are made from sites recommended by humans instead of machines crawling the net and returning a meta data matches with no regard for the quality of the content of the site.
Module 4
Downloading Tools / Plug In Task
Search Manager / Combiners
I downloaded Copernic Agent Basic to test as a search engine. Google didn’t like it very much – in fact it was a bit of a surprise that I suddenly got a message from Google claiming that another piece of software was trying to take over as my search tool. I thought this was interesting as I thought Google was a tool I used when I wanted – I didn’t realise it has claimed ownership over my pc!
As a search engine it was fine, it utilised 10 other search engines and was fast enough with results. I found the page layout quite busy and bit distracting in its presentation. I’m likely to stick with Google as my main search engine simply because of the simple design.
I really didn’t want to download any more software onto my pc, I’ve got so many unused programs already! So I thought I would upgrade Windows Media Player – but it appears that I have the latest version, so instead I used it to do something I haven’t done before – listen to the radio. I’m really excited now, I found Triple J which is a station I haven’t heard for years! There are no interesting non-commercial stations in the UK so I’ve been having withdrawals!
I really appreciated this exercise because I’ve realised that with my new internet provider and Windows Media Player – I can have a little bit of home every day now!
The difficult part of Media Player is the file format issue. We find that most days we use this program and iTunes to listen to music. It would be great to find a player that could play all music formats. I used Copernic to search for possibilities but again, found the display very distracting and couldn’t find anything that caught my eye in it’s busy, half highlighted presentation.
Search Engine Task
Unfortunately the two pages we were asked to visit in the curriculum, Using Web Search Tools and Specialised Databases. have been removed from the OSU site.
Following on from my excitement of remembering internet radio, and specifically Triple J, I searched Google with the keywords ‘hottest 100’. The results were:
Results 1 - 10 of about 625,000 for hottest 100. (0.15 seconds). The first 5 results were:
When I ran the same search on Copernic it returned 49 results from 11 search engines. I ran it a second time using the identical words and syntax and this time it gave me 50 results from 11 search engines. Strange! Here are the first 5 results:
I didn’t like the results from this search very much as the sponsored links really dominated the top of the page, and the page I actually wanted, triplej.net.au, came in 5th place. It was first on the list in the Google search.
I’ve been searching for some more information behind the reason why 11 search engines have returned such a small response compared with the Google results. I think I’ll have to look into this further, I’ve not been able to find a simple explanation as the two pages mentioned above obviously provided.
Using Boolean searching, I would get the most results using the Boolean term AND in my search (ie hottest AND 100). A quick rundown of the results:
Without Boolean Logic – result 625,000
With Boolean Term ‘AND’ – result 31,400,000
Copernic
Without Boolean Logic – 49 or 50
With Boolean Term ‘AND’ – result 53
Regarding relevance, Google gave by far the most accurate results for my search, Copernic pushed my destination website down to 6th position.
I’m not sure if I’ve missed an important point in not being able to access the OSU websites recommended to find a way to just search university websites, but I have found a link in Google that allows you to narrow your search to a particular university website. See link below:
http://www.google.com/options/universities.html
Google has created Google Scholar that searches all areas such as universities, theses, academic publishers etc. Microsoft has also released Windows Live Academic Search that does the equivalent. Whilst this does not narrow down the search to only universities, the search results are clearly refined.
Organising Search Information
The best responses I received were from Google. At number 1:
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/
Author – unknown
Institution – Australian Broadcasting Corporation
And number 2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_J_Hottest_100
Author – it’s a wiki, there are many authors
Institution – Wikipedia
But number 3 had no relevance at all!
http://www.totalfilm.com/features/the_hottest_100_people_in_hollywood_right_now
Author – unnamed
Institution – Squiz
To record these 3 websites I have used the method I am most comfortable with – I added them as favourites in Microsoft Explorer. To keep my favourite addresses under control I put them into folders. In this case I have used called the folder Net11, it is where I keep the links to my blog and other relevant sites to this course. I find this the easiest way to keep track of my websites, as Explorer is the program I use most commonly, and I really don’t use other programs or bookmarking functions. I prefer to keep it simple
Evaluating the web
For this exercise I used a more relevant webpage from my concepts assignment, http://www.xssed.com/pagerank
the reliability and authority of the site / source / article
the reliability of the statistics of the site are open to interpretation, as although it claims to be the largest repository of information regarding XSS vulnerable sites, it relies on submissions from the public to identify them. If there was decreasing public interest, the results would become skewed and unreliable.
I was concerned when viewing the submissions page, as the last update regarding submissions was posted in 2007, but when viewing the XSS Archive, I can see that it is update daily, this attention gives me more confidence in the accuracy of the data.
the main ideas or subjects discussed in the article
To provide information and education regarding XSS vulnerabilities to all interest site developers and users.
the purpose for which the site was written (this might include any apparent external interest, intellectual motivation or contextual information)
The site was created as a reference point, but I would suggest that the developers intended for it to become a commercial concern.
