Sunday, September 18, 2016

Exploring Instant Messaging

Instant messaging has become a common feature over the years. It is useful for everyday personal friendly conversation between people (or groups of people), conversations in the workplace, and online gaming just for a few examples.

While some messengers have more advanced features, most offer a number of the same. Lists of features can include the following:

  • Add/Delete Friends (Contacts) – Import/Export (even through social media sites or e-mail accounts)
  • Voice Chat
  • Video Chat/Screen Sharing
  • Personal Status Heading
  • Status – Online, Offline, Away, Busy, Invisible
  • Spell Check
  • Tabs for Multiple Messages
  • Emojis
  • Photo and File Attachment
  • Font Customization
  • Interface Theme/Skin Customization
  • Ability to send Text Messages to Mobile Phones or E-mail Accounts
  • Ability to Create Groups/Lists/Favourites out of Added Contacts


Of course, the above list is non-exclusive. As messengers have changed over the years features keep being added or tweaked in favour of appealing to those who use the programs.
Personally, I remember using instant messengers back when AOL launched their messenger, AIM. I also had Windows Live (Microsoft), Yahoo, Jabber, Skype, Google Talk, Facebook, Myspace, ICQ, Battle.net, and Trillian over the years. I still have a few of these today.

I’d like to make a quick extra mention of Trillian. If you haven’t heard of this before and you use multiple messaging services, this is a great program! It works across a variety of operating systems, to include mobile. It has the ability to connect to any number of messaging services and e-mail accounts and gives you access to them all in one user interface. In the past, the program was able to incorporate messengers such as Skype and Windows Live, for example, but since they have changed their programming, these are two of a few that are no longer supported. If you’re using multiple messaging programs, social sites and e-mail accounts from the following list, you may want to consider checking this program out!
  • AIM
  • Bonjour
  • Facebook
  • Google Talk
  • ICQ
  • IRC
  • Jabber
  • VZ
  • Yahoo
  • Foursquare
  • Twitter
  • IMAP/POP3 e-mail accounts


Most of the people I talk to will either correspond through e-mail or through Twitter’s direct messages. For anything else, I normally am using Facebook Messenger these days. Even though it is a social media site I don’t like to use as often as others for personal use – the contacts I have make frequent use of the site, so I do have use messenger daily. Running a business page and multiple groups also means it’s something I have to make sure I’m staying on top of. Response time is really important when being in an administrative role, when it comes to answering and sending instant messages.

A lot of people will use messenger instead of writing in an e-mail because they think the response time will be faster, which in a sense is correct. It sounds a bit bad, but people are going to knock out taking care of social media messages far quicker than those than come through e-mail, even though it is the preferred method of interaction. It is far easier to get bad word of mouth for even taking a normal amount of time to respond because a user is already using a social media site in the first place – they are right there to publicly voice their anger and displacement.

Using a messenger for inter-office correspondence is quite common and can get questions answered and information passed along much quicker than typing up a formal e-mail message, although in certain situations, the later should still be done. I think the biggest bonus to using a messenger in the workplace would be when you need to collaborate or get answers from multiple people in a short amount of time. People in offices and other places of work are not always on the same schedules so conversing through a group message will get responses faster than waiting around for a bunch of e-mails, when people have the time to create them. A message can offer a quick and short response, which is often all that is needed in some cases.



Saturday, September 17, 2016

A Bit About LinkedIn



LinkedIn is basically a professional networking website. You can choose to connect as a business, student, or professional and create a profile for others to browse and contact you. I would say that the site is mostly used by professionals (or those seeking jobs) and recruiters. You can market yourself and your skills in a profile you create, that job recruiters can pull up during their searches. You’re basically infusing your resume into a social media profile.

Features of the site now include options to have conversations, ask and answer questions, and even have informal interviews. You can allow job recruiters to contact you should they come across your profile who think you should apply for a position.

Once you’re signed up, you can add connections (people) to your network. These can be friends, classmates, professional references, family, etc. You also have the option of connecting to groups such as previous employers, schools, alumni, clubs, or you can show your interest in the same groups.

As far as suggestions go for using the site, my first and most important piece of advice to anyone thinking about using LinkedIn, is to make sure to not treat it like any other social media site. Too often you browse around and see unprofessional photos, headlines and summaries on a profile. If someone is signed up in hopes of landing a job position, they more than likely aren’t going to be contacted, because a recruiter is going to pass on all of the above when coming across it.

Another issue with the site that I found out is that you need to have some sort of knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in order to be noticed in searches. Just like those automatic resume programs that search for certain words – profile results are filtered similarly. Having the right keywords in your profile and placing them multiple times (appropriately of course) will give yours a better boost than those who have no idea about how to integrate this SEO practice.


