AWOL: Moving House

My blog for the last week regrettably has little to do with Net 11 but a lot to do with learning.

This time has been painfully spent away from my trusty computer as we moved house from the hustle and bustle of Brisbane city life to the cool serenity of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. Along with the necessary mishaps of too small a removalists truck and terrible service in re-establishing our internet service, I am finally moved and back on line.

So this week I have a different 5 tips. These are the 5 tips for moving house.

1. Never move house in a Queensland summer... This is a hell that has to be endured to be believed. Save time, just believe me and don't do it.

2. When studying a computer based course, find an internet provider that actually has a clue and don't lose all internet access for over a week.

3. Don't rely on your children to help, and count on the fact that they'll have done absolutely nothing that you've asked.

4. Don't move whilst pregnant and expect to do everything that you can do any other time. Lady, get a grip... the little person in your belly does not like you over-exerting and will make you more tired than you thought possible.

5. Pay someone else to do absolutely everything for you or make sure you have good insurance and accidentally leave the frying pan on whilst you go shopping for a few hours.

So, Net 11 aside, these are the things I have learned this week. Now hopefully I can get back to the business of learning.

Module 1: Further Exploration

Today I decided to have a bit of a play and compare the results I obtained through 3 different sites and traceroute pathways. I was unsure what to expect in terms of consistency in hop numbers and time to achieve the trace. I guess a part of me figured it would all be pretty similar, after all, it's all from my one little computer to the same Curtin website, right? Wrong! The tracers I chose to use were from network tools, the A-Toolbar and the direct traceroute from my windows c: prompt (as pictured).

I was actually quite suprised by the results and the way there seemed to be no real pattern in the motions. The network tools tracer had the most hops with 20 but was second fastest on 271m/s. The A-Toolbar was by far the fastest taking only 102m/s to complete 15 hops and my c: prompt trace was almost painfully slow taking 595m/s to also finish in 15 hops. The logical part of my brain figured that the less hops the faster the process would be but this little experiment showed me that my suppositions are not always right, and has motivated me to find out why. More research to come on that front it would seem. I also carried out the ping part of the exploration which turned up even more questions. Pinging webct via network tools took an average time of 261.6m/s, a vastly different result to the 98m/s it took to ping the same website using the A-Toolbar. Very odd indeed. Without knowing more about how the ping function really works my reasoning is purely speculation and I am hoping to find out more over time. At this stage my best guess would be that to use the network tools site to ping web ct I am relying heavily on the network that network tools use and perhaps requiring more hops to obtain the information. Using the A-Toolbar ping tool from my own computer perhaps offers a more direct link to the web ct site. At the moment I am unsure and as I said, purely speculating. In time I hope to be able to answer all of these questions with greater understanding.

Module 1: Task 3 - Internet Tools

Since I first began learning about the Internet and how it works I have been fascinated by the incredible way that information travels between computers, at speeds beyond belief, in tiny little packets and materialises on the screen in front of me. Accordingly, the traceroute task was one I really enjoyed. Having often wondered about this sort of information but being in total ignorance as to how to find it, I found this task quite exciting.

For this part of the module I used the Central Ops site to trace the route from my computer to the Curtin site. The attached screenshot illustrates that it required 21 'hops' and took 246 milliseconds from the tools site to the Curtin server. Assuming everything was correct and that I looked in the right place, the Curtin IP address is 134.7.179.53.

Module 1: Task 2 - FTP

So Filezilla and I don't get on so well. I'm a big fan of simple and easy to use and for me, Filezilla wasn't it. I managed to log in just fine and have a bit of a look around the directory but from there it all went downhill. It took me a few attempts to find the desired 'readme' file and for whatever reason I simply could not download it. After much angst and some supportive messages from other students in web ct I finally managed to at least view the 'readme'. It was there that I discovered that 'CAPITALIZATION MATTERS'. So whilst Filezilla and I may not be friends, we at least have come to an uneasy truce.

5 Steps to a Great Blog

As a 'newbie' to blogging I was both clueless and terrified of the whole phenomenon.
As such, here is my advice for creating and managing your own blog.

1. Don't be afraid to get started. Like anything blogging can be intimidating until you understand what steps to take. Jump in at the deep end and begin.
2. Research. Investigate a variety of blogging websites and get a feel for what suits your needs. These range from the basic beginner's sites to the complex for experienced users. Know you're abilites, understand your needs and choose accordingly.
3. Experiment. Play with backgrounds, font colours, pictures and formats. Trialling these things will enable you to create a blog that is individually yours.
4. Check out other people's blogs. Especially for those new to blogging, like myself, having a good look around other blogs can be a huge source of inspiration and information.
5. Keep it simple to start with. By all means try new things but don't pressure yourself into being an immediate expert. Get started and learn as you proceed.

Module 1 Task 1: Telnet

To be honest this week was the first time I had really heard of Telnet let alone attempted to use it. After reading some of the posts in Web CT from other students who had attempted this first I admit to a little hesitancy and fear.Thankfully, I had taken the time to read the notes thoroughly and my first attempt was a successful one. Although Telnet's appearance might be considered very 'old school'(see above), I found it relatively functional. Sure, it wasn't as simple and pretty as today's World Wide Web and I imagine prolonged use would be both time consuming and frustrating but for today's short burst of necessity Telnet behaved just fine. It was also nice to still have the ability to email myself required information. Overall, my first impression of Telnet was a positive one albeit one that reminded me how far technology has progressed and how much I like the simplicity of today's WWW.

I also have to admit that I had a really big giggle at towel.blinkenlights.nl. How much time and effort must have gone onto making that? It kind of brought back memories of my old Atari 2600. So very archaic yet also so very cute.