This week there was no lecture, and thus we only had the tutorial. Max went around and discussed the topics that everyone had chosen for their assignments. My idea was still very much in the working stage, as I had basically just thought of my idea.
Long story short, I was on facebook, and someone had posted a video of whaling. On the facbook homepage all it had was the picture of a whale’s tail coming out of the water. This gave me the idea to explore the topic of whaling, as currently it is a very controversial topic, and over the past year has been documented in the news often. However I did not know that this particular whale video was in fact a snippet from a comedy show known as ’Onion News.’ The video wasn’t at all denouncing whales, but was using the topic of whales to bring fault to the relevance of the American’s discussions of education.
After having chosen my idea, Max gave me some thoughts on how to present it, and which blog I should use. Everyone apart from the three of us in the corner left the tutorial within an hour but we stayed longer to work on our assignments. I decided to use wordpress to present my topic on, and began to research whaling in general to get a good feel of the issue.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Blogger Sucks!
Today I tried to put a slide show of my flickr photo stream on this very blog. The slide show is a widget option when creating the look of the blog. I connected the widget with my username, yet the widget did not find MY username...
So, yes, I am blaming blogger, it definitely could not be flickr’s fault. Definitely not. (Sarcasm not intended) Hence my blog title, Blogger Sucks!
So, yes, I am blaming blogger, it definitely could not be flickr’s fault. Definitely not. (Sarcasm not intended) Hence my blog title, Blogger Sucks!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
API – What I like to call: Appreciation, Practise, Interest
Sure I know that API actually means; Application Programming Interface but I wanted to be a bit witty, and show how I became to appreciate API’s, through practise resulting in an interest.
In the lecture we discussed API’s, going into slight depth in how they worked and the purpose of them. At first I didn’t really understand the point of it and how the hell it would be useful. It did finally hit me that it can be used for good, when Max was showing us all the different examples of how people use API's to create a site. It became clear, through these examples that API’s really do allow for the combination of different services, a mash-up of data so one can create a whole new site.
The most useful site would have been the combination of Google maps and the location of the Victorian bushfires. The site allowed a clear location where the fires were situated and whether they were still life threatening to residential areas, or whether they were under control. There were other examples, although created for a bit more fun, like combining Twitter updates with Google maps, to watch as people update their Twitters from all around the world, showing the person's location.
To further appreciate the use of API’s; practise is vital. In our tutorial we used a program called Yahoo Pipes. At first it seemed that we were just creating an RSS feed but soon we were shown how to add more options and create different things with the use of API’s, like a search engine, looking up a subject from both flickr and Twitter.
With the use of Yahoo Pipes it was easier to understand how API’s could work but more importantly how they could benefit us right now, because I sure am not creating a site using API’s anytime soon, but Yahoo Pipes is a great source to help us presently in our own personal exploration in API’s and the internet.
With this practise comes appreciation for API’s, then finally an interest in further developing my skills and use of such a cool invention.
In the lecture we discussed API’s, going into slight depth in how they worked and the purpose of them. At first I didn’t really understand the point of it and how the hell it would be useful. It did finally hit me that it can be used for good, when Max was showing us all the different examples of how people use API's to create a site. It became clear, through these examples that API’s really do allow for the combination of different services, a mash-up of data so one can create a whole new site.
The most useful site would have been the combination of Google maps and the location of the Victorian bushfires. The site allowed a clear location where the fires were situated and whether they were still life threatening to residential areas, or whether they were under control. There were other examples, although created for a bit more fun, like combining Twitter updates with Google maps, to watch as people update their Twitters from all around the world, showing the person's location.
To further appreciate the use of API’s; practise is vital. In our tutorial we used a program called Yahoo Pipes. At first it seemed that we were just creating an RSS feed but soon we were shown how to add more options and create different things with the use of API’s, like a search engine, looking up a subject from both flickr and Twitter.
With the use of Yahoo Pipes it was easier to understand how API’s could work but more importantly how they could benefit us right now, because I sure am not creating a site using API’s anytime soon, but Yahoo Pipes is a great source to help us presently in our own personal exploration in API’s and the internet.
With this practise comes appreciation for API’s, then finally an interest in further developing my skills and use of such a cool invention.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Practising HTML
In the second tutorial, we had a really good introduction in writing HTML and the importance of CSS.
It didn't take that long to get the hang of interpreting the HTML codes, although we were working with the more simple HTML terms. It was really cool, writing the HTML, then refreshing FireFox, and watching as the site came together.