Personally I have not been very fond of this website, but I realize that the day is coming where I will need to invest 100% into making a proper profile. The more I search job boards elsewhere, the more I notice a decline in the amount and quality of jobs available. I have seen many more people and companies flocking to this site over the years. In fact, I was looking for some jobs this last week and saw a couple of places where the only place they wanted you to contact them was on LinkedIn. If companies are being this selective in their hiring process, then a proper profile here is something we should all think about investing quality time into.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

VOIP - Skype



These days I don’t get much use out of Skype. When I was in the military, I was overseas for over seven years. This is the time when I used it the most. I connected with family back home, especially during the holidays. I remember having some kind of trouble initially because of the countries being different. They had kept trying to insist that I needed to purchase credits to use the program, but I was able to work out getting a United States number and everything was smooth after that.

On occasion I have used Skype to collaborate with other YouTube artists on videos and song parodies. I once was on a phone call with someone producing a science fiction podcast, who recorded my lines through the call as well. I have used it on multiple occasions to live screen share and provide instructions or visuals through calls to someone. The most recent use I have gotten out of the program was to get job testing instructions from a company I had applied to this last year. They delivered the instructions and followed up during and after the test through the messaging portion of the system.
For the most part, however, I use Google Voice to make phone calls and if I need to use video with a call, I can do so through GoogleHangout, or more often – Facebook Calling.

Anyone can benefit from using Skype I would say. I feel as though it has a more business type of feel to it these days than it used to. The mobile application of the program is wonderful for people on the go, but does require an internet connection, so you will need to be on wi-fi or use your mobile service as an internet connection to make use of it. Strictly as a messenger it works great! For video, it is good for domestic calling, but when you start to make international calls, it can become a hassle, although it is still low cost compared to other services. The biggest downfall I think Skype has going for it is that group calling is gated behind their premium service.



Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Social Media Comparison Chart

Facebook Twitter YouTube
Active Users 1,712 (million) 313 (million) 1,000 (million)



Daily Users



1,130 (million)



135 (million)



Only referred to as hundreds of thousands



Foreign Accounts



85%



79%



70%



Pros



Easy for business start 
up to reach customers


Anonymity, fast reach



Entertaining for longer periods of time

Integrates other media (videos, photos, slideshows)

Status updates in 
real-time
Educational/Instructional

Instant messaging and calls

Brings/sends users 
across sites

Livestreaming available

Cost effective customer 
service for businesses

Integrates video and 
gif playback
Free hosting/high quality



Cons



Expensive to advertise



Word limit to posts



Ads ignored via adblocks
software

Privacy Concerns

Need to stay active daily for reach

Limited user interaction (comments)

Potentially hurt you 
professionally if employers
search for your information 
and see anything negative
Takes time to build audience
Difficult to make money from ads; must be partnered with
an outside network or use Google Adsense


Sources:

Donchev, D. (2016). Youtube Statistics - 2016. Retrieved from http://fortunelords.com/youtube-statistics/ 

Harden, S. (2016). STATS | YouTube Company Statistics - Statistic Brain. Retrieved from http://www.statisticbrain.com/youtube-statistics/

Ingram, M. (2016). Snapchat Now Has More Daily Users Than Twitter Does. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2016/06/02/snapchat-twitter/

Millward, S. (2015). Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem. Retrieved from https://www.techinasia.com/facebook-surpasses-half-billion-monthly-active-users-in-asia-for-first-time 

Statista. (2016). Facebook users worldwide 2016. Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

Statista. (2016). Twitter: Monthly active users 2010-2016 - Statista. Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/

Twitter. (2016). What's Happening. Retrieved from https://about.twitter.com/company

Tynan, D. (2016). Facebook's journey 'only 1% done' after surge in revenue, Zuckerberg says. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/27/facebook-ad-sales-growth-quarterly-results

YouTube. (2016). Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

Zephoria. (2016). Top 20 Facebook Statistics - Updated July 2016. Retrieved from https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/

Sunday, September 11, 2016

My Podcast Assignment: Podcasts/Web 2.0




TRANSCRIPT: 

INTRO MUSIC

Hello!

This is Jessica Lerfold and in this recording, I will be briefly talking a bit about what exactly podcasts are and how they fit into Web 2.0. This casting is being recorded for American Military University’s course Web 2.0 Fundamentals – all music is royalty free from Kevin MacLeod, which can be located at Incompetech.
So, what is a podcast you ask? These are audio, or sometimes video recordings of content. There are one or more hosts to the show and more often than not there is collaboration involved in the form of sharing information, interviews, or additional added content within the cast. These recordings are meant to be available for playback on a variety of media – think gaming consoles, personal computers and mobile devices. Here’s a fun fact for you: Did you know where the word podcast comes from? It is the result of a combination of iPod and broadcasting.

