Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Searching tasks
You're going to have to forgive me - I didn't do these tasks. I'm a librarian and I do know how to search. Here's my guess about what you wanted us to establish:
1. that google and other web search engines don't search the deep web, which mainly consists of fee databses which have sophisticated indexing setups.
2. that nevertheless you can become a sophisticated google searcher knowing tricks like putting in defining words (like 'hotel: new york') or using inverted commas to do a phrase search etc.
3. I didn't download Copernicus because I was very wary after reading John and others emails about thier pc's crashing!!
4. strategies I would use to search for 'advanced internet users' would include truncation (eg. use*; advanc*; and maybe *net*); I'd be picking my databses and go to LIS Abs, ABI Inform and OCLC FirstSearch (this is just off the top of my head ;) - and I'd be aware of the different searching functionalities within each database - First Searchm for instance, can be very useful to see how many hits your getting for both keywords and subject searches before you see the results, checking keywords also helps identify possible spelling variations and other keywords that might be useful.
Apologies for not completing these taks - mea culpa and you know how I feel about the time factor :(
Downloading files task
I downloaded an html editor called Taco, and some ftp programs called Cyberduck and another one `i ofrget the name of. I've also downloaded ICQ as part of the unit, and several other programs like Imol which is a molecular biology viewer program.
I think its best to have the aid of a techie at work if you're using a work machine (which I am). Plus I'm still getting used to OS X and Panther, and I still can't figure out what rights I've got on my machine and network.
But I did notice that in OS X you have all the utilities you need available and all you have to do is figure out the unix commands, which are pretty much natural language - so cool, I only just realized this but will explore further with more time (if I ever get any!!) Oh yes, and I also downloaded PDA software and have synched once with the Tungsten 3 I've been told to play with.
Other tips - if youre after free software then ZDnet is the place to go.
Top 5 tips for new bloggers
1. Use some free software just like this to get started - its so easy and free, and hey, it gives you a free and easy to publish web page as well, not just a blog (whatever 'just a blog' is!!
2. Link to other blogs and try and get your friends, coworkers to set up theirs own blogs. It seems to me that people interact via blogs if they have their own, but if you set up one blog for a community to contribute to, it may not be so successful.
3. Take your flame wars offline or to email
4. Explore and experiment, and share your tips on your blog, eg. if you find out cool RSS feeds, or good ways to link or upload files like graphics, share it!
5. Use good headings in your titles because it will make it easier to search and retreive your archives.
My answers about copyright etc for my web page
Consider these questions:
have you used images or words on your web page or website that contravene copyright laws?
No – I’ve used a picture of myself which was given to me by a friend
- I’ve used a graphic (arrow) which was made freely available
- I’ve published some copies of emails written by fellow students as part of excercises for net502 – these theoretically belong to Curtin as they were transmitted over their student email, however as the web page is also a Net502 exercise it would be a moot point to sue me for breach of copyright
Would you be in breach of copyright if you put the Curtin logo at the top of your web page for an assignment?
Probably not, as it’s a Net502 exercise, but if I did I’d be further compromising my ability to defend the web site as my intellectual property rather than Curtin’s
5 most important rules for writing online
1. Write for scanners and include a link to the full article if this is what the web publication consists of. My preference is to iprovide the full article in text form (not pdf) because it is fasr more manipulable (??? is that a word???)
2. Use meaningful sub-headings (not "clever" ones)
3. Make the page half the word count (or less) than conventional writing and be concise, scannable, and objective
4. Summarize first. Put the main points of your document in the first paragraph, so that readers scan
5. Consider how users will interact with your materials and make sure there is no lack of context between the materials on your site and the linked site. "This plunge from the known to the mysterious can frustrate and bewilder users."
Writing html
Sorry, this entry is a bit out of sequence, but we were asked to record any difficulties we encountered with these exercises in your learning log, so here 'tis:
The only difficulty I had was finding a simple text editor. My Mac OS X hasa program called TextEdit but it won’t allow a file to be saved as html – it required either rtf or txt. My friend found a neat program called Taco which was more than simple text but allowed me to write straight html and save it. One advantage was I could split the screen and see the results of my code as I typed.
