Final Project- Digital Portfolio

- I made my digital portfolio using google sites because i found it difficult to work on the other sites like word press and the other ones we discussed in class. When i began working on this project i decided i was going to make my portfolio about web design. Im currently going to school for digital media, web design track and figured when im done with school here they may want a final portfolio of the work i completed. I also chose to use google because i will be able to access it anywhere all i need is my email address and password. I can also upload new works and websites i complete as i continue through college.
- In my digital portfolio i decided to have five buttons they are currently labled home, web design, digital art, photography/videos, and resume.

• The home button talkes about my personal life like where i am attending school, and how im trying to prepare myself for a career in computer technology and web design. Also i listed the technical skills i have such as scripting and programming languages.
• The web design button shows example of websites i have been working on in some of my other classes and how i made them. Ill be adding more as i continue learning.
• The digital art button shows example of an animation we learned in technology class called goanimate.com with these animations i show us how you could add them into any webpage you choose and also create wordle which is a scatter of words that relate to a specific topic.
• In the photography/video button i was able to put in a video we just made that shows how we used the technology of second life and create a video inside the virtual world. I am also taking digital video and audio and hope to put more videos in my website.
• Finally in my resume button i list my objective, education, employment, and computer technical skills.

- In the side bar of my website i added current course work that would relate to web design and my pln which allows me to follow other people using facebook, twitter, blogger and linked in. Overall from this project i wish to present it to a current employer and hope to get a job in the technology field.

View My Portfolio:
 https://sites.google.com/site/brendonsdigitalmediaportfolio/

Chapter 6 (Pages 321-335)

-After reading these pages in my book it was interesting that IP Addresses must have it own individual and unique address to ensure that data transmitted over a private or public IP network reaches its current destination. Each node on an IP network also has a logical address, called an IP Address. It has four groups of numbers that range from 0-255, for example- 202.78.173.12. Most IP Address are set as random but are unique and can not be the same as another computer or network. It is mainly a 32 bit number made up of four 8 bit numbers. Each 8 bit number is called an Octet. Sometimes a Classical Routing System is used to assign the IP Addresses by classifying networks from class A through class E. 

- In order to view your networks IP Addresses you the command prompt window by going to the start menu on the tool bar. Once you in the window you should type ipconfig /all and click enter. This will then display all the information about your networked computer. 

- IPv4: Is the most current and widely used standard IP Address.

- IPv6: Is expected to replace IPv4. IPv6 lengthens its addresses from 32 bit to 128 bits which increases the number of addresses. But it will take many years before this becomes commonly used across most networks. 

This Link shows IPv4 vs IPv6:

 http://www.xibl.com/general-articles/ipv4-vs-ipv6/

Here are the differences:

IPV4	IPV6
Source and destination addresses are 32 bits (4 bytes) in length.	Source and destination addresses are 128 bits (16 bytes) in length.
IPSec support is optional.	IPSec support is required.
IPv4 header does not identify packet flow for QoS handling by routers.	IPv6 header contains Flow Label field, which identifies packet flow for QoS handling by router.
Both routers and the sending host fragment packets.	Only the sending host fragments packets; routers do not.
Header includes a checksum.	Header does not include a checksum.
Header includes options.	All optional data is moved to IPv6 extension headers.
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) uses broadcast ARP Request frames to resolve an IP address to a link-layer address.	Multicast Neighbor Solicitation messages resolve IP addresses to link-layer addresses.
Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) manages membership in local subnet groups.	Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) messages manage membership in local subnet groups.
ICMP Router Discovery is used to determine the IPv4 address of the best default gateway, and it is optional.	ICMPv6 Router Solicitation and Router Advertisement messages are used to determine the IP address of the best default gateway, and they are required.
Broadcast addresses are used to send traffic to all nodes on a subnet.	IPv6 uses a link-local scope all-nodes multicast address.
Must be configured either manually or through DHCP.	Does not require manual configuration or DHCP.
Uses host address (A) resource records in Domain Name System (DNS) to map host names to IPv4 addresses.	Uses host address (AAAA) resource records in DNS to map host names to IPv6 addresses.
Uses pointer (PTR) resource records in the IN-ADDR.ARPA DNS domain to map IPv4 addresses to host names.	Uses pointer (PTR) resource records in the IP6.ARPA DNS domain to map IPv6 addresses to host names.
Must support a 576-byte packet size (possibly fragmented).	Must support a 1280-byte packet size (without fragmentation).