As I have used separate sites for the different parts of this exercise, comparing the relevance of the information provided in the search results to my closer look at the site. The most useful research to look back on would definitely be my more detailed information. To judge, or provide some permanent ranking on the site to remind myself of the usefulness of the site, I would personally put something in the link name in my Explorer favourites, although now I beginning to understand the usefulness of bookmarking sites.
Monday, 18 August 2008
Module 3 Tasks
HTML Tags
I really enjoyed creating my first webpage, I’m a much better ‘doer’ than I am at thinking about the concepts and writing intelligent comments on the discussion boards! Aside from the expected mistakes of forgetting to close the odd tag, all went well and I really enjoyed creating.
I really enjoyed the freedom of creating the HTML page, as I could really do anything I like, whereas a blog is somewhat more limiting. Paradoxically, that is also the advantage of the blog – very little effort is required to create a nicely presented page, as they come with their own ready made template. I enjoyed creating the HTML page most, I like having the creative control, and I enjoyed learning the new language that will hopefully soon be second nature to me!
5 most important rules for writing online
From my own web browsing experience, and reflecting the web links provided in the curriculum, I think the following could be a reasonable guide to writing for the web:
Legal Issues
I put my webpage through the W3C validator and so many errors came back I couldn’t believe it! The most common one was:
I’m obviously forgetting to close tags – something to watch out for in future!!
I think that my webpage is ok in the copyright sense, the images and ideas are all mine, there is nothing borrowed. My interpretation on the question of whether including the Curtin logo on my web page would be breaking copyright, is that it would be ok if it linked to the Curtin website, or if the page content credited Curtin as a reputable and genuine body. However if I mis-represented myself as a representative of Curtin, this would be against copyright rules.
FTP
I have uploaded my webpage into the presentation area of WebCT, it was a bit of fun getting the images to work, but now it seems to be working fine.
The link is : http://webct.curtin.edu.au/305033_b/student_pres/Group24/index.html
Blogging
I was really quite disconcerted by the concept of blogging when I started this course. While I’m not likely to keep or maintain one, I can appreciate the benefits more. I particularly enjoyed being able to view and comment on the blogs of my classmates, it was great to see how everyone was progressing and the frustrations that so many of us shared!
If I had the time and inclination I think blogging could be a good way to stay in touch with my family in Australia, but I am scared that it would be something I’d start and not maintain.
Web 2.0
Unfortunately both of these sites repeatedly crashed my internet connection – I couldn’t complete this task.
Sunday, 6 July 2008
Hi again
Well, I’m back in the land of the living again after an amazing couple of weeks! I’ve been doing some things in the background but I haven’t had a chance to update my blog, so here goes…
Email Lists
As directed in the course notes I went to yahoo and searched for some groups to get involved with. I wasn’t sure what I would like to join for a while, but I found a group related to travel which I thought suited me as I travel a lot, and I also organise a lot of travel as part of my job. I chose the ‘Travelzine’, although it seemed to have a lot of security and multiple checks on legitimacy before being accepted. I never expected to be rejected on my first application though – it made me feel a bit dirty! My intentions were so honest and innocent!
The instructions for joining were to
1) update my yahoo profile (which is quite empty as I’m unlikely to ever use it again – possibly my first mistake),
2) click join this group;
3) wait for a message to arrive in my yahoo mailbox (which is diverted to my hotmail account – possibly making me look less upfront and
4) respond back to the mail within 24 hours.
So I received the email asking me to provide a response to the questions:
Name?
Location? (city, state or province and country)
How you found TheTravelzine?
Please explain your interest in joining TheTravelzine
Your web site or blog address?
Experience in the travel industry?
To which I provided brief one line responses stating my interest in travel and my study requirements. My responses were obviously far too brief as I received the response:
Our group is comprised of an international membership who trade travel stories and tips. All members are expected to participate in this way. We don't want our group to be studied by "outsiders". We do have a concern about approving your request to join. So you must assure us that you will follow our guidelines. All messages are moderated prior to posting and any attempt to 'mine' the membership list will result in an immediate ban. Please respond directly to me, within 24 hours.
Oops! So it was a good lesson for me in internet/groups security. I had naively expected to be allowed to participate without seriously proving my genuine intentions in the group. I sent back a very lengthy explanatory email in which I listed every country I have travelled through, the countries that I organise travel for at work, and I copied in the requirements for Net11. I finished with a comprehensive summary, expressed my understanding for security, and left it in their hands. Fortunately I seemed to hit the mark this time, was accepted as a member of the group, and started to receive a daily digest of the group communications. And it was at this point that I realised my greatest error – I hadn’t done anywhere near enough research before joining.
