Friday, November 30, 2007

UIR Episode 3 - Summary - Reflection

From what I understood today, Information is referring to website providing to readers factual details, conveying a particular message across. Business/Marketing will be the marketing strategy conducted across websites to bring awareness to readers and attract more businesses. Lastly, Personal website will be websites containing details on personal point of view which means it not necessary be factual.

So happy! I learnt how to add links to my blog today. I had been trying to make a blogskin for my blog since the first lesson, but did not manage to get it done. Finally, I gave up and got someone to assist me with it.
Why so happy? I finally edited something on the template script with my own ability and also because today is a short lesson. For the past few lesson, I have to bring back homework to complete. Finally, this weekend can get me away from UIR and focus on other projects that are submitting soon...

Marking an end to Episode 3

Posted by iMcelestinE at 1:00 PM

UIR Episode 3 - Identifying their purpose...

Today's lesson, we went through lesson 1-3 as a class. Recalled a lot of detailed information that I learnt and forgotten during the last few lab lessons. Then, we moved on to our practical tasks again. But this week's practical task is quite easy. Not many researches are required. We just need to retrieve the research resources from Lab 1 and 2 practical tasks to complete today's practical task. And then, identify each of their purpose.

The first resource --- http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/pointtaken/2007/11/families-are-first-line-of-defense.html.It is a resource for Personal use. As it is a website providing information of personal view. It is not factual information as people view things differently.

The second resource --- http://www.nationalyouth.com/substanceabuse.html.It is a resource for Information use. It provides factual information concerning youth drug abuse. For example the symptoms, how it is treated and how drug abuse youth behave.

The third resource --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeQ9hAotlcM.It is for Business/Marketing use. It is marketing the food that the particular restaurant provides. Its purpose is to create awareness and attract business out of it. However, it is not a reliable source of information.

The fourth resource --- http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=21754&CtNode=122.It is again for Personal use. It is a personal comment on how the 3 women who have achieve success through western food in Taipei. It is not a reliable source of information.

Very quickly I got it done, so do people around me. And, today's lesson very quickly came to an end.
To be continued...

Posted by iMcelestinE at 12:30 PM

Friday, November 16, 2007

UIR Episode 4&5 - Summary - Reflection

This practical exercise took me a very long time. The relevant information is very difficult to identify. I even had to change topic and try searching. But, ultimately, I still came back to this topic.

My greatest discovery! Meta-Search engine. I had never realized the presence of this search facility. So now, I learnt that I can do even better searches than from Google. I am amazed by its ability of search across different search engines.

Despite the difficulty of this exercise, when everything is completed, I realized that it is a worthwhile exercise. I learnt a lot of things from this exercise and it aids my Assignment 1 report. I feel as good as doing my report now.

Great! With all the satisfactions from this week's exercise, I shall come to an end.
Marking an end to Episode 4&5

Posted by iMcelestinE at 11:28 PM

UIR Episode 4&5 - My discovery...

Upon learning the 3 search facilities, I will have to complete my tasks for this week.

I am doing a research on the usage of 2-factor authentication. I found http://www.dsssasia.com/htmdocs/company/casestudy_cert_authority.htm from Google and http://www.datasecurity3.com/htmdocs/products/a_server/Streamline_2FA_logins.pdf from MetaCrawler. Apparently, I found none from Yahoo! Directories.

The above 3 search facilities are categorized as Search engine, Meta-search engine and Subject Directory, respectively.

These 3 search facilities are similar in the sense that the search results are also displayed in similar format, such that all three of them provide the title, the description and the link for the results. And, the currency of the three search facilities is equally as up to date. Of course, there are still other similarities. However, I will be naming two here for the time being and leave the rest for my Assignment 1 report.

Well, as for their differences, I guess will have to depend on their effectiveness.

Google
Strength: It provides a lot of relevant information. The most relevant search for this activity is found second in the list.
Weakness: The size of hits is too huge. Quite a number of unrelated ones, found from the search keywords, are also included.

MetaCrawler
Strength: Provide relevant sources of information and the size of hits is far smaller than Google.
Weakness: The most relevant resource that I have chosen falls on the 6th position. It is slightly further than Google.

Yahoo! Directories
Strength: Categorizing searches can help narrow down the results
Weakness: The results provided are too generic. In this case, I encounter difficulty in obtaining any relevant information.

