Module 3 - Tasks (FTP II)

A few days on and I've progressed to the end of Module 3, with the exception of the outstanding ftp task. As per my earlier post I was using a trial version of ws_ftp which did not seem to have the SSH option. This seems to only be there if you want to buy it. I tried cute_ftp 8 with similar results as ws-ftp. I then turned back to Core FTP - the first one I tried way back in Module 1- which at least gave me an SSH tickbox. Regretfully, this still did not work.

I've tried several times over the past few days to connect to the Curtin student server by ftp and consistently failed to connect. Subsquently the following message was sent off to oasis central:

Problem: Failing to connect to curtin student server by ftp client.
Outline:I've tried using the following clients: Core FTP, WS_FTP, Cute_FTP 8, the latter two being trials did not have SSH options so I've not been able to use them. Now trying again using Core FTP.
Trying to connect with the following details:
*Hostname/et. al. : ftp://ftp.student.curtin.edu.au/

*student id: 13720540 as username

*password: my curtin login password is used

*SSH ticked*tried on ports 21 and 22 several times

*at first assumed crowded or server down but have not been able to connect for a few days

*FYI- refer OASIS General Call ID 135211 regarding earlier ftp problems, I understand have subsequently been corrected
Query - any idea why I cannot establish a connection...?

So, I'll wait for a response from oasis and see if they can help.

Now, I placed a couple of posts on the discussion board to try and figure this out. Whilst the help was appreciated it unfortunately did not help get the connection going. I did appreciate Cynthia allowing me to note that the task was unsucessful and reflect on why ftp may not have worked. Whilst I'm determined to get this thing to work (even if by torture my ftp will talk!) here are some reflections on why it may not:

1. P.I.C.N.I.C. - Here's a nice term I picked up from somewhere... Problem In Chair, Not In Computer... which is perhaps most likely. Given my dimutive experience there may be something bleedingly obvious I've missed.
2. The PC - Seems doubtful given anonymous connection sucessful in Module 1, but my there could be something wrong with my hardware.
3. Could my timing be perfectly imperfect? Am I that gentlemen who is bound to be splashed by a bus on every rainy day... it would seem very unlikely that everytime I log in on the server it may be down or crowded, ergo see point 1 above.

Module 3 - Tasks (Blog Optional)

I had a look in the Library through OASIS but could not find Rebecca Blood's 'The Weblog Handbook' so ventured onto Google. Essentially the book costs money, so I won't be buying it. I found Rebecca's website though who provides ten tips for a better weblog. Here is the short version:

1. Choose an updating tool that is easy to use.
2. Determine your purpose.
3. Know your intended audience.
4. Be real.
5. Write about what you love.
6. Update frequently.
7. Establish your credibility
8. Link to your sources.
9. Link to other weblogs.
10. Be patient

Blood, Rebecca. "Ten Tips for a Better Weblog", Rebecca's Pocket. 22 March 2003. 08 January 2006, http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/ten_tips.html

Ten tips have to be better than five right? ;-)

Module 3 - Tasks (Blogs)

Ok... I'm already using a blog for my learning log, so I think the need to set up a blog may be a moot point by now, as would be taking a screen shot to of this blog to drop in here. Place a mirror in front of you and behind you, lean a little and start counting your reflections...

Anyway, go and take a look at my first entry labelled 'Creation'. If you've ever seen Doctor Who you will get.

...seen it, sorry if you find it little lame but I love the quirky stuff...

Module 3 - Tasks (FTP I)

What is with ftp and I, we just don't seem to get along. Whilst I had no real problems with uploading my index page to the presentations area , for the life of me I cannot seem to get my ftp client to work. I'm not sure if it is an issue with the OASIS server or whether I'm doing something wrong. I keep getting the same message...

Finding Host ftp.student.curtin.edu.au ...
Connecting to 134.7.171.70:21
Connect failure

Using my ws_ftp client I try to open a Remote location, this includes adding the following information:

• the host name: ftp.student.curtin.edu.au
• my user id being my student id
• my password
• No SSH as it is a trial version which may be why it's not working.