When I had initially looked at the yahoo groups site searching for a group to join, I had very briefly flicked through the previous posts, only randomly scanning over them – they were related to travel so it seemed fine with me. But on receiving the daily digests I realised that this group do not cover information relevant to me at all.
Although there is clearly a diverse membership, most of the people posting appear to be retired, affluent Americans seeking the best cruise liner holidays. The majority of the posts are US centric, and although I have been to the US I really can’t contribute to discussions relating to festivals in Boston or the best time to visit the Grand Canyon (surely the answer is any time, with a hat and sunscreen!!). They are also very interested in group travel, something that makes my skin crawl as a seasoned backpacker. I like to make my own way when I travel, the stories of my misdemeanours make for great discussions when I get home!
The questions that I can provide information about eg journey times between terminals in Charles de Gaulle airport, have without fail, already been answered by the time I have read them, most probably because of the time difference between here (UK) and the US. I have been religiously reading my daily digest to find a query to reply to, but as yet haven’t been able to contribute without already repeating someone else’s advice. I’ll continue on and report back on my first contribution in my blog soon!
Pro’s for email lists compared to discussion boards include the ability to receive information in digest form or by individual emails. I like this as all the information comes to me, I don’t have to search around a discussion board where sometimes the title of the thread has little relevance for the direction of the conversation. It is easy to check one email per day (if receiving the digest) than searching through various threads for information.
Con’s could be that the original query isn’t repeated, and can be a bit difficult to track down. The answers are very clearly seen in order of response, but the finding the original question can mean backtracking through a number of emails or on the list site. I think the responses can get off track as people respond to issues listed in the answers provided, as opposed to the original query.
Are certain types of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other? I think this comes down to personal preference. Some people may only want to read specific information, so a discussion board may be more attractive to them as they can choose which thread to read through and ignore those that don’t interest them. This kind of person may not enjoy an email list as they need to trawl through all the information presented to the group.
On the other hand, I enjoyed the email list as I could see all the conversations going on, getting a good idea of the demographic and interests of the group in one simple email, without spending time looking through threads. I think it comes down to personal preference.
So to summarise my learning from this task:
1) Read previous postings in the group before joining an email list. Check that it is relevant to your interest and experience
2) Provide information to the group moderator to support your legitimate interest in the group – otherwise risk being offended when labelled an “outsider”
3) Get in first with answers to queries/observations – or someone else will!
Newsgroups
My first attempt at joining a newsgroup was by following the first link suggested in the curriculum – www.usenet.org. I think there was something strange going because it pointed to a page called alcoholism.com, selling various products and religious icon thingys to help people overcome alcholism. I went on to the next suggested link: dmoz.org/computers/usenet, and followed the link through to the google newsgroups. But how to decide?
I had a look at a global warming group first (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.global-warming/topics?lnk), a big interest of mine, to find the group had 287 postings this month from the email address execute_the_traitor_in_the_white_ho...@hotmail.com, and while I love a bit of anarchy it just seemed a bit over the top to me. I kept looking, and found a strange sounding group called recovery.clutter (http://groups.google.bs/group/alt.recovery.clutter/topics), where women talked about their laundry, the smell of mice and other such things. To quote Molly:
Today was ironing day... since thunderstorms were going to rake IOWA ONE MORE TIME... decided to stay in the basement till they were done. arghhhhhhhhh 4 of my shirts, and 10 of hubby's. Two business trips back to back and throw in some procrastination.. and walaaaaaaaaa.... a ton of shirts. Oh.. also two pair of dress slacks that were in the dryer when the electricity went out and as a result they needed a touch up. My daughter suggested washing them again. Figured for the time it would take, it would just be easier to steam them a bit. :) Then shame of it all, I ran out of spray sizing... toooooooooo bad..... LOL two shirts left, that don't need to go to work anyway. In fact one might just disappear as it is so raggedy
And I just wondered if I could be so eloquent and detailed about laundry as these ladies… so on I kept looking and found more like this:
I have had MSN on my computer for about as long as I can remember, but I rarely use it, as mentioned in one of my posts to the discussion board a few weeks ago, which prompted some responses, particularly regarding my reference to chat being a generational thing:
I'm one of the people who can't (or hasn't yet) adapted to chat. I spend all day at work in front of the computer, and although I regularly spend a few minutes checking my personal emails etc when I get home, I hate getting stuck sitting in front of the computer growing a hunch in my back for any longer than I absolutely have to.
I 'accidentally' logged on to msn a few weeks ago and a friend appeared immediately, I stayed on and talked with her, but it drove me nuts! I was trying to cook dinner and attempting to do 13 other things at the same time, but she was getting offended if I didn't respond back straight away. We hadn't spoken for a while and I had a lot to say but I felt a bit trapped. I would much rather have called her the next day when I was able to sit and truly concentrate on the conversation. I was just wondering if I would have felt any different if she had picked up the phone that night instead... a thought to ponder.