MUSIC

Ok, so now that we know the basics of a podcast, let’s talk a bit about how it relates to the term Web 2.0. If you’re unsure about what that is, don’t worry – it’s something you probably are involved in on a daily basis without even realizing. To keep it simple, Web 2.0 is a term used to encompass a variety of the tools and services we use on the web to make content. Have you ever used a social media site, wiki or open source software? Those are examples of what is included in the broad spectrum of components making up this term. If you can contribute or collaborate – it relates to Web 2.0.
If you think about it, podcasts will often have their own website. Users can submit ideas, questions and comments to the host, which they may or may not address during their casts. Mash ups of music, commercials, skits, and various other things are often created and included during an episode; many of these mash ups are a collaboration between the shows host, viewers, and other outside sources.
Sometimes they may record live through a streaming service with video or no video – but they have a chat room to interact with viewers while the show is being recorded. There may be some podcasts that don’t use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to promote and interact with the public, but I have yet to listen to one that hasn’t personally.

MUSIC

I’d like to thank everyone for listening today. You can find the written transcript for this cast, as well as credits on my blog: my20path.blogspot.ca. You can also find RSS feeds and reviews for a few other podcasts. The blog contains more Web 2.0 content and discussion, so if that interests you, please make sure to check it out! Have a good one!


OUTRO MUSIC


Starak, Y. (2014). What is a Podcast? Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/230/what-is-a-podcast/ 

Podcast & Podcast Alley Websites

If I’m honest, I really disliked using both Podcast.com and Podcastalley.com.  Podcast is probably the better of the two navigation-wise when looking for a podcast to listen to. The biggest downfall to this site are the number of podcasts that are old and outdated. It was a little difficult to find current shows of interest to listen to.
Podcast Alley on the other hand, has plenty of updated shows, but I was basically only able to find ones that were on the front page. Even then, the site directed me to another site with a listing of the podcasts they host, so it was like I wasn’t even using Podcast Alley to begin with.

Both sites contained broadcaster information – tips and tricks, technical articles, podcamps, etc. While I was able to use the sites suggested to complete my assignments this week, I do prefer sites like Stitcher or iTunes when it comes to browsing for shows to listen to. Stitcher has a variety top 100 list, another top 100 list by how much shows are either moving up in the rankings, and a great selection of categories to browse through.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Podcast: The Instance

The last podcast I chose to listen to this week is one that was more familiar to me. It is a World of Warcraft podcast called The Instance. I had stopped listening to Warcraft podcasts for a number of months, as my playtime diminished significantly due to school. It wasn’t a big deal though because it was during the months before the release of the newest expansion for the game. It was good to pick this one back up and feel a sense of familiarity with all of the things they were discussing.

It was a lot of initial thoughts on leveling, zones, graphics, instanced areas, etc. since the expansion had just released. Each person touches on their experience with the expansion in the first 4 days of launch throughout the episode. As always, they listen to voice mails left by listeners and answer any questions that are sent in. (The Instance, 2016)

As a side note, the podcast has their own forum section on their website host, although most of the threads are a bit old – dating back to the winter. They are slightly more active on their Facebook (only really posting episodes), but are the most active on Twitter, as are most similar podcasts I listen to. If you’re looking for Warcraft news and player experiences from seasoned podcasters, give this one a listen!



You can find The Instance and the other Warcraft podcasts I listen to or recommend on my Podcast Twitter list.


The Instance. (2016). The home of Scott Johnson's FrogPants Studios . Retrieved from http://frogpants.com/podcasts/instance/ 

Friday, September 9, 2016

Podcast: Fast Forward

The second podcast I listened to this week for our assignment was the latest episode of Flash Forward, titled “The Witch Who CameFrom Mars.” This podcast generally takes some kind of situation and discusses it as how and why it may happen in the future. The show does seasons of episodes and the hostess (Rose) takes a break in between. This particular episode was special in that it was the last of the second season of episodes. (Eveleth, 2016)

It took a couple tries, but in order to produce this episode, she took all of the scenes (41) she’s had on the show, as well as large parts of scripts from the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The War of the Worlds and had them put into an AI. This AI is programmed to write short stories basically out of the information you give it – the 5-minute result was voice acted by people and included into the episode. (Eveleth, 2016)

It was quite interesting that the AI actually put something together that most of the time made sense – for a far out story that is. She had a few guest clips and they dissected and discussed how this story may have come to be and why things happened the way they did, from scientific and mathematical information as it may relate in the future. (Eveleth, 2016)




Rose takes suggestions from the public on future scenarios to discuss, and throws in fun references for listeners to catch during the show. Those who find them have a chance to win some goodies!
I hadn’t heard of this podcast prior to this assignment, but this episode interested me enough that I may check out a number of the past episodes. I’ll definitely be adding this one to my list of shows to track, and look forward to seeing what happens in November when season three begins!