I've placed a post on the discussion board to see if anyone can clue me in on whether it's just me or everyone is having a problem at the moment. I might try a different client. URL to follow once this matter is resolved.

Module 3 - Tasks (Legal Issues)

Since undertaking this unit this is the first time I find myself in familiar territory. Intellectual Property is something that most entities, particularly commercial, are very protective of. You only need to pick up the Annual Report from your favourite magazine publisher and check out how much the intangible assets are worth, particularly when compared as a ratio to tangible assets. Moving on from the quasi interesting financial context, we have questions to answer:

Have you used images or words on your web page or website that contravene copyright laws?

No, the pages I've created have been for academic non-profit purposes. Copyright Act, Section 107 - Limitation on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use, exempts Copyright for purposes of '...criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research...' (See Copyright Website, for further details)

• http://www.benedict.com/info/FairUse/FairUse.aspx

Would you be in breach of Copyright if you put the Curtin logo at the top of your web page?

Given the only web pages I have has been created for the purposes of this course and are purely for scholarship then I beleive S.107 Copyright Act would apply. On the other hand, if I owned a web page selling essays then I'd be in a bit of trouble.

Module 3 - Tasks (Standards 2)

As suggested in the Optional Standards 2 Task I opened the pages of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) http://www.w3.org/. Given that I've only been into this whole HTML thing for only about five days I'm expecting a few problems. The web page I intend to use is very much embryotic at this point, consisting only of an index page with a list of the assessment items and a footer with a mail to. After uploading and running index.html through the markup validation service, this is a summary of the message I received:

Result: Failed validation, 1 error
File: C:\Documents and Settings\Tom Davies\My Documents\OUA\Curtin\NET11\Net11 Web Pages\index.html
Encoding: utf-8
Doctype: (no Doctype found)

No Character Encoding Found! Falling back to UTF-8.
No DOCTYPE found! Attempting validation with HTML 4.01 Transitional.

The Character Encoding was added following the links specified within the validation results, as was the Doctype. I was not sure of which Doctype to use, so I used strict. Here are the results second time round...

Result: Failed validation, 4 errors
File: C:\Documents and Settings\Tom Davies\My Documents\OUA\Curtin\NET11\Net11 Web Pages\index.html
Encoding: utf-8
Doctype: HTML 4.01 Strict

1. Error Line 16 column 14: there is no attribute "BGCOLOR".


2. Error Line 21 column 0: character data is not allowed here.


3. Error Line 21 column 96: document type does not allow element


4. Error Line 47 column 75: document type does not allow element "P" here; missing one of "OBJECT", "MAP", "BUTTON" start-tag....bct.curtin.edu.au">Curtin University
   

Well, that did not go as I expected... ok, so maybe transitional might be the right doctype. I seem to recall reading from the Net11 discussion board that assessment does not include W3C standards but this has piqued my curiosity.... and again...

Result: Passed validation
File: C:\Documents and Settings\Tom Davies\My Documents\OUA\Curtin\NET11\Net11 Web Pages\index.html
Encoding: utf-8
Doctype: HTML 4.01 Transitional

The uploaded document...

"C:\Documents and Settings\Tom Davies\My Documents\OUA\Curtin\NET11\Net11 Web Pages\index.html"

...was checked and found to be valid HTML 4.01 Transitional. This means that the resource in question identified itself as "HTML 4.01 Transitional" and that we successfully performed a formal validation using an SGML or XML Parser (depending on the markup language used).

I just feel so validated :-)

Module 3 - Tasks (Standards 1)

Example of Eyetracking (or F-Tracking)

What are the five most important rules for writing online?

• Concise Text -Reduces the users cognitive burden by communicating in a meaningful and precise manner. Simply put, if it is too long people get bored and won't read it.


• Scannable Layout - F-Patterns (as above) demonstrate that users don't read text thoroughly and view the page roughly in an F shaped pattern. Accordingly, it is important that the most important points need to be placed within the first couple of paragraphs if you wish to communicate effectively to the user.


