Critical Reflection of Course

Well i enjoyed this course very much, i would say it wuld b one of the most enjoyable courses in university :) adam is a great tutor and i enjoyed his teaching. I learnt some things about the history of the internet which was interesting, and it was enjoyable to watch the videos during the lecture aswell. I will be choosing Digital Video Foundations next semester i think thanks to this course :) i enjoyed this course very much i wouldnt change anything about this course the teaching is great and the course isnt boring, isnt hard but isnt easier you still need to apply yourself but its fun at the same time :) So id like to say thankyou to stephen, chris and adam for giving me the pleasure to do this course :) Cheers.

Week 11 Tute Task

Ok well im a bit late completing this task but I HAVE DONE IT NOW :) last week was pretty easy for me well some parts, but iv always had trouble with excel since high school. Im not good with numbers and cells and formula's. The 1st exercise was basic, just enter the info in the cells stated which was easy enough. Exercise 2 started getting a bit tricky, took me longer because i was slower at doing them but i got it done lol. I think my problem is all the formular business like all the *,-,+,=, just gets to me reminds me of maths in high school lol. Exercise 3 was fun i love charts and graphs, because i am more of a visual learner if i see a graph i can understand information easier then if i were to read it. So i completed this task at a good working speed and it was the best part of this task, well its the best part of excel.

Week 10 tute task

Ok this task was back to basics for me. During High School i did Business and Information Technology for 5 years and i loved it, i wasnt the A+ student and i wasnt the F- student, i was the avaerage B or C student. I enjoyed going threw this task to refresh my memory on word. The 1st exercise : opening, typing and saving was easy lol but it was still good to do. The 2nd exercise : bold, italics, underline and bullets was again straight foward. 3rd exercise: headers, footers and double spacing was easy aswell had no problems. It was the Advanced Exercise 1: Track Changes were i started having to remember what i was taught in high school lol, got threw it but took me a bit longer. Advanced Exercise 2: Mail Merge omg this was my worst nightmare in high school lol I had trouble with this one it took me nearly half an hour to finish this one lol but i did finish it lol. Overall this task was a good review to refresh my skills i thought. Most of the task was simple except for the advanced ones they were a tad confusing lol. As i want to be in Business one day this software will be very useful for me as i will most likly be sedning emails and writting business letters and in order to do that i must know the ins and outs of word.

Academic Essay (1000 words)

The Emergence of the Ipod
as a form of Music Technology

The main topic and argument of this essay is that the emergence of iPod’s has been the greatest development in modern music technology. The opposing side to this argument will also be discussed. The Apple iPod was 1st introduced to the public on the 23rd of October 2001. It was an unexpected but welcomed announcement, just a few months after the release of itunes. The price was $399, worth the money because at the time, the ipod was unlike no other music player technology. The ipod relies on a hard disk for storage, instead of CD’s and it is smaller in size and is easy to use. This 1st ipod had a 5GB storage capacity which is enough to hold over 1000 songs (iLounge 2004). It was a great step for Apple and an even better product for listening to music. The iPod has come along way from the record player and CD walkmans. It has become a favourite amongst many people. This is mainly because it is easy to use and they don’t have to carry around walkmans and change CD’s. All that has to be done is, download music to your computer, mix songs if you like then upload to your iPod, and it is much more easier and quicker. They are very popular with teenagers’ because it allows them to make their own space with their music. The music itself can promote relaxation, reduce anxiety and stress, promote appropriate behaviour, change moods and alleviate boredom. Research shows that teenagers are more likely to use music to accompany chores rather then pleasures, tasks that are duties, especially when going for a run, they are more likely to have their ipod with them when exercising (Frith 2000). Music can also arouse and pacify people, research shows that listening to music can reduce testosterone levels, which is likely to result in less conflict, less sexual confrontation and more group cohesiveness (Huron 1998).

There are currently four different iPods available ranging from $119 to $499, and memory sizes from 1GB (240 songs), to 80GB (20,000 songs). With each new iPod, there are better technological enhancements made. The 30GB and 80GB iPods have 60% brighter display and up to 20hours of battery life and you can now put your entire music library onto your iPod (Apple iPod 2007). Just after being on the market for two years the popularity of the iPod had reached the likes of Madonna, Tony Hawk and David Beckham. They allowed Apple to sell limited edition iPods with their signatures engraved on the back for $548 each, which made these iPods the most expensive ever sold by Apple. In June 2003, Apple had sold it’s one millionth ipod, less then two years after the release date in 2001. By October 2004, analysts reported that ipod sales are 82% of all digital music players and 92% of all hard-drive based players (iLounge 2004). An Apple spokeswomen said, that the reason why the ipods are selling so fast is because of the technology involved in making them and the fact that ipods have a failure rate of less then 5%, which is fairly low compared to other consumer electronics. Apple stands alone on top of the portable media player market because it is a revolutionary product (Nerd approved 2006).