Eveleth, R. (2016). Flash Forward | Every week a new future. Retrieved from http://www.flashforwardpod.com/

Eveleth, R. (2016). Episode 20: The Witch Who Came From Mars. Retrieved from http://www.flashforwardpod.com/2016/09/05/episode-20-something-martian-witch-way-comes/



Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Podcast: No Better Than Average

One of three podcasts I chose to talk about for this week is called No Better Than Average.  I chose this podcast as it is right up my ally -nerdy. It is just a couple of guys discussing technology, television & movies, video games and their families, among other geekery.

In the most recent episode I listened to, they had been discussing the controversy about drugs being used in the Olympics. They discussed an interesting theory that in this year’s Olympics the United States only won so many medals because they must be using a drug that is currently undetectable by the testing methods used on the participants. They had a guest on the show who covers medical topics as they relate to sports, who disagreed with this theory. (Jacob & Jeff, 2016)

The episode still had some geekery included, as they discussed Virtual Reality (VR) video games. There’s been a rise in the publicity of such games since more VR devices have been being released. As always, they also briefly touch on what they are fond of at the time. Technology-wise that week were specific earphones and an iOS ad blocker. (Jacob & Jeff, 2016)
If you’re looking for an all around geekery related recorded cast that’s fun and more on the casual side, give this one a shot!

Jacob, & Jeff. (2016). No Better Than Average -. Retrieved from http://nobettershow.com/


Sunday, September 4, 2016

Children and Television

The “Did You Know 2.0” video offered the statistic that at least 20,000 hours of television had been watched by people by the age of 21. Within the shifthappens wiki, a topic on Sesame Street had been brought up by the user drewman152. He mentioned that the studio was letting go of 25% of their staff who were not main characters. Later he goes on to state, “Maybe this will give parents an incentive to spend more time with their kids and not rely soley on television programs for educational assistance.” (drewman152, 200) This was not something I thought about often, but I can see how the hours of television we watch as children growing up can look from the outside. (XPLANE, 2007)


As with anything, moderation is going to play an important role moving forward in this type of discussion. Are educational programs bad simply because they are on the television, tablet, phone, etc.? Not necessarily. While they do eliminate the experience of interaction between people, they are still learning when watching the right programs. It is when smaller children are spending more time and watching inappropriate programming for their age that issues may arise. Kids Health warns that watching over 4 hours a day, violent acts on programs, and risky behaviours are the most concerning watching behaviour seen among children and should be avoided.  (KidsHealth, 2016)


Drewman152. (200). Shifthappens – World Education by International Collaboration. Retrieved from http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/share/view/2001131

KidsHealth. (2016). How TV Affects Your Child. Retrieved from http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/tv-affects-child.html 

XPLANE. (2007). Did You Know 2.0. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U

Friday, September 2, 2016

Studying Abroad



Another contributing shifthappens Wiki member made an interesting argument about studying abroad. Jdmarrs was currently studying in Sweden and commented on how much he had learned about the cultures of the world from a foreign perspective. Normally just receiving an education in your home country, you get that one perspective and that is it. I agree with their suggestion that if more people were able to study abroad temporarily, it would allow for better international relations, compassion and a plethora of educational benefits both during and following their experiences. (Jdmarrs, 2007)

The "Did You Know 2.0" video suggests that the United States has one of the lowest graduation percentages behind the countries of India and China. All of the graduates in India graduate speaking English.  (XPLANE, 2007)

Have you ever had to take a foreign language at an institute of higher education? I know I have had the opportunity, but it is considered an elective, which is easily completed taking another course. In high school a foreign language was pretty much mandatory, but we could only choose from French or Spanish. I did go to a private school, but I know some of the public schools in the area had a few more to choose from. I know that colleges and universities offer much more of a variety, but I don't think many people take them for reasons beyond it being a choice in that section of their requirements. Perhaps schools should be altering their curriculum a bit to create a more positive path to taking these courses as a start. They of course won't give the same feel and experience as actually studying in those countries, but they would at least fair better with the above concern by taking a foreign language. It can only help the individual to be able to speak more than their native language in my opinion. Other countries have excelled here - why should we be lazy and fall behind?


jdmarrs. (2007). Shifthappens – World Education by International Collaboration. Retrieved from http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/share/view/2001131

XPLANE. (2007). Did You Know 2.0. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Technology in the Classroom

