Working styles cont.

Working styles cont.

Advantages

- Makes work easier in a working enviroment

- Reduces time spent on a piece of work

- You can find work in seconds with a search tool, much quicker than rifling though folders by hand.
 
-Transactions, accounts can be handle properly more by computers than manually.
 
-Computer presents information through graphs and bars.

Disadvantages

-Computers can make the mind lazy. You get used to not reading a book, or researching something at the library... Just a few key-strokes and you have your answer.

-There are physical things like carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetititive strain disorders, and eye strain (often necessitating glasses).

-Being on a computer too much can also lead to anti-social behavior and depression.

-Unemployment. Many people have become unemployed as computers have taken over their jobs in the workplace e.g. factories now use computers to produce goods rather than hard labour.

In my opinion, these are just theoretical things; in reality, there are no disadvantages regarding computers.

News stories

"Computers upset the workplace"

Have computers given us more time to ourselves or stolen it with the opportunities and problems that they create, asks Dominic Arkwright of BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"At the dawn of the computer age, we were told the machines would revolutionise our lives.

They would steal our jobs, said the pessimists. They would give us unending leisure time, said the optimists.

Computers were going to revolutionise industry. They were going to become an instrument of totalitarian tyranny as envisaged in George Orwell's novel 1984. They were going to be able to reproduce.

Today, some of the predictions have proved to be heroically wrong.

"I think that IBM in the 1950s when it was looking at moving into this new market of the computer trying to estimate how many it would sell, thought that the total world market for computers would be five," said Computer Weekly News Editor Carl Schneider.

PCs vs jobs

But there was one aspect of computers and information technology revolution that was unswerving and inescapable.

"I think there was this kind of utopia where people thought that they would replace lots of labour with machines," said Robert Macredie of Brunel University

"It happened in the Industrial Revolution. It has this kind irreducibility - you can't see how it works, it's quite sexy, it's very nice - and we can get rid of lots of people and have lots of technology to deal with as many jobs as possible in the workplace."

It may have been the dirty, the dangerous, the repetitive jobs that were the first targets of automation.

The problem was, that if it was your job that was swept aside in the cull, it was your livelihood and probably your only skill that went too. Humans have always resisted the machines.

Have computers put you out of a job?

The point is, unnervingly, that computers and robots are better than humans in many and various ways.

"If you were the actual company owner, then the job can be done much more quickly, much more efficiently, with much more accuracy," said Professor Kevin Warwick from the Cybernetics Department at Reading University.

"So the overall product can be made to a much better quality.""

Computers 'hamper the workplace'

Technology is failing people despite millions spent Computer systems at work are not working as they should, despite costing millions, a report says. The problem lies with people rather than the systems themselves, concludes the iSociety think-tank. Workers do not have enough guidance about technology, support staff are cut off from other staff and managers are "naive", said the year-long study. This contributes to "endemic annoyance" with computers which can be avoided with better understanding. Low expectations When technologies are implemented and understood well, they can make life much easier at work, and bring a two to five-fold return on money ploughed into it. But currently, although it is accepted that technology matters in most workplaces, it is working "pretty badly", suggests iSociety. Instead of technology being foisted down from uninformed upper management, people should have more opportunity to muck around with it and make it work for them, report co-author Max Nathan told BBC News Online. "The situation varies across workplaces," he said. The problem is there is a built-in negativity about technology. When it works well, it becomes invisible, but people only notice it when it goes wrong Max Nathan, iSociety "Typically problems range from computers crashing, systems going down and computers not talking to each other like they should." On an everyday level, the common attitude to technology at work is mix of pragmatism and stoicism, with a touch of rage at times.

Working Styles

How ICT has had an impact on Working Styles

Information and communication technology has affected the working style of people in many ways like information technology helps manage and process information in a quicker and cheaper way particularly in large organisations.

Information technology uses computers and computer based softwares to convert, process, store and transmit information. In most parts of UK, education system uses information technology on a large scale. It was soon understood that application of information technology was very useful for most of the subjects. When internet and broadband connections reached schools the understanding and application of IT became even simpler.

