Macromedia Dreamweaver

One very interesting computer application I’ve been introduced to this year is Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is a web site creation program; it can be used to create templates, whole web sites, or to edit your current web sites. The program has its quarks and malfunctions but overall is a very effective tool for creating web pages.

Dream weaver is not free but can be downloaded for a trial version from their web site. It requires that you are running a windows ME edition or higher, that you have a working ISP, and that you have a program called secure shell. Secure shell is a program that lets you change the properties of the Items you are trying to post to the web in order to let you see or use the applications when online.

I would personally recommend using the help feature of Macromedia Dreamweaver if it is your first time creating a web site. There are many features of dreamweaver and it is very easy to get lost and frustrated if you do not utilize the help feature.

Computer gaming

One thing about computers that I personally enjoy, yet we have not discussed so far this year is computer gaming. Much like game consuls such as Nintendo, X box, and Playstation your computer can allow you to play a variety of games either by yourself of with other people online. Online gaming is where the game you are playing is connected to the internet via your ISP and you can play with or against other people playing the same game all over the world.

One of the best examples of an online game is one which I have not actually played, but has the largest online gaming community ever established. This is called world of warcraft, it is a virtual world where you can pick characters interact with others and complete missions. My personal favorite type of computer games to play are called first person shooters. This is where you are in a battle type situation and you are seeing the action through the eyes of the weapon carrier.

There are a few things you should know before you begin using you computer for gaming. The first thing you should check are the system requirements on the game you are looking to purchase. If your computer is not at or above the system requirements listed, the game will not play on your computer. If your computer is rarely able to play games because of one or two requirements that are not met, you can look into updating parts on your computer such as a new video card, or adding more RAM.

eBay for Dummies

I have used eBay once before to purchase an air soft gun, the experience was so simple that I didn’t even get to experience all eBay had to offer. This assignment was a good opportunity to further explore eBay and all its features. When using eBay the first step you should take is setting up an account. This is very easy and requires little more than basic contact information and a way to pay for anything you purchase. To buy something on eBay you need to have either a Check, credit card or pay pal account. Be sure to read the terms of sale to see what forms of payment the seller accepts. Also you can only purchase things on eBay if you are 18 years or older.

Web sites such as eBay work in a similar way to real life auctions in the sense that there is a seller and buyers get to compete and place bids to win the product. The biggest difference is that instead of having 5 minutes to decide what you want to bid on you can have 5 days. Because it is an internet auction your available products are much greater and you can get them at a better price.

I have only made one purchase on eBay so far but I have been very satisfied with it. I purchased a Well R-8 air soft gun from shortys online auction company for $122 including shipping. I paid using my credit card and received the gun from UPS in about one week. One thing to be sure to look at before you buy on eBay is the sellers rating, feedback, and number of items sold to determine how trustworthy your seller is.

Geocaching

This weeks blog assignment was to investigate Geocaching. After reading about the subject I became very excited about the Idea. It is actually a very brilliant Idea, incorporate technology with the love for the outdoors and adventure to create a sport that almost all can participate in. Geocaching is where you get a set of coordinates from a website. Then you use a G.P.S. to navigate your way to the cache point, this is where the, “treasure” that you are seeking is located. As the online introduction states, it’s deceptively easy. It's one thing to see where an item is, it's a totally different story to actually get there.

To participate in this activity you need three main things, the first is a set of coordinates marking a cache, these can be found using the internet or by going to a place that has cache point coordinates. The second thing you need is a G.P.S. or a Global Positioning System. A G.P.S. can be purchased at any outdoor store, electronics store or online for $100 to $1000, they vary in features such as screen size, color quality and accuracy but they all serve the same general purpose. They use satellites to find the position of the G.P.S. device and directions to any point you impute into the G.P.S. The only rules involved with Geocaching is that it you take something from the cache you should leave something in the cache and write in the logbook.

A similar, but much older activity is known as letterboxing, this was supposedly invented when a man simply left his calling card in a bottle near a pool in Dartmouth England. Today the game is played by finding directions to a letterbox, stamping the logbook with your own personal stamp, the stamping your personal logbook with the stamp found in the letterbox. This game is similar to Geocaching in principal, but is much older and does not offer any prizes other than getting to the box. I have not actually participated in either activity but I would be very interested in trying Geocaching, I find this more interesting because it incorporates modern technology, with outdoor exploration, and I will be looking for a cache on my next hike.