The video “Did You Know 2.0” touches on a number of interesting facts. One of these are that children are being given technology sooner in life. The example shown was that of the One Laptop per Child Project.  For my first discussion post this week, I have used the shifthappens wiki to search for a related topic. I came across a post where a teacher was asking what other educators were doing to help children be successful growing up in the 21st century. She mentioned that she was one of the teachers using Moodle in her class. At her institution, this program is voluntary. (XPLANE, 2007; Jennifer_Kolb, 2007)

I saw one response that mentioned focusing on social media. Personally, I think it is a bit scary to think about young children engaging on the social media sites of today, but I can see how it could be useful, if heavily moderated. Individuals and companies across the world use this method of engaging (a big factor in web 2.0) each day. I wasn’t able to look more into the course provided on Moodle, but there was one in socially networked learning. It claims to offer help as far as teaching and learning through the use of social media in classrooms. Perhaps this is an example of how she could visit this topic further. (Jennifer_Kolb, 2007)

Another person made a good point on the argument of technology’s side, mentioning that as long as students are taking the time to learn the material, it shouldn’t matter what way they are doing so. I can see backing this statement up as well. Personally, I am not very keen on classroom settings and learn better in a comfortable and solitary environment. This is a huge reason why online learning has been successful for me. I don’t have the hang up of classroom anxiety, the pressure of needing to make it to class on a specific day or time, and I have many more materials to help my learning process on the internet. (Jennifer_Kolb, 2007)

Overall, I think that learning along with using technology will only be of benefit to children growing up – it’s the way the world is heading non-stop. The challenge is how to not make it such a huge part of their lives, where they are missing out on social interaction and life experiences.


Sources:
Jennifer_Kolb. (2007). Shifthappens - Preparation of students for the future? Retrieved August 31, 2016, from http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/share/view/1658333?replyId=2000827

XPLANE. (2007). Did You Know 2.0. Retrieved August 31, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U


Thursday, August 25, 2016

Flickr - Web 2.0 Photo Creations

The first part of our assignment this week was to create three photos relating to concepts of Web 2.0. Following their creation, we then had to use Flickr and add them, along with appropriate tags. Then we were to determine how many other photos were using those same tags and describe our experience using the site. My breakdown for each image is below:

Web2.0 had 80,656, but many of the images I saw did not pertain to the topic, as I would have thought. There were photos of just people’s names, nature, baby and pet photography, and random colour swatches. Personally I feel that this tag could have thousands – hundreds of thousands of related photos, but it seems to be inflated.

PrinciplesofWeb2.0 only had my photo with the tag

Oreilly had 47,669 results that were tagged. Many of those photos again were not similar to what my tag intended. There were a handful that were relevant from conference talks, however.




My second photo also used the tag Web2.0 (80,656 tagged photos)

Social Media had 267,424 photos with the tag, and a lot of what I scrolled through seemed to be relevant, but again, I would say in the manner I meant the tag to be used – the number was inflated with photos that wouldn’t have been relevant.

Networking showed 2,550,953 photos with the tag, and had similar results to the above.



My third photo used the tags Web2.0 (80,656 tagged photos), Tagging, WebTagging, and WebTags.
The Tagging tag produced 10,324,992 results, WebTagging, returned 2 results, and WebTags had 270 related photos.



Again, the tags with a high number seems to be inflated to me. Upon further inspection, I noticed that some of the photos didn’t actually have the words as tags. Instead, they were being returned in the search because of the use of the tag in their description.


I created my Flickr account back in 2005 and only used it briefly – I preferred Photobucket. It wasn’t a site I was completely unfamiliar with, so I did not have any issues uploading to my profile and tagging the photos. A feature they did not have previously, was the various copywrite options, which I liked this time around. 

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Short Discussion on the Dumbness of Crowds

For this week's forum topic in class, we were given the article "The Dumbness of Crowds" to discuss.

After reading the article for the forum post discussion this week, I can’t say that I am entirely on one side or the other. I do support collaboration efforts, especially since I have come to use so many of them, and find them to be successful in their purpose. On the other hand, I also can see the author’s point of view and agree that not all collaboration works work well.

A big part of creating a type of art, whether it be music, drawing, writing, etc., is the backbone of expression. Can more than one person create some kind of work together and have it be successful? Sure! I bet they could, but more often than not, these types of works are normally completed by single people. Artists of any medium use self expression daily to produce these types of things and 100% collaboration will never be reached in my opinion.

Bringing the discussion back to software programs, which we discussed last week: I still believe that these can be done well with collaborative efforts. While I do agree that sometimes part of the exciting new ideas tend to be left out or stretched out, there is still so much more that people can weigh in on through coding for example. While one person’s new idea may take rise, the efforts of multiple people working on that idea will help bring it to life much quicker than if that person were to do it on their own.