Is chat good or bad? Maybe it's a generation thing? Maybe environment? A lot of the younger people I know are entirely ok with spending the evening in front of the computer chatting, whereas I was brought up in the country by hippies with a very limited tv viewing, outdoor lifestyle - concepts that have stayed with me to this day. Ahh... time to straighten up and go for a walk
My reflections of MSN as a tool are mixed. When someone would like to add me as a contact I am asked if I would like to accept them, but I can’t really tell how to be sure who they are. I just fired up MSN and I got three perfect examples, three people have asked me to accept them into my contacts, I think they are possibly people from this course, but I’m really not sure. Am I going to be inundated with spam now? Should I just instinctively block everyone? I’m very lucky that I receive next to nothing in the way of spam in my hotmail account, and I’d like it to stay that way. By allowing random people access am I opening my hotmail address to the world? I’m not sure that I like the idea. On the upside, MSN is very clear as to who is online and who isn’t, and the functions are quite easy to use and quite intuitive. I’m very interested in the concept of intuitive software as there are quite often software packages introduced to us at work with no training – they are supposedly intuitive. There are so many that just aren’t, but I’m going to cover that more later on.
Luckily, unlike others in this course, I found Skype very easy to use. I had no trouble joining the chat room and no issues using the software at all. I quite enjoyed this as I leave it running during the day, and when I come home in the evening there is a nice window sitting there with all the comments from the class chats that have taken place a few hours earlier. Sure I can’t contribute to it very much, but it’s great to see what has been going on.
After reading some notes about IRC on the discussion board, I decided to download it and see how it compares. I found the software at www.download.com. After downloading it I became entirely lost, pressed a whole pile of buttons I probably shouldn’t have, and came to a complete halt. I googled for the austnet user guide, and the first match was a girl who completed Net11 a while ago! She had downloaded mIRC, decided it was too difficult and said she would come back to it later – don’t think she did though. I finally found some instructions on www.thepcguide.com, which pointed directed me to follow the instructions that came with the mIRC download. So after searching through piles of difficult to read text I found a link to the help page http://www.quakenet.org/faq/. Unfortunately I couldn’t even understand the questions in the faq to page:
I used to use ICQ years ago, and found it finefor chatting, it was as easy to use as MSN or Skype. It looks a bit busier on the screen compared to the other two, and is quite easy to personalise with the skins etc. I’ve decided not to download it again just now – I think my pc is starting to burst at the seams with software that I’ll never use again!
I’ll finish this entry for now, but I will report back with a final summary on chat after I have organised one with my expat classmates, and figured out IRC.
Ciao!
Well, I’m back in the land of the living again after an amazing couple of weeks! I’ve been doing some things in the background but I haven’t had a chance to update my blog, so here goes…
Email Lists
As directed in the course notes I went to yahoo and searched for some groups to get involved with. I wasn’t sure what I would like to join for a while, but I found a group related to travel which I thought suited me as I travel a lot, and I also organise a lot of travel as part of my job. I chose the ‘Travelzine’, although it seemed to have a lot of security and multiple checks on legitimacy before being accepted. I never expected to be rejected on my first application though – it made me feel a bit dirty! My intentions were so honest and innocent!
The instructions for joining were to
1) update my yahoo profile (which is quite empty as I’m unlikely to ever use it again – possibly my first mistake),
2) click join this group;
3) wait for a message to arrive in my yahoo mailbox (which is diverted to my hotmail account – possibly making me look less upfront and
4) respond back to the mail within 24 hours.
So I received the email asking me to provide a response to the questions:
Name?
Location? (city, state or province and country)
How you found TheTravelzine?
Please explain your interest in joining TheTravelzine
Your web site or blog address?
Experience in the travel industry?
To which I provided brief one line responses stating my interest in travel and my study requirements. My responses were obviously far too brief as I received the response:
Our group is comprised of an international membership who trade travel stories and tips. All members are expected to participate in this way. We don't want our group to be studied by "outsiders". We do have a concern about approving your request to join. So you must assure us that you will follow our guidelines. All messages are moderated prior to posting and any attempt to 'mine' the membership list will result in an immediate ban. Please respond directly to me, within 24 hours.
Oops! So it was a good lesson for me in internet/groups security. I had naively expected to be allowed to participate without seriously proving my genuine intentions in the group. I sent back a very lengthy explanatory email in which I listed every country I have travelled through, the countries that I organise travel for at work, and I copied in the requirements for Net11. I finished with a comprehensive summary, expressed my understanding for security, and left it in their hands. Fortunately I seemed to hit the mark this time, was accepted as a member of the group, and started to receive a daily digest of the group communications. And it was at this point that I realised my greatest error – I hadn’t done anywhere near enough research before joining.
