My Blog

!URGENT! Images wanted for degree show!!

edmcc — Tue, 31 May 2011 12:06:24 +0000

If we do not get this sorted we will lose GS304 and we will not be able to show our full films at the degree show. I don’t think I can explain how serious this really is.

The good news is we have 10 spaces for a3 framed images. The images will be printed by the university and this is a great opportunity to get your imagery shown by professionals.

I will need the people interested to email me at: emcculloch@hotmail.co.uk that you are interested so I can send you the invitation to the Drop Box account. The best 10 images chosen by Steve and Clifton will be shown at the exhibition.

I need your interest email by 8-9pm so I can send you the invite for the 10pm deadline (sooner would be better)

Please remember quality is key so only your best work should be sent for consideration.

Using technology to learn

edmcc — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:15:57 +0000

Due to a digital age people have found easier ways to communicate and express themselves. One such medium in is education,where such projects as a projector, the internet and emails make displaying your point quicker and easier to your students as well as allowing them to communicate with the teacher or each other. I think this shows how the world is progressing in the way we talk and communicate. For example at a business meeting someone can still be at that meeting even if he is half way around the world from the meeting. Due to the web cam people can see and hear what people are doing over the internet. With the advancements in such technology we can see things in almost pristine clarity meaning that it is almost like you are there at the meeting.

Through internet resources such as google.books and wikipedia show how good today’s technology is for making learning easier. Wikipedia for example is a user input learning resource where other people from around the world share their knowledge on a specific subject. This is a great idea as it branches off the notion fo web 2 user involvement and allows them to add to what people know or correct incorrect information. The bad thing about this is because it is a user content and because anyone can write on ti it has been given a bad reputation for havnig false information.

Does physical material matter anymore?

edmcc — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:37:16 +0000

One thing that is apparent is how consumers are going for digital items when it comes to movies and music over physical products such as CDs. I think this is due to 1. The price as people can pay less for digital items than physical. 2. It is more convenient to buy music digitally as it means you can stay at home and do something else. Also since no one uses CD players these days due to portability and size, CDs are no longer needed, so it would take a longer amount of time to get your CD onto a computer and upload the songs to put on your new mp3 player.

I think that their is also a certain aesthetic feel of having a collection of physical CDs and DvDs which you will not find in digital products. So is it a good idea to get start digital formatting? We have already seen that this spawns millions of pounds lost through illegal downloading, but do digital stores such as iTunes deliver enough to save the industries? In my opinion it helps give allot back to the worlds music and movie economy by being the biggest retailer of music in the US followed shortly by Walmart. This to me displays how music and video has changed as a medium ans is no longer about peoples enthusiasm for the physical product, but for convenience.

The Mac Vs. The Pc

edmcc — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:42:57 +0000

Apple made a series of adverts displaying the advantages of a Mac over the Pc. These adverts where categorised to show a different point of the mac and the pc which the mac was better at. These ranged from Reliability to Convenience.

The first thing you see as you watch the adverts is the type of clothing they are wearing. The smart Pc and the ‘cool’ casual Mac illustrate how the Mac being shown as a newer, funner and casual person, compared to the smart and stiff Pc. I found that function was a good key aspect of these commercials as it displayed how the mac could work with different software straight away, such as the Japanese camera in the advert. This all goes bk to convenience as the Mac tries to help user performance by giving them less hassle.

The quality is shown to be allot better in a Mac than a Pc, as a Pc user I do not know the difference but the advert clearly suggests that through software bundled and through it’s superior hardware you will achieve better results on a Mac than a Pc.

The advert then goes on to talk about viruses, as all Pc owners know, their is no real easy way to get past no finding a virus or two while on the internet. This advert presents how the Mac is superior to the Pc by having less viruses programmed for it. I think that popularity is the cause of this since the Pc is the most popular medium for users in the world hackers will make viruses to support a Pc format to target the majority, while the Mac users don’t get any.

Overall the adverts told me that computers are all about convenience and reliability and this is a genius selling point due to user benefits.

The concept of wireless products

edmcc — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:28:48 +0000

Due to our rush into the portable market we have sometimes found that our products are portable, but they needed a battery source or be pluged in for the internet. This is when wireless was introduced, to help make convenience easier for us as we can now go on the internet where ever we want to in the house with wireless broadband, in coffee shops and even schools. I think this illustrates how much technology is catering to benefit the user. For example wireless broadband allowed people to access the internet anywhere in range of the hug, maybe in a few years time we’ll have cities with broadband connectivity anywhere.

Blue tooth has also brought a range of wireless products to users, such as headphones and earpieces which mean notihng to hold and nothing to get in the way. As I have said this is all about benefiting the user and I would say that it is doing just that.