Although having stated and proved that the emergence of the Apple ipod has been the greatest development in modern music technology, there is always another side to this debate. There has been legal controversy in France, Canada and the United Kingdom, with problems relating to the Apple Ipod. In 2002 the ipod was briefly taken off the market in France, because the device violated a law limiting the sound output of portable devices to 100 decibels. In December 2003 Canadian authorities imposed an additional governmental levy to each player sold, which then got Apple sued by the United Kingdom for violating their trade-agreement (iLounge 2004). There are also complaints regarding the random feature on the ipod, were user’s claim that their ipod’s random feature is not really random, that it plays certain artists and songs over again (Keeling 2007).

After searching the internet there were many websites that lobby against ipods, one of which stuck out ‘iPods Suck! – Anti – Ipod’. This website is completely against the use and production of ipods. There are articles on the product from its price to how faulty it is and all the writers have purchased and own an ipod. One article stated that, ‘it is a bad thing that the ipod culture is blowing other devices out of the water, just for the brand and fashion reasons’………’every single ipod product requires earphones which are always white, there is no variety for the customer’……..’when looking at the functions of an ipod and what it holds, you really don’t seem to get much for your money……..display is basic, standard ipods are just black and white and the connectivity is poor’ (Anti–Ipod 2007). The ipod can connect with other operating systems but not very well. Apple has intentionally prevented outsider developer from experimenting with or changing the devices operating system (iLounge 2004).

There is much debate over the emergence of iPods, wether they are the greatest form of music technology. This essay has shown the two sides of this debate, but has argued only one, that the emergence of ipods has been the greatest development in modern music technology. Just the fact that the ipod is still the highest selling portable music device in the world is enough to prove the argument. But this argument may never be resolved it may just come down to personal preference, wether a person likes ipods or not.






Reference

Anti-Ipod. (2007) ‘iPods suck!’. http://www.anti-ipod.co.uk/ipod.php?misc=search&subaction=showfull&id=1173748929&archive=&cnshow=news&ucat=2&start_from=&, accessed 1st May 2007.

Apple iPod. (2007) ‘Apple Store’. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=5DA18255&node=home/ipod/ipod, accessed 1st May 2007.

Frith, S. (2000) ‘Music and Everyday Life’, Critical Quarterly, 44(1), pp. 36-45.

Huron, D. (1998) ‘Is Music an Evolutionary Adaptation?’, School of Music, pp. 43-57.

iLounge. (2004) ‘A Brief History of iPod’. http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/instant-expert-a-brief-history-of-ipod/, accessed 1st May 2007.

Keeling, K. (2007) ‘Does Your iPod Have a Soul? Playing with Random Numbers’, Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 5(1).

Nerd Approved. (2006) ‘Love iPods Too Much?’. http://nerdapproved.com/audio/do-we-love-ipods-too-much/, accessed 1st May 2007.

Update on essay

well i have now finished the essay, i orginally had a different idea for it but after talkn to adam about it i changed it. I found the essay preparation fun in a way because i got to choose the topic i was going to write about which was to do with iPods. It didnt take me long to reach 1000 words, i could have gone on and on and on lol but i think i did a good job on writting about something that interests me in so little words. It was a fun task (i never thought i would say that about an essay lol), and i enjoyed every part of it.

Week 8 Tute task Internet Field Trip

this week again was a fun tute. We all made a new account with active worlds. This is very very different to msn messenger. It is 3D that is the biggest difference to msn. The environment in active worlds is kind of like a game. You can run blow kisses, ride jetskis, ride magic carpets lol its quite fun. Socialising on msn to me is just a plain old version were all you do is type ur message and chat there is no world although you do have the option to add your photo to the little box when your haven a private convo, its nothing like active worlds. The thing i liked most about active worlds was that you can see the other people your chatting to even though its not really them lol but you can see them. Above there heads is there name and what they are typing. Its quite fun lol. This is the 1st time that i have been on active worlds and compared to msn its very high tech. The normal msn and yahoo have a more serious side to them in a way theres no games, no worlds so its just plain type your message thats it. The 3D environment provides more of a playful down to earth feeling, because it is just like a game. I think this sort of application of 3D environment may lead us to more of a 'real' chat environment. Like nowdays we have webcams i think that maybe in the near future instead of having a animated avitar represtenting yourself you might be able to take a photo of yourself on webcame and use that as your avitar. So it will be you in the world. Or maybe even have a camera that could be hooked up to a simulator so you do the walking and the talking no typing at all and maybe there could be goggles or glasses that you wear so you can see yourself in that world, and talk instead of type. This might already be around but i think if not that this 3D application will lead to something like that in the near future. This was a fun tute lesson i enjoyed every part of it :)

Week 6 tute task

So this task is like last weeks except im going to use photos that i have taken and i am going to edit them or enhance them.

