Wonder if anyone at tafe will notice this

side wiki a great way to get extra information about a page visible to the world.

in reference to:

"Webbank"
- Chisholm Bank (view on Google Sidewiki)

Another useful tool from Google

The web evolves daily with the help of Google and all the users across the world, this tool will bring wikis to a new level allowing wiki type notes to be used across any page by simply highlighting the area of interest on the page, clicking the sidewiki link either on your toolbar or from the top left side of the page and you can then write up wiki type information about that part of a page or site. This will allow for more information to be added then the creator had in mind on the day of page creation, can also be a great tool for leaving notes to a site designer or admin if the contact details are not clear. All in all the uses for this will be endless im sure

in reference to: Google Sidewiki (view on Google Sidewiki)

Thing 23 – Feedback

I thought the 23 thing program was a little easy going for a dual diploma course, I looked at most of the mentioned technologies as they came out in my personal time as they were more for personal use, I expected the diploma course would be aimed more on understanding how they work under the hood not on the surface.  I did however see quite a few links i would probably stay away from now if pointed to them in the future and also quite a few that i would defiantly use.  I think this would be a great task for the cert 4 students or maybe even Cert 2. It was a stress free task that i had no trouble completing.

Thing 22 – Post about my Home Server.

A technology i use now at home and hardly think of is a derived version of Windows Server 2003 small business edition, it has the name Windows Home Server and as the name suggests it is aimed at the home.  The job of this small 10 client NOS is to handle Network Storage, IIS (web) server, Backup imaging server.  I heard about this through the MSDN junk emails they send out and thought id sign up for the beta almost 2 years ago now, it comes with a free domain name with some restrictions. The main job WHS performs for me on a daily basis is described below.  During the day Network storage provides access to Photos, Music, Downloads, Documents, Movies and Software this is available on any PC connected to the network in the house, It also attaches these folders to a password protected web site so not only are all your files only a few mouse clicks away but it is also a great way to share Photos,Videos and files with family members interstate and oversees. I have found a program that also allows for a shared folder on the server to be the main source for a dynamic Photo gallery site, this means family members as mentioned before can drop photos into a folder and have then displayed on a central private gallery webpage. Then over night the WHS connects to all computers on the home network and takes a backup image of the files each night if a problem ever arises on a network machine the server can produce a boot-DVD to restore the pc over the network.  I have not lost any data in a long time now thanks to this server.  It also performs a technology called file duplication, it does this when it has more then one physical HDD installed when turned on in a folder it will take a copy of files on one HDD and place them on the other drive, while this takes up some space it means if a HDD fails or is removed for any reason all duplicated files are still available. The list of the plusses on this NOS are endless but it really does allow for a smooth home network in a house of 99% computer novices. For information on WHS check out Introducing Windows Home Server

Don't forget the OS is available with out any hardware so you can run it on any good spec PC/boot-camp Mac.

Thing 20 – Read about Web 2.0

Web 2.0 in my understanding is what the web has morphed into over the years it has been in use by the general public. Static pages have turned to dynamic pages drawn on the fly, the main languages changed from html to html and JavaScript up to now when you can be looking at any number of server side php, ASP type languages running above a mysql, oracle database.  Web 2.0 to me means the sites became more end user friendly, more blog and video sharing sites came about as people that had never really taken an interest in the internet started trying there hand.  Over all if the first inventors of web 2.0 wanted to bring the internet to the masses i think they achieved that, I think some of the sites are a great demonstration of computing power but not a great social tool when a lot of the time is spent at home on the computer.  Web 2.0 is blogs, RSS, lots of server side code and logic and generally a more entertaining feel for the internet in my opinion.

