Simulations

Simulation describes a type of simulation whereby artificially-generated signals are fed to real equipment or software in order to Simulate it to produce the result required for training, maintenance or for R&D. The real equipment can be radar, sonics, instruments, software and so on. In some cases the Simulation equipment can be carried in the real platform or carriage vehicle (that is the Ship, AFV or Aircraft) and be used for so-called "embedded training" during its operation, by the generation of simulated scenarios which can be dealt with in a realistic manner by use of the normal controls and displays. In the overall definition of simulation, the alternative method is called "emulation" which is the simulation of equipment by entirely artificial means by physical and software modelling.
This sort of education is normally expensive and is very specialist, normally only used for extreme simuations where human life could be in danger if there is sufficient training. To give these realistic enviroments; weather patterns, reactions to movements, the general feel to the situations and any terbulance, which could be encountered would need to be programmed into the emulator making the Simutaion much more realistic and giving better results.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW3kPQO82ew


A simple simulator in action.



A simulator, which is used in aviation to help training pilots
during their training. It has been styled to the cockpit for
that reason, to give a better experience while using the
simulator.



Hotmail

Hotmail is the default email service provided by Microsoft. This service can be free with these features:

Storage Space: 5GB. Still lesser than 7.2GB of Gmail. Yahoo! Mail accounts users now enjoy unlimited inbox space.

Attachment size: 10MB which half of Gmail's 20MB.

Forwarding: Emails can be forwarded to accounts in the Microsoft domain like others accounts at Hotmail.com or Live.com.

POP access: There has been a mention of providing POP access to all free accounts but till date nothing has come out of it. However, you can download Hotmail emails directly in Windows Live Mail email program or in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007 through Microsoft Office Outlook Connector. In contrast, all Gmail accounts come with free POP3 and IMAP access.
Update: Free Hotmail POP is available in some countries. The feature is being rolled out gradually.

Email client access: You can set up Hotmail accounts on Windows Live Mail and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007 email programs. The last two require Microsoft Office Outlook Connector application. Support for adding and configuring Hotmail on Outlook Express and Windows Mail (Vista email client) has probably been discontinued.

Virus scanning and security: Any online email service worth its salt scans all incoming email and attachments for viruses and worms. Windows Live Hotmail uses Trend Micro virus scanning.

Spam filter: All email accounts attract spam. And Hotmail's spam filer does a decent job. It puts all potential spam into the Junk folder.

Languages available: 35

Account expiration: Free accounts expire after 120 days of non-activity.

Advertisements: Ads are no longer displayed on Hotmail free email accounts - no flashy banners, no text ads ... nothing! Gmail displays relevant unobtrusive text ads. Ads in Hotmail are, however, attached to the bottom of all outgoing email messages.
Some users have reported seeing ads in on their Hotmail accounts. This does not seem to be applicable on all accounts though.

Folders: You can create folders in Hotmail to manage your email messages. This feature is missing in Gmail.

Themes: Change the colors and images in the account interface to suit your mood. Personalize and customize your Hotmail account.

Email composition: Emails can be composed using rich text that offers basic formatting of the message like changing the color, font size, font weight etc of text.

Spell checker: Spell checker is included so you have no excuse for sending emails full for spelling errors.

The service can also be paid for giving a few more services making the service a bit more enjoyable:

POP access: Download Hotmail emails in any email program that uses POP.

Storage space: 10GB - double that of the free account.

Email attachment size: 20MB - again double that of the free account.

Account expiration: Never, as long as its paid for.

Advertisements: No sort of advertisements at all.

(http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/tips/hotmail/hotmail-features.php)



The gneeral layout of Hotmail.



Instant Messaging

Msn Messenger: A provider of Instant
Messaging.

Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time direct text-based communication between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared software clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet. More advanced instant messaging software clients also allow enhanced modes of communication, such as live voice or video calling.

