week 4. Le Internet & Le Web

17/03/08

Week four has come and gone so quick. Before i know it, the UPC course will be over and i will be moving onto my desired course to be a Nutritionist.

This lesson was completed at home, as there was the easter long weekend. It was on the Internet, the web and a brief history of both.

Task:

1.For the task, i was to look at two websites, which appear to be authentic.

The first site was;

http://www.haggishunt.scotsman.com/ This website has attempted to appear authentic by; the layout and how it is presented with pictures and labels i.e. Scotsman, and Gleneagles logo (saying they are being sponsored by them). They have prizes you can win and merchandise you can buy. They even have games you can play. And you can register, for free!

Clues that give the site away as a spoof are:

1. How the text is written in the site (written as though it’s a story)
2. Complex- some pages won't open for me
3. >> . com is used, which means is of commercial nature
4. The merchandise you can buy has animated pictures of mugs and t-shirts with their logo on (you can’t see the real product), So they probably don't exist.

4. There is no reference/bibliography given. The second site was;

http://www.molossia.org/This website appears to be authentic by; Using >> .org, saying it’s an organization (non-profit). The title seems professional, “Republic of Molossia Official Website”.

It also has an address of where they are sighted and the layout seems professionally set-up.

Clues that give away the site as a spoof are:

1. The front page doesn't have any date on it
2. Can't find the publisher
3. A huge piece of writing suggesting to teachers that it is not a false sight etc.
4. So much shouldn't be said if it is a genuine site
5. How the text is written again seems like your reading a story (when reading about the naval academy etc) Seems ephemeral
6. No reference or bobliography is given

2.I was also to write what i would expect from this site http://www.martinlutherking.org/ based on the URL.

If he is the man I’m thinking of, Martin Luther King is a boxing sponser and also is involved in the world of drugs and criminal works. I think the site would be dedicated to him as some sort of biography on him.

When i visited the site, my first impression was that, this is a man i would not be interested in meeting or celebrating about. On the site i s was given to look at, is says of how he plagerised the writings he did, having approximately five words his own. The front page says of how police picked up 14hours of party chatter, clinking of glasses, and illicit sex.

The impression i got of Martin Luther King, jr. from this site was an unpleasant one. However, another site i visited, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html stated of him being a respected man, being the youngest man to recieve the Nobal Piece Prize at the age of thirty-five.

A lot more research could be put into Martin Luther King. I was given two completely different views of him in different sites. I think you shouldn't believe everything you read, and to make your opinion of something/someone once you have done research on it/them.

Slides:

The slides this week consisted of information of the internet and the web. I learnt what the domain ending stand for i.e. >> .com stand for commercial, >> .org is for organisations. Also, au; uk; nz etc are country codes.

The net is used to find computers. Connections are cables between computers. The web is to find document, sound, videos and information. Connections are hypertext links.

I was shown information on the historical perspective on the web. The web was developed by Tim Berners-Lee (who is a researcher at CERN) IN 1989. He developed it to facilitate sharing research information.

Reading:

We had two pieces to read. The first reading was a brief history of the Internet. Tho when reading it, it didn't seem brief at all. It had some interesting facts in it tho i.e the first recorded description of social interaction, enabled through networking was a series of memos written by J.C.R. Licklider of MIT, in Aug 1962. It discussed his "Galactic Network" concepts.

The second piece of reading was history of the world-wide web. It discusses

• The development of computers till 1960's
• History of ARPANET to the world-wide web
• History of electronic mail
• The search engine and
• Basic net data

To be honest, i found it all very boring but it had a few interesting facts and information i read i.e. -How much the Internet has grown. In 1994, it was estimated 38m, 101m in 1998, over 400m in 2000, and 580m in 2002. The Internet has become second nature to go onto for entertainment and research purposes etc.