Friday, April 18, 2008

I'm Back!

You now the saying - It never rains but it pours! I have just had such a month - personal, family matters and having a sick daughter with 4 kids from 10 to 17 months to help look after. Thank goodness the son in law is able to take a week off work to look after house and family. I might be able to find some time to try and catch up!

A couple of weeks ago I was on the verge of giving up this course but my eldest granddaughter (aged 10) repeated what I have said to her many times - 'Just get in there and do your best", so here goes

Monday, March 17, 2008

trace route

What an interesting system - it takes 20 hops from Central Ops.net to Curtin taking an average of 250 milliseconds and it takes 13 hops from Central ops to my computer, taking an average of 211 milliseconds. I now understand how the law enforcement agencies etc can track/trace illegal computer usage.

FTP

Downloaded WS-FTP for windows and ftp'd to recall.curtin.edu.au. Found the file README and 'according to the readme file, 'CAPITALIZATION MATTERS'.

This program was quite easy to understand as I had done (many years ago) a course on designing and uploading a web page. It was a very basic page and I used another FTP program which for all the tea in china I can't remember (Candy something???)

Module One Task

Task A asked us to check out Telnet. Well, on the Microsoft Marketplace site they list Telnet programs and the offer to download/buy. I sometimes think big corporations think the users are idiots, as every 'free' program window was 'not available' - strange?? - all the ones which cost were!!

I then searched and found a program called PuTTy and downloaded that for free. It works beautifully, and allowed me to log onto the Deakin library and search for the nominated author and his/her books.

I then 'did myself a favour' amd telnet'ed over to towel.blinkenlights.nl for the Starwars show. Reminded me of when I had my first computer (a Commodore 64) and I programmed some small games like that. Amazing how far technology has come - from programming numbered lines to being able to use programs such as Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, Maya, etc.. From black and white to full blown colours, movement, audio.. I have seen this, I wonder what my grandkids will be doing?

About Me

I am a mature aged student (grandmother) doing a Bachelor of Arts (Interest Studies) through Curtin University. I was a secretary, then a trainer, then a TAFE teacher (Information technology incl multimedia) at a campus which after only 3 years was absorbed by another campus. As a casual teacher, I was one of the first to be 'let go'. I loved teaching but with a newly retired husband who wanted to travel, looking for another teaching position was not an option. I volunteer my time all day Fridays to teach seniors and retired people to use computers and try to encourage them to expand their use from just typing a letter to Aunt Sally - to using email - to making their own cards - to copying all their old photos/slides onto CDs/DVD and then to transferring their old super 8 films to DVD. We have some very competent people who are surprising their children and grandchildren with their capabilities!

My reason for undertaking this BA is to keep my mind active and expanding my knowledge and use of the interest and all its associated branches. I just hope I can keep up.
This is the second time I have added a post - hope it works

One of the first entries in this log is to list 'top 5 tips for new bloggers'. My number one tip is to find out as much info as you can on blogs/blogging/etc.... Being of mature age, I have heard of bogs but had no interest in them - had no need. Used my computer for emails; searching for tutorials on various software programs I taught at my seniors computer club; genealogy info and writing family history.