Most jobs nowdays require a qualification of some kind in ICT. Employees would need to be trained to use ICT to go far in their career. For example, in a bank, all the customers’ personal information needs to be stored on to a database and saved, so the employees would need to know how to use this database. People  use computers for many reasons. For one, computers are more productive, and they are easy to use and helps make the employees get their work down quickly. Companies use computer databases so that they don’t have to write down all the customer information and so that it is easier to find. ICT is also helpful when it comes to delivery work. Satellite Navigation Systems can be used when the employees are delivering packages to houses and other businesses. The Sat Nav will show and tell the employee where to go, and also calculates the amount of time that it will take to get to their destination. Another technological advantage to delivery work, are Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) . A PDA is a mobile device, and it functions as a personal information manager and also connects to the internet. When the parcel has been delivered, the customer needs to sign in the touch screen box, with a little pen on the PDA. This is to confirm the delivery and lets the company know that the right person has received the parcel. The PDA is an advantage because if all the customers had to sign on paper to confirm the delivery, then it would take a long time to make sure that the right customer received the package.

Some more examples of the use of computers in a working enviroment is in shops. Nearly every shop in country will have a computerised till system (EPOS), a payment system (EFTPOS) and stock control systems. EPOS is the location where a transaction occurs. A "checkout" refers to an EPOS terminal or more generally to the hardware and software used for checkouts, the equivalent of an electronic cash register. An EPOS terminal manages the selling process by a salesperson accessible interface. The same system allows the creation and printing of the receipt.  As well as this there is EFTPOS which is  the general term used for debit card based systems used for processing transactions through terminals at  electronic points of sale.

Blog 1.2

Topics chosen for 1.2

• Working styles
• Communication
• Entertainment and leisure
• Banking and shopping
• Decision Making

Downloads cont.

Software as a service, sometimes referred to as "software on demand," is software that is downloaded over the internet and/or is deployed to run behind a firewall on a local area network or personal computer. The main dowloadable service provider is the windows update. Users can visit Windows update and download the relevant updates they need.

Windows Update

Windows Update is the online extension of Windows that helps you to keep your computer up-to-date. Use Windows Update to choose updates for your computer’s operating system, software, and hardware. New content is added to the site regularly, so you can always get the most recent updates and fixes to protect your computer and keep it running smoothly.

Windows update is very useful for computer users. It allows them to update their system to make it peform better and more efficiently.

Updates are available to anyone who has an Internet connection as the service needs to contact Microsoft to gather the relevant updates.  Updates are often free, which is useful as people often pay a considerable amount for their computer and it would seem unfair if they have to pay to maintain the performance of it. User satisfaction is high as updates to their system can correct problems instantly, or even prevent them from happening and preventing the user from a productive experience on the net.

Windows Update has flexible installation options so you can reduce interruptions and install update when it's most convenient for you. You can choose when updates will be installed.  When software update applies to a file that you're using, Windows update can save the application's data, close it, update the file, and then restart it. This avoids loss of work and prevents the file from becoming corrupted. 

Problems with Windows Update

The main problem with Windows Update is that sometimes after a Microsoft patch many computers seem to crash and brings up a dreaded "Blue screen of Death." Also there has been a number of times where the updates failed to install for various reasons. This aggravates users as there isn't anything wrong with their internet connection.

News Stories

Sony rolls out rival to iTunes

"Sony has launched a new music and video download service as it gears up to challenge Apple's iTunes.

The announcement, made at the IFA technology fair in Berlin, was timed to coincide with an Apple media event in the US.The cloud-based service will be available on PlayStation 3s, Bravia TVs, Blu-Ray players and Sony's personal computers.Initially it will offer movies. Music will be added at the end of the year.
Sony's online services platform Qriocity has offered video-on-demand in the US since April this year but will now be available in Europe.The Music Unlimited service, due at the end of the year, will give users access to millions of songs."


"FOXNews - The music industry has turned its big legal guns on Internet music-swappers — including a 12-year-old New York City girl who thought downloading songs was fun."