-There are also DNS Servers which stands for Domain Name Server. These consist of root name servers, authoritative servers, and local catching servers. To find out more information about DNS you can follow the link under resources. It goes more in dept about what they actually are and how every website has a IP address but uses a Domain Name. You can also look up IP Address and Domain Names in the command promot window by typing in nslookup cnn.com then enter and it will show you its IP address. 

- Later on in the chapter it also talks about location based services called (LBS) and global position services called (GPS).There are links that talk about them under my resources.

http://riggosrag.com/files/2009/07/a-gps-example1.gif

 

Resources: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(computing)- Octet

http://www.xibl.com/general-articles/ipv4-vs-ipv6/- IPv4 vs IPv6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System- DNS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System- GPS

http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/location-based-service-LBS- LBS

Chapter 6 Pages 309-320

- In this reading it talked about understanding internet technologies and security. Networking computer is important because it makes it possible for two or more computers, printers, or other devices using cables or wireless media. Computer networks can be simple or complex, local, or worldwide. A local area network is a computer network supporting users in a small geographical area, such as home, an office, a single building, or several buildings like a college campus. Each device on a LAN is called a node; these nodes communicate with each other with cables or wireless media, such as radip waves. They are configured in one or two basic structures: Peer-to-Peer or Client/Server.
Peer-tp-Peer: consists of a small number of computer (10 or fewer) that are linked together.
Client/Server: consists of multiple computers using one or more servers and other devices such as printers.
- Some times a hub is used to connect multiple nodes on the same network.(Figure 1)
 Figure 1: Small number of computers connected in a peer to peer LAN using a HUB.


- A metropolitan area network connects clients and servers in a region that is larger than a single office or building. A MAN is usually owned by a consortium of users or by a single network provider.

-A wide area network is a network covering a very wide geographical area.

http://www.fachtnaroe.com/images/NetworkTopologies.png

Ring Topology- connects each node to the next node using a single circle or cable.

Star Topology- cinnects each node to a central device, such as a hub or switch.

Bus Topology- connects all nodes on a peer-to-peer network with a single cable.

Web Sources:

http://www.edrawsoft.com/Local-Area-Network.php: This web link shows local area network examples and the technology overview.

http://www.edrawsoft.com/Wide-Area-Network.php: This web link shows wide area network examples and the technology overview.

http://www.cap-lore.com/Hardware/HBRS.html: This site gives definitions of a hub, switch, bridge, and router.



Final Project (Phase 1)

- When i create my digital portfolio i plan to use google documents and find a template in which i will create my own personal website that allows people to view all my works. In this website i will have projects i completed, videos, blogs, and social networking sites i use that people can follow my most recent post and information. I will use photoshop to create my graphics and use html code to edit and personalize my entire website.

- From this class i plan to use my Blogger account and put that in my digital portfolio for people to view my work and check out other projects i completed. I will put in powerpoint presentations i completed and other forms of photography. I will have links to my personal learning networks such as my Facebook and Twitter accounts that i set up in this class that people can follow my posts. It will be a great way for people to explore my work and i will be able to update the content and information as i continue through college.

This Image is a photo of website templates that i plan to use and personalize to my own interests in my digital portfolio.

Chapter 5 (Pages 273-301)

- From reading this chapter it covered special interest web sites which provide people with a wide range of information and advice. Also if you are looking for general health, diet, and fitness information online, however, you can choose from hundreds of web sites. Some popular health and diet web sites are MyFoodDiary, eDiets, and Weight Watchers. These sites offer people a veriety features which include calorie meal plans, exercise plans, and support and discussion groups. However, they cost a monthly fee to all users (Figure 1). If you choose to use a free diet or fitness website for free you can use fitness.gov or nutrition.gov (Figure 2). Its a great way to keep track of your health and make sure your staying healthy.


Figure 1- Image of a Fitness Website you can join for a monthly fee.

 

Figure 2- Image of Free Fitness Website.