When I had initially looked at the yahoo groups site searching for a group to join, I had very briefly flicked through the previous posts, only randomly scanning over them – they were related to travel so it seemed fine with me. But on receiving the daily digests I realised that this group do not cover information relevant to me at all.
Although there is clearly a diverse membership, most of the people posting appear to be retired, affluent Americans seeking the best cruise liner holidays. The majority of the posts are US centric, and although I have been to the US I really can’t contribute to discussions relating to festivals in Boston or the best time to visit the Grand Canyon (surely the answer is any time, with a hat and sunscreen!!). They are also very interested in group travel, something that makes my skin crawl as a seasoned backpacker. I like to make my own way when I travel, the stories of my misdemeanours make for great discussions when I get home!
The questions that I can provide information about eg journey times between terminals in Charles de Gaulle airport, have without fail, already been answered by the time I have read them, most probably because of the time difference between here (UK) and the US. I have been religiously reading my daily digest to find a query to reply to, but as yet haven’t been able to contribute without already repeating someone else’s advice. I’ll continue on and report back on my first contribution in my blog soon!
Pro’s for email lists compared to discussion boards include the ability to receive information in digest form or by individual emails. I like this as all the information comes to me, I don’t have to search around a discussion board where sometimes the title of the thread has little relevance for the direction of the conversation. It is easy to check one email per day (if receiving the digest) than searching through various threads for information.
Con’s could be that the original query isn’t repeated, and can be a bit difficult to track down. The answers are very clearly seen in order of response, but the finding the original question can mean backtracking through a number of emails or on the list site. I think the responses can get off track as people respond to issues listed in the answers provided, as opposed to the original query.
Are certain types of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other? I think this comes down to personal preference. Some people may only want to read specific information, so a discussion board may be more attractive to them as they can choose which thread to read through and ignore those that don’t interest them. This kind of person may not enjoy an email list as they need to trawl through all the information presented to the group.
On the other hand, I enjoyed the email list as I could see all the conversations going on, getting a good idea of the demographic and interests of the group in one simple email, without spending time looking through threads. I think it comes down to personal preference.
So to summarise my learning from this task:
1) Read previous postings in the group before joining an email list. Check that it is relevant to your interest and experience
2) Provide information to the group moderator to support your legitimate interest in the group – otherwise risk being offended when labelled an “outsider”
3) Get in first with answers to queries/observations – or someone else will!
Newsgroups
My first attempt at joining a newsgroup was by following the first link suggested in the curriculum – www.usenet.org. I think there was something strange going because it pointed to a page called alcoholism.com, selling various products and religious icon thingys to help people overcome alcholism. I went on to the next suggested link: dmoz.org/computers/usenet, and followed the link through to the google newsgroups. But how to decide?
I had a look at a global warming group first (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.global-warming/topics?lnk), a big interest of mine, to find the group had 287 postings this month from the email address execute_the_traitor_in_the_white_ho...@hotmail.com, and while I love a bit of anarchy it just seemed a bit over the top to me. I kept looking, and found a strange sounding group called recovery.clutter (http://groups.google.bs/group/alt.recovery.clutter/topics), where women talked about their laundry, the smell of mice and other such things. To quote Molly:
Today was ironing day... since thunderstorms were going to rake IOWA ONE MORE TIME... decided to stay in the basement till they were done. arghhhhhhhhh 4 of my shirts, and 10 of hubby's. Two business trips back to back and throw in some procrastination.. and walaaaaaaaaa.... a ton of shirts. Oh.. also two pair of dress slacks that were in the dryer when the electricity went out and as a result they needed a touch up. My daughter suggested washing them again. Figured for the time it would take, it would just be easier to steam them a bit. :) Then shame of it all, I ran out of spray sizing... toooooooooo bad..... LOL two shirts left, that don't need to go to work anyway. In fact one might just disappear as it is so raggedy
And I just wondered if I could be so eloquent and detailed about laundry as these ladies… so on I kept looking and found more like this:
I was starting to become concerned about the state of the world… I ended up joining UK Bus Photo – because I’m new to the world of public transport having lived in a country town with woeful transport options most of my life. I had seen a bus accident the week before, so I posted this:
Hi group
I'm newish to the UK, Australian, I have lived in Edinburgh for 3.5 years. I've always loved the buses around Edinburgh, they seem great compared to what was offered in my country town in Aus.
I saw an accident last week on the guided busway near heading to the Gyle from Edinburgh city centre. I've been curious about the guided busway as it seems to make the ride a bit rougher and slower, although the driver must appreciate having a break from steering for while. I'm interested to learn more about the advantages/disadvantages of it. Here's a link to the story and some pictures of the accident.