Thing 19 – Twitter

I currently use twitter not for the described use of notifying family, friends and basically any one online that you have taken another breath, step. I use a twitter account for a notification service from a windows server located in my house so if i am out or away from home and the server has an error apart from loss of internet access of course alerts come through in real time to an application on my mobile phone notifying me to a problem with the server and service.  I can of course see great uses for this type resource when it comes to travel, letting others know when you are on the way or held up.  I also feel that as it is now quite a popular service a lot of sites are creating tweets for updates to the site content, I currently monitor one website i regularly visit.  I feel the use for this in the classroom could be great not only to let students know in real-time when classes are cancelled or running late but also vice versa when students are running late or not coming in, with twitter client type applications it can cut down on the time it takes to send information out over the net. Over all i think this is a useful web 2.0 technology.

Thing 18 – Image generators

I have used an image generator before just to add a Simpsons flash based character creation to a blog site.  I would normally edit any normal pictures for use in banners with local editors such as Sony Vegas for moving banners or Adobe Photoshop for still images.  I will embed the Simpsons flash generator below for people to play with. I found the resources similar to http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/ are the ones i would normally handle myself as I'm not sure on the TOS agreement with each of these sites.  I can see the advantage in site such as these for the people that don’t have the applications installed i have mentioned above or don’t have the skill sets to use the above programs.  I really enjoyed the tool below for an hour or so.

Thing 17 – iGoogle

I think iGoogle is a great idea once i started to use Google as my homepage because it opened nice and fast, i soon got tired of nothing of interest opening up so i soon found iGoogle and realised it was an area to combine some of the great services Google offer, such as RSS, YouTube and much more.  I have customised my iGoogle area with the pages i visit most at this point in time. The way the page is divided up is by applying different “widgets” which handle displaying information from the different Google Services.  Below is a picture of my Homepage with iGoogle I regularly find new interesting information through this format as shown below.

Thing 16 – Google Docs

I have used Google Docs this year from one of my Teachers handing out assignment sheets through Google Docs, i came across Google Documents when MS office started to offer a similar service but only at a fraction of the size unless paid for.  This made me look around and i came across Google Documents I haven't really had a great use for it since apart from getting work for one of my classes. Today i went online and posted a spreadsheet for this part of my class work it is located here in a webpage format. Eddies Google Document  I think this will be a great utility if i am ever away from my computer and don't have access to any formal Word Processing, Spreadsheet or general office applications then not only will Google documents solve that problem but it will also allow for easy group collaboration.

Thing 15 – Google Maps

I use Google maps quite regularly not only for directions but also the new street view is an excellent way to get a picture of a location you may have never visited before.  The phone i use also has Google maps located in its software it keeps a static cache of the maps last looked at which can help when there's no network coverage. It also uses a GPS chip in the phone to locate you on Google maps making directions even more accurate. 

Another feature of Google maps that i have recently found is a way to make your own information maps which can consist of not only driving directions but also information points along the way, i tested it out on a map of Frankston Chisholm campus as shown here. I'm not sure if i was accurate in the building locations so please don't anyone use it.
View Chisholm Tafe Frankston in a larger map

I think the other apps Google has released in there web suite are also great i use one of the less well known applications called Google talk which is an application similar to MSN messenger but runs on the Google chat and email service normally accessed online within the web browser.  I have also used and installed Google Earth.  I think Google has changed the face of the internet and the way we use it today.

Thing 14 – Podcasts & Vodcasts

I regularly download and listen , watch podcast’s and video podcasts. I do this on my computer but also on my Iphone which has all the software of a iPod.  I have found many useful feeds some are just plain funny but some are very useful. One of the funny and sometimes interesting feeds i regularly download is called Best of YouTube Video Podcast it is updated regularly and has loads of the videos deemed viral (because of amount of hits or viewings) from YouTube.  I also listen to podcasts on JavaScript development, Web2.0 technologies, Windows Server 2003, Apple server management and for a laugh Comedy Central Videos.  The software i use to listen to and watch these feeds is ITunes it also copies these or selected feeds to my iPhone and takes off watched feeds at the same time.  I have also listened to quite a few embedded podcasts on websites, and occasionally downloaded them as well.