• Consistent Navigation - There is nothing more frustrating than getting lost in somebody else's space. Employment of consistent navigation through pages, to and from the index eases much angst.


• Simple Design - Save download times and lets face it... being pretty does'nt get the job done.


• Correct use of links (Hypernavigation) - Poor use of links can distract you from the flow of a document or not provide suitable information within context of the document. Correct use of links creates a more manageable and informative read.

Why these five? Why not include something like objective language? Blogs have made their mark in the online environment and are an expanding source of publishing and information sharing for the average joe. Past lessons have shown us that the blogs adopt an informal style of writing so objective language is now out the window as a rule. It's these kinds of internet applications that dates some of Neilson's points (1997 paper).

After reading through this stuff and having a few moments of contemplation it occurred to me that nobody seems to be raising 'fit for market', which may from time to time be at odds with some of these rules. In otherwords, designed with a specific audience in mind. As an example, if you own an online business that sells customised high end sports vehicles you would be dealing mostly with wealthy folks who in all probability can afford high speed connections. Simple design would not be such an issue providing it follows the other four rules.

Module 3 - Tasks (HTML Tutorial)

Mt. St Helens

I started the html tutorial tasks 17 December 2006 and finished 22 December 2006, with 19 handy pages of notes on tags, including a bit of handwritten practice. The tutorial from Cloudmedia has been bookmarked to refer back to as the course continues. I found the content informative and easy to follow.

The 'writing html' tutorial from provided a fantastic hands-on guide to basic html. It was quite clear in the instructions and being left with an example of the work at the end illustrating the HTML at work was wonderful. I went through steps 1 to 14 finally creating Volcano Web in a split form. There were very few problems with constructing the web pages during this tutorial and I feel that this is largely due to taking my time to complete the tutorial.

From time to time, after loading the page into my browser, it was evident something was wrong. Generally I'd missed a forward slash closing off a heading... ergo all subsquent text was formatted as a heading. The anchored links took a little bit of practice but I'm feeling confident after creating a few extra links in the Volcano web documents in an earlier version.

I saved a copy of the old index page that was mostly in lumped form and uploaded to the CTWeb Presentations area. The images and some of the local links won't work as I did not upload all the files, however the source will contain most (if not all) the relevant tags from the tutorial.

I've noted from the discussion board that many of my fellow students have been utilising various HTML editors to publish their webpages (Dreamweaver seems to be mentioned a bit). Personally, I'm going to try and continue using my Notepad to write the html. Whilst my web page (yet to be published to the Curtin web) may not look as flash (and I may be tagged as a sucker for punishment given that this most certainly going to be more time consuming), I can't escape the feeling that it is important to get a solid grounding in HTML given the direction I wish to take my studies.

The tutorials can be found at:

http://www.cloudmedia.com.au/FTV244/html_intro.html

http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/lessons.html

Module 3 - Contributing to the Infosphere: E-writing?

One thing I've always loved about websites is the hypertext navigation. It's a lot like having the ability to read something by Stephen Hawkins and have an immediate resource to understand every second utterance in the text (sorry Stephen, you just work on another level altogether). Better yet, your not confined to a text explanation... a picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes, however in this case its not just a picture. It could be a film, a speech and so on. It's the mulitdimensional form of digesting and sharing information that appeals to me and is one of many strengths behind the appeal of the internet.

As you may have guessed, this is my first blog (or weblog). Prior to setting this up I'd had absolutely no HTML training and have never published anything online. Despite a fair deal of trepidition about getting started, this is now looking pretty good (a quite pat on the back) and hopefully a bit better by the time I've finished the Module 3 Tasks. The user friendly nature of blogging from sites such as Blogspot invites rather than hinders participation when faced with a lack of technical knowledge (i.e. how to write HTML, use of FTP etc.). Check the additional resources for this module for further readings on the subject matter.

Modules 1 & 2 - Self Evaluation Feedback

With thanks to my fellow students I received feedback on the two missing answers I was stuck on. The answer to Q. 17 was ftp client (ohhh... so close). I'm sure that this will get a few people. In respect of Q. 20, apparently it was suppose to be 'dynamic' IP address (did I miss something?... back to the notes!).