In conclusion, Meta-search engine, MetaCrawler, will best meet my needs. This is because, the size of hits is of acceptable size, the relevant result despite slightly further than Google, but it is still within the top ten. Most importantly, it conducts its search across a few other search engines at the same time. Hence, it can provide information that both Google and Yahoo directories have.

Therefore, I think that I would prefer a Meta-search engine.
To be continued...

Posted by iMcelestinE at 12:46 PM

Friday, November 9, 2007

UIR Episode 2 - Summary - Reflection

Interesting and easy, but confusing. This practical task took me a long time to complete. Had been trying hard to understand, analyze and describe. Understanding the difference between the 3 categories, analyzing the website and describing the website.

I used Google for all the researches in this week's practical task. I used keywords like "Drug abuse", "Impact of drug abuse" and "Consequences of drug abuse". Ultimately, I think only "Impact of drug abuse" gave me more related information. Information obtained through searching "Drug abuse" is too wide. It provided information such as causes of drug abuse. As for "Consequences of drug abuse", the information provided differs. I believe this is due to "Impact" more widely used in most resources as compared to "Consequences".

I learnt to differentiate the difference between the 3 categories of resources...Firstly is the difference in the tone of the message. Different types of website had different type of message that it is suppose to convey to the viewers, hence the tone will differs. For instance, Personal resources will most likely sound more casual as compared to Organizational and Subject based resources.

Secondly is the difference in the type of people responsible for maintaining the websites. For Organizational resource and Subject based resource, people who is maintaining it is of a more professional type. As for Personal resource, people who maintain it, does it out of interest. Any kind of people can do the job.

Lastly is the accuracy of the message in the websites. Organization and subject-based websites will definitely convey message that are of benefit to the organization while personal websites is conveying messages at a personal point of view. Different people have different point of view. Hence, personal messages at times can be highly doubted.

Sounds like, Organizational resource and Subject based resource are quite similar. Well, after some reading up, I believe their difference is that Organizational resource provides information from and link to, other related websites. And, Subject based resources can overlap information from personal sites. And, this is what I thought.

Hopefully, I am right.
Marking an end to Episode 2

Posted by iMcelestinE at 9:46 PM

UIR Episode 2b - Making use of what I learnt...

With what I learnt from this week's lab and what I understood from my own reading up, I completed the lab task. However, I still had some confusion between the difference between subject based and organizational. Despite so, I did not give up and managed to find one website representing what I learnt as subject based and two website representing what I learnt as organizational. Well, hopefully I did not mix them up.

Firstly, the easiest to identify is Personal website. I found this personal resource (URL) http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/pointtaken/2007/11/families-are-first-line-of-defense.html. It is maintained by an individual. It discussed about the consequences of drug abuse and the increased in youth drug abuse cases. It also mentioned about how much help family members can bring to their kids to prevent such cases from happening.

Secondly, a resource that I think is Organizational type. http://www.nationalyouth.com/substanceabuse.html. It is maintained by National Youth Network. It states information about how national youth network view youth drug abuse. It also serves as a form of resource to deliver message and information about drug abuse. For example the symptoms, how it is treated and how drug abuse youth behave. It provides link to other related parties in their website. The links lead viewers to the right source for more information on specific issues such as parental tips.

Thirdly, another resource that I think belongs to an Organizational type. http://www.unodc.org/youthnet/youthnet_youth_drugs.html. It is maintained by UNODC. It acts as a source to deliver information about drugs to the public. Not only does it provide a lot of information on drugs, it also provides a link section whereby the links of related organizations, professional groups and companies to the viewers.

Lastly, this website, http://www.drugfree.org.sg/ForTheYouths/index.asp, I thought was some organizational one. But then after some exploration with my read ups, I decided that it is Subject based. It is maintained by National Council. It is a source for National Council to create awareness of drug abuse to the public. Information such as causes of personal testimony, drug abuse, how to say no to drugs and source of help, is highlighted in this website. It do not provide purely information by the organization, it also provide information of personal drug experiences in their personal testimony section.

This is what I did. Now, I am feeling a sense of satisfaction.
To be continued...

Posted by iMcelestinE at 1:10 PM

UIR Episode 2a - My research based on the 4 different categories...