I think the phrase “the dumbness of crowds” goes well beyond us discussing Web 2.0 as well. We are usually forced to collaborate in our daily lives, especially when it comes to our jobs. We either work as a team, or don’t and face the consequences. Of course, if you are in certain positions, this won’t be the case, but it will be for the majority. We are asked to be able to work efficiently alone and to be able to be part of a team. Sometimes this goes a lot easier than others. When there is tension or mixed feelings about how things should proceed, there will be those to take a firm stance, and those that sit back and stay quiet, never letting their opinions be heard.


The article was definitely an interesting read and was about two sides I would have not really given much thought to before. I enjoyed that there were so many additional links to other blogs and resources with articles on the same for future reading.


Source:

Sierra, K. (2007). Creating Passionate Users. Retrieved August 24, 2016, from http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/01/the_dumbness_of.html 

Saturday, August 20, 2016

RealPlayer or VLC Media Player?

RealPlayer was created by RealNetworks in the mid 90s. It was never really a great program, but it worked and was still popular. I remember using it myself, although I don’t remember why I bothered. It was ugly to look at, had entirely too many pop up advertisements, and I remember there being security issues – going so far as to changing parts of your registry! I had honestly forgotten about this program for a long while and am still surprised to see it updated currently.

The newest version will allow you to use the program free for 30 days, after which you can pay a licencing fee of about $40, for premium features. There is a limited free version, which isn’t worth having, in my opinion, and two versions that sync with their cloud service. They have changed the name of the project to be RealTimes with RealPlayer. The prices for premium are $4.99 a month and $9.99 a month, for unlimited. It has advanced to being supported on PC, Macintosh, the Xbox One, and Mobile smartphones and tablets. You can also connect it with your Chromecast, Roku, and Kindle Fire, if you use it on the television. (RealNetworks, 2016)

The installation on the new program is still pretty aggressive and tries to force you into downloading other programs and toolbars, unless you are paying attention and unchecking those options.  There are also still plenty of advertisements getting thrown at you. I only tested the free version, so I’m not sure if those go away, if you choose to pay. No matter – personally I would still advise anyone looking for a media player to go elsewhere, as there are plenty of others to choose from that offer the same premium features, but for free.



VLC Media Player has been around for some time as well, but is an open source program. This program has much more you can customize and even allows the use of skins, which can make the player look and have the feel of other common programs or fun themes. My personal favourite is dressing it up like the Star Trek LCARS system, which I do with a lot of applications.

You can also play a LONG list of file extensions in this player compared to other programs in the market. As the program has had updates, I see that there are also many more features than when it first was created. You can bookmark certain areas in your playback as favourites, and utilize effects in the menu on any audio or video you might be playing to optimize it to your liking. (VideoLan, 2016)

VideoLan boasts that the program does not contain spyware or user tracking, which is a calming thought. There are also no hidden or bulky advertisements in the program – no ads at all! The program has even grown and evolved so much, that it is available on Android and iOS, in addition to all of the other operating systems it already is supported on. (VideoLan, 2016)

The VLC wiki shows all of the changes made to the project, gives general information, and breaks down any projects that are currently being worked on. You can support VLC in a number of ways, even if you’re not contributing by coding. They do a great job of breaking down these categories and providing examples of what you can do to participate, as well as provide you with the correct people to contact to get on board. (MediaWiki, 2016)


Sources:


 MediaWiki. (2016). Help VideoLAN. Retrieved from https://wiki.videolan.org/Help_VideoLAN/

 RealNetworks. (2016). Features. Retrieved from http://www.real.com/ca/features

 VideoLan. (2016). VLC media player. Retrieved from http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Browsing: Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer

A requirement this week, was to specifically compare an open source browser to one that was not. For this post, I’m choosing to talk a bit about Mozilla Firefox (open source) and Internet Explorer.




While both of these browsers are essentially free, Firefox can be used on multiple operating systems to include Macintosh, Solaria, Linux, OS X, Windows, as well as for Android and iOS. Internet Explorer is provided and only available on computers running Microsoft Windows. As this is included on the system already, there is no need to download, unless you deleted it, or need an update. You will have to go through the download process with Firefox. It’s straightforward, however, and pretty quick.  Both browsers are also regularly updated; the last update was earlier this month. (Microsoft & Mozilla, 2016)

Speed-wise, Mozilla beats Internet Explorer. It also is less resource intensive. If you take a look at your task manager while you have each browser open looking at the same content in any one or multiple tabs, you can see these numbers for yourself.  Mozilla seems to take up less memory by a little less than half of that from Internet Explorer!