Modules 1 & 2 - Self Evaluation

I was very surprised at how poor my result was the first time around... 50%! This is partially due to not really knowing much about Eurora mail and other applications not directly associated with the readings or tasks to date. Also, missed a couple because I did not read the question properly. I eventually completed the self evaluation three times, getting 90% the third time around.

Two questions in particular have eluded me, despite going back over the notes:

1. Q. 17...paraphrased... What are WS-FTP, Fetch etc. known collectively as? I answered 'file transfer protocols', 'ftp's' and 'protocols', all of which were incorrect.
2. Q 20...paraphrased... An IP address that changes every time one is online is known as? I answered 'unique', which was incorrect. In fact I was so certain this was correct I entered it three times. The second time as I thought I must have made a spelling mistake and a third time because I'm stubborn in the absence of another solution. ;-)

I've posted a message on the discussion board to see if anyone has been a bit more clever than I and gotten these right. The test showed that whilst I have obtained knowledge of a wider variety of uses for the internet and their social environment, my knowledge is not yet well rounded enough to encompass the various applications within spheres of communication. For example, whilst I now recognise what a POP is I didn't know if Euphora was something similar to gmail and yahoo mail or something completely different.

Module 2 - Tasks (IRC)

I'm not a religious man but as a newbie to instant messaging I found myself whispering a small prayer of thanks IRC is no longer popular. Perhaps with a stronger grounding in internet technologies I could appreciate its uses. It's interface is is a somewhat antiquated and I found it to be far less user friendly than ICQ.
.
I spent perhaps 20 minutes playing around with ICQ before I felt confident enough to use it. I've spent close to 2 hours exploring IRC and I'm still not sure of what I'm doing. I could find no reference to 'networks', only 'channels'. I located a channel for the Austnet and tried to connect to a random au server. After failing to connect I tried a random sg (Singapore) server which successfully connected.

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I tried adding a channel call Austnet. I'm not sure if this worked as a successful connection was established but all I got was a blank screen to post a message into. I'm tempted to get onto the discussion board to see what results others are getting but I've already spent more than my allocated time on this task. Time is what it all comes down to and it is a commodity too precious to waste. Less dated forms of instant messaging utilise a more user friendly interface and accordingly are more inviting.

Module 2 - Tasks (ICQ)

Until the past couple of days I've never used instant messaging online, perhaps the closest thing I've done is send an sms or email. As instructed in the tasks I downloaded and installed ICQ from http://web.icq.com/ and endevoured to spend some time playing around with it. Most of the features seem useless to me and the constant scrolling of dating message is quickly tiresome. Nevertheless, I can see how this could be a useful tool, in business and in one's personal life. With the inclusion of video and other communication technology, instant messaging and its attaching applications could be a cost effective and efficient alternative to email or telephone.

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I posted my ICQ number to the discussion board and have subsequently added a couple of fellow students to my contact list. Following the threads in the Discussion board (see Topic: Module 2 ) concerning ICQ it became apparant that there are a number of different instant message tools, such as MSN and YahooIM. I think I'll say goodbye to ICQ at the end of this topic and avail myself to one of these alternatives.

Module 2 - Tasks (Newsgroups)

Dealing with newgroups is like dealing with purveyors of miracle cures, your mostly just left feeling a bit sick in the stomach. As described in an earlier post I have a preference to use my gmail account for email. Outlook Express is not in sync with my gmail account. I contacted my ISP provider and created a newsgroup account through their server at news.server.bigpond.net.au. Although, after browsing various usenet newsgroup postings and reading some of the comments posted on the Curtin discussion board regarding newsgroup content I decided to stick with using Google Groups ( http://groups-beta.google.com/ ). I chose to view all content online rather than receive email.