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Six-injured-after-triple-bus.4238633.jp
Cherna
I’ve posted this because I can not figure out any advantage of the guided busways, it seems like an absolute waste of money, slows the bus down and makes for an uncomfortable ride. I have no idea if what I have written is controversial, but as this site appears to be full of bus drivers I’m sure it will provoke a reaction of some sort. I’m yet to receive any responses, but I’ll let you know how it goes!
I quite enjoyed looking around the newsgroups. I like that underneath all the responses there is a link to the original post, the google pages are very easy to navigate through, and they are lots of opportunities for a giggle. I think these newsgroups are something I could continue to be a member of.
Chat
Unfortunately I have found this part of the module a bit more difficult. A number of chat sessions seem to have been arranged at times that are great for students in Australia, but for me they land at around 12 noon during work time, and unfortunately the internet security settings on our pc’s won’t allow to us to view any social networking sites, hotmail, etc.
I have been involved in a number of chats on skype with the class, and enjoy the sway from serious school stuff to other topics. It's really nice to know what everyone else is doing and thinking and feeling.
I have had MSN on my computer for about as long as I can remember, but I rarely use it, as mentioned in one of my posts to the discussion board a few weeks ago, which prompted some responses, particularly regarding my reference to chat being a generational thing:
I'm one of the people who can't (or hasn't yet) adapted to chat. I spend all day at work in front of the computer, and although I regularly spend a few minutes checking my personal emails etc when I get home, I hate getting stuck sitting in front of the computer growing a hunch in my back for any longer than I absolutely have to.
I 'accidentally' logged on to msn a few weeks ago and a friend appeared immediately, I stayed on and talked with her, but it drove me nuts! I was trying to cook dinner and attempting to do 13 other things at the same time, but she was getting offended if I didn't respond back straight away. We hadn't spoken for a while and I had a lot to say but I felt a bit trapped. I would much rather have called her the next day when I was able to sit and truly concentrate on the conversation. I was just wondering if I would have felt any different if she had picked up the phone that night instead... a thought to ponder.
Is chat good or bad? Maybe it's a generation thing? Maybe environment? A lot of the younger people I know are entirely ok with spending the evening in front of the computer chatting, whereas I was brought up in the country by hippies with a very limited tv viewing, outdoor lifestyle - concepts that have stayed with me to this day. Ahh... time to straighten up and go for a walk
My reflections of MSN as a tool are mixed. When someone would like to add me as a contact I am asked if I would like to accept them, but I can’t really tell how to be sure who they are. I just fired up MSN and I got three perfect examples, three people have asked me to accept them into my contacts, I think they are possibly people from this course, but I’m really not sure. Am I going to be inundated with spam now? Should I just instinctively block everyone? I’m very lucky that I receive next to nothing in the way of spam in my hotmail account, and I’d like it to stay that way. By allowing random people access am I opening my hotmail address to the world? I’m not sure that I like the idea. On the upside, MSN is very clear as to who is online and who isn’t, and the functions are quite easy to use and quite intuitive. I’m very interested in the concept of intuitive software as there are quite often software packages introduced to us at work with no training – they are supposedly intuitive. There are so many that just aren’t, but I’m going to cover that more later on.
Luckily, unlike others in this course, I found Skype very easy to use. I had no trouble joining the chat room and no issues using the software at all. I quite enjoyed this as I leave it running during the day, and when I come home in the evening there is a nice window sitting there with all the comments from the class chats that have taken place a few hours earlier. Sure I can’t contribute to it very much, but it’s great to see what has been going on.
After reading some notes about IRC on the discussion board, I decided to download it and see how it compares. I found the software at www.download.com. After downloading it I became entirely lost, pressed a whole pile of buttons I probably shouldn’t have, and came to a complete halt. I googled for the austnet user guide, and the first match was a girl who completed Net11 a while ago! She had downloaded mIRC, decided it was too difficult and said she would come back to it later – don’t think she did though. I finally found some instructions on www.thepcguide.com, which pointed directed me to follow the instructions that came with the mIRC download. So after searching through piles of difficult to read text I found a link to the help page http://www.quakenet.org/faq/. Unfortunately I couldn’t even understand the questions in the faq to page:
I used to use ICQ years ago, and found it finefor chatting, it was as easy to use as MSN or Skype. It looks a bit busier on the screen compared to the other two, and is quite easy to personalise with the skins etc. I’ve decided not to download it again just now – I think my pc is starting to burst at the seams with software that I’ll never use again!
I’ll finish this entry for now, but I will report back with a final summary on chat after I have organised one with my expat classmates, and figured out IRC.
Ciao!