I spend a lot of time at the computer, and many hours using web browsers. While neither of these are my first choice, Mozilla is my second. If I have to spend this much time each day looking at pages in a browser, I do prefer that it be visually appealing to look at, to an extent. Mozilla is clean and offers plenty of customization, if using the desktop version. Personally I don’t know of anything that could be worse to look at and use than Internet Explorer. It’s quite plain, and many sites simply don’t look good viewing in it.

I currently haven’t upgraded to Windows 10 either. I read that Microsoft made a new browser: Edge, for this version going forward. Apparently it’s worse off than Internet Explorer is, even after initial updates. I won’t be going into more detail about that, as this post is to discuss Firefox versus Internet Explorer, but I thought I would at least mention it.  (Berls, 2016)

As far as Mozilla goes, there is a wiki page with information, a place to upload files, and history of changes that occur in the coding. While the main page hasn’t been updated in some time, the other relevant links are still currently active. I found it quite interesting that the community of coders hold a meeting every week. They also discuss various related projects and have official representatives who interact with contributors. There are even student ambassadors, who help promote all of the work Mozilla and the community are doing. (MediaWiki & Semantic MediaWiki, 2016)


Sources:
Berls, B. (2016). Microsoft Edge Is Windows 10’s Biggest Mistake. Retrieved from http://www.brucebnews.com/2016/04/microsoft-edge-is-windows-10s-biggest-mistake/

MediaWiki, & Semantic MediaWiki. (2016). Contribute/Coding. Retrieved August 18, 2016, from https://wiki.mozilla.org/Main_Page

Microsoft. (2016). Popular Internet Explorer  Downloads. Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/internet-explorer.aspx

Mozilla. (2016). Firefox – Desktop browser, Android, iOS, OS, Hello, Sync, Private Browsing. Retrieved from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/products/





Monday, August 15, 2016

Gimp and Photoshop – Compare and Contrast

Both of these programs are photo editing software. While Gimp is open source and free to use, Photoshop can cost you hundreds of dollars to own. With the new Adobe Cloud system, you can also rent to use it monthly for less (although if you are a frequent user, it would waste money in the long run). While I have used Photoshop for many years, I did experiment with Gimp previously, and revisited it for this assignment. It seems that Gimp has done well growing and providing some important updates to keep it relevant to use. For those who are not familiar some of the features this open source program provides are:
  • Edit photos
  • Digital painting tools
  • Animation (2D)
  • Use of layers
  • Customization options for toolbars
  • Supports a variety of file types
  • Allows the use of plug ins from third parties


Photoshop can go above and beyond these features, but for a hefty price. If you’re just getting into photo editing and manipulation, Gimp is a great start. While it is by no means an alternative to the professional software, it performs well for free program in it’s field. 

Compare and Contrasting

In terms of price, Gimp has Photoshop beat, as mentioned previously. Another big difference is the file size of the program. Gimp requires around 100 MB to download and double of that to run, Photoshop on the other hand is a whopping 1.4 GB to install initially, around 2+GB of updates after wards. Running Photoshop takes over 1GB of memory, which can slow down older computers as well, which is another positive to Gimp - it's light and non resource intensive.  

To keep it simple, the current version of Gimp has many of the same big main features that Photoshop does:

  • Layers
  • Text
  • Filters
  • Curves
  • Cloning
  • Levels
  • Sharpening
  • Healing
  • History (to undo multiple actions)

as well as a few more. Photoshop comes in handy when you need more advanced features and tools. 

While I will continue to personally use Photoshop, as I have for so many years, I would have loved to have the current version of Gimp as a more affordable option when I first started using such a program. It's important to mention again that Gimp is open source, which means anyone can make changes and upload those changes for others to use. I'm willing to bet that further down the line, Gimp will continue to evolve and stay  relevant to those needing such software. 



Friday, August 12, 2016

REV2 Review

I chose REV2 as the second blog to review for this week’s assignment. When I first looked at the blog, I was excited to browse, as it came across as clean and well organized. It focuses more on technology and business start up and news, which can be viewed by subject, latest posts, and popular posts. Skimming through, there are a ton of posts written discussing social media or internet information specifically. I didn't notice anywhere on the site where users could connect on other social media, but you would have been able to share any post through your own Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, Pinterest, and a variety of other sites. There was however, the option to subscribe to the RSS feed. It looks like the blog isn’t collaborative and involves one writer: Dave. (Dave, 2015)

I was quite disappointed when I noticed that nothing on the site was recent. The latest articles I saw were from a year ago, and many go back to 9 and 10 years. Many of the articles no longer have photos displayed, which makes me question if they were linked instead of hosted (a big no no for web sites). One article that caught my eye was on Dave’s list of most successful 2.0 web sites. He mentioned he started with a list of 20, before narrowing it down to include the following:
  1. MySpace
  2. YouTube
  3. Facebook
  4. Wikipedia
  5. Bebo
  6. Digg
  7. Flickr
  8. Netvibes
  9. Del.icio.us
  10. Meebo  (Dave, 2015)


I’m not sure about you, but I’ve been familiar with all of these other than the last three on this list. A good chunk of these still thrive today and keep evolving and delivering to the public effectively. I would have been interested in seeing his top 20 after viewing this list!

