Dimensions of the Divide

Based on government statistics, more than fifty six percent of the homes in United Kingdom have a desktop computer and more than thirty percent have a laptop computer. Also, seven percent of the population has a handheld computer.
http://uk.ask.com/question/how-many-people-in-the-uk-own-a-computer

This means that 93% of people in the UK own some type of a computer.

On a global scale, only about 5% of people own a computer, and 13% of people have access to another computer. Also around the world, only about 4% of people have access to the world wide web (internet).
                        


                                  

Blogging on the go

I have installed the Blogger app from the App store which allows me to create blogs on the go and publish them at any time. This will be very useful when updating my daily blog but I don't think I will use it for my Applied IT work as it does not have the same features as a full version which you use on your PC.

GTA 5

On Tuesday, my pre-order for GTA 5 arrived. After finishing the story, I would have to say this game is 10/10 and is definitely the best game that has been released this year. Grand Theft Auto 5 is a worthwhile game to play with a story that lasts longer than the usual 6-8 hours in a usual game. I look forward to the online that will be released in October.

Online Entertainment

Online entertainment is one of the most popular forms of entertaiment.
With platforms such as Xbox Live and PSN there are millions of people who use online entertainment.
However, online entertainment does not only mean online gaming but also things such as BBC iPlayer and Netflix. These allow you to watch a program at any time of the day when you feel like it without being restricted to a certain broadcast time. In the future this could lead to no more broadcasted television  as everything might be on demand due to a huge increase of people who use online TV services.

Cloud Services

Cloud services are used to store things such as documents online. This means no hard drive space on your computer is taken up because it is all stores on a cloud based server.

Many websites offer a cloud service. One of these is Google Drive. Where you can save your data online and access it through any computer with an internet connection by simply signing in.

This feature is also offered by Microsoft, where you can make Word or PowerPoint presentations and share them. I see this becoming quite useful in the future as you could do your work on the cloud and sharing it with your teachers which means you dont have to waste paper.

Microsoft also offers this through Xbox Live as you can save up to 512MB of data on it. This means you can download save data for your game and your account.

Other Cloud Services include Dropbox, DotCloud. All these services potentially offer the same service so it is just a matter of choice.

Macromedia virtual classroom

At http://helpx.adobe.com/learning.html?promoid=KAUDK you can watch e-learning recorded seminars for people to use and learn and it also gives you the opportunity to join a virtual classroom.

This enables potential students to learn without having to leave your house. This technology makes it possible for schools to use this to teach students through these virtual classrooms. This could mean that students will no longer have to physically go to school.

However, this would only work if all students put in the effort and time and that could be unlikely because of all the distractions you could face at home. Also, the students without a Personal Computer will not be able to use this putting them at a disadvantage.

Overall, I think e-learning is a great idea but not yet suitable for full use for everyone yet but over the next few years, as e-learning improves, I see it being used a lot more by schools, colleges etc.

Using a simulation

I used a simulation called Netfrog. Which is used as an educational guide to teach people how a frog dissection should be carried out. This means that you don't have to acquire a real living frog to dissect as it can be done online without the harm of animals. This simulation teaches you exactly where to make the incisions and how making it possibly very useful for students studying Biology.

The only problem with this site is that the quality of the images is very low and it is quite outdated but this was made over 10 years ago so it is understandable.

Learning objects and Simulations

Today I went on Making the Modern World learning modules site. This site is very useful if people want to find out information on things to do with Personal Computers and Information Networks. I think this would be really helpful for A-level students who are studying IT. This site is not too hard to read and the use of pictures keeps the reader entertained making this the ideal learning site for younger people.

Download Services

Download services are used all over the internet. Anything can be download such as Software updates or even music and movies.

The types of items that I download are things like whole TV seasons or movies and sometimes music.
The reason I do this instead of buying a physical copy is because you can download it within a matter of minutes and you practically don't have to get off your seat.
If you know how to, you can even get things like movies and music for free using Torrents.

The one problem I have with downloading is that sometimes applications can update without your consent as they update automatically and often one application installs 3 other appllications that you didnt want to install which can create problems. Also, installing files can sometimes be harmful to your computer as they could contain viruses and if you dont own an antivirus, you might expierence alot of viruses.

Online Government Services

There are many online government services. There are 3 categories to them:

Online Reporting and Advice this includes things such as Citizenship and living in the UK and
Births, deaths, marriages and care. Also the government also has support for start-up businesses which offers advice to struggling businesses.


There is also Online Booking which enables you to book things such as your theory or practical tests.


Lastly, there is Online payments which includes things like paying a fine or paying for you tax disc for your car.

Online Banking

 The purpose of Online Banking is to make viewing your balance and using other features like transferring money. Nearly every bank now has its own online banking system. The target audience for online banking is for pretty much anyone with access to a computer with internet as anybody can use it and it is much quicker than going to your nearest bank or ATM to check your balance.

 

The major advantages of online banking is:

You can do almost anything without leaving your house.