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Another try…
I managed to get myself so stressed about falling behind over the last few weeks that I don’t think I truly absorbed any of the information presented or any sense of purpose in the tasks I’ve completed. So I’ve taken a few days off, re-read the course details, identified where I think I’ve been hasty, promised myself not to write silly things on the discussion board, and pretty much started again.
The notes on how to control and use study time posted by other students have been invaluable. I’m starting to feel like I’m in control again! So, another try...
Five tips for Top Bloggers
Ahem… yes, the very first task and I somehow managed to miss it. I was wondering why I kept seeing it on everyone elses blogs!
1 – Design
I’ve seen so many blogs, particularly the myspace type, that are practically impossible to read due to a clash, or often likeness, between the background image and the text. Please, if you want it to be read, make sure we can see the text and navigate the page easily!
2 – Audience
I’m starting to wonder if I’m a bit old fashioned. I admit that I insist on spelling out words in full and using proper punctuation on text messages from my mobile phone, and I’m the same when I’m communicating online. I think you should write for your audience. It’s fine to pad out the text in your blog with quotes like this one, from the lovely Jodie’s blog
The notes on how to control and use study time posted by other students have been invaluable. I’m starting to feel like I’m in control again! So, another try...
Five tips for Top Bloggers
Ahem… yes, the very first task and I somehow managed to miss it. I was wondering why I kept seeing it on everyone elses blogs!
1 – Design
I’ve seen so many blogs, particularly the myspace type, that are practically impossible to read due to a clash, or often likeness, between the background image and the text. Please, if you want it to be read, make sure we can see the text and navigate the page easily!
2 – Audience
I’m starting to wonder if I’m a bit old fashioned. I admit that I insist on spelling out words in full and using proper punctuation on text messages from my mobile phone, and I’m the same when I’m communicating online. I think you should write for your audience. It’s fine to pad out the text in your blog with quotes like this one, from the lovely Jodie’s blog
“Noway ppl r mad nowdyz!lol...well f i dnt spek 2 u b4 u go av gd holidy n ill cya wen u gt bk”
if you are just talking to your friends, but don’t expect your granny to understand it. Choose your words for your audience!
3 – Think
Think before pressing publish. Do you really want that rant about how badly you boss / parents / friends treat you to stay out there forever? Sure, attitudes change over time, but a written slander available to all the world can have lingering after effects.
4 – Play
Try out all the functions of your blog – if you don’t like an element delete it. Blogging sites such as www.bravenet.com have a wealth of options available to truly personalise your site, don’t overdo it and end up in the perils of tip 1 though!
5 – Enjoy!
There are people who use their blogs to dispense their misery to the web community, but blogs are a tool that can be used for much better purpose. Use it to keep in touch with family and friends, unite people with similar interests, share your opinions of the world.
Telnet
I thought I would start with something that really freaked me out and made me feel entirely ridiculous the first time I tried. This time I went straight to Hyperterminal, typed in the address, dialled directly through, located the author and the books in seconds – painless, stressfree seconds! We don’t have a printer set up on this pc and it is defaulting to offer fax instead of print, which seems to explain the reason I couldn’t get a print/email option. As a result I’m not going to be able to complete this task as requested, but at least this time I’ve got my head around why!
I was asked if I was using a VT100 or an NCSA VT100 terminal when I dialled Curtin, I took a guess and went for VT100. It worked luckily! I tried to do some further research about VT100 and found that it is a terminal emulator, but it got a bit too complex, and I’ve got a lot of work to do today – I’ll come back to it later.
A bit more reading done and now I understand that telnet can be a very useful tool for accessing libraries, but I think it is widely a forgotten application that users who have adapted to the current bright, highly graphic internet applications would struggle to adapt to.
Traceroute & Ping tasks
After completing this the first time I wrote in this blog that I thought I understood the concepts of what I had just done. I didn’t. Not by a long shot. Last week I was working near the citrix server team at work when screams of alarm rang out – they were pinging one of the bank’s servers and it wasn’t replying. After they had resolved the incident I spoke to them and got the story of traceroute and pinging in very layman terms, and I think I can now safely say – I understand! How they explained it to me…
When you ping a server (or destination computer), you’re actually saying “hello server, are you there?”, and the server responds (hopefully) with “yes, I’m here”. That’s pinging. They use it a lot in our bank where they have zillions of servers, many of whom are hidden way in parts of the country you will never find them (quite deliberately), but with all their interconnectivity they require constant love and care. An easy way to quickly check a server is to ping it, if it answers, things are looking good.
The technical description is that you send a packet or packets of information to the destination computer, and that it replies or sends an ‘echo’.
Traceroute tells you how your message (ie packet) gets to the computer/server. We ran a traceroute to a server in the bank and then went and physically saw the servers in the first few hops. The server itself was about 100km away, but we matched the server descriptions from the traceroute to the servers in the datarooms and I got to see the very real side of the traceroute idea.