Ok the first photo was taking in 2005 at my friends dress up party i took this photo myself with my old analogue camera, i enhanced it by adding the word friends, adding balloons/bubbles, tinting the photo and adding a frame, it now looks more appealling and represents the theme of friends better i think.

This is the 2nd photo representing the theme "communication". My friend took this photo of me on the phone at school about 3 years ago. Moblie phones are very much apart of communication today so i thought it represented the theme very well. I then cut the edges off the photo, added the word communication, and added a spotlight effect on me to add more emphasis on me with the phone.

This is the 3rd photo representing the theme news-worthy. This photo was taken by my father 2 or 3 years ago when the cast of Fat Pizza a SBS tv show came to the gold coast. At the time it was all over the news and i thought in going with the theme of "news-worthy" i would use this photo. I enhanced it by firstly adding the text newsworthy, fat pizza comes to the gold coast, then i added an effect which made the photo look like a newspaper "turning of the page", then i added a frame that kinda looks like shredded paper eg.newspaper and added the heading "Daily Herald 2007" on the top and "Fat Pizza" on the left.

This is the 4th photo representing "Australian". I took this photo of my nephew last year at his school athletic carnival and he was wearing his wide brimmed hat and to me thats very australian "outback" like. I tinted the photo with a redish tinge to it to resemble an old australian outback photo and added the word Australian over his body. I felt like thats all i needed to do with this photo.

This is the 5th photo, i took it last year at the gold coast greek festival. This festival is very popular not only with the greek people but with australians who come and see how different the cultures are with the greek dancing and food. I edited the photo by adding the words "Popluar - Greek Festival", adding stars to kind of emphasis the theme of popularity and adding the 2 little music notes to represent greek music.

This is the 6th photo representing the theme games. I love the game soccer and i took this photo last year at the grand finals for soccer at carrara stadium the team is musgrave which some of my mates play for. I added the words games - soccer to it and used a scrubby frame on the edge.

This last photo is of me and my friends with tv star Nick Giannopolous you might know him from "The Wogboy". This photo was taken by another friend of mine at the Gold Coast Greek Festival. I added the words "Celebrity - nick giannopolous, a frame because i have this photo in a frame at home because its special to me and i added the stars because nick is a star to me.

Tute week 5 task

This weeks tasks is going to be a fun for me personally because my favourite hobby is photography. I love taking photos and looking at photos. I would have taken my own photos for this task but i dont have my camera on me at the moment so i googled these photos. These photos that i have picked to add to my task are quite good and represent the themes very well.

This image is representing the theme "friends". It is of two eldery women by the looks of it and has the word friendship written in it. I think the photo represents the theme of friends because these 2 women may have been long time friends and they are still together as friends in old age.

This theme is representing the theme "high-tech".

I found this photo in a google search. It is a photo

of a robotic arm and in my eyes is very high-tech.

This image is representing the theme "news". I found it on a google search. I think it represents the theme of news because the image is of a woman news reporter on air and you can see the CNN headlines underneath her.

This image is representing the theme of "summer". I found this photo from a google search. It is of a beach obviously in summer with people sunbaking and swimming which is representing summer.

This image is representing the theme of "unconventional". This photo is again off google and is of a wedding cake, lol a conventional wedding cake would be the little groom and little bride on the top of the cake. But this photo is very unconventional at the peak of the cake is a mountain with snow and trees on it and the bride is on the top pulling her groom up with a rope lol i thought this was quite a funny photo and very unconventional for a wedding cake.

This image is representing the theme of "university life". I found this image on a google search. What i liked about this image is that its not just one there are 4 images in it and they all represent the different aspects of university life like the top left is study top right is transportation/ social life of university and bottom left is the sport side of university and the bottom right is the social scene of university.

week 4 tute task 1

Well this is my attempt at doing the 1st task for week 4. I had a bit of trouble on what I am actually going to do my essay on i wasnt sure what we were aloud to do it on, but after reading what adam wrote on the blackboard today (Select a topic that interests you, but it has to be related to new communication technologies. Basing it around a particular technology can be an easy way to think of a topic), iv thought of a topic to do :) thank adam. I am very into music and sound so i thought I would do my essay on technology related to music and sound such as ipods, cd players, old record players. Also in doing my essay on that particular area of technology I want to add a kind of history or timeline of all these pieces of technology to show the beginnings of were music and sound orginated from to the ipods of today. I still have to ask Adam if this topic is ok to do then i will start looking up books and articles.

