The Big Bad Final Blog Entry...or is it?!

Over the course of my MPI104 subject, i have learnt many things; some new, some old, but all useful in one way or another.

To begin with, the basics:

Del.icio.us, Flickr, and Blogger. Three sites of similar purpose yet different content. Blogger is for uploading and sharing words, prose, and thoughts. Flicker is for exchanging and global viewing of each others images, videos and sights. Finally Delicious is for charing and showing where we have been and where we go on the internet, a world of its own, when seen in a certain light. You might say that Blogger, Flickr and Delicious are a portal for showing what we think, what we see, and what we are respectively.

Then Google, and its manny, many facets, from Gmail to iGoogle, Google docs and maps, books, music, videos, calendars, games, you name it. Another interesting medium which we didn't go into in class is GoogleWave, an interesting realtime message board style system free for all to use at the same time. It is new and will probably be changed in the future, but is none the less interesting in its execution, check it out.

Athene, and with it HTML, CSS, FTP to name a few of the (sometimes confusing IMHO) acronyms. This was not entirely new to me, but it was good to be refreshed with some HTML coding which I had long ago forgotten. CSS is clearly superior to HTML if you know how to use it, and finally learning about simple FTP processes was a blessing, as I have greatly enjoyed making my own website.

And this brings me to iWeb, which I greatly appreciate as one of the most easy to use, straight forward, simple HTML website building program, other than simply using Word.

With small touches on Tecnorati and other online systems, this subject has taught me much and I will no doubt put much of it to use in the future.

MOAR INTERTUBES!!

FTP

WSFPT

Basically it lets you upload files onto a remote internet server; transferring files from one spot to another, using magic.

This allows you to avoid the issues of different Operating systems or file names as both ends of the connection are under different controls and codes......again with magic.

It has a downside of the fact that if anyone is monitoring the transfer, they can read the information being sent, as it is unencrypted.

Sadly I am very tired today so I wont have a large tirade about it all, but I will say I am very excited about using it.

My pic is Encyclopedia Dramaticas' take on the internet....well part of it.

"Symbols are given their power by people. Why, with enough people, blowing up a building could change the world."

CSSSSSSSsssssss............

Yesssssss

CSS is an extremely useful form of web page formatting.

It is basically a way of telling a large amount of web pages how to look, so that when you enter information for a new page on your extensive website, you don't have to re-code the whole thing over again to make it look the same, you merely have to "call" back to your CSS sheet.

This has great advantage over the normal HTML formatting, as you can see.

For instance, this site, blogger, uses CSS so that when you make several blog posts, all their pages look the same, and when you want to edit what they look like, you only have to edit one pice of code to effect the whole lot. you can change fonts, colours and set up to suit your needs.

The short comings of this system is that you cant have one blog post looking different to another, for visual reasons or otherwise.

Accessibility is very important, as it allows the blind or sight impaired to have words read to them, or have fonts larger so that they may read them with greater ease.

Things i have done to my blog with CSS editing:

changed colours and font, also editing margins and the like, giving my page greater (though minimal) space.

Todays picture is what Encyclopedia Dramatica has to say about CSS

"Never compromise, even in the face of armageddon."

It's time for my....

DIRTY GREAT LARGE ASSED ASSESSMENT BLOG POST!!!!

That's right boys and girls, here it is:

Though out this subject, I have learnt to use and abuse certain parts of the great mish mash that is the internet, namely Blogger (this site and blog) Flicker (mine is here) Del.icio.us, (here for me) and minor forays into HTML coding and such, which isn't covered in this part of this subject.

Still with me?

Good.