- There are also thousands of entertainment, hobby, and social interest websites. Food and cooking websites are great ways to learn new recipes and cooking tips. Also these sites provide information about restaurants and cookbooks.
- Museum websites are good to explore if you like viewing natural science, painting, ans sculptures. You can learn about current exhibits, memberships, and hours their open daily.
- For people interested in genealogy you can use web site to find out information about family history. Its becoming one of the worlds most famous growing hobbies. They also offer these for a monthly free but some other sites are available for free.
-Seniors use the internet to enrich their lives by staying connected to family and friends. Thier are a number of websites such as AARP and SeniorNet that cater to the interest of older adults. Regardless of your age or interests, you can likely find and number of web sites to enjoy.

Today Banking and Paying Bills online is become extremely popular. Online can allow you to complete the following tasks. View your accounts, history of account transactions, pay your bills, transfer funds, issue a stop payment, order checks, and etc (Figure 3). Also people could invest online, you can handle your stocks and other investments (Figure 4). There are many websites people use to do banking online although people should be aware of the dangers involved. If someone finds out you password or account information by using spyware or keyloggers you could be introuble. However, from this chapter it showed that thier is a wide range of personal interest sites that people can use. And the internet is continuing to grow and i am sure their is a web site out thier for anyone in the world.



Figure 3- Image of a Banking Website.





Figure 4- Image of a Investing Website.



Creating a PLN

- A personal learning network is a way to make connections and share ideas with people all around the world. To get started with a PLN we can sign up with an account with a scoial network or other blogging sites. This will allow you to look around and find people or groups with your same interests. I am going to use Facebook.com, Twitter.com, and Blogger.com with these networks i will get in contact with other in the field and communicate with them (see figure 1).
Here are some steps in starting a PLN.
-join a network
-find people to follow
-join in the conversation
-start a conversation

Figure 1: Some networking site you can join.

Some helpful PLN links are: You can create accounts and start getting connected.
http://www.facebook.com/
http://www.twitter.com/
http://www.blogger.com/

 My IGoogle Account.

Chapter 5 (pgs 242-272)

Getting More Out of the Internet!
- After reading this chapter i learned more about the different types of portal sites and the role they play in ensuring the contents is avalible to the public, employees, vendors, customers, and business partiners. Portals serve as a gateway to a wide variety of web content. Their are also consumer portals such as a general consumer portal and personal portals. With general portals they include information for you such as search tools, links to shopping, sport scores, and etc. Some examples are Yahoo, and Lycos. However, with personal portals you can customize the contents to meet your specific needs. Some examples would include IGoogle, and My Yahoo (see figure 1). Its a great way to keep up on the most recent news, wheater, and videos.

Figure 1: Example of a personal portal, which allows you to customize the content.

-We also have the options to explore vertical and industry portals which provide people with specific interests such as ethnic intersts, children's activities, and social issues. Some examples of these portals are penn states youth portal, msn latino, and export.gov.
-Finally there are corporate portals also called (EIPs) which employees, customers, vendors, and other buisness partners can use a single corporate portal to access specific information about the business and work with others.



- Also from this reading i learned about the charactoristics of a news-oriented web site. There are four important reasons for the growing popularity of news, sports, weather, and traffic web sites. The following include avalibility, immediacy, interactivity, and customizability. Most people would use news sites and traffic web sites to find out the most current information happening. Some examples are buffalonew.com, cnn.com, and washingtonpost.com.
- Some of these sites may also use streaming video or audio media. To attract more views this is mainly because they have video clips of the timely news, game highlights, and web sites interests. Some websites give peoeple the abiliy to listen to the radio and sport games (see figure 2).

Figure 2: Streaming video in web pages.

-Finally when searching online you can research encyclopedia and other reference tools. With online encyclopedias it provides people with information about anything your interest in researching. Web sites like encylopedia.com and dictionary.com help people define specific words and information (see figure 3). They are great ways to do research for topics and projects. From this chapter it helped me understand more about differents portals and internet tools.

Figure 3: Online Dictionaries



Figure 3: Online Encyclopedia's



Cinch Recording

Text Messaging and Chat (pages 196-231)

- (SMS) also called Short Message Service and (MMS) Multimedia Messaging Servicess, allows users to send short messages containing text only or text, audio, and video to and from cell phones. Some website like verizon allows people send text messages right from the website. Text messaging is limited to 160 charactors, including the address and subject line. Many people use common abbreviations such as LOL,TTYL,GTG, and much more. By doing this it saves space which allow you to send more text.