During the previous lecture discussing HTML and CSS, I didn't completely understand the use of CSS. But with the example it was easy to tell how CSS worked, with the labeling/grouping of the of the HTML terms, to match with the rules outlined in the CSS. Sure that sounds completely crazy, but hopefully anyone that has somewhat dabbled with HTML and CSS will understand my previous sentence.
Without adding CSS to the HTML the website is extremely basic and resembles more of a word document then an actual website of today's standard. But when adding CSS to the HTML, the website changed completely to resemble something that would actually be located on the net. It was fun to change the colours and font on CSS, and watch as my own designed website came to life. I now more clearly understand the importance of CSS in creating the appearance of the site, instead of doing this all in HTML. Without CSS, all the features like font size, colour etc would have to be written in HTML, making it more complicated to read and harder to change.
It didn't take that long to get the hang of interpreting the HTML codes, although we were working with the more simple HTML terms. It was really cool, writing the HTML, then refreshing FireFox, and watching as the site came together.
During the previous lecture discussing HTML and CSS, I didn't completely understand the use of CSS. But with the example it was easy to tell how CSS worked, with the labeling/grouping of the of the HTML terms, to match with the rules outlined in the CSS. Sure that sounds completely crazy, but hopefully anyone that has somewhat dabbled with HTML and CSS will understand my previous sentence.
Without adding CSS to the HTML the website is extremely basic and resembles more of a word document then an actual website of today's standard. But when adding CSS to the HTML, the website changed completely to resemble something that would actually be located on the net. It was fun to change the colours and font on CSS, and watch as my own designed website came to life. I now more clearly understand the importance of CSS in creating the appearance of the site, instead of doing this all in HTML. Without CSS, all the features like font size, colour etc would have to be written in HTML, making it more complicated to read and harder to change.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
wasted time, wasted time not...
The highlight of today’s lecture would have been the fact that I drove all the way out to Bruce for a lecture that only went for half an hour. Without feeling like I have wasted petrol and thus contributing to global warming, I get comfort in the fact that I learnt HTML and CSS. My last experience would have been a very, very, very basic introduction back in year nine IT class, being four years ago I remember absolutely nothing. I would be lying if I said I didn’t learn anything because I did, although if I were to ask to build a website using HTML and CSS, my head would likely explode. So I’m hoping that in tutes we will further develop or learning of these two things that seem pivotal in passing the course.
Monday, March 9, 2009
cool song
http://www.myspace.com/needfornewmoon
If you want you may ignore the fact that it is Twilight related but it is a fairly good song, similar sound to Evanescence. Song title 'Need'
If you want you may ignore the fact that it is Twilight related but it is a fairly good song, similar sound to Evanescence. Song title 'Need'
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
blog no. 1
The time is 1.53 and I am sitting at a computer in room 9B22.
My blog title would be in fact telling the truth when stating that it is my first blog. Having not much interest in blogging before, this week (whether I wanted to or not) I was thrown into the world of blogs. As part of my assessment for this particular course at UC, I have the option of creating a blog and posting on it at least once a week. The other option would be to fail the course, so after a hard debate I thought it best to create a blog. As well as learning about blogs I also have been taught how to use the great invention of RSS (no sarcasm intended for the use of the word 'great', seriously it is really cool. After being introduced to the world of blogs, I was able to search the blogosphere and find sites that i was interested in. The most important piece of news I found was that some studio has made the decision to create Ghostbusters Three, naturally another sequel to a 80's film would be better than creating an unique one. (Now sarcasm was definitly inteneded on the last half of the previous sentence.)
http://screenrant.com/bill-murray-ghostbusters-3-niall-3818/
My blog title would be in fact telling the truth when stating that it is my first blog. Having not much interest in blogging before, this week (whether I wanted to or not) I was thrown into the world of blogs. As part of my assessment for this particular course at UC, I have the option of creating a blog and posting on it at least once a week. The other option would be to fail the course, so after a hard debate I thought it best to create a blog. As well as learning about blogs I also have been taught how to use the great invention of RSS (no sarcasm intended for the use of the word 'great', seriously it is really cool. After being introduced to the world of blogs, I was able to search the blogosphere and find sites that i was interested in. The most important piece of news I found was that some studio has made the decision to create Ghostbusters Three, naturally another sequel to a 80's film would be better than creating an unique one. (Now sarcasm was definitly inteneded on the last half of the previous sentence.)
http://screenrant.com/bill-murray-ghostbusters-3-niall-3818/
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