"Brianna LaHara said she was frightened to learn she was among the hundreds of people sued yesterday by giant music companies in federal courts around the country."I got really scared. My stomach is all turning," Brianna said last night at the city Housing Authority apartment where she lives with her mom and her 9-year-old brother."I thought it was OK to download music because my mom paid a service fee for it. Out of all people, why did they pick me?" The Recording Industry Association of America — a music-industry lobbying group behind the lawsuits — couldn't answer that question."

Download Services

What are downloadable services?

Download services allow us to directly obtain a product in a digital form by downloading it form the internet. With no need to travel to the shop or wait for something to be delivered to you, this allows you to quickly transfer software and install it to your computer. There are other download services for music and video which involve users downloading songs, and videos to their computer via software on their computer. An example of this is Itunes which allows users to buy songs, videos and movie etc. and download them directly onto your computer.

iTunes

The most popular downloadable service is probably iTunes. This allows you to choose from thousands of songs and download them in mp4 format to your computer. You can either purchase the songs either by an iTunes card or by credit cardf over a safe service provider.  Due to the popularity of the iPod, iTunes has been increasingly used. Itunes uses a higher quality MPEG-4 audio encoding which still offers the same compression as MP3 but has a quality that rivals CD's.

Recently apple have introduced the App store which can be accessed from your iphone, ipod touch or through itunes on your computer. Apps are applications or software on these devices that make your life more manageable or easier to run. The Apps range from cooking guides to Paypal which allows to buy something directly from your iphone. There are also popular games such as Doodle Jump and Angry bird.

You can also rent or buy blockbuster movies and HD episodes of your favorite TV shows, shop for audiobooks, for your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Also you can subscribe to free podcasts about anything and everything.

Features

Browsing

You’ll find millions of songs from just about any artist, album, or genre you can think of. Browse thousands of movies to buy or rent. You can find more than 150,000 free audio and video podcasts. Catch up on your reading by listening to best-selling audiobooks. Learn something new from the world’s top colleges and universities on iTunes U. And give someone a little entertainment with iTunes Gift Cards. Whether you shop the iTunes Store on your computer, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple TV, everything you love is easy to find.

Recommendations from iTunes

The iTunes Store features a recommendations section based on your previous purchases. If you sign up for Genius,  then you’ll get even more specific recommendations that consider songs, movies, and TV shows in your iTunes library. If your looking for new Apps then you can look to the Genius recommendations for apps in the App Store on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. You’ll find new apps you might like based on the ones you already have. If you’re on your iPad, tap to get music, movies, and TV Genius recommendations, too. Once you find something you like, you can download and start enjoying it right away.

Youtube Video

This is an example of a famous video which has been shared over the majority of the world.

Entertainment

Entertainment

There are many different types of entertainment online such as Radio, catch up TV, online games and video streaming such as Miniclip. There are constantly new and improved types of entertainment being produced on the internet allowing people to have a much easier and enjoyble time online.

Radio

Digital radio services are now being produced using the same form of streaming technology as downloading videos. There is a huge variety of radio stations to choose from such as Heart, Radio one, Radio 1xtra etc. By listening to the radio, you are not limited to any geographic bandwidth, it is possible to listen to a radio station in high quality from a different area around the world.

Heart

Heart also known as Heart FM and Heart Radio is a network of independent stations in central & southern England and north Wales. Each station broadcasts local breakfast and drive time shows. By living in Southend, Heart is our main radio station, offering not only music, but also competitions, advertising and a call in option for a conversation with the hosts. This radio station is very friendly with its listeners allowing them to become part of the radio station.

Radio 1

Radio 1 is more of a national radio station compared to heart, it is generally hosted by more well known radio hosts such as Chris Moyles, Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton. Radio 1 is supported by the BBC so it will involve more formal types of radio shows but still involving different age groups and music styles. Radio 1 also has many sister-stations such as BBC 1xtra, which is based around garage and grime music for more of a specific music audience. 


