The future.

Another technology that is very commonly congerved is the mobile phone. It has gone through stages, starting off as just something that people could ring eachother from, then bringing along text messages for added quickness and easy, then came colour screens and cameras, where people no longer needed to carry around a camera and a phone, as they could ust have one phone with both features. This was closely followed by video, which has the same principle as having a camera. Then things such as infrared and bluetooth came about. Now, you can get the internet on your phone, plus MP3 and in some cases as Ipod. I believe that the mobile phone has gone through so many developmental stages it is unbelievable. Each making the mobile phone that little bit better.

However, is this necessarilly a good thing? Do we need 10 different functions on one mobile phone? why can we not just have seperate things? they were good enough for us before so why has all of this changed, and we suddenly need better that we had. I mean, do we now rely on one thing too much? I know for sure, that when i broke the screen on my mobile phone, i was lost for a couple of days, not knowing how to get in touch with people at a click of a button, and having to physically find people rather than giving them one little text asking where they are. I mean, has things like this now created a dependence and what would we do if there was no more?

Would the world just… end? and everyone would go crazy? Or an i just being a drama queen and peoplw would have to just live with the fact they will have to carry around a bigger bag, to fit in their camera, mp3 and phone… Or, will it be nothing like this, and things will converge even more? and we will carry around some kind of microchip, that will be able to read out brain and work out exactly what we want?…. Guess we will have to wait and see.

A little thinking about it all.

I guess before this course i never really thought about Convergence, and how and where it is happening. I guess i was being pretty blind. I feel although i have learnt a lot from this course, there are also things that isnt taught, but it is more highlighted. And this makes you think all about other things and what is being converted.

I think that i have seen that everything at the minute is about convergence, one media is never on its own now, there is always something else right there behind it. Sharing its space. This is in a number of thigs such as television, internet, mobile phones and newspapers.

I believe that possibly the biggest act of convergence of the modern day is that of the television and the internet, there are thw two biggest technologies and now copanies have realised that it would be a great idea to converge the two. It is not always easy for a person to watch television, possibly awkward working times so they always miss their favourite show or maybe they dont get very good signal, a great way to get around this is to watch it on your computer, as long as you are connected to the internet. Channels such as ITV, BBC and Channel4 have all come along to this idea, and it makes me wonder how many more will follow suit. It gives people to watch their favourite television shows, anywhere and at any time, and i feel as though this is a great idea.

However, i dont believe that this idea will phase out television use. I think that the internet is a good idea as a back up if there is a problem with the television, however i would still rather have my laptop for the internet, and my television for programmes, although i will pop on 4OD if i miss a show i want to watch.

Oh, another thought.

I just thought about how the old games, have converged with computers. I used to love playing card games, such as solataire with the family, however now, i have the game on my laptop so i no longer really bother with pysical cards, you also get this with many other cards games like this. I mean, there is nothing wrong with a deck of cards, so did they really need to put these games on computers?

It made me laugh recently, when the news and games converged. I saw of television information about a trial, where a man threw his shoe at George W Bush, he ducked and it missed him. However, games were then created around this idea. This is a link to one. It made me laugh as i realised that nothing is just one thing anymore. I mean, its not JUST the news anymore, people then have to create games around it. Though i have to say, the game is pretty good.

From one extreme to the other.

I was watching the television, and a programme about hoodys on the streets propted a little thinking from me. I previously talked about how childrens lives today arent like they used to be, and how they need to get out more.  However, this show got me to thinking, that some people of today too, maybe a little too much. They hang around on street corners and terrorise people.

It made me realise that everything isnt all about technology, and that isnt all that is wrong with children today. Its like, half of the population are kept inside watching television and playing computer games, and the other half are out on the street, but not behaving.

Makes me think, that surely childrens activities should meet somwehere in the middle, when i was young, we didnt hang around on street corners with our hoods up, neither did we coop ourselves up inside. Surely, something had gone wrong and we now only have these two extremes. I would love to see children collaborate these things, but it worries me that there is no chance that its going to happen. And we will always have that big divide.

Childhood differences.

I was recently talking about my childhood and all of the things that i used to love doing, and all of the programmaes and crazy that were about and it got me to thinking about the whole shift in things, and how that children these days dont seem to have any where near as much things that will remain in their memories, other than computer games, online games and dvds, basically, all things technical

This is where im going to sound incredibly old, though i dont think that 19 is an old age by an account. I just think that when i was a kid things were so much rosey. I mean, the crazes that we had, things like yo-yo’s and crazy bones and pokemon cards, do kids really get those things anymore? i feel as though it is more like games for DS or Playstations, and kids collect dvds rather than anything like they did when i was young. We used to have so much fun, out on the back field, making up stories and rolling down hills, i cant remember the last time i saw someone today doing that.

Dont get me wrong, i still had technology by my side, the days of watching cats eyes and pippin the dog on tv and school were the best, but other than that i swear there wasnt much going on. We had tamagotchi’s which we thought were awesome and cutting edge, though now theyve brought out new ones, that are so much better, but when youre 10? who cares, it will only be broken in a week anyway.