My blogger account has a total of 9 blog posts, with my favourite (or more interesting) here, here and here, in no particular order. Aesthetically I've done little with my blog, being the minimalist that I am, though I have uploaded a picture with every post that I could. As for commenting on other peoples blogs, I have and did, but they have disappeared on one of the blogs when they changed their layout, and it won't let me comment any more. And the only other classmate I could find has only posted one blog update, so I've commented on that here. I know we're meant to comment on more than one, but I did and it disappeared, and I've tried to find others but I don't understand what the hell bloggers system is, I click on one of my followers and I won't let me view their blog -.- so yeah, one comment. The tags I have been using have been minimal, along the lines of MPI104, and maybe something to do with my post, gas, alone etc etc though I sometimes did forget since the tags (or labels as blogger calls them) is so easy to miss when you've been typing in this box for so long. Beyond all that I havent done much on blogger, I've placed a quote of interest at the end of every post though, so yay me.

Del.icio.us is a new concept for me; a site for bookmarking sites...didn't think much of it at first, but I have now learnt how it can come in handy for people, though I myself haven't had cause to use it, I generally memorise the web pages I frequent. Anyway, I have bookmarked 8 sites on my Del.icio.us account, all of which interest me for different reasons; I use them, they have my content in them, they are funny or informative etc etc. My 3 favourite links would have to be this, for its humour and irreverence, this because it contains almost all my note worthy artwork in this world, and this because it is so much better than the normal forums supplied by CSU, making the animation degree that much easier.

And finally Flickr, the site for the uploading and sharing of pictures. Much like deviantArt which I use often, Flickr is less artistically themed, making it more of a plain old "you see what I see" site, which is not a bad thing, just not perhaps very inspired. I have a grand total of 14 images uploaded and one video, none of which are photos as I don't have a camera of any description. My favourite images would be this, this and this. Ill let you figure out why.

And I believe that wraps up this monstrous blog post, I hope it pleases and satisfies.

"What the eye sees is a reflection of what the mind comprehends."

TUMBLE WEEDS

I GET BACK TO UNI AND ALL I SEE IS TUMBLE WEEDS LIKE BIG CONFORMIST SNOWFLAKES IN DRIFTS UPTO OVER 2 METRES DEEP!!!

What the hell? Seriously.

Todays pic, some advise about plants and sex.

"The only stupid question is the one not asked."

iPad

I know what you're thinking!

But really, I've been thinking of how useful one would be in my personal Uni life, as I don't need a laptop but could use something to keep my notes, timetables, tasks, projects, not to mention playing fun ass games during vis101 lectures if they got too boring. I thought the iPad would fill this niche nicely.

But aside from the usual Apple bashing a Mac user (such as myself) comes across on a daily basis, there were many qualms about the iPad which carried weight for me;

Lack of flash support, a sad truth, but undoubtedly someone out there will make an app fixing this, if apple itself doesn't release an update with flash support.

Lack of a headphone jack. A comeplete lie, it has one.

Lack of USB support, only half true. Although the iPad itself does not have a USB port, the dock with which it connects to other computers connects to the ipads built in 30-pin socket, which in turn connects to the host computers USB port. And if that isn't to your taste, then the good old 30-pin socket to USB port adapter should do just fine.

Those were my major problems with it, with minor ones been the lack of a built in camera, or iSight, etc etc.

So after making an in depth investigation into the iPad on the apple site, looking over its many features, I am now even more sure that it is a piece of technology that I not only want, but actually could make great use of.



Sorry for the lack of a picture this time, I'm posting off of my girlfriends laptop, so no great lol folder :(



"Hate not the weak or stupid, they are products of their history, not of choice."

4 Days Alone

Well it's been interesting, I'll say that.

I've spoken little, save on the phone to various peoples, which is rare, and even rarer to my neighbours.

I've sadly got little work done; a little here and there on my HTML site, not much though. Lots of required reading for VIS101, and a minor rotoscoping test for VFX101.

Eating, drinking (liver is getting a good rest too btw) and watching MASH all day everyday, burning some movies to watch, but otherwise very quiet. I like it. Solitude has been very enjoyable, and still no sign of anyone else returning, probably be back tomorrow though.

I should note I'm not entirely alone, I have the fish I'm caring for of course.

But I shall be brief with this post.

This posts pic is my own creation, after watching "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" I was inspired to make this for use on the net...you might know where.

"I'd rather live one day as a lion than one -thousand years as a lamb."