No waiting in line.

You can bank anytime,anywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

Ebay

Ebay is a online retailer founded in September of 1995. Ebay allows users to buy or sell almost anything.

The target audience for Ebay is indivuduals as well as online businesses as it makes it easy for a business to have an online presence in the market.

Ebay's auction process works by the seller posting their item for how long he/she wants, then people bid to try and win the auction. At the end of the auction the highest bidder wins the auction and the item is sent to him.

Many benefits come with using Ebay. You can usually get the item cheaper than high street stores sell them for, which means your saving yourself an extra few pounds. Another benefit is you practically dont have to leave your house as you simply order it and it should come through the post in the next few days.

The only limitation to Ebay is that on a personal account you cannot sell more than 100 items per month. If you sell more then 100 items per month, you will have to upgrade yourself to a business ebay account.

Planning a journey

I am planning a journey from Bedford to Tottenham Court Road in London. I will be comparing between taking a car and railway.

I went on google maps to find a car route to Tottenham Court Road.

It tells you how long it takes to get there in current traffic and below the directions.

Google Maps also has an estimated fuel cost below the journey.

 

 

 

This is how my journey would look if i went by train.

The prices for the rail ticket would be £20.90

 

 

From comparing these two different ways of getting to Tottenham Court, I would go by car as the train ticket is nearly double what the cost would be to get there by car.

Real Time Information

One popular Real Time Information system is weather. Millions of people per day check weather somehow during the day through the news or internet. Other real time information systems include sports scores, traffic updates etc.

Here is a screenshot from BBC Weather of their forecast for today.

 

Check what the weather will be like in your area with http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/

 

At the end of the week, on Friday or Saturday, I will compare these results to see how accurate they were. So check back later.

Samuel Palmisano

Samuel Palmisano was charman, president and chief executive of IBM from 2003 to 2011.
Mr. Palmisano began his career with IBM in 1973 in Baltimore, Maryland.
During his leadership IBM achieved record financial performance, transformed itself into a globally integrated enterprise and introduced its Smarter Planet agenda.

http://www.forbes.com/profile/samuel-palmisano/

Pro's and Con's of chat and IM

                                 Pro's                    

Fast and free - The person you are sending the message to will get it as soon as you hit 'send'. Most services are free to use.
Talk to anyone in the world - Chat and IM allows you to chat with people from anywhere in the world as long as they have internet access.
Easy to use - Most chat's and IM's are really simple to use and anybody can learn how to use it.

                                                       

                                                    Con's

File sharing - This can be a good thing if used sensibly but this leaves a risk as you might receive a virus through someone sending you a harmful file.
People stop interacting face to face - Chat and Instant Messaging causes some people to stop interacting with each other face to face as they no longer see the need to as they can talk on IM resulting in quite a big social impact.
Cyber bullying - Sometimes people on the internet are not very friendly and might be harassing or saying mean things about you. If this happens it is best to block the user.

Task

 

 

 

 

 

Can you get the perfect score of 10/10? Click the link below and test your knowledge of Emails.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/email-quiz.htm

E-Mail.

E-Mail stands for Electronic Mail. E-Mails are used to send and receive messages over a computer network using different clients such as Outlook, Gmail etc.

The technology has existed since early 1970's but emailing was also the term used for faxing so it is unkown when the term was first used. The first e-mail was sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, who worked as an engineer.

Email messages are sent using the SMTP server which processes outgoing messages.
Email messages are receives using IMAP and POP3 which processes incoming messages.

Possible abuse of Email's is people sending spam. These type of Email's go into your junk folder but sometimes may come up on your main inbox.

There are also many potential threats and hazards which come with E-mails. One of these is that people can spread viruses which can infect your computer through them. This can be avoided by having an antivirus installed on your computer. Another hazard is when you receive E-mails that claim to be your bank account. This is called phishing.You should never trust these types of E-mails as they are not safe and you should never give out your bank account details if you are not sure if the E-mail is legitimate.

Things you might not of known about blogs.

The 5 most popular platfroms used for blogging are:
Wordpress
Tumblr
Blogger
Typepad
SquareSpace

The term Blogosphere means that everyone is connected to each other. Just like a community.

These are some businesses that I use that have their own blog:

Starbucks
Yahoo
Sony
Samsung
Mozilla Firefox


The term 'Weblog' was created by John Barger on 17 December 1997. However the shorter version 'Blog' was created on April/May 1999 by Peter Merholz.

The blog I chose to follow

 I chose to follow a blog that talks about basketball. It includes all the recent news and trades that are happening. This blog can be found on http://nba.si.com/2013/09/03/nba-los-angeles-lakers-offseason-grade-dwight-howard/

I hope you enjoy this blog if you like to follow basketball news.

Welcome

                        This is my AS Applied IT blog that I will be using this during my first unit.
                        I will be posting thing that I think you will find useful and intresting.
                        Make sure you check by regurarly to see my newest posts.