I just think that its pretty sad, that children today arent going to the park on theur bikes (or skates) or in the garden with a hula hoop and pogo stick, theyre sitting inside infront of a television or computer screen. I mean, this may all change and we can go backwards, but i very much doubt it. It makes me wonder whats going to happen in the future, and will the children of today that im worried for, one day, be having siliar worries about another generation, is it some spiralling circle that will never end, or will something happen and technology will be phased out?….. I wonder.

Final Artefact

I decided that seeing as i had already created a div tag in a workshop, there was no point in making things extraly difficult for myself. I had a simple box, on the left hand side i had space for navigations, and on the right there was space for the actual content. I felt as though it would be simple enough to edit this to make it what i want it to look like.

Firstly, I made my left hand box and made it the colour that i wanted, i thought the colour purple  would be nice because it is my favourite colour, but is also a vibrant eye catching colour. I then  went onto i add the words; home, image 1, image 2 etc in a list. These are the words that will link  to my other webpages, that will hopefully have my statistics images on. I used css styles to change the colour of the words, and the fonts. 

I then went on to change the look of the right hand side box, i made the background colour white, as i thought that it would go nicely next to the purple. I then went on the change the font so that it was the same as on the left hand side. I then began to insert text into the box. I put who i was and a brief description of what i was creating the page for. This was the homepage of my website. 

After this, i got onto doing all of my other pages, i quickly made all 11 other pages, makin sure that they were all exactly the same on the left hand side, but deleting the content off of the right hand side. After this i added images onto all of the pages, in sequence (my staistics images) I then decided to pop onto photoshop and create little titles for each page, naming the image number, of which i coloured a pinky purple and back, as it matched the layout of my websute. I added these above the images in my right hand box. And this was my pages complete. Just tinkering time now.

It was then time for the most tedious job of all, linking every page to each other. This wasn’t much fun as i had to go onto all 12 pages and link to all of the other 11 pages and itself. Joyjoy. I have to say i didnt enjoy that bit very much. I then realise that I needed to have some kind of logo at the top.

To make my logo i went onto my own person facebook and found a picture of myself that i quite liked. I then went onto Photoshop, i made the picture black and white, and then inserted the text “112mc” onto the picture, making it a purpley colour, again to match my websites colour. This was then inserted onto the top of my felt navigation bar. 

The final thing that i had to do was make a flash slideshow. I inportant my images into the “stage” of flash and then attempted to create a button. This wasnt too difficult and i was away pretty quick, chosing which colour button i would like and then finally adding it and and creating the stop motion, simple. I had to publish the slideshow and make it a swf file, and then that was it. I inserted it into the homepage of my website and it was complete. Allowing viewers to access my images my clicking through, forwards and backwards, rather than having to look at every page to see them. 

I checked over my whole website, checking to make sure that all of my links worked, and i was happy with it. Overall, i am pretty pleased with my website, considering Dreamweaver didnt do anything that i wanted it to the other day, i was happy that we had finally made friends, and all was okay =]

What they get out of it.

I was thinking about the internet and website, trying to work out where they get their money for. I mean, things like facebook and myspace and free to join, so why do people bother, and what do they get out of it? surely not the satisfaction that theyve managed to glue people to their screens, and steal the attention of thousands of students who should be working all over the world.

No, it clearly isnt that. It is obviously the art of advertisements. Us people that use these websites dont generate the money for the creators, it is the companies that are begging for some advertisement space on these websites. We all use these websites, not caring about what the creators get, not even giving it a second thought. However we are helping them make these huge amount of money, simple, by logging in every day, giving companies a reason to want to advertise their stuff on there.

But how many people actually pay attention to those advertisements? I have to say that i, personally, never do. Unless i somehow mange to click one one by mistake and get frustrated by the fact that it has now taken over my laptop. Some people must notice them though, and actually buy whatever is on offer, or what would the point be? Or maybe, we all subconsciously do take in them, and manage to purchase what these annoying advertisements are trying to get me to buy, even when i dont think i have? Something to think about i guess.

But then again, im surprised that things like myspace havent charged bands for having profiles. It is such a simple way of bands to advertise themselves, create a free account and then add tons of people asking for what they think. Some people have even got famous from Myspace, such as Lilly Allen. Or has myspace got some kind of rights somewhere along the lines? like facebook has.

I just believe that things like this, are used every single day and never once have i previously thought about it, i mean, i dont think im going to stop using these websites, but i wonder just how many people do pay attention to these advertisements, and how much the creators of these websites generate, from us all.

Flash, the congervent media way

Well, i thought this would be a walk in the park. I did flash for my add+vantage module so i th0ught it would just be all that i had been previously taught. Oh how wrong i was. Initially, yes i thought that we were going to be doing the same as before, as we did the very creative, make a ball go from one side of the screen, to another.  I was looking forward to seeing how this would work with our artefacts.