I subscribed to misc.kids as my toddler is very energetic and I'm interested in any (cost effective) additional activities that will be fun for him and not leave me feeling I've run a marathon at the end of the day. I searched the newsgroup posts to find a discussion thread of interest involving arts and crafts appropriate for toddlers. It's disheartening to find even here posts from rather disturbed and offensive people.

Despite the sick elements there was actually a lot of good content. Whilst the task asks us to post a comment and receive a reply, which is to be then copied here, I found answers to my questions posed in this field. Following my readings on net etiquette I was reluctant to post a question that had already been answered (hopefully this demonstrates applied learning). Through my readings of the posts I identified two useful websites, amongst other hints and tips, as following :

http://familycrafts.about.com/od/toddlersandpreschoolers/Crafts_for_Toddlers_and_Preschoolers.htm

http://fun.familyeducation.com/childrens-art-activities/crafts/33376.html

Whilst I indicate that there was some strong and relevant content to be found in newsgroups, there is obviously a strongly underdesirable element associated with this form of information sharing. This sours what should be a fun and informative pursuit.

Module 2 - Tasks (Lists)

What can I say other than the term 'a world of information' just found new dimensions. In the past my search for information or services were pretty much limited to search engine and links within the websites I managed to find. Email lists and message boards provide a large number specific information resources enabling direct access and sharing of the information you want, cutting down on the amount 'wading' required.

What are the pro's and con's of email lists vs. discussion boards?

Email Lists:

• likely dealing with a large number of emails (con)
• often used to 'push' information (con)
• only need to check email to participate (pro)
• likely to be less daunting if your new to online communication (pro)
• no identity awareness (con)
• asyncronous form of communciation (con or pro - depending on your preferences)
• unthreaded (con)

Message Board:

• web-based form of communication (pro)
• members need to be pro-active in keeping up with discussion (con)
• provides more interaction (pro)
• with instant message can allow asyncronous and syncronous forms of communication (pro)
• 'lurking' allows you to get an idea of content (pro)

Are there certain types of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?

Certainly different types of communication or purpose will be more suited to either discussion board or email lists. For example, online study is suited to asyncronous communication however studying by email list just would not work. Message board provides a much more suitable format for study. On the other hand if you want to keep abreast of the latest fashion entering your favourite store, special offers, comments from peers etc., then an email list would seem to be more appropriate.

Module 2 - Email Tasks (Q.'s 1-5)

Q1. 'What information about a users email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?'

I use Outlook Express on the PC but mostly I only use my gmail account for email because I've moved around so much over recent years (Brisbane, London, Sydney and Melbourne in the last 6 years!). So said (or written as the case may be) Outlook Express is a little more user friendly on details so I'll be using this where I can. A message demonstrates the following information:

• name of the sender
• subject matter
• copies
• urgency
• senders email address (consisting of user name.domain name)
• date sent/received
• signatures

I resolved to open a past message and have a play around and see what other information I could find. By opening file -> properties -> details tab, a great deal of information about the email can be found, including further details concerning the path and source. By clicking 'source' coding details can be found.

Q2. 'In what cases would you find it useful to use 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all' functions of an email?

• The 'cc' function is useful when you are responding to a message that may require the input or involvement of one or many others, or may be simply used for informative purposes.... keeping people updated on issues. For example, I reply to a question posed by a team member. To avoid repetition, particularly if it is an issue of timely concern, I 'cc' the rest of the team in on my reply.
• Not everyone wants their details broadcast over the internet. In this case sending an email to yourself with the outgoing addresses in the 'bcc' is a sensible option, particularly when mass emailing.
• The 'reply all' function should be used sparingly. By using 'reply all' the response will be received by everyone on the original email creating an annoyance, particularly when many users respond in this manner to mass emails. If you have something valid to add in the context of the original communication that would be of interest to all then the 'reply all' function is useful. When arranging events such as meetings it is also useful... for example I respond to an email using the 'reply all' function stating, 'I cannot make the meeting for 10.00am 25 December 2006, is everyone OK to reschedule to same time 28 December 2006?'

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Q3. 'In what ways can you ensure an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?'