- A chat allows two or more people communicate and exchange text or other multimedia messages. The earliest chat was IRC- Internet Relay Chat, which was a text based communication tool. They connected through a server and from that they could communicate with other users on that IRC. There are also channels or chat rooms, which allows people to talk with other people on the internet or set up private networks where you can communicate with friends. This link shows the top 100 chat rooms that you can us to talk with other people-http://www.100toplibrarysites.com/?cat=Chat .
- There are also web based chat and instant messager. These allow people to make accounts and add other people to you buddy list. When you add new people they have to except you as a friend and then you can begin talking with them. It also allows you to put up a status saying if you are online or away. Also you can see if people signed on or are off line. Chating on the internet is becoming the future more people continue to use these products and web based sites.

Social Media and Social Networking (pgs 196-231)

- The social media has grown greatly its a great way for individuals to interact with family, firends, and others. Social media can be defined as an online tool that allows people to communicate, collabrate, and share over the internet. Facebook and Myspace were to examples of social media that brought people together and share common interests. Many individuals can post the status or thoughts in a kind of online journal or blog. This allows others to respond and comments leaving their own thoughts. Many business people use these social networks also because its a way for them to advertise for free and commincate with other companies. Its continuing to grow and more people are learning how to use them.
- Its targeted toward the young and old, to interact with there friends on the network. Also you can post your own photo and video that you want other people to see. You can share links to your favorite website for others to see. Although social networking can be great way to commincate with friends you need to be aware of the risks of preditors,viruses, and theft that is starting to arise. Preditors may clam they are someone they really are not. Which can cause others to fall into that trap. However, these sites give you the abilty to make your profile privite, hide pictures, and hide personal information. Its a great way to make new friends and find people from other locations around the world. I would recommened that you make your own account depending on which site you may decide to choose.


Social Networking Sites!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_
oFjCEXcdoNs/TGtbVTmRTYI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/nLV2WzqB1G8/s400/
social-networking-sites.png



Final Project

Second Life- Project

Second Life: Phase 3

- Our group also found some helpful software that we are going to use to record the video in second life. The program was called http://camstudio.org/- This was a free streaming video software. It is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create standard AVI video files. Here are some helpful download links that are 100% free if you decide to use this software too.

Download Links

CamStudio 2.0: CamStudio20.exe

New CamStudio 2.6 (beta)

CamStudio_v2.6b_r294_(build_24Oct2010).exe

Lossless Codec:

New CamStudioCodec1.4.zip

CamStudioCodec14.exe

Support Forum:

http://camstudio.org/forum

FAQ:

http://camstudio.org/faq.htm

CamStudio - Free Streaming Video Desktop Recording Software

Second Life: Phase 3

- This week we began working on making our story line and gave each other certain jobs to do. I was given the job of being the windows movie maker editor and sound producer. So this week i began playing around in windows media maker and trying to get a hang of how it work. Also we figured out where we were going to record our video in second life and came up with our story line. In class tomorrow were going to put the video all together and start producing the video.
- I found this video on how to use windows movie maker that was very helpful which taught me a lot of new things. And i  am looking forward to editing our video.

Chapter 4 Pages 184-195

- After reading these pages it showed me more ways to use windows mail. The first thing i found interesting was we have the ability to create new message folders. All you have to do is right click on the inbox folder and a drop box will come up, then scroll down to create new folder. Once you click the create folder dialog box will show up and give you the ability to choose the name of the folder. This can be very helpful when working with email because it can help keep track of where certain message are located. All you have to do is drag the message from its existing location and drop it in the folder you named.

- I found the rules to organize messages very helpful because i never knew that you could set this up. When you set up a message rule windows mail automatically moves certain message to these specific folders. All you have to do is click to tools command on the tool bar and click message rule command. This image will show up and click the appropriate settings.

- It also talked about deleting message in you emails but i am sure most people know how to do that already. But i found the ability to create contacts important. In windows mail you have the ability to add people contact this would be a good thing to do in case you loose your cell phone or it breaks. Then your not stuck asking everyone for their numbers again its a great back up plan. All you have to do is click new contact and fill in all your friends information. Also you can send messages to a contacts because it has there name and email it will go right to there email once you type in their name. Some programs automatically save someones email once you send something to them. Its a great way for you to save peoples email and other information.
http://beta.amanzi.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/WindowsLiveWriter/UpdatedWindowsLiveMailDesktopBetareview_9A6D/Mail%20Desktop%20contacts[6].png

Second Life: Phase 2

There were some great second life Halloween videos that helped me find places where we could do our story
. Here were the videos that i found and thought could be helpful to others in the class. The first one shows second life during Halloween and different places that were scary and haunted.