Youtube

Youtube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. The name and logo of the company is a reference to the cathode ray tube, a display device used since the early days of electronic television. The majority of the videos on youtube are uploaded by individuals amatuer content.  Anyone is able to watch the videos that are posted upon Youtube and then you are able to create an account which is optional. This allows you to upload videos, comment on videos and if a video is said to contain anything inappropriate then you able to view it by saying that you are over 18.  If you set up your own account you have an 'inbox' where you can keep in contact with other people with an account, there is 'my favourties' which will be videos you have starred as your favourite so you can view these videos quickly, 'My channel' which is your own profile on youtube which you can change your settings for your account and design your own page for when people view your page. There is also the option to 'subscribe' to other peoples pages whose videos you like this works as shortcut for when they upload a video it will be shown on your home-screen so its easily accessible.

News

Susan Boyle tops most popular YouTube videos of 2009

Susan Boyle's album became the best-selling debut in UK chart history Britain's Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle was the star of the most popular video of 2009 on video site YouTube. The Scottish singer's surprising rendition of I Dreamed A Dream on the show has been watched by more than 120 million viewers worldwide. The moment had more views than the next three most-watched videos combined. In second place, with more than 37 million views, was a video featuring a disorientated seven-year-old boy recovering from dental work.

 

"US illegal download on the rise"

 

The number of people illegally downloading copyrighted tracks from the internet has risen after a six-month slump, analysts in the US have said. The number of US households downloading tracks from sites rose 6% in October and 7% in November, market researchers the NPD Group said on Thursday. November's figure of 11 million downloaders was up one million compared to September's figures. The rise follows a six-month slump, attributed to music industry lawsuits.

Chat

What is a Chat room?

A chat room is a Web site, part of a Web site, or part of an online service such as ICQ, that provides a venue for communities of users with a common interest to communicate in real time. Forums and discussion groups, in comparison, allow users to post messages but don't have the capacity for interactive messaging. Most chat rooms don't require users to have any special software; those that do, such as Internet Relay Chat allow users to download it from the Internet.

Chat room features

Message Board Integration
The chat room can be fully integrated with your Website Toolbox message board, allowing your users to login to the chat room with their message board username/password and see a list of online chat users on the message board main page.

Channel History
When a user enters a new channel they have the opportunity to view the messages they might have missed prior to entering the channel.

User Accounts
Users can create an account with a username and password within your chat room.

User Channels
User channels are created by users and are automatically deleted when there are no users inside it.

Smile!
Bring your chat room to life with graphical smilies that users can insert into their messages.

Online Status
Users can set their online status. For example, Away, Busy, Stepped Out, Available, etc.

Sounds
Built-in, customizable sounds bring your chat room to life.


News

"Two charged over Burbage 'chatroom' attack"
"Two teenagers have been charged with attempting to rob a man who was allegedly lured to a Leicestershire park via an internet chat room." The victim, aged 50, was assaulted in Colts Close, Burbage, near Hinckley on 14 March. Police said they were treating the incident as a homophobic attack. Two males, a 17-year-old from Burbage and a 19-year-old from Coventry, have been charged with conspiracy to rob and released on bail. They are due to appear before Hinckley magistrates on 20 September."

Instant Messenger

Instant messenger (IM)

Instant messaging, often shortened to "IM", is the exchange of text messages through a program in real-time. Generally included in the IM software is the ability to easily see whether a chosen friend is online and connected through the selected service. Instant messaging differs from ordinary e-mail in the speed of the message exchange and also makes a continued exchange simpler than sending e-mail back and forth which is much easier when trying to have a real-time chat. Most exchanges are text-only, though popular services, such as AOL, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and Apple's iChat now allow voice messaging, file sharing and even video chat when both users have cameras.

Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Messenger genereally known as MSN, is probably the most used instant messenger to date with millions of people around the globe using it. The reason for this is because it was near enough the first real IM which allowed people to talk to each other in real time for free. This was prefered by many simply because of the lack of cost but also because of the many great features it has to offer.