Advantages Of IM

• If used a large amount in a short period of time talking to lots of people; Once taking the cost of a computer and Internet providers into the equation, can be cheaper than mobile phone contracts, only if used for an extensive amount.
• Due to development in portable machinery, such as Mobile phones, Notebooks and Ipads, programs for instant messaging have been created for these, so you can now talk to people all over the world wherever you are.
• Most people have an email address, such as Hotmail and Gmail, which people can used to chat to people as they use those services. This service is also used on different websites, such as Facebook and other services like MMORPGs.
• Images, videos and audio can be transferred using the programs. They can also be streamed for real-time conversations like on phones and video conversations, like a Mobile Phone.
• Due to it's instant nature, even shy people can feel part of a convosation contributing at thewir own pace.

Disadvantages

• Viruses can be transferred from computer to computer, and due to it being a popular social tool, the virus can spread easily and quickly. But, this is countered by word of mouth of people telling each other about the virus and hows its being spread.
• Audio and Videos can be transferred using IM, but this breaks copyright laws.
• Bully from people is also a problem as blcokmail can be used. This often can get very bad, just like normal bully just without any physical contact. Logs of what people say are kept for 6 months, so any criminal investigations of bully can be backed up by evidence.
• Body language and voice tone can't be used on IM, henceforth anything you say could go down the wrong way.
• Predators can talk to people and get personal infomation out of them id they aren't very smart.
• Secure IM are available, but for those you normally have to pay money.



This shows the general
layout of MSN messenger.



MSN Messenger



MSN messenger is a program from microsoft for people to download and can add their friends to talk to. This websites is used with emails made from microsoft services, like Live, MSN and Hotmail email accounts, so the two services interlock with each other helping to makie IM and email easier to use at the same time with features that tell you when you have a new IM message or Email. Msn messenger is connected to the MSN website, which has a lot of multimedia entertain functions, so when you log on, these are often shown in a pop-up.Animated "smilies" can be sent over MSN making the software more interactive and creature with websites, which offer these smilies so you can download them and add them to your library. There are other ways to personalise this screen through nicknames, profile pictures and colour schemes and more.

Omegle



Omegle is an Instant messaging service, which allows you to talk to random people all over the world as complete strangers. The website is partnered with the phrase "Talk with Strangers!" Although the website can be very dangerous, it can also be fun as both of the people definately won't ever speak again in their lives. Because of this, the convosations can be ver strange making use of Internet memes, and general banter, which can be offencive at times. you can use webcams to talk to people that way, but i strongly advise never, as, again, the result can vary from normal to absolutely crazy.

An average convosation on Omegle.



Vlogs

Vlogs are video blogs making blogging more interactive than they usually are. These can vary in subject and how long for descriptive they can be, just like a normal blog, but usually can be made much more interesting with easily accessed video clips, music and often easier to convey you own opinion. Just like in a blog, the language must appeal and be convincing like a normal blog just spoken. To keep the Vlog interesting, clips are often cut shorten and the use of voice overs can make the video more informative or just for comedic affect.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khNimZ6uPOI Download this video!)

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA6YfnT4738&feature=channel Download this video!)

Vlogs can also be used for serious topics, which helps makes the impact of the situation much more shocking as well as giving good feed back to charities showing that they do work and have a good effect on communities involved.

Extra Pictures

The Gmail priority inbox in action, which has decided to show a
message from google telling me about the priority inbox.
This can only get better over time, improving it's selection methods 
from how i read my mail and what i read.  It also shows
my starred messages, so i don't have to switch between pages.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nt3gE9dGHQ download this video!)



My Maths layout.
This eduactional platform makes use of the interactive abilities
of the Internet, making the experience a bit more exciting.




This imatge shows what the graphics of free MMORPG games look
like. These can be improved when you pay for the subscription
to the memebrs' area of the game for a monthly fee.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wdrkp_qJFA download this video!)



Future Blog Subjects

The parts of the course i will do are Blogs, Email, Education, Entertainment, and Chat/Instant Messaging.

13/9/10-15/9/10 Entertainment

Entertainment

Entertainment is any pass time, which people can focus on to amuse themselves during their free time. These can be games, reading, chatting, and any hobby, which people can get involved in.

Entertainment on a Computer

General Layout Of Youtube

Counter Strike Game Play (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsPsvuQ13vo - Download this video!)