Thing 13 – Edit a Wiki

Today I edited the Chisholm Tafe wiki It was just as easy as most wiki’s i have added to. I posted a link to this blog on the favourite blogs page.  I think that wiki’s are a great user friendly  web technology.  I had no difficulty adding to the class wiki it was not open to the public so i needed to sign up for a wetpaint wiki account.

Thing 12 – Read about Wikis

Wiki’s were the next great net invention I discovered behind Google. I soon realised that whilst not all wiki information can be relied upon with a little careful cross checking on Google i could take learning almost anything i wanted from the old classroom or library and start to learn in the comfort of my own home or even better my favourite arm chair in my room.  I think that the demo video I watched about a group of people planning a camping trip was an excellent example of another great use for wiki’s.  The uses for wiki’s is endless when it comes to group collaboration and of course Wikipedia has made the information sharing role of wikis common place.  I think that these open style blogs are a great web2.0 development. I know i will be looking into how they run on a web server.

Thing 11 – Discover Del.icio.us

The idea of a bookmark sharing site is great, the amount of times I have forgotten my bookmark backup file and been un able to remember the exact search that allowed me to find the bookmarks or websites i find useful.  I also feel that delicious offers a ranking of others public bookmarks which is a better way of searching then a web crawled automated search that will have some useful links nested in a mass of related links, this system allows you to search for links on subjects you are interested in and then view the user comments on those sites or bookmarks to see if they found them useful and or easy to use.   With the search capabilities of this site combined with a great meta tagging system allows for detailed searches on specific areas.  I will be keeping this site as a bookmark for future searches on hard to find information.

Thing 10 - Social networking

Facebook and Myspace are a great way to loose hours of your life and privacy, i have accounts on both but i limit the information i put on those sites about myself as i feel I have a good web presence with out there help, i also don't support the Terms of Use with Facebook as they reserve the right to keep any data (dialogue, picture, video etc) deleted by a user from there page. I also just don't have the time to spend on these sites. I do how ever see there uses and appeal, to be able to connect with people you may have met for a short time and lost contact with, friends from schools past and present and also long lost family members if you have any. Over all i think there a good idea just not for me personally.

Thing 09 - Explore Slideshare

Slideshare looks to be a great site for sharing power point slide shows for input from either the general public, friends, family or even work mates. I found a few funny presentations and a couple interesting ones as well, I think this would be a great tool in the class room when working in groups on a presentation it could be a way of viewing the main work in one place with out ending up with 30 copies of the same presentation, you could also comment and share ideas with work mates. I think it would have been i deal for a few of my assignments last year and i will defiantly keep it in mind for future presentation work. It could also be of great use for showing informative slide shows for family members over seas as you can now quite easily embed a small video in a power point slide. With the comments section it could end up being a great communication tool as well as its educational and professional uses.

Thing 08 - Investigate YouTube

YouTube can consume hours of time from home made rockets to people just being silly there's thousands of great and informative videos on there, I now find myself not only doing a Google search for information when attempting new IT procedures but also now a YouTube search for video guides or any relevant information 9 out of 10 times i find exactly what i needed. You tube has become a great asset for the web 2.0 experience not only can you visit you tube and spend hours watching content on there site but now you can also get Browser add ins to download any YouTube videos you may like. I also regularly use the YouTube embed or link tool that makes inserting videos into web pages easy, below is an old IT college Stunt that looks great.



Hate to be someone trying to sleep in those dorm rooms :s ..

Thing 07 - Play with Flickr

Flicker is a great photo sharing website that allows for not only the sharing of photos but also to backup photos to keep them safe from loss or general wear and tear.  It also helps to share your pictures with the world of course you can keep personal pictures private but if there's a funny picture that you think others would like you can make that picture public, others can then view and comment on the picture.  You can also check the statistics of the pictures you have on flicker these include number of views, how many people have marked it as a favourite and possibly more.  Groups are a way Flickr describes its sharing categories you can create a private group with family members give them a message board to comment on and many more features.

