Well, it's Saturday 20Dec08, and I'm officially on leave for 6wks. This was why I signed up for 2 subjects this semester, because I was going to have the time to do them. Yeah right!
I knew we had booked to go away for 6days in late Dec & I knew I have to go to hospital for a couple of days in Jan, but what I didn't know about was all the stuff that my family has managed to blindside me with in the meantime. I wish the kids were still little, because people expected that I had my hands full back then, and I wasn't the "first port of call" when there was a problem. Oh well.
I've been trying to keep up on the reading of the discussion boards since I got back from my work trip, and posting a few posts, but I haven't been able to do anything else yet. My other subject has been left sitting on the floor at the moment (almost literally) because it's been so hard to get into. It's a very dry subject with a lot of reading, which I hope to start (again) this afternoon. I'm taking my computer and books and locking myself in another room (with no TV, no phone and no family) and hope to get stuck into the reading, and if I can't stay awake properly with that, then I'll try to do some of the other modules from here in between. The danger with that though, is that I tend to fall into the "geek trap" - I get so engrossed in what I'm doing on the computer that I lose all track of time and end up in not going back to the subject that I was taking a break from.
Well, one way or another, I'm going to get through this (but will my husband survive my studies?????) - I've got "grand plans" of how I'm going to allow a certain amount of time most days to study, hopefully I won't get too distracted by life!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
INTERNET TOOLS
The aim of this exercise was to show the number of “hops” (servers/stopping points) that a packet of information goes through to get from one point to another. The number of hops will be different for each machine, and will often be different each time the tracing is run, depending on the route that the information takes to get from point A to point B.
Starting at “centralops.net [70.84.211.98]” and tracing the route to “curtin.edu.au [134.7.179.53]” took a total of 21 hops when I did it. By averaging out the total time for each hop using mean averages, the total amount of time taken to get from centralops.net to curtin.edu.au was 2051.93ms (2.052 seconds). Therefore the average time in milliseconds from the tools site to the Curtin server was 97.71ms (mean), 0ms (mode) and 46ms (median).
Initially I couldn’t work out why there were three columns for the rtt. I knew that was the return travel time, but I didn’t know why there were three. One of the sites I looked at (A graphic traceroute program)showed four columns (Min, Avg, Max, Cur), so I tried to work out if there were Min, Max and Avg columns, but the figures didn’t seem to fit this explanation. So I googled again and found another Using Traceroute site, which gave me a better explanation, even though the example I read was from a Unix trace.
One thing I did notice too was that the length of time taken for the rtt increased greatly once the route was being traced through Australia rather than the US.
Starting at “centralops.net [70.84.211.98]” and tracing the route to “curtin.edu.au [134.7.179.53]” took a total of 21 hops when I did it. By averaging out the total time for each hop using mean averages, the total amount of time taken to get from centralops.net to curtin.edu.au was 2051.93ms (2.052 seconds). Therefore the average time in milliseconds from the tools site to the Curtin server was 97.71ms (mean), 0ms (mode) and 46ms (median).
Initially I couldn’t work out why there were three columns for the rtt. I knew that was the return travel time, but I didn’t know why there were three. One of the sites I looked at (A graphic traceroute program)showed four columns (Min, Avg, Max, Cur), so I tried to work out if there were Min, Max and Avg columns, but the figures didn’t seem to fit this explanation. So I googled again and found another Using Traceroute site, which gave me a better explanation, even though the example I read was from a Unix trace.
One thing I did notice too was that the length of time taken for the rtt increased greatly once the route was being traced through Australia rather than the US.
FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP)
I read the instructions, downloaded FileZilla and then went off to read the FAQs and “A Quick Introduction to FTP”. I understand that this is a way to transfer files between 2 computers that you have access to, either across the room or across the world.
I looked at FileZilla while it was empty and immediately began to wonder what I needed to use to login. I re-read the task and decided to try to just use “recall.curtin.edu.au” in the Host and “anonymous” in the Username and see what happened. From reading the Quick Intro to FTP, I gathered that you don’t always need a password, and I had no idea about a Port number, so I just hoped for the best (I tend to do a lot of that).
The Local Site was “my computer” the remote site was “Anonymous”.
I couldn’t see anything called “readme”, so I just started clicking on the various folders and looking through them until I found readme.txt. Right click > View/edit and I found out that according to the readme file “CAPITALISATION MATTERS”.
My question with this exercise is though – is this the only way to find the exact file? If on opening the “Anonymous” file there had been another 30 files inside, each with other files and documents in them, would I have had to click on each of the internal files and trawl my way through their internal files and documents until I found the “readme.txt” that I was looking for? Or is there another way to dig down deeper more quickly in the situation where there are multiple choices of files to be searched?
I looked at FileZilla while it was empty and immediately began to wonder what I needed to use to login. I re-read the task and decided to try to just use “recall.curtin.edu.au” in the Host and “anonymous” in the Username and see what happened. From reading the Quick Intro to FTP, I gathered that you don’t always need a password, and I had no idea about a Port number, so I just hoped for the best (I tend to do a lot of that).