Google Docs vs. Microsoft Word

After using Google docs and its features I’ve come up with several comparisons between the free online program and Microsoft Word. They both contain advantages over the other and each has their own faults. As an overall review I would suggest using Microsoft Word if it comes free with the computer you purchased over the online word processor, Google Docs. If your computer did not come with the Microsoft Office package and you don’t use your computer for a great deal of word processing, I would definitely recommend using Google docs as your word processor, it does an acceptable job, and the Microsoft office package can cost up to 200$ is stores.

Google docs are missing some of the very helpful features that Word users may be accustomed to such as in text spell check, clearly expressed margins, and easily accessible text formatting. There are many features missing from the online word processor, but few you will miss because they are very rarely used. Some features found on Word can be found on Google Docs, only with less options, for example on Microsoft word there are 171 different font styles available, whereas Google docs only offers 14. The same is true for text size, in Microsoft word you can impute your own text size, whereas in Google Docs only 7 font sizes are available. The only formatting feature I found on Google Docs that was not available on Microsoft Word was the ability to insert Chinese characters, which I wouldn’t consider a huge advantage. Word however offers several features not available online.

Google Docs have two evident advantages over Microsoft Word. One is cost, Google Docs are free; Microsoft word is not. The second advantage is the ability to access your saved documents from any computer with internet access at any time. Obviously Microsoft Word has many advantages over Google Docs, but three stand out to me. The first and most important to a poor typist such as myself is the in text spell check. Second would be the number of font choices, and last would most likely be the ease of knowing where you’re at on a printed page. On Google docs it is hard to tell how much you have actually typed until you hit print.

Internet based photo storage

The Internet storage program I choose to research is Zoto version 3.0. Zoto is a web based photo storage program that allows you to store, access and share your photos at anytime, anywhere in the world. The web address needed to access this is, http://www.zoto.com/. Zoto is not a free program, but it does offer some key advantages that other free sites do not. Using Zoto there is no storage limit, files are automatically configured to your browser, and there are no pesky advertisements to deal with. As I said there is a cost, it is a yearly fee of $29.95 and for those who are not sure if they want the service there is a free seven day trial available.

Zoto offers a wide variety of features to its members such as drag-n-droppable homepages, sort able liquidized light boxes, highly customizable albums, 50% larger image detail photos, extremely fast photo tagging, powerful photo searching, unlimited storage, and no advertisements. Another very helpful feature of Zoto is that they offer video tutorials to beginners. There was one thing I found that made me suggest that you should wait to join Zoto for a while. That was that their tech support section is currently under development and would not be able to help you if you experienced problems early.

Zoto has several advantages and a few disadvantages that you should be aware of. One of the biggest advantages is the ability to access your personal pictures anywhere, anytime. Another advantage to using a web based photo storage system is that you have the opportunity to view other user’s pictures that may be of something that interests you. As I said there are disadvantages to the program that you should be aware of. The obvious disadvantage is that you have to pay for the service. Another disadvantage is the ever dangerous internet abusers that could use the pictures you post on the internet for things you didn’t intend them to be used for. Overall I would recommend this site to anyone looking for hassle free photo storage that doesn’t mind the service fee.

Searching the Web

Web Based Search: Genghis Kahn

For my web based search I chose to study the life of Genghis Khan; the leader of the largest empire the world has ever seen. I decided to use Lycos as my search provider. I used Lycos because I've heard that it is a very reputable site yet I had never used it before. I was very pleased with the results I received, not only were the search results accurate within the first 10 hits provided, but I also found useful information within the first 25 sites provided.

The keywords I used to find my results were initially, “Genghis Khan”, and although these results were very helpful I found that by narrowing my search using, “The life of Genghis Khan” I reduced my number of hits by over 200,000 results. An odd note to mention is that when I refined my search, my second hit presented was the least helpful of my top 10 results. This was because the search focused on the Phrase, “the life of Genghis Khan”. After seeing this, Lycos found an article titled, “a timeline of the life of Genghis Khan.”, which only focused on a very broad overview of Khans life and accomplishments.

Just as an experiment I tested the exact same search on Google, which is my regular search engine. I was shocked to find that Google turned up over 800,000 more results than Lycos, however the top 10 search results we much less helpful than those provided by Lycos. This just goes to show that it’s about quality over quantity, and I believe I may have found a new search provider.