Today, UIR lesson require me to pair up and do research based on a common topic. My group mate and I had chosen FOOD as our topic... but I will be looking into the western food aspect.

I have learnt of the following 4 categories from the previous lesson...The first one is the newsgroups and discussion list. For my research, I found http://202.172.44.222/forum-asia//showthread.php3?t=1260 to fall into this category. It is a discussion board that has different people discussing about the different western food that they had ever came across. Most of them also stated to readers where to find the western food that they want to share with others.

The second one is the electronic journals and magazine. For my research, I found http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=21754&CtNode=122 to fall into this category. It is journal entries about 3 women who have achieve success through western food in Taipei by running little bistros in the male-dominated restaurant business.

The third one is the multi-media source. For my research, I found http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeQ9hAotlcM to fall into this category. It is a website that introduces viewers to the western food that this particular restaurant provides.

The last one is the WWW site. For my research, I found http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/gourmet/dining/gp_dini_west.jhtml to fall into this category. It is a website from the Hong Kong tourism board telling tourist about the western food that they have there.

This is what I had learnt from practical 1 task.
To be continued...

Posted by iMcelestinE at 12:41 PM

Friday, November 2, 2007

UIR Episode 1 - Summary - Reflection

Wow... First experience creating a blog, interesting yet blurred. Despite many people around me has a blog, but it had never interest me. Now, for this subject that I am taking up, I am going to create a blog and do regular postings.

The first thing that I am going to do for my blog is... CHANGE BLOG SKIN ! I sign up for www.blogskin.com to obtain nice blogskin. After many tries, I still failed to make the change. Disappointed! I guess, this will also be the most difficult thing to do. Next, I tried the postings and editing post features, it is quite user-friendly. So, I think I would not have problem posting up my work here.

My lab work for today is DO RESEARCH. Sounds simple right??? I thought so too... but when I started doing then I realized that it is complicated. I never knew that research can be categorized into so many categories. I am shocked. But, being the first lesson, no stress no pressure, work is still easy. So I continued doing my research but could not finish because I spent too much time dealing with the blog in the first half of the lesson. Therefore, I will have to do it as homework.

Marking an end to Episode 1

Posted by iMcelestinE at 10:58 PM

UIR Episode 1b - My "must visit" websites...

I am a romance drama lover.
I like to watch Taiwan dramas and Hong Kong dramas. I often watch them through the internet. Despite it is not as clear as being watch through television, I still watch from the internet because... It is free!

I just do not think that it is worth to buy a set of series show VCD that can keep me entertain for only 3 to 4 days. The most important thing is... I will watch it only once. It is quite unlikely for me to watch it again. Hence, I will prefer to watch from the internet. Moreover, from my resources, I will always be able to obtain the whole series, having every single episode in there.

I will always view drama shows from...
http://www.youtube.com/
From personal experience, youtube download the videos quite fast and this is always my primary source. It is more user-friendly as compared to other sources. However, I guess because it is under Google management, therefore some shows are not allowed to be posted up there. There are always cases of shows being posted half way only.

My second alternative is...
http://www.tudou.com/
This is a china website. The downloading speed is slower as compared to youtube but it is always my secondary source and so far, it had never failed to provide me with shows that I watched half way from youtube. It will always have all the episodes for each show. It is user-friendly too. It is categorized by the name of the show. Hence by searching through the name, you can get all the episodes ready on the screen.

Hopefully this information can be of use to drama lovers.
To be continued...

Posted by iMcelestinE at 7:14 PM

UIR Episode 1a - About Celestine

Hi people. I am Celestine currently studying in TP Financial Business Informatics, year 2. Well, I am one who has just found my aim, and still in search of my hobby and passion.

I am a blur person to some of my friends, always doing silly things. I took a very long time to actually create this blog, which others find it extremely easy to create. I dislike dealing with computer stuffs but I am actually studying in Informatics and Information Technology School.

I am not the soft-spoken type of person. I can also be extremely not sociable to people whom I don't really know well. However, another side of me can be discovered when relationship gets better.

I have two sisters at home. They two have the same character but I am a totally different one. I have great click of friends in school. We hang out almost everyday, even during semester break. Eating, slacking and playing together are like our daily routine.

Well, that's all that I can think of for now.
To be continued...

Posted by iMcelestinE at 12:15 PM