So, to summarise, pinging is the phone call to check if things are ok, traceroute is the map to get there.
In my haste I hadn’t completed the initial exercises properly, so here they are completed correctly.
Traceroute task
I used the traceroute programme from www.network-tools.com to find the curtin.edu.au site. It took 19 hops and 291 milliseconds to locate to the server.
if you are just talking to your friends, but don’t expect your granny to understand it. Choose your words for your audience!
3 – Think
Think before pressing publish. Do you really want that rant about how badly you boss / parents / friends treat you to stay out there forever? Sure, attitudes change over time, but a written slander available to all the world can have lingering after effects.
4 – Play
Try out all the functions of your blog – if you don’t like an element delete it. Blogging sites such as www.bravenet.com have a wealth of options available to truly personalise your site, don’t overdo it and end up in the perils of tip 1 though!
5 – Enjoy!
There are people who use their blogs to dispense their misery to the web community, but blogs are a tool that can be used for much better purpose. Use it to keep in touch with family and friends, unite people with similar interests, share your opinions of the world.
Telnet
I thought I would start with something that really freaked me out and made me feel entirely ridiculous the first time I tried. This time I went straight to Hyperterminal, typed in the address, dialled directly through, located the author and the books in seconds – painless, stressfree seconds! We don’t have a printer set up on this pc and it is defaulting to offer fax instead of print, which seems to explain the reason I couldn’t get a print/email option. As a result I’m not going to be able to complete this task as requested, but at least this time I’ve got my head around why!
I was asked if I was using a VT100 or an NCSA VT100 terminal when I dialled Curtin, I took a guess and went for VT100. It worked luckily! I tried to do some further research about VT100 and found that it is a terminal emulator, but it got a bit too complex, and I’ve got a lot of work to do today – I’ll come back to it later.
A bit more reading done and now I understand that telnet can be a very useful tool for accessing libraries, but I think it is widely a forgotten application that users who have adapted to the current bright, highly graphic internet applications would struggle to adapt to.
Traceroute & Ping tasks
After completing this the first time I wrote in this blog that I thought I understood the concepts of what I had just done. I didn’t. Not by a long shot. Last week I was working near the citrix server team at work when screams of alarm rang out – they were pinging one of the bank’s servers and it wasn’t replying. After they had resolved the incident I spoke to them and got the story of traceroute and pinging in very layman terms, and I think I can now safely say – I understand! How they explained it to me…
When you ping a server (or destination computer), you’re actually saying “hello server, are you there?”, and the server responds (hopefully) with “yes, I’m here”. That’s pinging. They use it a lot in our bank where they have zillions of servers, many of whom are hidden way in parts of the country you will never find them (quite deliberately), but with all their interconnectivity they require constant love and care. An easy way to quickly check a server is to ping it, if it answers, things are looking good.
The technical description is that you send a packet or packets of information to the destination computer, and that it replies or sends an ‘echo’.
Traceroute tells you how your message (ie packet) gets to the computer/server. We ran a traceroute to a server in the bank and then went and physically saw the servers in the first few hops. The server itself was about 100km away, but we matched the server descriptions from the traceroute to the servers in the datarooms and I got to see the very real side of the traceroute idea.
So, to summarise, pinging is the phone call to check if things are ok, traceroute is the map to get there.
In my haste I hadn’t completed the initial exercises properly, so here they are completed correctly.
Traceroute task
I used the traceroute programme from www.network-tools.com to find the curtin.edu.au site. It took 19 hops and 291 milliseconds to locate to the server.
The IP address of curtin.edu.au is 134.7.179.53
Ping task
I used the www.network-tools.com site to ping the webct site, the average response time over 10 pings was 271.3ms.
Next I used the A-toolbar software downloaded from www.tucows.com . This site gave an average response time over 5 pings instead of 10, with the result of 293ms.
Then I realised I could change the numbers of pings to 10, and ran it again. This time the average response time was 311ms.
Then I decided to try the www.Centralops.net ping, and found that they gave me more information than the previous software had.
This one was really good, it told me how many packets were sent, how many were returned, the fastest and slowest response times and the average, which worked out to be 251ms.
I conclude that the different response times experienced depend on a numer of factors including how many packets of information are being sent, and their size, and where the site is based, and how many servers you need to go through to get there.
Traceroute further task
I ran a further traceroute from www.network-tools.com to the Curtin site, the result was identical to the first test, there was no change in the hops, servers or time. This figure is very likely change given the so many thousands of optional routes that could be taken to the destination site, it just so happens that not much has changed between networks-tools and Curtin in the last 40 minutes!
And that’s the end of my module 1 recap. It was so much easier the second time around, and so much more enjoyable!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
