This week we have learnt all about Technorati. It's all very exciting lol Basically it's a blog digest that specialises in searching all blogspots with RSS feeds! It ranks bogs and gives them a number called Authority, this is determined by the number of blogs that have linked to yours in the past 180 days. I added a technorati button thingo so press it and make me no.1!

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Counters are used on websites to count how many times a site has been viewed. It's often located at the bottom of the page and displays the number of hits to that web page/site. Some counters don't seem very reliable as every time i clicked on the page another hit would be recorded. I think i will need to browse for a better counter on my i-web page!

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FTP is a file transfer protocol tool. So it's a piece of software used to transfer files to an internet server. It can be described as a file management program because it manages the files from your PC or network to the internet server. So what's an internet server? It is a computer that holds your website and other files. When you 'publish' you tranfer your files and webpages to the internet server.
In the simplest way FTP is sending data between two points using the internet. This promotes sharing of files and the transfer of data reliably and efficiently.

Using the FTP protocol can be unsafe because a password must always be entered for the transfer. The password is transmitted over the Internet without encryption. Despite the fact that FTP is one of the oldest and most widely used Internet protocols, there are security risks when using it. Also when using an FTP connection, the transferred data could "stray" to a remote computer and not arrive at their intended destination. Others can then download data from the remote system to their own computers, or existing data can be viewed and edited. This is very risky, particularly when transferring company confidential information. FTP can also be used to determine the passwords of individual users, since the password is transferred in clear text when logging on. As a result, even those with unauthorized access to this network can record the password information.

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In doing mpi-104 I have gained a deeper understanding of how and why we use the internet for various purposes. I have actively set up my own blog according to my interests and what I think is visually appealing. I have also followed other people’s blogs, not just those within my class, mainly artists and photographers, who are interested in the same subjects as me. Exploring various blogs around me has been a great learning experience in seeing how others communicate to the online community. Gaining inspiration from the expression of others and the layout of their blogs has been of particular interest. Also learning about what a blog actually is has been of great importance to the overall role of my own blog. I consider my own blog to be a personal online diary with links to my favourite sites such as Flickr, Purevolume and Deviant Art. I define blogger as being a ‘publishing system’ which is maintained by an individual through the uploading of media such as photos (photoblog), videos (vblog) or text. I focus on the textual aspect within my blog by expressing myself and what I have learnt in this subject.

The aesthetic look of my blog has come from my love of design and so I researched all of the available templates until I found a simple, yet interesting layout that depicted my own character and did not make my information too hard to read (busy). The colours grey and pink work well as the text is easy to read and the pink highlights the titles of posts and the linked words making it easier to access the desired link/information. The photos stand out as both colourful, interesting and expressive against the light grey background. I customized the layout and rearranged some page elements so that my photos were on the right and my text was separated to the left which is a layout I believe works well in the overall reading the blog.

In doing these online activities I have learnt about HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) which is the language that describes the structure of text-based information like links, headings, paragraphs and embedded images. I have learnt about CSS which means a change in style can be achieved while content does not change. The advantage being you don't lose content and you have improved accessibility. I have learnt about posting and how to link within a post which has been a very important aspect of this course and one which I have enjoyed.

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I have 9 posts on my blog, some are long and each have a link to the site I am writing about. This is a link to my more interesting posts on my blog.

Post 1
Post 2
Post 3

Comments I have made to other blogs have been based on what I have found interesting, inspiring or helpful on various blogs. These are some comments I have made on some people’s blogs and posts.

Comment 1
Comment 2
Comment 3

Using tags has helped me to categorize information into specific areas which I can recognize so it is easier for me to find what I need to find. Tags help us find photos etc which have something in common. So it’s a keyword or term attached to a piece of information. It’s a kind of metadata (data about other data), that helps describe something and allows it to be found again.
Here's a link to the tags i have used on my delicious site.

Del.icio.us

I have created 15 bookmarks in my delicious account. These include mainly blogs and Flickr accounts which I have found to be really helpful or interesting. I find photography blogs of particular interest because I am doing a photography course so I can gain inspiration, contacts and helpful tips from different photographers. I also have enjoyed looking into fashion blogs and Flickr accounts and I have uploaded my own fashion photography to these. I like being able to share my work online and especially to my fashion groups on Flickr. Also finding a Christian Flickr site has been encouraging as I can express my faith with others on the site and join in fellowship in that way.

My 3 favourite web pages are:
Flickr: ‘Christian Photographer Fellowship’
Flickr: ‘Fashion and Style’
'New-Art Blog’

Flickr
I have 55 images uploaded on my Flickr site, ranging from my digital photo shoots to film photo shoots and personal photos. My 3 favourite images are

BishopAmanda01
Mandy Photography 148
Lips

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