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If you intend on sending an email with attachment then it is usually not a bad idea to send a short email to the intended recipient first. For example.... 'Hi Dave, I want to send you the proposal we discussed. It is in Microsoft Word 2000. Are you fine with this or do you require a different format?'.

However, what if Dave is in a meeting or away and you have a deadline to meet. When in doubt:

1. Use MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension);
2. use RTF (Rich Text File); and
3. include 'in text' details on the attachment.

In this case my email might read... 'Hi Dave, concerning the proposal we discussed 06 December 2006, I've copied the sections relating to your involvement into the email message below. The proposal is attached in full for execution and replicated in RTF should there be any problems opening the Microsoft Word attachment.'

Q4. 'What sort of filters or rules do you have set up and for what purpose?

I have an antispam filter on my email that I guess has been running since I owned my laptop. Before reading this course I really knew nothing about what filters were for (other than what the name implied) or how they worked. I'm still not an expert, but I'm learning. The antispam stops those unwanted emails from coming through. I can now configure this to create a block list to stop email from any other unwanted sources. Who knew there were rules involved! I presently do not have any of the rules activated (nobody is automatically blocked, or marked as 'read' etc.) but now I know they are there I'm confident enough to use them as the need arises. I should mention though that all my email goes through a virus scan before being released/received.

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Q5. 'How have you organised the file structure of your email and why?'

.

I admit I do not use email a great deal in my personal life. Previous business roles though were a different story, they necessitated organisation of folders to store email for ease of access and records. For a time I worked as an insurance broker with an international company in London. The role included regional wholesale of product into principally Lloyd's. This included a lot of incoming email from many different countries, many different time zones and many different clients. Each client needed the participation of at least 3 Lloyds insurers to fulfill their needs and we dealt with over 80 syndicates within my team. Larger risks sometimes attracted 30+ insurers to fulfill their capacity requirements.

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As you can see the volume of email created, being the predominant sphere of communication in such an atmosphere, could quickly become overwhelming. I arranged my folders by region, wholesale client, end client, then risk type. All correspondence for a client ends up in one relevant place. The placement of risk for large international companies often created hundreds of emails. To organise this larger volume the email was stored by annual periods. For example, a message received from ABC Broking Hong Kong regarding end client International Construction Ltd D&O policy would be stored under Asia/HongKong/ABC/International Construction Ltd/D&O/Dec 2005_06.

Module 2 - Communicating in the Infosphere

I completed the online readings, including reading all the links for Module 2.1 and Module 2.2. Some of the reading merely reinforced my understanding of email (such as how to send, receive, transfer and other basic functions). The expansion into other forms of communication, such as news groups, lists and list commands or the difference between chat and messaging is all quite new to me. It's a little daunting how much 'space' is actually out there. I wonder how Captain Kirk would fare. :)

I started to take a look at the tasks set for Module 2. The Ohio State Uni tutorial (per link in Para. 1, Mod. 2 tasks) had a couple of fun activities, such as people search, and all questions were duly completed. I'm out of time for now and so it will likely be later tonight or Thursday before I start to tackle the bulk of the tasks. Until then....

Module 1 - Tasks

I began the task by pinging curtin.edu.au using the internet tool. This resulted in 5 hops (I understand each hop refers to each router encountered)and an average time of 246ms. From the PC I sent two pings. One using A-Tool and the other using DOS commands. The result from the ping sent from DOS were better summarised so I'll be using those. The DOS ping resulted in 4 hops and an average time of 86ms.

Similar results turned up on the traceroute. The PC based excercise resulted in 20 hops with an average time of 86ms vs. 23 hops with an average time of 246ms using the online tool. I did expect the PC to be faster so I was glad to see it was. I'm just not 100% sure if I am right as to why.

I reasoned that if the application was excecuted directly from the PC it would ultimately mean that there would fewer components to the communication chain. Additionally, there are other factors to consider such as hardware. External servers may have insufficient RAM or may be experiencing heavy traffic for example. I'm sure there are other reasons I've missed so I left a post on the discussion board to see if anything further needs to be considered. Melissa Austernin posted '...the difference is in the efficiency of the network routers (hardware) and routes listed in the routing config table.' (Msg 518, 3 December 2006). This confirms my views about hardware and I admit I did not think of the routing config tables, which also makes sense.