The Local Site was “my computer” the remote site was “Anonymous”.
I couldn’t see anything called “readme”, so I just started clicking on the various folders and looking through them until I found readme.txt. Right click > View/edit and I found out that according to the readme file “CAPITALISATION MATTERS”.
My question with this exercise is though – is this the only way to find the exact file? If on opening the “Anonymous” file there had been another 30 files inside, each with other files and documents in them, would I have had to click on each of the internal files and trawl my way through their internal files and documents until I found the “readme.txt” that I was looking for? Or is there another way to dig down deeper more quickly in the situation where there are multiple choices of files to be searched?
Saturday, December 6, 2008
TELNET
I found my way to Telnet. I have used it previously and knew what the screen should look like, but (off the top of my head) I wasn’t sure how to get there. So I went to the discussion boards and tried a couple of different variations on themes to get to Telnet, and then finally discovered the post that simply read “start > run > telnet” (thanks Michael Gifford – Msg 91 in “Which Telnet App?"). Of course – that’s where I found it last time I needed it!
Open Telnet and I need the library address. I tried to just type it in, but it didn’t like that. So once again, I looked in the discussion boards – that’s right, it needs something to tell it what I want to do with that address, hit anything and then enter and see what happens. Ok, so then it told me that “?” = help. “?” then gave me a list of commands.
From then on, it was a case of just typing in “o library.deakin.edu.au” and just following the prompts. However, I did get a little confused when I was asked what type of computer I was using, and neither of the options was what I was using. So I just typed in the first option and hoped for the best. It worked!
The end result was the email telling me that I’d searched for this particular Author’s name.
From there I went over to towel.blinkenlights.nl. Someone had WAY TOO MUCH time on their hands!! It was strange, watching this “old technology” that I once thought was so new.
Open Telnet and I need the library address. I tried to just type it in, but it didn’t like that. So once again, I looked in the discussion boards – that’s right, it needs something to tell it what I want to do with that address, hit anything and then enter and see what happens. Ok, so then it told me that “?” = help. “?” then gave me a list of commands.
From then on, it was a case of just typing in “o library.deakin.edu.au” and just following the prompts. However, I did get a little confused when I was asked what type of computer I was using, and neither of the options was what I was using. So I just typed in the first option and hoped for the best. It worked!
The end result was the email telling me that I’d searched for this particular Author’s name.
From there I went over to towel.blinkenlights.nl. Someone had WAY TOO MUCH time on their hands!! It was strange, watching this “old technology” that I once thought was so new.
TOP FIVE TIPS FOR NEW BLOGGERS
This is part of the first assignment in NET11 The Internet – Communications. The idea here is to list five tips for new bloggers.
As the assignment is a running log for the entire Study Period, I am not going to post five tips for new bloggers in general, but five tips in relation to setting up the blog required for this assignment. This is because the blog required for this assignment is a different category to the general blogs posted on the internet.
I haven’t had much experience with blogs, this is the first one I’ve written, and I don’t generally read them, because most of the blogs I’ve come across don’t hold any fascination for me. This blog, and the blogs of my fellow students are being written for an academic purpose – to show that we can use the tools, to allow us to show how we have gone about solving problems, distributing “hints and tips” we have found, to describe our other assignments and to show the path our learning in this subject has taken.
TOP FIVE TIPS
1. BREATHE!!! – It generally assists your marks if you are breathing while you are studying. The likelihood is that the instructors don’t like to give marks to those who stopped breathing at the first assignment. If necessary, taking deep breaths while walking around the room wondering:
• whose bright idea it was to start studying again?
• what on earth do I have to do?
• where do I start?
• why am I worrying – I CAN use all the tools they are telling us to?
• where have my family gone and why is the cat cowering on top of the fridge?
can be useful as you then have all the stress out in the one place. Try hard not to take the stress back inside again.
2. Familiarise yourself with the settings – Once you have settled on a site (or a number of them if you really feel masochistic), go through it all and play with the settings. After all, what’s the worst you can do to the site? Just don’t forget NOT to hit the one that says something like “delete my blog” BEFORE you have your marks at the end of the Study Period. There’s nothing worse than having hours (days/weeks/months) of work deleted at the touch of a button simply because you misread the label or pressed it because it got in your way. Back up all of your posts with text files, just in case the little internet gremlins get into your system (or theirs) and remove your posts. At least then you can repost long enough to get your marks.
3. Don’t overload your site with “features” – Just because the site CAN do it, doesn’t mean you HAVE to! Think about your target audience. Will they all really be able to read the flashing red gothic writing on the fluorescent green background? Will they appreciate the fact that you’ve made the cursor spit out stars as it moves across the screen, and turns into an explosion whenever they click on a link? If you have sound linked to your blog, do you really think they’ll all love the Sex Pistols blaring out “God Save the Queen” every time they open your blog as much as you do (alright, I’ve just shown my age)? Don’t forget that even now, in the broadband age, there are still people with slow computer connections, and every single “feature” that you put into your blog not only distracts from the information you are trying to post, but can also cause problems for the person trying to open your blog.