- I also found this web site that had different Halloween places like Halloween Town, Murder at Skull Hill, and much more that could be helpful to many students in finding a place to do there story. All i did was search Halloween category and it came up with tones of related Halloween places and items you could buy or find for free. The website was called: http://secondlife.com/destination/the-apocalypse-haunted-halloween

Second Life: Phase 2

- During the second class we began exploring second life for Halloween costumes for our characters. Also we explored around the different islands for Halloween related worlds. We began discussing with our partners some ideas for creating a story board for the characters. And decided what roles we would give each individual classmate. I found some great haunted houses and scary scenes that would work great in our story. I also learned how to build Halloween related scenes with was very helpful for our story.  

http://www.ldmag.com/public/LD-Magazine/Octobre-2008/Halloween/SecondLife-Halloween.jpg

Second Life: Phase 1

- As i continued playing around with second life i decided to watch some youtube video to get more familiar with the program. In this first video it showed the steps on creating an account and getting started in second life.



- This second video showed me how to change the appearance of the avatars. I found this to be very helpful and easy to understand.



Work Cited:
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqbuMi5N97c
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zAb4XxnVMM

Second Life: Phase 1

- During class we all create second life accounts it was a free process where you control avatars in a virtual world. In this virtual world it give users the ability to communicate with other people and edit and build your own virtual worlds.

- I learned how to edit the characters clothing and navigate through this world. As i began playing around with it i started to get familiar with the buttons however, it was very confusing at first. I also found it interesting that you could buy things in this game. But i don't understand why someone would really spend money on a video game but obviously its occurring. I am still working on becoming more familiar with the program.

Communicating Online Pages 163-184

- Communicating through email has become one of the most popular online tools. Many business use email to communicate with their workings, customers, and inverstors. The use of email has benifits because of it's speedy delivery, low cost, and convenience. In order for people to send emails to the correct destination they need to know the user name and host name. For example (brendon.fitzgerald03) would be my user name. And the host name would be (@gmail.com).
- Emailing is common among most people its a way for companies to share discounts with people and tell us about their latest products. Also most highschool and college universities provide email to thier students as a way to keep track of assignments and communicate with their professors.
- When we email they may use a number of protocols such as POP,SMTP,IMAP,and HTTP. These are the used to interact with mail servers when sending and recieving messages. Most email clients provide the same basic window when composing a message. It looks like this:

- This would apply to all email clients. When you use windows mail there are options to view the inbox folder, outbox folder, sent items, and deleted items. These are all used to help us keep track of the messages within our email. It very simply to open windows mail all you do is go to your start menu then view all programs and scroll to view windows mail. To check to see if you have any messages click on inbox and look if they are in Bold Font if they are then you have not read them.
- To relpy to a message simply open that message you want to reply to and click the reply button.
- But there are some postitive used for email other than just communication. If you choose to attach a files you can send people documents, picture, videos and etc. Also you can create a signature so people know that its really you and not spam.
- Although emailing seems comfusing and hard to keep track of you can manage your message and create new folders to keep track of your information. All you would have to do is right click on inbox and it will display the shortcut menu then just scroll down till you find new folder.

- This video will show you steps on using windows mail.

My Major and Career Goal

- My major is Digital Media: Web Production Track. When I finish college at Niagara Community College I am planning on transferring to a four year college, and majoring in graphic design. Graphic Designers are visual artist who design logos, graphics, ads, brochures and other types of visual communication. When I finish school I want to be able to work in an action sport related job field making logos, graphics, and designing web pages. Some company's like people who are experienced in web design and i feel from the program at NCCC it will help. 

- The technology that i have studied in this course will help with my major because it explains how to use the internet and how it is important. Communication on the web is important because many people use facebook, twitter, and myspace. Being able to make web pages with links to the companies facebook and twitter will help the business with advertisement and brochures. Also in web pages ill be able to use mark ups and animations. I would like to learn more about coding web pages and making them from scratch.