However, after a 5 minute lesson on how to do the ball thing, we got into the real work, which is very different from things i had done before. we were shown how to import a sequence of images on, make buttons and get the sequence to stop, all in one lesson. I left feeling pretty bummed out that i hadnt been taught any of this in my add+vantage, and we had spent 10 weeks, repeatedly being shown how to make a ball move accross a screen.  I actually really enjoyed doing this stuff and i felt as though i was in a comfort zone, yet i was still learning something new, which is always nice. 

When flash was next used, i was not so happy with it. We were then shown how to use the images and buttons, yet have the images fade in and out of eachother. I thought this would make a really nice effect, until i tried it. the first couple of images worked just fine, and then it decided to do a dreamweaver and not work. I had no idea of why because i was doing nothing different yet it just did not want to work.

Anyway, in the end i decided that the fading effect wasnt worth it, so i opted for a normal flash slideshow, even though that still didnt want to encorporate itself into a dreamweaver file. though i chose to save that fight for another day.

My first encounters with dreamweaver

Well, there are some things i am good with in terms of using computers, and some things i am not. I have to say dreamweaver falls into the latter category. From the start i seemed to struggle a bit with keeping up with that was going on, and pages didnt seem to want to do what i told them to, or link to where i was asking them to.  I think my first problem was the fact that I didnt have a great amount of enthusiasm, and i didnt really realised the importance of dreamweaver at the start, maybe if i had have realised that I was essential I would have put a little more time and effort.

Well, i though i had finally mastered the art of dreamweaver, handed my artefact in on pen and thought great, now we can move on. But nooo, we had to be intorduced to an even more complex way of using it (div tags)  i though that there was no chance of me ever understanding this stuff. Even though i felt as though i was getting the hang of it, something would always go wrong.

I managed to make myself a rough div layout and again, expected that to be the end of it. Once again, surprised was I to find out that this is what my final and most important artefact was going to be on, so i had best keep practicing.

.So then, yes! i had finally finished a div layour with all of my images on and we were told that we have to include a flash slideshow on it too. I mean, I had already had numerious battles with dreamweaver and we were being given even harder stuff to do with it. Well flash did not like my div layout and i had to fight constantly with it, resulting in me angrilly deciding that i hate dreamweaver and that it, in turn hates me. And i hope that we will not be reunited too soon in the future, because it is not my friend!

Virtual Websites.

Well…. Where do i even start? we were given a lecture on virtual sites and one that sticks in my mind is one called second life. i was no stranger to this, i remember back in college we watched a documentary on it, and i thought the same as i do now, that it is absolutely crazy!! So, what is it? It is a website that people join, it has ideolised landscapes of what people may see as “perfect” a fake place that is always nice and sunny, nothing like actual reality.

They then go onto create avatars of themselves (mythical figures that look nothing like their human self) You would epxect people to try and create a person that is a true representation of themselves would you? But oh no!! as if, everyone look like your typicl “perfect” people, young and pretty. What makes me laugh the most about this, is poeple arent just participating in this fake life, they are paying for it too, they pay to create a good avatar, to wear the best clothes and do the best things, how pathetic?

So yesh, once these people have paid into creating a fake little world, they then even go further. They go andpay for sexual favours and such, on the internet? it is so so shocking. i cant believe that real life people have such rubbish real lives they have to spice it up by paying for sex that isnt even real! And some people, even get addicted to this and waste all of their money on escorts, that again, arent even real.

Then, on the other side of this, companies exploit these people, making them pay lots of money, for items that are only virtual, not even real. People on this website are also being conned out of money too. Theyre putting loads of their own money into second life banks, and then the banks have “gone bust” and theyve lost their money, sometimes this is thousands of pounds theyve put in there, and who do they complain to? no-one. So theyve lost everything, because they were silly enough to trust a virtual bank.

Once more, it isnt even just single people looking for sex on these websites, Universities and Colleges are now joining the bandwagon, though im guessing that theyre doing this so that people can relate to their university on there, and also, i guess its good advertisement for the university or college.

The thing that strikes me as crazy is, the people that sometimes use this website and the effect that it has on them. I mean, some people are married, yet they partake in virtual sex, do you find that correct? because i dont. I mean, really, it is technically cheating, i know for sure if i was married, i wouldnt be best pleased if my husband was virually sleeping around. Are people that unhappy in their relationships that they have to seek happiness from somewhere else? because if so, that for sure isnt good.

Some people have formed real life relationships with people they have met online, and for this, i believe that sometimes it can be a good thing, if people are shy and struggle with confidence, being a totally differet person online may give them the confidence that they need, and thus in the end forming real life relatiomships.

Second life isnt the only virtual website around though, the ultra-geeky World of War Craft is another. This is the same idea as second life, it is just revolved around a fantasy place called warcraft universe, whereby people pay to explore the landscape, figh various monsters and comple quests. Some people even go as far as to have a whole seperate computer for this game, and another for general internet useage

I personal see virtual websites and nothing but money wasters, that give people with nothing better in their lives the chance to be someone they always dreamed of, but was never a reality to become one. It is somewhere people have affairs, ignore loved ones and waste time and money on something, that simply, is not real.