Task 19: WiFi and Wireless Security

Wi Fi and wireless security – the area of greyness and a little paranoia.

Now, I am not one to suffer from paranoia regarding this area; but I wasn’t looking forward to this task as I am aware of the concerns that this area brings.  I must confess that this area of computer technology and lingo does go over my head a little.  As everyone else has said, use really good encryption if installing & using WiFi. There doesn’t seem to be many if any securing methods when using Wi-Fi as most of them apparently are flawed. That’s comforting, isn’t it? But some of this information was written a number of years ago so hopefully this has been rectified. I guess no matter what type of device you may use, it is important to ensure you are familiar with the type of security it has on it and how to protect yourself from hackers.  Firesheep – this is a little worrying to say the least. It’s such a shame that we live in a world where we have to be super cautious from being computer ‘attacked’ or ‘hijacked’ or ‘sidejacked’, but that subject is for another day. The main thing is to be aware of this stuff like encryption and HTTP, and when it comes to privacy TSL and it’s predecessor SSL are the protocols which are designed to prevent eavesdropping and tampering. They are designed to provide communication security over the internet.

Task 18: Podcasts

I discovered Podcasts not too long ago. I have mostly used it to listen to radio interviews from anywhere around the world. I don’t use it often, but I think I will try to make the effort to check it out a little more frequently. Looking up to see how you can create podcasts sounded rather conflicted – it’s easy but not easy! Like anything I guess, if you have the right tools it can make things a lot easier. Creating a podcast is something I think I will leave to the pros for the moment.

Task 17: YouTube

YouTube.

Ahhhh, YouTube, my secret obsession. (secret no longer now)

As I have said in a previous post, I probably watch the same amount of youtube as I do telly. That’s to say that when I do watch telly it is usually a DVD. I usually end up downloading clips from youtube onto my laptop and watching it on the computer or transferring it onto my ipod. I also get youtube on my phone. I kinda call myself an apprentice to the entertainment industry (having worked on film & T.V. sets, music videos, theatre, ect), so I am usually checking out new trailers, things in production, behind the scenes, actors & directors interviews, live performances; all those type of clips and youtube is the open door, gateway to heaven for me. Of course I am aware of the huge amount of other (trying to find a delicate way of saying this), useless stuff posted up there (that probably includes a number of videos that I have uploaded) and the excess of spam comments, but I usually don’t mind sifting through that stuff. I like editing and some of the fan clips that are posted gives me a chance to see what works and what doesn’t, as well as introducing me to other music that I wouldn’t normally knew existed.

I am aware of some of the other video services. Vimeo is starting to become more popular and I have notice music artists and the music industry uses this tool now. As video rental stores become obsolete, and television channels and the alike are streaming more of their content, this area of video streaming and downloading is growing and growing by the day. Even theatre companies are starting to stream and upload their live performances and I am excited to find some of my favourite British theatre companies part of this movement.

Finding a book on the shelf – I have included this video as I performed the voiceover in the role of the Librarian.

London Part 1  &  Miss Saigon Anniversary – and a couple for fun! (My sis and I made them for family, friends & archival purposes. Enjoy!)

Task 16: Technorati

Technorati

Technorati – never heard of this until now. But this is what this work programme is all about it, isn’t it? Making me and other work colleagues more aware of the techno world. I also want to know, who gets to name these tools & apps? Apparently, Technorati is a blend or mash-up of the words ‘technology’ and ‘literati’, which invokes the notion of technological intelligence or intellectualism. Mashing-up words is definitely the cool thing to do these days. I think mash-ups could give acronyms a run for their money. Oh, hang on, that wasn’t part of the task was it?!

So Technorati helps categorize and indexes blogs depending on the tags the author has placed on their website and can make blogs become officially listed. And by the sounds of it, even if you haven’t placed tags on your blogs Technorati can still capture you up into the blogosphere. This can help authors get their blogs out into the forefront of the blogosphere if they wish, something I am not intending to achieve (far from it), but the site gives you all the low down regarding this topic. It also allows you to search the huge amount of blogs that is out there.

I went exploring to see the type of hits/results I got when I entered ‘e-learning’ in the different areas. In the Blog Directory it came back with nothing, zip, zero, nada. In the top search box that you can change from blogs/post, I got different results and that was rather interesting. I checked out the Tag area and read some of the list of tags that have been used in the past month. It was interesting to read the list of tags from cookie balls (what is that?? – oh, recipes for apparently a delicious food, like rum balls just made out of Oreo biscuits; note to oneself I must try this!), to design, gadgets, environment, mobile, and of course movies of the moment, in this case, Desolation of Smaug. This has been rather interesting, seeing what can happen on the other side of a blog or what can happen to these blogs. But I think I have been blogging on for too long in this post and I will move onto my next blog; just another one for Technorati to index.

