Friday, 30 November 2012
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Mobile Internet Usage & History of the Mobile Phone
Mobile Phones
A mobile phone used to be a device that was capable of sending and receiving calls, also sending and receiving SMS. Nowadays this is not apparent and this is due to the birth of the smart-phone. The smart-phone changed the generations of phones because it meant easy access to the Internet on a handheld device that nowadays almost every person you see has a smart-phone. I myself have a HTC so I am one of the many who have a smart-phone. Truthfully I don't use my smart-phone only for calls and texts but to surf the Internet and for the majority of the time I also go on Facebook...the worlds leading social networking site. As a result of phones are so small it means that they are easily transportable to everywhere you go which means almost 100% of the time people have instant access to the Internet from wherever they are.
There are good things about having Internet on your smart-phone and that is that you can stay in touch with friends and family that live quite a distance from where you are but also more importantly for people who run businesses it means they can send and receive emails as and when they need to. Mobile phones nowadays do fulfil their intended purpose however I believe that it is correct to say that they are no longer just mobile phones but miniature computers.
This little table shows us how many people actually uses the Internet on their phones. It seem like the figures have come out as I had predicted them to be. This is that the younger the age group in the table the higher the percentage of people in that age group that use the Internet on their phone for whatever reason. This again is obviously the digital divide for the people in the UK that cannot afford Internet on a phone or more worrying the fact that they might not be able to afford a phone. But the reason why usage gets lower as the age group increases because the older generations of people will not be into technology as much as the younger generations. Statistics taken from: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/datasets-and-tables/index.html?pageSize=50&sortBy=none&sortDirection=none&newquery=mobile+internet
History of the Mobile Phone
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| http://www.dialaphone.co.uk/blog/2012/02/13/the-phone-that-burns-twice-as-smart/ |
Mobile phones are something of the past unfortunately, this was a result of the birth of the smartphone. Long gone are the days when a mobile phone seemed like the biggest leap in technology, going from something like a massive computer in the 1980's compacted down into something the size of a brick. The years have passed and technology has become more and more complex due to two factors; innovative ideas and breakthroughs by phone developers and second to that, the demand from the public because of the desperate attitude to try new technology.
Mobile phones were first invented to enable people to ring a text each other while moving around to increase the convenience of contacting in important situations, even back then mobile phones were so expensive that only wealthy people had a mobile phone for personal use. Smartphones can be used for much more than what mobile phones were actually made for. As well as calling and texting people under circumstances I also use my smartphone for a lot more, the term 'smart' usually an object has Internet capabilities. This is the fundamental part because as soon as you introduce Internet capabilities to an object it opens so many doors, for example with my Internet allowance it enables me to; buy and download applications and games on my phone, use social networking sites on my phone to keep up to date with the latest happenings going on amongst my friends, Google search anything that I want just like doing it on a computer, send and receive emails on my phone so I don't miss anything if someone emails me and last but not least play online games with my friends. All of the listed above can be performed just by having an Internet enabled phone, so you can really see how one factor can trigger a colossal amount of outcomes.
Advantages
The beauty of it all being able to be done on my HTC is that I can do it anytime I want and when I choose to do it. Before the mobile phone was introduced you either had to find a phone box or phone people from the house phone, whereas now everything can be done from my current location conveniently. Major benefits of using a mobile phone is that you can easily contact people as and when you need to without any aggravation. If you need to speak with them urgently then you can call them quickly but for less urgent questions then you can just text them and they will reply when they are free and able to. With smartphones it enables you to keep in touch of distant relatives that you are unable to contact through calling and texting. Also if you need to refer to an email that you have received from a company and need to present it to them to get a discount for example, then you can just open the email there and then to show them rather than having to print it out. If there is a requirement for you to check the weather or news to discover the most recent happenings in the area around you then you can easily surf the Internet and go onto the BBC website or other various sites as well. I believe my phone does fulfil it's purpose because the original use of a mobile phone was that it could call and text people to maximise convenience when contacting someone, I use my phone regularly for this purpose and so i happily say that yes my phone does fulfil it's purpose.
Disadvantages
As with all advantages of having new technology there is always disadvantages that come with it. the main disadvantage being the fact that all smartphones are annoyingly prone to smash the first time you drop it and so if they break then it becomes a monumental problem because then you have to ether get it fixed or replace it with a new phone if the damage is that bad. More commonly nowadays along with texting there is a new kind of language called text language, in my opinion this is the most pointless invention ever and it displays nothing but laziness and because of this it there is talk that young children that get phones will use this text language more than speaking proper English and therefore will affect the quality of English that they speak and write.
