Hwetherall's Blog

finished!!!!!!

hwetherall — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:25:53 +0000

Yay! I have finished my final artefact and handed it in, I actually thought the whole process went allot better than I thought, I’m not good at using too complex software but I found if I could keep up in class I could then I could practice the techniques and learn them, and now I feel a lot more confident in the software we used and will definitely be using some of the programmes again. We started off learning the basics of Photoshop to get our images and manipulate them by adding text and changing colour, I really enjoyed learning how to use Photoshop and have now got the programme for my laptop so am now editing my own images : ) .

Dreamweaver I found a bit more difficult as I had never used the programme before but I learnt to use DIV tags and Use CSS styles when creating my page. Then we learnt how to use flash, I have some previous experience with it as I had one short session at college using it but I couldn’t remember much of it. Going through I think I picked up the flash easiest as I think as I had already used the programme before, when animating the slides to fade in and out I found that really easy and finished my artefact much earlier than I thought. I think the whole process went really well because I came to every lesson and just made sure I kept up and took lots of notes on what the processes were.

shame

hwetherall — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:05:31 +0000

I went to my dad’s the other day to see my little sister who is 7, It was a lovely day outside and when I went inside she was sitting there in her pyjamas on the Wii playing some game, I told her that we should go outside and play with the animals or on the trampoline, but she refused she was completely enwrapped in the is game, these days with converging media and new game play I find more frequently when I go to see her she is always on the computer or a game consol whether it be Sims on Wii or sonic on Nintendo or little big planet on PS3. Thinking back when I was her age I was out nearly every day in my village playing with my friends, I didn’t even know how to turn on a computer and the only time I used it was as school and rarely. I know times have changes but it is just wired to see how quick times have changed. And the impact that the gaming industry has on children with all the advertising it is almost unfair and it sad she spends on these games instead of out playing. It also surprised me how competent she is at using all the technical equipment often she has to show me how to use the DVD player I think it is because she has grown up in the generation where technology is so available for children and advertising is everywhere.

Into the Wild…

hwetherall — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:06:45 +0000

One of my favourite films is into the wild (2007) directed by Sean Penn starring Emile Hirsch. Technically and visually it is put together beautifully and I think it’s a really underrated film. It is relevant to my blog as it is about a man you rejects all technology and lives off the land without using and human designed devices, it really makes you think whether any of the technology is really needed or is it because we just want it as it’s available. It is defiantly a film to watch if you want to think, and think about how relevant all these converging technologies really are.

second life ?? First life?

hwetherall — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:49:50 +0000

Second life

When I was younger me and my friend Loved playing in the Sims when we got back from school and spent hours upon hours onto the game creating characters and houses and I think too many children the programme can get strangely addictive. Funnily enough I first heard of second life the day before the lecture at a birthday dinner for my friend, one of my friends was telling us about this computer programme called second life, and it was in the paper that a woman in real life had divorced her husband for having a partner in second life. I was immediately intrigued so to find that we had a lecture on it the next day I was very happy.

Second life is a virtual world where you can create an avatar and explore the virtual world and meet other people through talking to the avatar. I searched on YouTube for some clips of the game play and noticing there wasn’t anyone over 25 or under puberty, each avatar had the perfect figure and face and all the scenery was landscape and clean, there were no children. For many people this is a dream area where they can live out their fantasies, oh face value the site looks harmless. But when finding out that there is a sex industry where players actually pay money for virtual sex between avatars it’s like… what?? Why. I also think it highlight that the players actually get addicted to the game you can actually buy plots of virtual space and virtual clothes for your avatar. I can see how is escapism for many people unhappy with their really life and I can also see how it can become addictive as the lives you lead in the second life are far more ideal that real life.