Week 4 tutorial tasks 2A and 2B

Hi all im starting off this post with part 2A of the tasks because its the most fun :)

For Q1. i used yahoo to find the answer. The weight of the worlds most biggest pumpkin is 1502 pounds. Q2. I went through mooter and found that the quickest way to contact grant hackett would be to send a hero message through BigPond Sport. Q3. I went through AltaVista and found that the length of a giraffe's toungue is around 22 inches long and has black with pink dots on it. Q4. I used a9 and found that the word onotology means the branch of metaphysics that studies the nature of existence or being as such. In my own words i would say it means science or something to do with science. Q5. I used hotbot and found that David Cronenburg's first feature film was Shivers in 1975. Q6. I used askjeeves and found that the Hackers Manifesto was originally written in 1986. Q7. I used AOL and found that the reason why hollywood films have phone always starting with 55 is because there use to be a code to dial numbers and due to the "low fill" of the 555 code, Hollywood was encouraged to quote 555 numbers in their productions to prevent real subscribers being harassed by members of the public trying out the numbers quoted on the screen.Q8. I used ALLTHEWEB and found that the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes is by Ferry. Q9. I couldnt find the answer to this question. Q10. I used yahoo and found that Stephen Stockwell played in the band the Black Assassins.

2B

What is a search engine? A search engine is somewere where you can go to search for anything.
How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet? They rank the stuff you searched for by the words you typed in the best match sort of thing.
who, or what, makes one page more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results? Im not to sure on that I herd once that you had to pay a fee to be added in the top 5 of a search but im not to sure.
what are some of your favourite search engines? why do you like one more than others? My fav search engine and most used would be GOOGLE because its quick and easy to use and the most well known.
Can you find some current news stories about search engines? (for example, Google has been in the technology news a bit lately). No i couldnt find anything.

Week 3 Lecture

The Birth of the Computer- its amazing to think that the computer has been around for so long even if it didnt look the same or didnt do the things it can today. The computers origins came from adding machines and Charles Babbage during the 19th century designed machines to calcualte and print mathematical tables. Although Charles was the 1st inventor of the first digital computer, it was mechnical rather then an electronic device, but he did sketch the logical structure of the modern computer. It wasnt until during the 2nd world war that Alan Turing began the work required for the development of the computer to me that took a very long time to actually have the first working computer. And it wasnt until the 1950s that the public could buy IBM computers. Today anyone could walk into a computer store and buy many different brands of computers and many different types of computers not just the home based computer but laptops and so on. I think that computers have come along way from where Charles Babbage started and today companies like IBM and Microsoft are still developing new computers and new hardware so in my eyes the life of the humble computer will never die.

Own Experiences with New communication

I mostly use the internet and my mobile phone to communication with my family and friends. I also use my ipod to listen to music. People my age have grown up with all this new communication technology, 99% of teenages have mobile phones and even 10 year olds now have mobiles. I have friends that I have met off the internet that I have never met and Iv even found distant family members that iv never before off the internet. I just met my 2nd cousin that i found on bebo.com. I dont think it is different to knowing people in person and talking to people on the net. They are still friends its just that you may not see them in person. I personally have been using these new communication technologies since i was about 13 years old, which is an old age nowdays because i know of 9 and 10 year olds that have ipods and moblie phones already. My older sister bought me my first mobile phone on my 13th birthday for "incase of emergancy" lol and at the time I thought yes this is cool and the phone was a brick compared to the mobiles today lol and back then i could last with $20 prepayed for a whole month now i need $230 a month, because a mobile phone is now used as a social thing a way of communcating to friends and sending photos not only for emergencys. Before i had my ipod I use to listen to my music on a portable CD player and it was heavy but now all i use is the ipod which weighs nothing at all and theres no need for cds. Technology has changed for the better in that department i think because i love music. Also another development in technology is the digital cameras still and moving. I have a passion for photography and film making and when i was younger i had an analogue wind up camera and today i have 2 digital still cameras and 1 digital movie camera. They are much more easier to use i believe and the best part about them is that you can see the footage and the photos seconds after you have taken it. I believe technology has changed for the best especially in the camera, music and phone department.

The 1st and 2nd week Lecture and tute

Hey Im jamie and im 19, in my 2nd year at uni. I love soccer and photography. That is one of the reasons why i chose this course. I think this course is one of the more interesting courses at university because technology is forever changing and we all need to be taught new things. In the 1st week lecture i was mainly interested in the Geneology of Old Technology from print to television. Its amazing how far we have come from print being the 1st communication to make information available to now having computers in nearly every househould, throughout the world. During the 2nd week lecture I actually enjoyed watching La Jetee, at first I thought oh no subtitles and an old film, but when it got into it i started to get more and more interested because I personally love films about time travel and photography. To see that the film was made by still photographs was quite interesting and reading the subtitles after all werent that bad :). Im now in my 1st tute for this class and my tutor is Adam. So far iv enjoyed this tute, it's layed back but at the same time Adam still gets us to do the work that has to be done. So thats about all for now.