Week Three

To those of you who will be reading this, I am sorry that the order of my tasks are out of whack, I can't do much about it so you'll just have to deal with it, cheers :)

Culture of The Internet:
This task relates to your own experiences with communication technologies. Write a post about how you use new communication technologies to communicate with your friends and family.Some things you might like to consider:

Do you have friends whom you only know from the internet and have never met in person? Is this different to people that you know in person? Describe the difference.
No I can't say I have, as I belive stuff like that is creepy and can promote bad stuff.

How long have you been using these communication technologies?
I use MSN, which is a form of communication technologies, only to socialize with my friends though - not anyone I don't know. I have been a user for around 6 years now and it is veery conveient to catch up with those who have gone overseas, changed schools etc. I now also use Myspace (doesn't everyone) to communicate with friends - it's rad how you can see their photos so you can see what you're freinds are upto now (those who you haven't seen in a while).

What influenced you to start using these technologies?
Well MSN,it was the Fad in year 7 - so I had to get it! It turned out to be a great way to talk to your buddies in crisis' like assignment help, personal help, computer help etc. No idea what influenced me to start using myspace, but I am an addict which is really bad!

Using Excel! Week 11

The task for this week required me to try out Excel, in doing so I was asked to complete several minni tasks.

Myself, not a fan of excel having had to use it in High school, I never got formulas correct, no idea how, but I always managed to muck up something!

As a result of my lack of skills when using excel, I did find simple things easy (like entering data) but when I got to entering formulas i.e =IF(F2>0,$Gain$,$Loss$), thats' when it all went down hill, nothing went my way what was meant to come up didn't - it was horrible. You could see it now teeth clenched and hands in a fist ready to punch out the computer. But I kept my cool and continued the tasks required.

When I was aksed to make graphs, I nailed it as I have had to make graphs in excel on numerous prior occasions, and I find them fun and easy enough to use - it's pretty straight forward really.

MACROS, MACROS MACROS.. How I love Macros.. eww not..

I had major difficulties in the section asking me to:

"Create another Macro called 'GainsandLosses'. When recording select rows 1-5, right-click and select Unhide. Click Stop.
Now create another Macro called 'Losses'. When recording select rows 2 and 3 (which have a Gain) right-click on the mouse and select Hide. Click Stop. "

Yeah okay, is that all? I did all that, however did I come up with the right outcome - well what do you think? NOOOOO! Somehow it all went out of whack, my losses didn't add up or anything at that matter!


Excel.. Not for everyone!

Internet Field Trip Week 8

This tutorial task asked me to go on an internet field trip to explore 3D Instant messaging websites, and then answer the question on what differences these 3D IM’s have to regular IM’s like MSN.

To start off, I am a MSN User and think it is great, just what I need and easy to use.
However, when looking at the advantages of Active Worlds it is an environment that enables you visit and chat in incredible 3D worlds that are built by other users! The Active Worlds Universe is a community of hundreds of thousands of users that chat and build 3D virtual reality environments in millions of square kilometers of virtual territory. Clearly, the fact that it is in a 3D envrionment appeals more to those who are into 'Virtual Reality.' Moreover, another fabulous advantage is that whil eyou are waiting for a reply from your friends, or even another user, you can explore the envrionment and meet new people!

IM like MSN is purely what it is, a instant messaging chatroom, but you can customise and choose your contacts etc. But a 3D IM like Activeworlds allows for something entirely different. MSN does allow users to interact through video conversations and also games such as Soliatire, chess etc.

Now The qualitative difference between these two mesaging systems is that the behaviour of the people involved can be expressed in many different ways in the 3d environment. For instance, emoticons, they can be expressed in a far more descriptive manner. Little changes like so adds a whole other feature to which people can be drawn into using.

In summary, while the 3d Envrionment looks appealing, it does have some disadvantages. While MSN is easy to use, Active worlds do seem a bit complex to tthose who aren't familar to Virtual reality etc. Another thing, due to the fact it is so advanced, it did in fact chew up my downloads!