week 8 tute task

Opportunities for political participation via over the internet

1. Sign an e-petition.

Today I signed an e-petition to stop the bull-fighting in Catalonia, the sport involves men on horseback or foot repeatedly stabbing bulls with knives and spears and after 20mins they are normally dead - I think this is horrible and disgusting.

The petition was on the WSPA website and I regularly sign petitions through this website and up until 2 months ago when became a uni student I was a regular monthly sponsor of this organisation.

2. Respond to a professional news blogger.

I went to News.com.au and found the blog of a journalist called Jack Marx, he has a pretty funny take on a few issues.

responded to his blog on Airport Beggers: "have a nice day"

This is the basic run down:
Airport beggers: “Have a nice day!”
29 Comments 0 Trackbacks Permalink
Jack Marx Live Blog
Jack MarxSaturday, December 13, 2008 at 12:08pm

A Qantas check-in attendant has been assaulted by an irate traveller, whose only punishment has been a 24-hour ban from the airline. I’ve writtten before about these sorts of dumb arseholes, and I’m both surprised and disappointed at the fact no charges have been laid. Which is not to say that airports can’t be annoying places, and they’re made even less pleasant by the strange trend in corporate hawking that has been infecting the concourse for years - those smiling bastards from American Express, for example, who leap out like the beggers they are the minute one has passed the security screen.

My comment : I am curious about what prompted the passenger to slap the check-in attendant. For all we know the check-in attendant also slapped the passenger.

3. What is president Obama up to today?

He Twittered today:

In New York, meeting with world leaders at the United Nations. Watch the speech: http://bit.ly/2Z4d3J

4.. Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are.

Local: Ron Clarke

State: Anna Bligh

Federal : Kevin Rudd

and because he is so important I decided to super size him!

5. Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local mamber spoke in parliment.

Ok so I tried to look but coulnt find a thing about Ron Clarke? not sure why that is as I have NO idea about politics whatsoever and that last question above took me ages. Is he even allowed to speak in parliment? isnt that only for federal MPs or what ever MP even means.... all WAY over my head on that one!!

6. Let your local member know what you thought about their last speech.

Ok so cant really answer this one as I couldnt find his last speech but he is in the news paper currently about spending all our money on silly ideas below is a link to the story in question.. and my thoughs on that are that I think he has started to go a little senile and needs to not have the authority to spend any of the tax payers money!! enjoy!

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2009/10/09/146275_gold-coast-news.html

7. What do you think of the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")???

Ok so the idea of a"Clean Feed" is:

The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and slow down Internet access.
Despite being almost universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is determined to force this filter into your home."

ok so the type of things that will be censored according to the proposal are:

The filtering will target legal as well as illegal material.
The clean feed will censor material that is "harmful and inappropriate" for children.

Ok so my thoughts on the whole thing is... if its to censor material that is harmful or inappropriate for children then why should the rest of us have to suffer?? especially people who dont have children?? isnt that what parental locks on computers are for?? and I am sure you can buy programmes that are especially designed to restrict harmful material from leaking through, I remember at school in NZ they put this programme onto the computer systems there and it basically meant to block porn but I was trying to find a picture of a butterfly for an assignment and the porn filter blocked any website containing the word butterfly.. huh??!! ok since when has a butterfly been sexual? ok dont answer that! but anyway my point is I think its stupid hasnt ridiculous amounts of money been spent on making the internet and computers faster and now they want to do something to slow them down again?? is this sounding as retarded to everyone else as it sounds to me?

Week 7 news report

week 7 lecture - Software/Freeware Apps

Ok so today we talked about software applications and we looked at in particular : open and closed source software.