Many different pass times, are now available to be played from computers via the Internet, software or Cd's. Many games are available on computers ready, such as games like Heart and Minesweeper. Many more games can be accessed via the Internet for free like Internets such as Runescape a MMORPG, which takes advantage of many people around the world logging on to servers and talking and playing the game. Games can be downloaded off the Internet (G-Mod, Counter Strike, Portal) from servers such as Steam to save money from buying the disc from a store. E-Books are available to be downloaded from the Internet to be read on computers and other handheld devices like Notebooks, Ipads and Laptops. Videos can be streamed via the Internet, from websites such as Youtube, Veoh, Dailymotion and Google Videos. These are user generated video streamers, which is a pass time for people to watch and make videos for. BBC Iplayer is a streaming website, which shows TV from the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) so people don't get behind on their favorite shows. Radio can also be stream via the site as well. Music can be streamed via the Internet from websites such as Grooveshark, Last Fm, and Spotify. Music can also be downloaded from sites such as Amazon, and Itunes. This stops people from buying the Cd's saving the user money. Videos can also be downloaded from Itunes as well.

Advantages

• 
  
  As more services become available via the Internet another means like Cd's etc. less money is spent to burn Cd's and pay for the Cd's, saving time and money for both producer and consumer etc.
• 
  
  Less physical space is taken up by Cd's, boxes, books, and can be transferred from the Hard Drive of a computer and put on to a potable Hard Drive.
• As most of these are immediate, you don't have to wait to buy/order the book and receive it at home. The item can be immediately accessed without any problem.
• Some of the games can be played with friends over the Internet, making them more interactive with the use of microphones and touch screens etc.

Disadvantages

• Due to downloads, the software can easily be pirated, and made available to the public freely via torrents, which destroys the Industry.
• MMORPGs are very time consuming and people can spend a very long time to get their characters to the maximum level. This means they can become addicted.
• Any videos can be uploaded  video streaming websites, which often breaks copyright, that harms the industry.

BBC Iplayer



The general Laout of the BBC Iplayer

 The BBC Iplayer allows people to watch TV on the internet instead of on a television. This is useful so people don't miss their favorite TV shows nd can watch them whenever they like within a 7 day period. Due to how the TV licencing in the UK, people can still watch the IPlayer without the licence, which is a good loop hole that University students took advantage of. The site can be accessed by the Play Station 3 and by Computers, so generally isn't to portabl unless used on a Laptop or Notebook with a strong connection toa hotspot.




www.Funny-games.biz

Funny-Games main page

This website has lots of different Internet games for people to play when they are bored, orjust have nothing better to do. All these games would be stream from servers to your computer, so if the Internet connection is slow or you use dial-up, these games would take a long time to stream, or be of a low quality and be jumpy and lag. These games are often short and only use simple graphics without much detail, often in a very cartoony style. These games are short and sweet and often get addictive, until you manage to complete the game, after that it is rare to go back to the game as they often have little play back qualities. Images, videos, and jokes for more entertainment.



Funny-Games Game Play

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/health/health/3003526/Video-gaming-Top-Tuns-are-top-slobs-too.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3062107/Getting-high-on-MP3-downloads.html

10/9/2010 Online Education

Online Education

Online education takes learning to a new level adding communication between a student and teacher after school making the experience of learning flow better as well as a universal place to put information instead of on paper, which can be lost much easily over data that can be backed-up.

Advantages Of Online Education

• 
  
  The use of simulations can help make the experience of learning more practical and hands on. These are often particular sites specialising in a certain subject giving in depth information.
• 
  
  These help students keep on top of their homework making the deadlines much clearer. This will have stop misunderstandings and can help make the students much more organised. This has a very good effect on multiple areas of school life.
• 
  
  Homework can be sent electronically to teachers helping students to keep to deadlines and saves money on paper, and can easily sen the work back for a redraft, corrections and general exam help/studying for a later date.
• 
  
  Lots of different features such as calenders, documents, contacts, messages, today, portfolio, and they help to organise the student and to give contact between students and teacher and give updates for suture lessons.

Disadvantages

• The students would have to be able to have access to the Internet freely from day to day to be able to use the Virtual Learning Environment, as not all people have this access from within their own home. But this is becoming less of a problem as more people are connecting to the Internet via computers and phones and Ipads etc.
• As the program is on the Internet and servers would take up space to store data on different students, subjects admins and teachers, there would be a fee to be able to use the domain space for the use of the school. But, this is significantly smaller when divided by the amount of students in the school, meaning that the split cost would actually be quite small considering.
• Students can't run away from homework (Unfortunately).

Fronter

The general layout of Fronter

Fronter is the type of VLE that is run by the school for homework, and other useful task involving the school directly. This Directly makes the student know exactly what they are looking for each students is added to the folders , which they particularly need for their courses instead of looking through many different courses, exam boards and levels. Feedback directly from the teacher is available from the site making it much more realistic and helps students excel with comments and grades from their teachers making self student much more efficient and helps improve the grades of the students. With a system, which is easy to use, it makes the site easier to navigate and improves the experience much more smoothly.

BBC Bitesize

The general layout of BBC Bitesize

BBC Bitesize is a revision site used before exams to look over lots of different subjects for the students exams, helping to improve their grades. The website is quite large and has all the different levels in the British curriculum, so finding the right courses could be hard. As there are different exam boards, the student would also have to know what exam board they are going to take and revise for the right one, as the courses normally vary a bit. As the websites is used normally as a way for revision, the topics aren't often heavy and very good for looking over materials. The websites has; lessons, images, videos, audio games and tests; making the experience of learning alround.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/323272.stm

9/9/2010 Email

What is Email?

Electronic-Mail.

Email is a system to send mail to other people via the internet. Due to the mail being send via the internet, is much faster than normal mail.

Advantages of Email?

Email is much fast, cheaper and has large limits to the amount of info, which can be sent. Files, which can be sent via email, can be images, videos, audio files, hyperlinks and many different resources that can be awkward to sent via normal mail. As the mail is immediately sent to the receiver, less time can be wasted for talking via mail. This makes the entire situation nicer and can be very good for talking to people in different time zones.

Disadvantages of Email

Junk email is a very bad problem with email. these often clutter up your inbox and makes the use of emails less enjoyable. However, this can be countered with spam blockers, extra organisation methods (E.g. Starred, Filters etc.) and blocking the email addresses altogether. Viruses are also very common in spam attatchments. These often damage your computer and can cost lots of money as well as a variety of ways to con you and steal your identity. Due to a large amount of junk mail, organizations can be overloaded with the email and can cause emaails to crash and costs money to have a large storage area for the large amount of mail. This also stops the organization from being well organised and can stop an organization from growing and developing from the problem.

Interesting Story
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-11248877

G-mail

G-mail view

• Gmail priority inbox finds important emails and sorts them for you. Less time wasted on junk mail. Often placed at the top of the list. Continuation of other reason i stated.
• Star feature puts folders in a different folder to read on another date. Organisation.
• Avoids infomation overload and orders mail. Organisation.
• Works out your patterns and orders the emails accordingly.
• Replying to messages helps to organise the more important messages.
• Can also manually change the prioritisation.
• Can only get better over time to help learn your habbits.
• Very good for organisation and helps make the use of emails more enjoyable and faster.
• Large amount of actions.
• Filters to help organise emails from certain people to automatically delete, star or sort.
• Goggle chat at the same time.
• Use microphones + headphones
• Buzz (google's version of a social network)

Micro Blogs

Microblogging
Microblogging is similar to normal bloggin but is on a smaller scale often only consisting of about a sentence and an embedded image or video. The topics, which microblogs often involve are simly "What I'm doing right now" to the thematic, "Sport cars" for example. Although microblogging can be used for advertising organizations, they are often used with normal blogs to help get awareness. Micro bloggs are much simpler to set up with only a name, email and URL address for registration to these websites (Twitter and Tumblr).

Twitter

The general appearence of Twitter

Twitter is used  by many people both famous and not. This is normally shown by the large difference in follows the person has. In some ways, has almost took the level of a social networking services due to talk to friends, follows and finding new people. This service is good, but finding new people can be quite annoying unless you can spell their names correctly. The service is much simpler than services like blogger and tumblr, with a limit on the characters in a post (due to it originally being designed for Mobile Phones), but can still be very affective when used in the right  ways and also in the wrong ways due to the posts being published world wide.