I visited a number of websites in trying to learn more about internet tools, pinging and traceroute in particular. Links can be found under Module 1 Additional Resources for sites that actually had some relevant content. Bleeping Computer I found to be particularly useful and I'm sure I will be visiting it from time to time throughout the duration of my studies.

I've not diplayed the full results of the traceroute and pings as I've not been able to present them in a legible format. As can be seen in the earier post the tables are difficult to follow and the screen dump is also difficult to read. Needless to say though that the tasks were sucessfully executed.

Module 1 - Tasks I

I started the day off trying to rectify my FTP issue mentioned in the prior post. After spending some time on it I decided to uninstall Core FTP and get on with the readings and tasks given the blog is up and running. The readings added an extra dimension to my basic understanding how the Internet works.

Telnet Task

I tried entering 'telnet://' into the browser URL and nothing happened. I then carried a google search on 'telnet and windows' which gave me a vast selection of programs. Not being conversant with IT lingo I felt quickly overwhelmed, not being sure at all if they all do the same thing, wondering if I will choose the right one or if it would turn my PC into some kind of robot. When faced with such doubt I turned to the discussion board (thankyou Dewa). Having obtained a solution I typed 'telnet' into the start/run command. Then it was on.... using the help functions and following the prompts I successfully accessed the Deakin library database.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Task

Following my success with the start/run command I tried typing in 'FTP' just to see what would happen. It actually worked!! Well, to an extent. Using the help functions I figured out how to log on, just could not figure out how to browse the folders. I turned to http://www.ftpplanet.com/download.htm and went through the basic tutorial and downloaded the free 30 day trial version. I proceeded to ftp to recall.curtin.edu, following the module instructions and successfully found the README file... found the missing word 'Capitalisation'! ...and the tasks drop like flies as I start to realise I need to be a bit more confident and just have a go (plus say a small prayer I don't reformat my hard drive along the way!!)

Internet Tools Task

Having a look at traceroute I couldn't help but have a quick fantasy about tracking Russian mafia funds around the world from a dark room accentuated with large glowing screens, looking up over the rims of my glasses with excitement as I found that final account... you may not find it exciting but I used to work in insurance :). But seriously, how cool is some of this tech.

I ran the traceroute from http://centralops.net/co/, this demonstrated 22 hops to reach curtin.edu.au. An IP for curtin.edu.au was given as 134.7.134.47. The ping demonstrated that the average time was 246 milliseconds.

That's it for today... out of time... my thanks again to fellow students for your invaluable advice.

Day 2... Got a compass?

A couple of days later and I get a chance to get back into a bit of study. I started by trying to get a bit more familiar with OASIS and WebCT, its slowly coming together but I still find OASIS a little hard to find my way around. Having browsed the comments by students and by Cynthia on the discussion board I decided to try and set up a blog to get the learning log started. Not having a very strong IT background I found this much more difficult than expected.

I followed the 'help' prompts on the OASIS network and downloaded CoreFTP. Only, somehow blocked access in the security settings, so after a couple of painful hours gave up trying to figure out how to turn it off I plead for help on the discussion board. I sent an email to OASIS support to see if they could provide more detailed information on how the network works.

Given my efforts were bearing little reward a change of strategy was in order. Taking wing upon the WWW (and with much thanks to the guidance of fellow students) I founded this little virtual realm in which to record my progress (measured on tears and cheers). It great to have some success.

Day 1... a retroactive entry

Study commenced on NET11 27 November 2006. Following the online induction and survey fellow students were greeted on the discussion board and the tutor emailed as requested in notes. Some frustration with trying to find full assessment details and with the lack of self contained notes, having a preference to read printed material if something is longer than a page or two. Something to get used to.

Creation

He dons his shiny suit in anticipation of his online voyage through cyberspace. Stay online for my scholarly adventures...

(<--With thanks to the BBC)