Networking Sites

Online communicating networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have shown huge potential in the last couple of years. These networks allow people to communicate instantly and share their everyday’s actions. For the same reason that many people use these networks, I use these networks to “stay in touch” with many of the people I know. Facebook has allowed me to re-connect with people whom I have met in the past as well as to share comments and ideas on current events and any media information running around the web. Businesses use these networks to promote their brand’s image in a massive way where thousands if not millions of people can learn more about their brand. I use Facebook because it allows me to communicate with anybody I know instantly even though the person or group isn’t close by. Facebook is also useful because I can promote an image of myself as an athlete where I can upload videos and pictures of the activities that I do. I don’t have a twitter account yet these networks work together to create a better experience on the web. Instant evaluation of media that is inserted on the web is one of the most rewarding characteristics of these networks.

8 things we still hate about the web

The eight things that are described on the article about the web only cause confusion when people surf the web.  I think these eight things are the basic ones that we encounter everyday yet there are many that aren’t described in the article. Contrary to what the website says, I think that the ‘Friend Finder’ on Facebook comes in handy because sometimes I don’t friend request someone that I know. I agreed with the article when it said that  websites such as facebook and twitter exaggerate when they ask if you want to share what you do on other websites with everybody.  These setting are unnecessary and illogic. There is an aspect from certain websites that included in an article, the words are highlighted and when the mouse goes over these highlighted words, a box pop up with an advertisement.  Yahoo and other websites have this which is really bothersome because sometimes the box won’t disappear and the website has to be refreshed. I didn’t know that cookies can track what you do so that the advertisements that you receive are “appropriate”.  Third party cookies are cookies that are being downloaded by your browser which come from a website that is different from the one you’re visiting. 

Mult touch interfaces

Multi-touch interfaces are now becoming more common in today's world.  Smartphones such as the Iphone have quickly grown in the market which shows that it is more efficient and it allows the user of the interface to interact more naturally with a program by using body movements. The rapid increase in popularity and use of these mutli touch interfaces show how they represent the future in electronic devices.  The current use of mouses to interact with computers will slowly become less popular because new interfaces will show superiority in being more efficient. 

Devices such as virtual keyboards are being developed. A device of the size of a pen can produce an virtual image of a keyboard.

Go to: http://www.beststuff.com/computers/businesspro/pen-size-device-projects-full-size-keyboard.html 

Modern devices such as touch screen smarphones and virtual keyboards are mostly used by the new generations of young men and women whom have grown up with these technologies. People of older generations who were raised without these modern technologies have shown difficulty in learning how to use these modern devices.  Some people don't want to use them and yet in today's world, society has come to depend on them.

The Semantic Web.

The Semantic Web is a mesh of information linked up in such a way as to be easily processable by machines, on a global scale. You can think of it as being an efficient way of representing data on the World Wide Web, or as a globally linked database. (http://infomesh.net/2001/swintro/)

Tim Burners-Lee, the person who came up with  WWW, HTTP, HTML and URl's also invented the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web is used to represent data and information from any website to interpret anything it reads on the web. It allows programs and machines to be able to translate the information on a website just by "reading". The Semantic Web is said to be an extension of the Web that facilitates the interaction between the programs and people. The Semantic Web can can be said to represent data about data in the WWW.

Web Scavenger Hunt

1. In regard to Internet Protocols, explain what is meant by the “handshake”. I used in google search engine: "internet protocols handshake" 1st link: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O12-handshakeprotocol.html. handshake protocol is used to establish a connection between two entities on a computer network. The protocol establishes the link and usually passes information about each entity to the other.
    
2. Who is Tim Berners-Lee and what was his role in development of the Internet? Tim Berners graduated from Oxford. British engineer, computer scientist and MIT professor. He invented the World Wide Web.
3. In what year was the first World-Wide Web software created by Tim Berners-Lee? It was created in 1990.
4. What is a homepage? It is the URL that loads when a web browser starts.
5. What is a digital design? It's the design or digital print made for a website's publication.
6. Give three examples of web programming languages. Aspect-Oriented languages, Extension languages and Authoring languages.
7. What does W3C stand for? What year was the group formed? Who formed it? World Wide Web Consortium. It was formed in October 1994 by Tim Berners Lee.
8. What year was the Web Standards Project formed? Who formed the group? Founded in 1998, the group was formed by Tim Berners.
9. Project Gutenberg puts public domain literature and information on the Internet. What was the first document posted? "project gutenberg's first document" - the declaration of independence.
10. Douglas Engelbart was a computer visionary of the 1960’s. What did he invent that you find handy? Douglas invented the mouse which is really important as to how it made computers a lot more efficient for the use of people.
11. Define SaaS. SaaS means: Software as a Service.
12. What is a computer virus? it's a program designed to replicate itself into other programs in a computer.
13. What was ENIAC? It is the first digital computer created.
14. List three causes and 3 symptoms of Internet Addiction Disorder. When entering the web, it is proposed that it can cause a certain feeling that becomes almost addictive. Games on the web and chat rooms can lead to addiction due to family problems because it offers an escape for many people. A symptom is the simple fact of using the internet for extended periods of time. Lack of sleep or fatigue are also symptoms of this disorder.
15. Aside from the W3C and WaSP, list two entities that help govern the web. The IAB (internet activities board) and the IETF (Internet engineering task force).