Tags are used in Flickr as they are in most areas of the Internet they can help the search ability of a file in this case a photo. Meta Data is Data that relates to other data and this is what I believe the tags used on Flickr do. It helps for not only others to find photos but also helps the user find old photos from his collection. For example if looking for a photo that you cant remember the name of and you remember it was taken in June at Melbourne, If you had Tagged the photo with these tags and more you could easily find your desired picture by searching for either Melbourne or June. In short Tags are a filter mechanism for searching.

I think Flickr is a great way for the average person to kill two birds with one stone, backup all those digital pictures Off Site (Keeping backups located not geographically near each other) and also to facilitate the sharing of photos from family members or even to the general public.

Thing 06 - Comment on a blog post

I chose to leave a comment on the class blog site in relation to the great article on RSS syndication, I think that the comment systems on blogs are a great way of transforming a news page into a general discussion and an even better way for people to get wide ranging help from professionals and privateers alike. I follow a couple of different types of blogs to stay up to date in Technologies, news and family related news. I have also started to follow some of the class blogs to keep an eye on others progress. I have and will continue to post comments on blog sites all over. Below is a picture of one of my comments on the class blog.

Thing 05 - Subscribe to blogs

This week I looked at the storage of RSS subscriptions via a file named a opml file, I think this will be quite useful in my personal and professional life as I can not only backup my subscriptions but also share any subscriptions I feel others would be interested in without a long list of web links.  I imported a test opml file from out class website in Google reader the process was quite simple and easy to use, First I clicked on the manage subscriptions link on the bottom left of the page, then I selected the import / export link along the top. I was then shown a page with a browse button on it as shown here:

I then selected the opml file and navigated back to the general Google reader page as shown in the below pictures:

 

As shown above once I was back at the main page I had a new list of subscribed RSS articles to choose from and with clicking on one on the left I was then able to choose the settings and sort them by oldest or newest and a few other options shown above.

I think this is a very useful tool that should be included in a complete personal or professional backup to save time and effort later on, I will definitely be using this in the future.

Thing 04 - Create an RSS reader account

RSS is fast becoming the chosen way to keep up to date on your favourite news or just about any website that delivers news of some sort, whether it is personal news for family or public news. 
RSS stands for  "Really Simple Syndication".  I have personally used this in relation to website administration when there is more then one site to administer it is great to be able to glance at any changes to content without having to visit.  Below is an example of how to sign up to an RSS feed for this blog utilizing the RSS reader called GOOGLE READER I chose the feed for this site as an example:

To find an RSS link for a blog or favourite site is normally quite easy as it is either followed by an orange Rss symbol or you may find a link like this one at the bottom of the page.

This link was set by me to take the user to Google Reader a free online RSS reader, other RSS readers are Feedburner (also owned by Google now), Bloodline and many more online and application based readers.

Here is a picture of Google reader's Rss Feed view:

You can also add new RSS feeds from this site by clicking on the Add a Subscription button as shown here:

I think Rss feeds are a great way of keeping up to date with a small amount of time.  I have used RSS feeds to monitor Photo sites from family or a weblog of family events and comments, I think they will be a big part of the web for a long time to come. 

3. Create a Blog & register It.

To create a blog you can follow a couple of different avenues there are quite a few free online blog hosting sites available such as Google's site named "blogger.com" and Wordpress's named the same "wordpress.com", there are many other's available I'm sure but i have had a great deal of experience with these two. The way a blog site works is it is made up of posts that can be edited by the admin and the original user, and then other registered users can reply or comment on the "post". Theses Post's and comments or responses are held within a database made up of all the relevant data for the site, this data can consist of the Post data, comments, and the user accounts and details. This allows the site to operate efficiently and allows easy manipulation by an admin.