Sharing folders


Sharing Folders will be a new and simple way for you to share personal photos, documents, and files with your Messenger contacts. You will be able to create a Sharing Folder by simply dragging files onto a contact name in Messenger. This will create an exact copy of the files on both you and your contact's computers, and create a Sharing Folder that can be accessed from Messenger, and on the desktop.

Voice calling


This feature will let users who sign up for Windows Live phone call to easily call landline and mobile phones. You will be able to set up a Windows Live Call account through the Messenger interface and start making calls within minutes. You will be able to purchase minutes upfront, then add minutes when your balance runs low. One of the great things about this will be that you will be able to use it to make really affordable domestic and international calls.

Offline messaging

You will be able to send messages to your contacts even when they're offline. They will receive the message as soon as they sign in again.

Yahoo! Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger is also similarly another free instant messaging service allowing people around the globe to chat with each other. They need to download a copy of the software and with that create a generic Yahoo! ID which people will recognise that person with. This ID will allow people to access other Yahoo! services such as Email, this is very helpful as it saves time creating seperate accounts for all the different sevices Yahoo! have to offer. It, like Windows Live Messenger has many great features such as:

Yahoo! Voice

Yahoo! Voice is a Voice over PC-to-PC, PC-to-Phone and Phone-to-PC service, provided by Yahoo! via its Yahoo! Messenger instant messaging application. The ability to make PC-to-PC and PC-to-Phone calls is available worldwide. 

Voicemail and file sharing

Yahoo! added voicemail and file sending capabilities to their client. File-sharing of sizes up to 2GB was added to Yahoo messenger.

Yahoo! Music Radio

Yahoo! Messenger users can listen to free and paid Internet radio services, using the official Yahoo! Music Radio plug-in from within the messenger window. The plug-in also allows full player functionality, such as play, pause, skip and rate this song. This feature is helpful, as it allows people to play the radio in the windows they are in rather than searching for a radio station on the internet.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Instant Messaging

Advantages

• Easy to use.
• It's in real-time so there are instant responses.
• It's free to use wherever you are.
• You can talk to many people at the same time.
• Great way to keep in touch with people around the world.

Disadvantages

• Privacy Concerns when talking.
• Always need a computer and a fast enough network connection.
• Can be a distraction.

News Stories

"Worm affects AOL instant messages"

"Users of America Online's instant messenger are being warned about a worm spreading via the chat network. The Windows worm installs spyware programs and turns over control of the machine to the creator of the virus. Studies show that malicious programs designed to attack instant message networks have grown dramatically over the past 12 months. But some security firms say the threat to users of these chat systems is still relatively low."

"'Bebo abuse' school worker jailed"


"Brian Syme admitting targeting more than 90 victims A school support worker who posed as a teenage girl on the web to entice boys to send him indecent images of themselves has been jailed. Brian Syme, 32, befriended dozens of youngsters online by setting up Bebo profiles as two teenage girls. Lady Stacey said he was guilty of a "gross breach of trust" and sentenced him to four years and eight months. Clackmannanshire Council said that Syme, from Alloa, had been dismissed from his job in December 2009. At a court hearing in July, the school worker was caught as part of an investigation by Central Scotland Police and admitted targeting more than 90 victims. He also admitted possessing indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children, and taking or permitting such photos to be taken between 1 January 2006 and 11 December, 2009."

Courtesy of BBC News

Email cont.

Some features of Windows Live Hotmail are:

• Improved spam protection. By clicking on the “mark as unsafe” link, customers automatically report the sender to junk e-mail filters and delete the message. The sender will be blocked from sending future e-mail and will receive notification that the address is not valid.
• Custom filters. Customers can organize their inbox by directing incoming messages to be stored in specific folders.
• Virus scanning of e-mail attachments. Every incoming e-mail message with an attachment is automatically scanned to help protect customers from viruses.