Digging a little deeper, perhaps I found something even more irritating than the lack of current articles: SEO. I’m a bit crazy sometimes and like to looks at the source code for web sites. I noticed that the meta data in the code was highly lacking, which may or may not be a reason this site is no longer running (did it do well during it’s life – I don’t know). It seems to have been a package made by another individual, but that isn't an excuse to not be "in the know" with your own meta data. There were not many relevant keywords either. What really irritated me were ones that were included and awfully spammy. Just to give you some examples, there were ones such as get massive followers, junk twitter accounts, app auto follow, chain membership of twitter, and the list went on.  If a site is going to have shady keywords and nothing of relevance to the subject matter, it runs the risk of getting banned from search engines all together. I don’t know how many people search for terms such as these, but it can’t be as many as those looking for actual content.


I didn’t look any further into the blog at this point, because I didn’t feel respected as a reader and didn’t want to waste my time with information that was so old to begin with. 





Source: Dave. (2015). The Latest Tech & Startup News. Retrieved August 13, 2016, from http://www.rev2.org/

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Brag About Your Tech Skills

While searching YouTube videos for Web 2.0 related content, I came across this class project video. It is a parody of a popular song. They exchanged the original lyrics to talk about social media and technology. While it isn't the most informative media about the subject, I couldn't pass up sharing this! 


Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Web 1.0 Versus Web 2.0 Pictures

Today I found a couple of pictures relating to Web 2.0, which I thought I would share. 


(Ahmed, 2015)


(Nickull, Hunchcliffe, Governor, 2009)


Sources: 

Ahmed, O. S. (2015). Web 2.0. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/olaonyx/web-10-web-20-


Nickull, D., Hinchcliffe, D., & Governor, J. (2009). 3. Dissecting Web 2.0 Examples [Book]. 


Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Review of Mashable

I had heard of the site Mashable  previously, but never really looked around long enough on it before. I surely would have gone down the route of thinking about it relating to Web 2.0. Now that I’ve been introduced to the points of the subject, I think it is a great example! Information is shared on various social media platforms and is aggregated how the site owner sees fit. Not only is it jam packed with articles and external links, but you can customize your experience for future browsing.

You’re able to follow specific topics of interests or authors to see more of the things you like. There is a small bar on every post to show how popular a post is. The more shares according to the time it was posted, the higher it will show up on the site's feed, which separates articles as new, rising, and hot. You are also given the opportunity to sign up for a daily e-mail, which contains content tailored to your preferences. Whether you are always on the look out for trending stories, social media guides, or just general information and opinion on a number of subjects, you should have no trouble finding something of interest here.

Further interaction is encouraged through commenting on the articles provided, but you are forced to connect through a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+ account, which may be the biggest negative factor about this site. Not everyone will want to connect either of these accounts just to interact on a story, which means the site could be losing out on valuable opinions.  This could be somewhat of a dilemma when it comes to children using the site as well. With the growth of social media and the increase of lower aged users, privacy and security may become a problem, as connected users can easily interact with each other publicly and privately. As with any internet browsing, we can only hope that children using such a site will be monitored by guardians.

One great feature to mention is the job board area of the site. Here you can build a resume, search for jobs, and sign up for alerts that meet your preferences. There are some pretty big name company’s listed as well. It was interesting to see both domestic, as well as international job listings. While this portion of the site does not have nearly as many job listings as actual job searching websites, there are close to 200 to browse.


I do have to note, the frequency in which the site refreshes its information is very frequent - about every 15 seconds, which can be a bother. The ads get replaced each time. They are not always even close to being the same size, which can alter the position of things you may be browsing on the main page. 

Overall, even though there are a couple of things that didn't appeal to me, I think it is a great interactive site to spend time on. I think perhaps I might stumble back to it in the future. The articles may not be professionally written, but they don't have the same tabloid type feel to them, as similar sites are loaded with. 

Source of post: Mashable. (2016). Mashable. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/

Monday, August 8, 2016

Welcome!


This is just a quick post to explain the purpose of this blog. I am currently enrolled in a Web 2.0 course, which requires participation in the form of blog posts to complete assignments. Any posts here will be to fulfill those requirements, as I go through the course these next 8 weeks. With that being said, any outside comments and feedback are welcome should you stumble here!