Communication
SMS - Short Message Service
Short messaging service has become more and more popular as we have come further into the 21st century. this is due the colossal amount of technological breakthroughs conquered in the later parts of the 20th century. the way in which the different generations of people through the years.In 2004 there was more than 40 million mobile phones in the UK and over 30,000 base stations. Communicating via SMS is good in some senses because it allows you to communicate to your dearest family and friends whenever you want and nowadays it is not even that expensive to pay for texts providing you have a contract. However with every good situation there is always a bad side to it, with this example it would be that when you text people you are not developing your people skills and this is very important for youngsters to learn to get them ready for their life ahead.
I use email when I need to contact someone and I have no other way of making contact with them. Also it is a quick cheap and easy way to send documents pictures and different file format documents. I mainly use email at school to contact teachers and also to allow me to sign up to different websites's accounts so they can contact me as and when they need to. The problems you may face when sending and receiving emails are discussed when I first made my blog. Also when giving you email to companies and service that you are not sure about are also not good and the problems that you could encounter are also discussed in one of my first posts. I believe email definitely fulfils its intended purposes because it was first set up 'generically for any electronic document transmission.' Quote taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email so in this sense it is still used today for what it was intentionally made for.
Short messaging service has become more and more popular as we have come further into the 21st century. this is due the colossal amount of technological breakthroughs conquered in the later parts of the 20th century. the way in which the different generations of people through the years.In 2004 there was more than 40 million mobile phones in the UK and over 30,000 base stations. Communicating via SMS is good in some senses because it allows you to communicate to your dearest family and friends whenever you want and nowadays it is not even that expensive to pay for texts providing you have a contract. However with every good situation there is always a bad side to it, with this example it would be that when you text people you are not developing your people skills and this is very important for youngsters to learn to get them ready for their life ahead.
E-Mail - Electronic Mail
It is the same story with sending Electronic Mail (email). sure it is quick and easy to do but sometimes it is important that you manage to talk to people around you to enable for you to develop your people skills. I find that when you have to sort out an event that is going to happen or has already happened out, it always tends to be resolved quicker when you actually speak to someone face to face. nowadays electronic mail gets used a lot in different organisations such as schools and other.
I use email when I need to contact someone and I have no other way of making contact with them. Also it is a quick cheap and easy way to send documents pictures and different file format documents. I mainly use email at school to contact teachers and also to allow me to sign up to different websites's accounts so they can contact me as and when they need to. The problems you may face when sending and receiving emails are discussed when I first made my blog. Also when giving you email to companies and service that you are not sure about are also not good and the problems that you could encounter are also discussed in one of my first posts. I believe email definitely fulfils its intended purposes because it was first set up 'generically for any electronic document transmission.' Quote taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email so in this sense it is still used today for what it was intentionally made for.
Saturday, 3 November 2012
Social Networking
Social networking website have grown massively over the last 5-10 years. A social networking website is a social structure made up of a set of actors and there are links either by family or friends. The social network perspective provides a
clear way of analysing the structure of whole social groups. There are dozens of different social networking sites, i am only going to talk a little about 3 of the most popular social networking sites.
Facebook is the most popular and it was launched in 2004 by a man called Mark Zuckerberg. He was a student when he was designing the site. Now 8 years on Facebook has 1billion users that frequently socialise on Facebook. This social network is also available on smart-phone handsets.
Twitter is the second most popular social networking site with over 500 million active users as of 2012. It was launched in 2006 by Jack Dorsey. He is now the current executive chairman of twitter. this social networking website is also available for use on any smart-phone.
Linkedin is the third largest social networking site with 175 million registered users in more than 200 countries. The company was founded by Reid Hoffman but the current CEO is Jeff Weiner. This social networking website was originally launched for people in professional occupations. This is also available on any smart-phone.
The biggest online social networking drawback is that it makes identity theft easier. This is really bad because it presents local authorities with possible paedophiles which is just a general threat. Scammers use social networking sites to trick people into downloading malicious software, this is a big one. This software will seriously attack your computer and will potentially destroy your computer from the inside. Social networking can be both overwhelming and addictive at the same time. If you join every social network and add hundreds of people as friends, you'll receive updates constantly. This could be a bad thing because then you will become a slave to the social network.
Facebook is the most popular and it was launched in 2004 by a man called Mark Zuckerberg. He was a student when he was designing the site. Now 8 years on Facebook has 1billion users that frequently socialise on Facebook. This social network is also available on smart-phone handsets.
Twitter is the second most popular social networking site with over 500 million active users as of 2012. It was launched in 2006 by Jack Dorsey. He is now the current executive chairman of twitter. this social networking website is also available for use on any smart-phone.
Linkedin is the third largest social networking site with 175 million registered users in more than 200 countries. The company was founded by Reid Hoffman but the current CEO is Jeff Weiner. This social networking website was originally launched for people in professional occupations. This is also available on any smart-phone.