Benifits and Problems with Email

Benifits

Other then sending and receiving messages and pictures, email serves so many other purposes. The main function of email transfers written word with the speed of a telephone. It's a great way for small or large businesses to participate or monitor progress on a project. You can inform many people of the same thing featuring pictures and reports much easier and quicker than via a face-to-face meeting. You can make hundreds of people aware of business meetings or anything else with the click of the mouse. Email also has no time or place constraints. You can check, send and view emails anytime you need to. The main benefit of email is the low to no cost to use it.

Problems

It's totally insecure. Confidential business documents sent over email are not confidential. These documents can be read both inside and outside of your organization.It's too open. Mailboxes are filling with junk mail, and the situation is getting worse every month. Due to the general delivery design of email, this problem cannot be prevented, even with the best designed email filters.Email can be dangerous . Computer viruses are most commonly delivered through email because there is no certification mechanism for email senders. Delivery is not guaranteed. Just like postal mail, email may be delivered, or maybe not. Email is not real time There is too much delay to have an active conversation, which is why more and more people are turning to instant messaging solutions.

"South Lanarkshire staff challenge Gary Glitter sacking."

"The staff were sacked for distributing a joke e-mail about Gary Glitter Four former social work staff are claiming unfair dismissal after being sacked for distributing a joke e-mail of convicted paedophile Gary Glitter. Deborah Reilly, Angela Nelson, Anne Lang and Rosemary Boyle have raised an action against South Lanarkshire Council alleging their sacking was "disproportionate" to what they did. At least nine council workers were originally suspended over claims they made inappropriate use of the council's e-mail system, following an investigation in late 2008."

A special immigration court has ruled that a Pakistani student was leading a bomb plot in the UK - but can't be deported because of the risk to his safety. At the heart of the case was a series of e-mails that Abid Naseer sent to a contact in Pakistan. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission said this contact was an al-Qaeda operative.

E-mail

Email is short for electronic mail and is used for exchanging digital messages across the internet and other computer network. Most computers will have an email system built into it which contain a text editor used for composing messages, but many allow you to edit your messages using any editor you want. You then send the message to the person  by specifying their address. You can also send the same message to several users at once. This is called broadcasting.



This is an example of a composed message on Outlook Express

Sent messages are stored in electronic mailboxes until the person sees them. To see if you have any mail, you may have to check your electronic mailbox, although many systems alert you when mail is received. After reading your mail, you can store it in a text file, forward it to other users, or delete it.

Gmail

G mail priority inbox finds the important messages and sorts them for you. At the top of the inbox it will say important and bring them to the top of the list, unimportant messages will then go to the bottom this will make it easier for you to use. There is a star option which you can click and it will save the the email to read later. Gmail has this, whereas hotmail does not - making it more efficient in sorting messages and helps avoid imformation overload.

Gmail has filters which can save more important emails for yourself, with hotmail you cannot filter messages. Gmail already has a good spam filter but it can also predict what is really important depending on which emails you read most often and reply to which is more important than just reading it. If it makes a mistake then you can manually say which messages are important and vice versa. over time it will get better and better. This will make you enjoy your email more my making your life easier.

Hotmail

Windows Live Hotmail is one of the largest e-mail services in the world with more than 280 million active accounts it was built from the ground up to enable a safer, more productive and more powerful Web mail experience than previous versions. Windows Live Hotmail offers customers flexible access to their e-mail whether via the Web, a mobile phone or a PC. Updating an account from MSN Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail is easy; when customers update their e-mail address, their contacts and saved information go with them automatically. Best of all, it works with other Windows Live services such as Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Contacts and Live Search.

Microblogs

A Microblog is different from an actual blog basically because it is smaller either in file size or the size of the post which could only be one sentance long. Although the are similar in the fact that they are still used for expressing opinions. Usually Microblogs will have multiple ways of creating a post, either by text, instant messaging or E-mail. By using these things it enables people to have a much easier life as they can near enough create a post anywhere they are.

Most people would relate Microblogs with social-networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace or Twitter. These sites are fast becoming a platform for marketing and public relationships. For example on Facebook you are able to meet new people or create events that people can join. It is also very easy for people to communicate with each other by using things such as Instant Messengers (IM) which are built into the website. People generally use these over E-mail simply because its quicker to use and get a response.