So just for clarity I shall provide a definition of each below using Wikipedia

Open source software (OSS) is defined as computer software for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that meets the Open Source Definition or that is in the public domain. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified forms. It is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open source software is the most prominent example of open source development and often compared to user-generated content.[1] The term open source software originated as part of a marketing campaign for free software A report by Standish Group states that adoption of open source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_sourced_software

Closed source is a term for software whose license does not allow for the release or distribution of the software's source code. Generally, it means only the binaries of a computer program are distributed and the license provides no access to the program's source code. The source code of such programs might be regarded as a trade secret of the company. Access to source code by third parties commonly requires the party to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_source_software

Closed source software is produced by one company its normally copywrited and you can not sell it or copy it and distribute it unless you have permission, it is normally sold by the company or authorised vendors, examples are Microsoft Office which I am sure we have all used!

Open source software is basically the opposite of closed source, its normally free to copy, use and distribute.

We also talked about freeware apps and there are a host of different website that offer these below are some that I discovered under a few categories:

First up audio & visual :

well I had better put the obvious... iTunes of course : iTunes Is an audio player for playing and organizing digital music files, and purchasing them from the Apple Store.

I think iTunes is brilliant! it so easy to use and organise your music, create playlist etc and I am pretty sure everyone I know has an ipod so I thought this one worth a mention.

Automation:

KeePass - KeePas is an opensource password manager which helps you manage your passwords in a secure way, very handy if you are terrible at remembering things like me!!

Compression, Backup, and File Recovery:

Mozy: Mozy is the perfect solution for online backup. Its offers 2GB storage for free. which is very handy if like me use have lost about 3 or 4 USB sticks.. yes seriously alomost defeats the purpose of even having them!

Also another one worth a mention is Recuva, it is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentaly deleted from your computer so basically awesome if you delete your essay before you have submitted it! but yeah probably not your best friend if you are trying to hide a weird facination or online porn addiction.. you could always blame it on your roomates right?!

Blogging:

ok so I have to totally take the opportunity to give Blogspot a good rap, where we would be without it! truth be told I didnt know what a blog was until I started New Com Tech but I have been pleasantly surprised by this application, it is super easy to use and understand even for someone as "technologically-confused" as me LOL excuse the pun!

Ok and I think I have done enough but another one I keep close to my heart and simply coulnt live without (being a poor student and all) is Skype, it is the best invention ever.. who would of thought you can call anywhere in the world for FREE!! awesome!! I was actually on it earlier tonight talking to my family in NZ, and if you have webcam its even better or better still I have a built in cam on my laptop and I can carry it around and show them new things around the house or the view from the balcony LOL possibilities are endless!! anyway getting off the subject a little now but yeah you get the point! it is free to call any "computer' in the world and you can also load credit onto your account for very resonable prices and then call landlines and mobiles for cheaper than if you used you phone.. BRILLIANT!! I dont know why it isnt HUGE I am still surprised that people havent heard about it!!

Youtube video 3

This video called "spiders on drugs" is brilliant! They have created it to look like a real documentary and the first time I saw it I was almost convinced! They use different camera angles to make it really effective and have obviusly cut and edited alot of film to get the exact parts they need the 'subject' to be doing to make the commentary effective.

Youtube video 2

This video is called "Beached as Bro" and it has had its fair share of publicity! I chose it because, I am from New Zealand and it was created by two guys from there, with a little too much time on their hands! Supre the clothing chain even created a line of singlets and T-shirts with the whale on the front and sold them both in the NZ and the Australian stores. I think they have shown a lot of good angles and ranges of shots even though it is only about 1 min 40. Well it was a sensation on You Tube non the less and I think it even got coverage in other areas as I result of how many times it was viewed.

short youtube film 1

This is Charlie the Unicorn, and I chose this as it is so funny & I think everyone has viewed it as some point or at least I hope they have! There are now extra episodes of this that have been created due to popular demand. I thought that even though it seems quite simplistic in the animation used thats what makes it so funny & unique.

Tute 6 Sketchcast

This is my flower I created on Sketchcast.. isnt it beautiful!!

Tute 6 - my google map.

This is my google map of places that I have been and places I am about to go to before the end of the year.

View Places I have been so far... in a larger map

Tute 6

I typed my name into a website called persona and this is what came up: