module 4

incomplete

Module 3

Blogging is a great way for people to communicate to masses of people. It is essentially one person conveying a message for whatever reason to all the viewers of the blog. I think blogging is great as it allows a way for bloggers to write and blog about a specific topic or what is on their mind. This form of website is also great for viewers as it is constantly being updated and changing to keep it interesting and fresh. The archives are also available as like a storage or filing system for people to go through if they missed previous posts.

Personal blogging is very popular as it gives individuals a voice on the internet. They can discuss whatever is on their mind and let people know what they are thinking or what they did today. It is like a personal diary written for themselves that everyone can read.

Many blogs have been created for the sole purpose of making money. Creating a blog and monetising it is very popular as a blog itself allows the creators to update content and provide viewers with great information. It also provides viewers with a reason to keep coming back to the blog. Typically these blogs are on a particular niche topic and money is made from advertising or perhaps promoting affiliate products.

Some interesting blogs:

http://www.ProBlogger.com

HTML Task (incomplete)

I use HTML code quite regularly at work. It is a great way to edit webpages and a basic understanding of HTML can help you design and develop the particular site you are after. Even if you had a CMS (Content Management System) it is important is have a fundamental understanding of HTML coding as it just makes edits and webpage creation so much easier.

Module Two – Tasks (INCOMPLETE)

Email Tasks:

1. From gleaming at an email message you can see the user’s username and their domain. You can see where the email has come through and if it has been forwarded from someone else, or if it is a direct email or if it is a reply to another email.
2. CC – This stands for Carbon Copy. It is useful to carbon copy and email when you would like multiple users to receive the same email. Perhaps if you are organising a meeting or gathering and would like the details sent out to several people.
   BCC – This refers to Blind Carbon Copy. This would be useful when you want to send an email message to multiple people but you don’t want the people receiving the message to see who else you have sent it to. This could be useful if you are trying to send perhaps a newsletter to people but you don’t want to keep the anonymity of the people receiving it. The only email that will be visible is the one entered into the “To:” field. If you would like you can put your own email address here so no one’s email address will be visible.
   The “reply all” function would be used when a message is sent to multiple people including yourself and you would like to reply to this message but you want your reply to be sent to everyone who received the original email. So perhaps I am organising a dinner and I email 10 people. One of those 10 people may reply all with a message saying they are unable to attend. This would mean all the 10 plus myself would receive that message.
3. To ensure that an attachment sent via email is easily opened by the receiver firstly let them know in the email that you have attached a file.  Ensure that the format of the file you have attached to the email is able to be read by the receiver. Make sure your attachment choice is MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension). This will reduce the problem of encoding. Do not send a .exe file as an attachment as these are a principal source of dangerous viruses, trojans and worms.
4. Filters are a great tool as they allow you to separate emails due to the relevance and importance to you. I like to use Gmail and they have a great filtering system. Any unsolicited emails automatically gets sent to the SPAM folder. You can access this folder review it incase something important slipped through. Another great function is that you can send something from your inbox to the SPAM. WIth both movements you can set it so future emails from that email address is either sent to SPAM or sent directly to your inbox.
5. Email folders is crucial in managing the massive amounts of emails that people receive on a daily basis. With my Gmail account I honestly don’t have any folders as I find their search function to be so powerful. If I am after a specific email I can search it and it will be found instantly. I also have several other email addresses where I use Outlook to access them. With these emails I have seperate folders for each email address. Within those folders I would also have more folders depending on my use. Anything in my mail email address folders will be moved into another folder once it has been dealt with. This is great as it lets me know wht emails I have already dealth with and what ones I still need to deal with.

List Tasks – Email Lists vs Discussion Boads

Email lists and discussion boards are two very different ways to communicate on the internet. Personally I am part of several email lists as well as forums or discussion boards. At work we use email lists on a dialy basis to communicate to proepective or past clients.

An email list is a very one-sided form of communication allowing an organisation or an individual to communicate the same message to several people at once. This is great for announcements, business activities, specials etc. The people receiving the email sent out to the entire list do not have the opportunity to reply to all and discuss what has just been sent. The only form of reply they can make is directly back to the original sender.

On the other hand we have discussion board or forums. This form of internet communication gives the users a community feel where they can discuss and exchange ideas with everyone. People can see exactly what other people have written or said and they can reply to that message and discuss the ideas brought forward.

Both mailing lists and message boards are great forms of communication but obviously serve different purposes and are more suitable for different situations.

NewsGroups

Module 1 Traceroute

This task was quite simple as I just typed “curtin.edu.au” into the field.

There are a total of 19 hops.

It takes on average 240 milliseconds from the tools site to the Curtin server.

The IP number of cutin.edu.au is 134.7.179.56

Module 1 FTP Task

The FTP task was quite simple. Finding the “readme.txt” file was the hardest part lol.
Once I had found it I looked to see what was in front of the word “MATTERS”, it is “CAPITALISATION”.

CAPITALISATION MATTERS

Module 1 Telnet Task

The Telnet task was quite simple. Once I had accessed the library I simply just had to continue with the prompts and then email the two books to my Curtin University.

The above video is what I did.

I then telnetted over to “towel.blinkenlights.nl” which was different. It’s amazing how they created those graphics with simple lines.

Signing out,
Alaister

Blogging Tips Video

Here’s a video that will provide you with some more blogging tips:

Signing Out,
Alaister

Top 5 Tips For New Bloggers

These are my top 5 tips for new bloggers:

1. Choosing a Blogging Platform
   There are many different blogging platforms out there to choose from including wordpress (the platform I am using), blogger, live journal,
   The best way to choose your blog is to analyse the purpose of the blog and how you will be using it.  Will you need to customise it a lot, are there certain features you need to use to achieve your purpose, do you like the ease of the backend control system, are a few issues you need to consider when choosing a blogging platform.
   Once it is clear the purposed of your blog and what you will be using it for it narrows down the selection of blogging platforms and also allows you to choose the most appropriate platform for you.
2. Content is KING
   Content is the information that is provided in your blog whether it be text, audio or video. The key to a great blog is always have valuable content and information that people would want. This makes your page more “sticky” which can be best explained as encouraging your viewers to “stick around” on your page. The higher the quality of the information the higher the return rate of previous readers. This is critical in building a strong reader base that will come back week after week or even day after day to read your blog posts as well as the comments.
3. Update your blog regularly
   It is very important to update your blog regularly and frequently. This will show to readers that you are putting the effort in and are worthy of them reading your blog. This provides much more timely information and generates more interest around your blog. Regular and frequent blog posts will encourage  readers to continue to come back to see what you have written about.
4. Mix between short and long posts
   It is great to have a mix between short and long posts. Long posts, at  a glance shout out value and great content. Readers will often read the title and if it interests them will be impressed with a long and informative blog post.  Short posts serve the purpose of satisfying viewers scanning your blog. Many people don’t feel like reading a whole article or a long post on a topic and would rather enjoy a shorter post. This also allows viewers who scan your blog to perhaps see you blogging about a few different topics.
5. Use multiple different mediums in your blog, text, audio and video.
   This is important as it will help grow your reader base and cater for a much wider market. Some people enjoy reading text and find it much easier to take in information when it is displayed in words. Some people enjoy listening to audios as they often are doing many different tasks and running several programs at the same time. Some people enjoy the intimacy of a video as they can visually see what is being expressed. By having all three mediums this will satisfy all three types of people and hopefully attract more readers to your blog.

Hope these tips have been helpful.

Signing out,

Alaister