There have been many stories in the News over the years about social-networking sites such as Facebook, be it good or bad. For example, Police have been looking into the fact that Facebook does not have a panic button which can be used when a person feels they are distressed about what another person is saying to them. Facebook has now agreed to add a panic button, but it will not be on show, you will have to download it to the site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10572375

Another Microblog is Twitter. Twitter offers many things similar to Facebook for example tools which enable you to "follow" other people and to send "Tweets" which are shared with the people you are

following and are following you. Twitter is very easy to set up and only requires a few personal questions which is a lot better for must people as it can be a bit dull filling out a lot of required imformation. Originally, Twitter started off being for the mobile phone but has expanded to the computer and because of this Tweets can only contain 140 charaters much the same as a text. One of the main reasons people use Twitter, is because of the virtual relationship they are able to have with their favourite celebrities. This makes the experience a lot more enjoyable. Twitter is also the most popular networking site with about 140 million "Twitterers". This makes it a lot easier to make new friends. Twitter has been recently involved with the news because of the situation with kevin Pietersens outburst which resulted him in an undisclosed fine.  

G mail priority inbox finds the important messages and sorts them for you. At the top of the inbox it will say important and bring them to the top of the list, unimportant messages will then go to the bottom this will make it easier for you to use. There is a star option which you can click and it will save the the email to read later. Gmail has this, whereas hotmail does not - making it more efficient in sorting messages and helps avoid imformation overload.

Gmail has filters which can save more important emails for yourself, with hotmail you cannot filter messages. Gmail already has a good spam filter but it can also predict what is really important depending on which emails you read most often and reply to which is more important than just reading it. If it makes a mistake then you can manually say which messages are important and vice versa. over time it will get better and better. This will make you enjoy your email more my making your life easier.

 1. A blog is an personal online diary. It is a chronological list of peoples thoughts. Blog is short for Weblog.

2. Blogs are different to normal sites as they allow people to share information and not just view it.

3. People use blogs to share thoughts and opinions with each other, this is useful as you do not need move to discuss things you are able to sit in the comfort of your own home and discuss a topic.   
 
4. Advantages - good way of sharing knowledge;   
                         increase the profile of the writer.

Disadvantages - they are hard to maintain;

                         people that blog often usually have little to say of interest.    

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm


5. "Kathy Sierra, author of the innocuous blog Creating Passionate Users, was the target of such vicious threats and misogynistic insults that she canceled her keynote speech at a technology conference in San Diego, fearing for her safety."
"Egyptian blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud was arrested in April 2007 for anti-government writings in his blog"
"In Singapore, two ethnic Chinese were imprisoned under the country’s anti-sedition law for posting anti-Muslim remarks in their blogs"


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog#Political_dangers


6. People are able to express their opinions about a post and then they can create a conversation from the post, they can also ask questions about their blog or anything else going on in the world.


7.  Here is a picture of how to upload a gadget to a page and how to arrange it:

You can use this screen to change the background and style of your blog by pressing one of these buttons:

You can use thing page to create a post to share with other people or you can save it as a draft for your own personal use: 

This screen shot shows the page where you can start writing a post, you can change the font size or colour and even add pictures and videos to make your post more interesting.

  

Blogs

Today we have looked more into the design of our Blogs. We have added gadgets with useful imformation in order to suite my style e.g. News updates from around the world. We also added a gadget which enables us to keep in contact with other bloggers throughout the year in order to help me. I also added members of my class so they can help me or vice versa in sharing ideas.

The things that i have changed to suite me in my Blog are various things such as colour:

Here i have changes the task bar colour along with some of the text.

I also decided it would be helpful to add some gadgets, one of which enables me to access other peoples blogs without having to type their full web address out, these can be shown in the blog list:

Also other gadgets which enable me to see the latest news or access other sites such as apple or Gizmodo.

By adding all these "perks" to my blog it makes it personal to me and more interesting for others to look at. Now i am able to easily access other blogs in the same way that i can share thoughts and opinions on my own.