Hearing that many companies have actually brought into the second life game and brought plots of land created shops to boost their brand just boggles me, I’m not sure whether there will ever make huge amounts of profit as personally to spend money on something that isn’t even real then you have to be pretty addicted to the game. I just don’t think that virtual space is going to build revenue, as people naturally want something for their money, something solid and useable. When thinking that there is a Habbo Hotel for children it is awful as instead of going outside and playing they are wasting there lives away antisocially without developing any social awareness which will be vital for them in the future.

Everything you needed in one

hwetherall — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:48:38 +0000

With mobile phone designs reaching new heights of creation this shows media convergence in the mobile phone industry. Since the first mobile telephone the designs and capabilities have developed so quickly and now one phone incorporates so many differ technologies. They are converging mobile phones with cameras, internet, video, MP3, games, Blue tooth, e –mail, infrared. With all these technologies developed on one single portable handset it allows consumers to have everything they could need and want in a single portable device. Each new mobile that comes out has developed the camera, music and download possibilities gaming experiences and the standard keeps on getting better. I think it is a great technological development to have one device with such a range of converged technologies but I do feel sorry for the other technologies selling them separately such as digital cameras, you find the cameras on mobile phones just as high as speck as the inbuilt camera phones, so that industry so suffering as people want all the technologies on one device.

Social or unsociable

hwetherall — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:33:49 +0000

Social networking sites have been created and established through the convergence of communication and the internet, it has taken off more successful that no one could have perceived, Some basic facts about the usage of one social networking site Face book The website has 31 Million active users, More than 100,000 new registrations per day since Jan. 2007, An average of 3 percent weekly growth since Jan. 2007, The site receives over 15 billion page views per month, It currently hosts over 1.7 Billion photos. With statistics like that it clear to see that is something that has taken over the globe. I have a face book account and it allows me to stay in contact, find old friends and share photos and videos, also by being in my course of media production it also enables me to upload my videos of my own work so it circulates around my friends so I can distribute my work freely. Advertising is huge revenue for social networking sites, there are so many users each with a profile that is checked usually daily by the users each page containing an average of 7 adverts the distribution and views are very high. Social networking sites have got considered repercussions such as creating generation of kids who will suffer socially from the addictive use of the sites, but I disagree i think it is an overreaction and if anything it help people develop friendship talk to people they may not usually talk to face to face.

Apple vs Universal Music

hwetherall — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:10:39 +0000

header image

hwetherall — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:26:51 +0000

I have uploaded my photo onto the header image to customise my blog, i enjoy photography and decided to put one of my pictures up as a header to make my blog more personal to me.

were watching you

hwetherall — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:10:59 +0000

Although I have always been aware of the presence of cameras and surveillance I have never really thought about the impacts it has over us a society. On reflection on the lecture it made me think about how often we are watched and also throughout movement on our computers. I dint even know about the term of Inverse surveillance. Here are some questions we were asked to think about

· Do you think about the identifiable trail that you leave whilst using networks?

Realizing that my computer remembers all my browser histories made me realize the extent that it holds also Google search also remembers the searches a have made.

· Do you worry about being tracked by your online activity?

I didn’t used to until this lecture, when thinking about my social network pages my applications then realizing they can gain personal details from adding the application on my profile I will be far more vigilant about what I add to my profile, also on my account on play the online media shop, it remembers everything I look at and advises me on what I may also be interested in.

· Do you worry about being tracked in the real world?

I have never thought about it before until this lecture on realizing how developed and present the technology is, I have become a lot more aware.

· What information do you place online?

Never my address of contact numbers, but I do say I go to cov university and my course which I shall now delete form my profile.

working with dreamweaver

hwetherall — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:14:38 +0000

The last couple if weeks we have been creating webpages using the software dreamweaver in our workshops, keeping up with all the instructions can be hard but you pick it up quite quickly once you have created a couple of pages, we are creating web pages to show our photos we produced and linking the pages together, using css we are creating our own websites. Website design is something I havnt ever done before so it is developing my skills and giving me basic knowledge on the programme.