Task 15: Del.icio.us

I have just read about Folksonomy and what it is; known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing and social tagging. And this is what Del.icio.us is about. Once you have set up an account you are able to bookmark and tag websites that interest you. It also allows you to see who else has bookmarked the websites you like. The first few sites I bookmarked I happened to be the first person to bookmark them so I was unable to see the social aspect of it. This is a clever tool, but one that doesn’t interest me at this point of time. I understand how it can be very handy for a lot people who are able to have their bookmarks in one place, especially if you are not always on the same machine all the time and it allows you to access your bookmarks from anywhere. The social aspect of it is can also be another useful tool, and discovering other wealth of information through other users trails can be a time saver. But I am afraid I am a bit of an old fashion (odd) type of person who still enjoys the old way of searching, finding things for myself and the mystery of not knowing who maybe looking at the same content as me.

Task 14: Prezi

When I first opened Prezi, I thought ‘this looks rather interesting’ and after watching a couple of vids I thought this was going to be a task that also might be rather lengthy. I looked at some other Prezis’ (is there a plural for Prezis?) and they looked really cool. Coming up for an idea for a Prezi was the hardest part. If you already have something you want to create, promote or present then it definitely would be easier, but for me at this stage I had nothing; zip, zero, nada!

I finally found something to trial Prezi with – I would do a small and brief timeline/ history of Cirque du Soleil. Having worked for them on a numerous occasions I was aware of the history of the company.

Oh dear, this was a mistake! Ok, this might have not been the best topic to choose as the amount of information I wanted to include didn’t really fit the template I chose. There are a large amount of templates to choose from or you can customize your own depending on your project. The template I chose I had trouble adding more bullet points or changing them in my timeline which was a little frustrating to say the least, but with some perseverance I managed to master some of the tools.

Prezi would be useful for anyone who likes their presentations to have a very fancy twist to it. I don’t have the need for it at this stage but I wouldn’t hesitate to use it if I had too. It does make presentations look classy & attractive, and sophistication definitely helps these days.

http://prezi.com/uexbf47a3hox/cirque-du-soleil-timeline/

 

Task 13: Slideshare

Reading the type of organizations and businesses that uses Slideshare for sharing presentations is very impressive. The Whitehouse, NASA, United Nations, UNICEF are just some of the millions that uses Slideshare, the world’s largest community. It not just supports presentations but also documents, PDFs, videos and webinars and these can be shared virally through blogs and social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Anyone can view these uploaded documents in Slideshare that shares ideas, conduct research and connects with others.

Exploring the featured and popular presentations, and then putting the word ‘film’ followed by ‘ballet’ in the search area made me realise the sheer amount of presentations there are to view. There are just pages after pages of presentations using these two search terms, that I think it best to narrow your search if you do know what you are wanting. This is another online sharing resource to keep in mind, and not just for educational purposes. I think this is another useful tool, for either creating or viewing or a bit of both and I will be coming back here to do some more exploring in the future.

Task 12: Skype

Skype is a great bit of technology. Unfortunately, I haven’t used the other alternatives to Skype so I don’t know how it fares against its competitors. My first encounter with it was a number of years ago when a friend moved to London for a while. When I first used it, I got the image of Back to the Future II in my head (well, it was really in the future for Marty McFly, the scene when he gets fired), and it was quite surreal I was video chatting to a close friend across the other side of the world in real-time. Now I use it whenever I am abroad or when I need to contact a friend who is living abroad. I don’t use it all the time but thanks to some other close friends who decided to go and live in the U.K. I use it a little more often now.

Task 11: LibriVox

This is quite interesting. Being able to download a huge amount of out of copyright titles onto your desired device and take it anywhere with you. I can see how this could be very handy for a lot of people. I remember when I was I child, I use to love listening to audiobooks, especially if the reader performed a certain voice for certain characters. They are especially handy for people who are visually impaired (or for people who suffer from motion sickness – the list is quite endless actually). It is great to see so many titles available and they offer so many different languages (would be a good way to practice your languages if you are ever trying to learn any).

As much as this is a valuable tool I personally wouldn’t use it that much though. Being a LibriVox volunteer would interest me more. I like looking at text, holding something in my hand and listening to music while I read; so it isn’t totally suitable for me at this present time (and I don’t suffer from motion sickness when I read on a bus, train, plane unlike my sister, which totally frustrates her to no end). But who knows what the future holds, my feeling towards audiobooks may change back to when I was a kid and it is nice to know there is LibriVox, another option to keep my love of literature going. It is very easy to use, once downloaded, all you have to do is listen.

Task 10: Google Books

Ahhh, now this is something I am familiar with, as I use google books quite regularly; not within the personal capacity but more in the professional one. There are a number of large institutional libraries that has got right behind it and are partnering with google books for their collections to be included. It is incredibly useful being able to see the books basic information and sometimes you can read the whole book online. If the whole book is not available online, sometimes they include preview pages which is also useful. I have added a couple of books to my library favourites and books I need to read (just to add some more to my hugely growing list). I hadn’t used these functions before but I can imagine how it might come in handy in the near future.