The two avenues you can follow is of course to register and follow an online setup of a blog from the above mentioned providers or find a Content management system that you can download and then follow and documentation to set that up on your local machine or server. The needs of the site should dictate the type of setup needed if you are an inexperienced user then it is probably better to leave all the technical stuff to the people on the blog service sites, but if you have an understanding of the Internet and databases then it could be a cheaper more secure option to keep your data in house.

In the Business world a blog site can handle anything from e commerce to free information, it is a very quick and practical way to advertise and communicate business needs or information this way. Allot of "forums" are hosted on either in house blogs or those hosted online, it is a place for staff or customers to communicate questions or problems and for a business that spans great distances it can be a very use full tool for keeping up to date on issues. Combined with RSS Feeds it can be a way of having auto updates sent to your email or even to your desktop.

I have also utilized these blog sites in my personal life to keep in touch with family and friends with a combination of Blog add in software and an RSS feed I am able to receive alerts when people respond to any articles on the blog. I also use them in my studies as this blog will be used for. I feel they are a very use full tool in the IT world

2. Extend Your Browser.

Extending the browser your working in relates to small applications that add to the browser capabilities, plug in's are similar but can be more related to search tools for other sites or search engines these are a little different in my mind they are a way to "plug in" to another site's /  search engine's search tools.

The name add on is used to generally describe these applications.  The range and scope of add-on's available these days is huge, there are two main browsers with add on capabilities these are Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 & 8.  Firefox has a far wider array of add-on's and tools for the browser compared with Internet Explorer which has just seen the additions of add-on's in later editions.  I personally use Firefox for my main browsing and development and Internet explorer for any Microsoft Services that are not included with Firefox (I'm sure there is perfect add-on's available if I looked). Here are some images of the different approaches to adding an add on in Internet explorer and Mozilla Firefox. In Internet explorer the first addition was to be able to customise a search bar to your favourite Search engine shown here: 

The process is as follows, browse to the Find more providers page:

There are a selection of search engine's here or you can add a custom made one on the right of the page by following on screen instructions, there are now IE7 & 8 Add-on's as well as the search plug-in's. These can be accessed by the tools menu and select the Add-On's and then find more Add-on's the page for Microsoft approved Add-On's is shown below:

In Firefox the range of Add-on's is much greater and is becoming the development choice for a lot of web administrators. To start off you can also change the default search engine used inside the top right corner of the browser, you can also add more then one search engine to this area as shown below:

The Add-on's for Firefox can again be found under the tools menu within the browser the internal interface for configuring and now even searching out new Add-in's and Plug ins as shown here:

There is also a web page dedicated to the hosting of approved add on's this is a larger in my experience range of Add-on's and applications to enhance the browser's capabilities. The Web page is shown below:

Conclusion:

The capabilities to change and add a specific search engine to your browser has greatly enhanced the Internet 2.0 browsing experience,  It saves time and frustration by utilizing previously unused browser real estate.  Add-on's have extended the capabilities of the modern browser, allowing better debugging for Web site administrator right the way down to allowing a family slide show to stream with silverlight to the average end user.  I believe once discovered some of the wide range of Firefox add-on's

In the work place saving time usually means saving money so in that sense add on's are a very useful for saving time on Internet searches, and generally make the Internet browsing experience easier.  I believe that a lot of browser plug ins and add on's would be widely use in the IT industry and possibly even custom plug in's.

1. The 23 Things Program

This will be Eddie Powers blog for class activities within the 23 things program, the program will be looking at the emerging web 2.0 technologies and services available on the Internet. The course work is all on the cloud or Internet looking at services such as blogging, wiki manuals, RSS news feeds, podcasts, online applications such as Google docs, video and picture hosting sites, these will be looked at and notation taken of my discoveries here. I have used some of the above mentioned services in my home life for friends and family or just personal learning, I now have three CMS (content management systems) hosted on a server at home that I continue to add to. I am looking forward to hopefully discovering new ways to achieve things each week.