4. Be careful about personal information you post – Don’t forget, these blogs aren’t being posted in a “closed” forum. Anyone around the world can stumble onto your blog, and not everyone out there is “user friendly”. Just because the site says no-one can see your personal information, doesn’t mean they can’t. There are people around who will take that as a personal challenge to their skills (which can be very useful at times) and will attempt to break the security just for the hell of it. If you want to put private information into your blog, that’s your decision, but just be aware of what you are telling people. After all, does everyone really need to see the pic of the aftermath of the office party last Christmas when you were discovered face down on the photocopier?
5. Relax and try to have some fun with the blog – It will not help your marks if it takes the instructor 2 packets of No-Doze and a share in Gloria Jean’s Coffee House just to read through your intro. The aim of the blog is to show that you have understood the concepts and can use the various tools, but that doesn’t mean it has to be dry and boring. Don’t try to step outside of your comfort zone with your postings, but do still try to post to your blog in an informative and interesting way.
As the assignment is a running log for the entire Study Period, I am not going to post five tips for new bloggers in general, but five tips in relation to setting up the blog required for this assignment. This is because the blog required for this assignment is a different category to the general blogs posted on the internet.
I haven’t had much experience with blogs, this is the first one I’ve written, and I don’t generally read them, because most of the blogs I’ve come across don’t hold any fascination for me. This blog, and the blogs of my fellow students are being written for an academic purpose – to show that we can use the tools, to allow us to show how we have gone about solving problems, distributing “hints and tips” we have found, to describe our other assignments and to show the path our learning in this subject has taken.
TOP FIVE TIPS
1. BREATHE!!! – It generally assists your marks if you are breathing while you are studying. The likelihood is that the instructors don’t like to give marks to those who stopped breathing at the first assignment. If necessary, taking deep breaths while walking around the room wondering:
• whose bright idea it was to start studying again?
• what on earth do I have to do?
• where do I start?
• why am I worrying – I CAN use all the tools they are telling us to?
• where have my family gone and why is the cat cowering on top of the fridge?
can be useful as you then have all the stress out in the one place. Try hard not to take the stress back inside again.
2. Familiarise yourself with the settings – Once you have settled on a site (or a number of them if you really feel masochistic), go through it all and play with the settings. After all, what’s the worst you can do to the site? Just don’t forget NOT to hit the one that says something like “delete my blog” BEFORE you have your marks at the end of the Study Period. There’s nothing worse than having hours (days/weeks/months) of work deleted at the touch of a button simply because you misread the label or pressed it because it got in your way. Back up all of your posts with text files, just in case the little internet gremlins get into your system (or theirs) and remove your posts. At least then you can repost long enough to get your marks.
3. Don’t overload your site with “features” – Just because the site CAN do it, doesn’t mean you HAVE to! Think about your target audience. Will they all really be able to read the flashing red gothic writing on the fluorescent green background? Will they appreciate the fact that you’ve made the cursor spit out stars as it moves across the screen, and turns into an explosion whenever they click on a link? If you have sound linked to your blog, do you really think they’ll all love the Sex Pistols blaring out “God Save the Queen” every time they open your blog as much as you do (alright, I’ve just shown my age)? Don’t forget that even now, in the broadband age, there are still people with slow computer connections, and every single “feature” that you put into your blog not only distracts from the information you are trying to post, but can also cause problems for the person trying to open your blog.
4. Be careful about personal information you post – Don’t forget, these blogs aren’t being posted in a “closed” forum. Anyone around the world can stumble onto your blog, and not everyone out there is “user friendly”. Just because the site says no-one can see your personal information, doesn’t mean they can’t. There are people around who will take that as a personal challenge to their skills (which can be very useful at times) and will attempt to break the security just for the hell of it. If you want to put private information into your blog, that’s your decision, but just be aware of what you are telling people. After all, does everyone really need to see the pic of the aftermath of the office party last Christmas when you were discovered face down on the photocopier?
5. Relax and try to have some fun with the blog – It will not help your marks if it takes the instructor 2 packets of No-Doze and a share in Gloria Jean’s Coffee House just to read through your intro. The aim of the blog is to show that you have understood the concepts and can use the various tools, but that doesn’t mean it has to be dry and boring. Don’t try to step outside of your comfort zone with your postings, but do still try to post to your blog in an informative and interesting way.
First post
Ok, this is my first post on my first blog and I'm not sure I enjoy the experience. But, seeing as it's a requirement for NET11, I suppose I just have to "swallow" my misgivings and do it.
My next post will be the Top 5 Tips for New Bloggers. I haven't nutted any of that out yet, I've been too busy trying to chase around problems in another subject I'm studying to actually think about much here, but I hope to have them posted by tomorrow.
My next post will be the Top 5 Tips for New Bloggers. I haven't nutted any of that out yet, I've been too busy trying to chase around problems in another subject I'm studying to actually think about much here, but I hope to have them posted by tomorrow.
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