Technology cons, fakes and the rise of the spin-offs

edmcc — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:45:09 +0000

Due to the high price of quality gadgets such as the iPhones, Macs, HD T.Vs and games people are looking for a cheaper alternative version. These come as a cheaper product made by a lesser company this means that you will be saving money, but you may not recieve a product which is of good quality as such products of sony, apple and microsoft. In the games industry due to high prices of games some people resort to pirates games through a ‘chipped’ illegal games console. The chip allows a user to play these illegal cheap games ont heir console which will benefit them by giving them good games at a cheap price, but this means they cannot be expecting the best quality all the time, as well as hvaing a better selection. If the games console is conencted to the internet the system would notice that the chip is inside the console, thus this chip limits the user of off=line play only. So overall ‘chipping’ your games console is bad as it decreases games revenue aswell as limiting the amount of games you can play on aswell as how you play on them.

image from techchee.com

Disadvantages of the internet: Viruses and Pop-ups

edmcc — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:57:24 +0000

One thing I have have not realised is that since I have been born into a world of computers and have them easily accessible to me I have been assuming the world is computer literate. But the fect is the world isn.t, and this is why some individuals take advantage of the people who aren’t by hacking into their computers, corrupting their software or sending them viruses. For this reason programmers have made anti-virus software to make sure people who are not as capable with computers can browse the internet safely. There is a major concern about online shopping related to credit card information, as some hackers can retrieve the information before it is sent to the desired address meaning they can access your account and steal you money. While the benefits of anti-virus software is evident by minimising these chances from happening, but they come at a high price ranging from 40 pounds and more people need to decide if the security is really necessary and if they can pay that much for some software.

While I am online on the computer I sometimes notice pop-up messages appearing on-screen. “Congratulations you have won” “Click here for you free prize” Why do people make these fake icons? I think it’s to take advantage of people who are less aware of the ‘bad things’ in the internet. This will be done by asking for the users email address and several others personal details, these details may then be sent anywhere on the internet or be sent spam mail to. This is a direct breach of the Computer misuse act (1990) and is a crime to take and give away personal people’s information without their consent.

The benefits of online shopping

edmcc — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:06:38 +0000

Since online shops have be created a spawn of online only retailers have arrived. Such as littlewoods direct which promote their clothing through adverts on t.v. internet adverts and catalogues. These shops benefit from not owning a physical shop(s). This means they wont have to pay fees on store hire allowing them to save money for hiring out the warehouse and thus earning extra profit. With the present ‘credit crunch’ companies have found it hard to stay in business on the high-street. Store which have suffered include Zavvi and Woolworth’s, two major businesses which fell due to the ‘credit crunch’. But hope is not lost, it has recently come to my attention that both companies are back, but as online retailers providing their products over the internet. This to me illustrates the key concept of how the internet allows businesses to carry on when the high-street does not work, but does this mean one day we will have no more high-street shops?

The other plus about internet shopping is how you get delivery to your door, this allows for convenience for the user as they may be busy and cannot get into town, while also helping people who live away from towns or disabled. Such pluses include Tesco delivery which saves time at the expense of 5 pounds. Companies save more money by not having to employ as many people as they don’t have any stores to cope with, therefore adding profit and stability to their business as they don’t need to worry about managing each cities chain shop or store.

In with the new. Out with the old

edmcc — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:10:52 +0000

Who these days spends time listening to a radio? Who these days listens to records? The new digital age is ageing older products by showing how inconvenient they are to a modern audience. How can you carry a record player? Whats the use of a radio if you have a phone which has a radio in it? For this reason I think that through convergent media products in competition of less features are shunned from the spotlight. Since customer expectations of new media such as phones, computers, cameras and televisions has increased during the last few years. You will not see anything under the expectations of the customer, who these days would buy a black and white t.v.?

Making the website

edmcc — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:22:47 +0000

After making a new website using DIV tags which I learnt in my workshop I decided to use a simple colour scheme. This way the user can easily understand what is going on, as well as make the writing easy to read. This helps with the accessibility guidelines which state that you should use bright and contrasting colours to help with the eye impaired. As well as keep everything simple so people do not confused to what does what in the website. Descriptions are used to say what the slideshow does as well as what the pictures are for in the home page.

Problems with this website included the links in the home page. I found that they were too spaced out, and went underneath the slideshow header. For this reason I wasted alot of time resolving this. If I was to do this website again I would spend extra time outside class practising the software to make sure I knew the software completely so I would get the best results in a shorter amount of time. I think the hardest thing about practising was that I did not have Adobe Dreamweaver on my computer, and for this reason I would have to walk into uni to do the work. I feel if I had the software on my computer I would of been alot more willing to practise thus solving my menu link problems.