Tumblr

The general appearence of Tumblr

Tumblr has a more professional feel to it, which generally looks alot more similar to Blogger rather than Twitter, another micro blog. Insetad of using links from other websites to post videos, you can upload videos to your blog instead of having to use a daily motion, or Youtube account to post videos. This is a similar case to other media sources like audio and images. However, there is a limit to the amount of videos and audio files that can be uploaded in a single day.

Blogging Tasks

Blog
Full Name - Weblog.
"A journal written on-line and accessible to users of the internet."
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blog)

How are they different?
Blogs are written by people on particular subjects. These are normally interactive, by the use of comments and sending messgaes via widget. These make blogs stand out from common static websites.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/blog)

Why use them?
Blogs can be used to speak your mind in a powerful way to the world. They are very interactive (E.g. Embedded Youtube videos, Image Slideshows, Music, Lots of Gadgets etc.) and can be updated easily without having to worry about programing codes and without having to worry about the design. Blogs can be used for:

• As a way to express personal opinions.
• As a marketing tool.
• As a communication tool.
• A an educational medium.
• As a campaign strategy for presidential candidates.
• Blogging establishes you as an expert in your field.
• Blogging moves your site up in the search engines if you update your site regularly.
• Blogging gives you an easy way to interact with customers and potential customers.
• Blogging is an easy way to give more value to your customers and let them know more about you and your products before they buy.

http://www.webbriefcase.net/2008-01/blogs-what-are-they-why-use-them/

What are the Advantages of Blogs?

1. The consumer of the blog can be more informed than others, which can help with the long term health of our economies and societies.
2. Blogs can help the organization develop stronger relationships and brand loyalty to customers.
3. Blogs, in an Intranet enviroment, can be an excellent way to share infomation within an organization.
4. Blogs, due to the interactive qualities with comments, can give you feed back and help keep your finger on the pulse as readers react to certain pieces and story ideas etc.
5. Blogs can build the profile of the writer, showcasing that the organization has talent and expertise.

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm

What are the Disadvantages of Blogs?

1. Most people don't have much interesting things to say, and usually fail to organize their blogs to be compeling and clear mannered.
2. Many people who have alot of free time to write these blogs, often have nothing to say and drown you in trvia. And the people who do have interesting and compeling infomation, often don';t have enought time to blog their ideas, meaing that the expertise of an organization is often hidden.
3. Blogs may be easy to start, they are hard to maintain. Writing coherently is very time consuming aswell as difficult for humans. Blogs are cheap, but very expensive as they eat up time. As a result, many blogs are often left not updated, thus damaging rather than enhancing the reputation of the organization.

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm

How Blogs can Affect Lives
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3074658/Charlie-bit-my-finger-boys-get-their-own-hit-blog.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/usa/2204073/Michael-Lohan-Lindsays-dad-stops-writing-his-blog.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3086912/Dr-Karen-Woos-joy-and-fear-in-blogs.html

How are Comments Useful on Blogs?
Comments on blogs add a new dimention of interacive qualites. These often give feed back to the blog askling additional questions or correcting the blogger. These can also be recomendations for future blogs aswell as to help find out what the target audience would like in the blogs from the critical comments.

Blogging 6/9/10

By using blogspot, I added different gadgets such as the Slideshow, showing images of other IT blogs that I have found. More features such as the Blog list are used to show similar blogs to the blog I am currently using and blogs, which I am following.

My Blog List

By clicking on the "Design" tab, the general layout of the blog would appear wear i can "Add a Gadget."  By chosing the "My blog list app," this is how the gadget is added to my page. Then by "add blog," and typing in the url, the link between your blog and the other is complete.

With the use of this app, a connection can be made with the subject, which the blog is about. With this blog, any of the blogs on my list would be other students on the same course and then blogs, whic would be of use on the course giving me ideas how IT is becoming an important part of our lives. When these blogs are updated, i can see they have and read the blog without having to visit their blog, similar to a subscriptiong.

Newsfeed

This gadget shows news from google. These generally just show articles from that day. This shows how people can use the internet to find out about the news of the day, instead of reading it from newspapers or even offical websites. This helps to save time leaving more time for more important things.

BlogThis!
This software means that you can blog websites without having to log on to blogspot. This makes the use blogging simpler, quicker and much easier with just the click of a button instead of lots of clicks.