The biggest online social networking drawback is that it makes identity theft easier. This is really bad because it presents local authorities with possible paedophiles which is just a general threat. Scammers use social networking sites to trick people into downloading malicious software, this is a big one. This software will seriously attack your computer and will potentially destroy your computer from the inside. Social networking can be both overwhelming and addictive at the same time. If you join every social network and add hundreds of people as friends, you'll receive updates constantly. This could be a bad thing because then you will become a slave to the social network.
4th Generation Internet Coverage
4G is the fourth generation of internet service provided by different internet providers. It is a replacement of the third generation Internet coverage or also known as 3G. A 4G system provides mobile broadband to run a very high speed Internet. It provides access for many devices, both portable and stationary.
This estimation diagram shows us how much of the world actually still uses 2G and it still remains that still only under half of the world population has 2G and 3G. This means when 4G finally comes out it should make 3G more readily available to the world's population. But with these figures it seems silly for 4G to be put into use considering the Internet providing companies cant even cater 3G to half the worlds population. This 4G is meant to be 5 times faster than 3G which is understandable to put it out on the market for use but it does require a lot more power for it to be used, this will mean when you use it on a smart-phone then you should not use it for long otherwise it will drain your battery quickly. I wonder if it would be 5 times faster than 3G?!
The Digital Divide
The digital divide is where people in the UK don't have what most of the population take for granted is not actually affordable to some people. This happens on a global and local scale. either that or some people don't really understand how a computer or the Internet actually work so they tend not to even go near it. This stops a portion of the UK's population from being able to use the website and having the right to air their opinion that everyone else so easily does. The government tries to adhere to this problem by using different methods depending on the County's council. Some counties give special access to computers in their towns library or it has been known that some councils have actually given these people computers to use. Nowadays computers are a standard thing, even something as simple as applying for a job is impossible because most of the time the application form is on the business' website. This goes onto not helping the current economic downturn and unemployment being so high.
On a local scale above is a map showing the Internet usage in England in 2011. From the diagram you can see that in any one region in England is likely to have around 80% Internet usage. This means 80% of the people in that region has regular access to the Internet and uses a lot. For a well developed country around 20% per region is quite high for people not having access to a computer. This means that people in England still cannot afford to have a computer with access to the Internet. This means if businesses and activities of most organisations in the world are transferring themselves over to the Internet, then that 20% of people per region will not be able to use that organisations services even if they wanted to. Evidently the south of England generally has more access to the Internet then the people in the north, this is due to the lack of employment and wealth in the north of England.
From the diagram above you can see that all of the expected countries have the highest brackets for having computers and Internet usage. There are still some areas in the world that don even have a single computer owned by anyone. Obviously and evidently the undeveloped countries don't have as many computers and as much Internet usage than other countries that are well developed like the USA and UK.
International Telecommunications Union - http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/connect/
'The overall objective of the Connect CIS is to mobilise the human, financial and technical resources required to support a rapid, region-wide transition to digital infrastructure and services. Also connect the unconnected by the year 2015 '. This is a quote I took from this website. It says it has to sort the financial problems first before it can improve, it also says in the website that it will need financial help if it wants to make advances in the economic struggle. They believe that the digital divide is due to grow due to the fact that 4G Internet has immured. The reason this is likely to cause the digital divide to grow is because as the people able to pay for 4G the others that don't even have access to Internet. This means the advance will mean the divide of Internet will become quicker so even if the people who don't have it manage to pay for it, there is still a huge divide between 2G and 4G.
Local Scale
On a local scale above is a map showing the Internet usage in England in 2011. From the diagram you can see that in any one region in England is likely to have around 80% Internet usage. This means 80% of the people in that region has regular access to the Internet and uses a lot. For a well developed country around 20% per region is quite high for people not having access to a computer. This means that people in England still cannot afford to have a computer with access to the Internet. This means if businesses and activities of most organisations in the world are transferring themselves over to the Internet, then that 20% of people per region will not be able to use that organisations services even if they wanted to. Evidently the south of England generally has more access to the Internet then the people in the north, this is due to the lack of employment and wealth in the north of England.
Global Scale
From the diagram above you can see that all of the expected countries have the highest brackets for having computers and Internet usage. There are still some areas in the world that don even have a single computer owned by anyone. Obviously and evidently the undeveloped countries don't have as many computers and as much Internet usage than other countries that are well developed like the USA and UK.
International Telecommunications Union - http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/connect/
'The overall objective of the Connect CIS is to mobilise the human, financial and technical resources required to support a rapid, region-wide transition to digital infrastructure and services. Also connect the unconnected by the year 2015 '. This is a quote I took from this website. It says it has to sort the financial problems first before it can improve, it also says in the website that it will need financial help if it wants to make advances in the economic struggle. They believe that the digital divide is due to grow due to the fact that 4G Internet has immured. The reason this is likely to cause the digital divide to grow is because as the people able to pay for 4G the others that don't even have access to Internet. This means the advance will mean the divide of Internet will become quicker so even if the people who don't have it manage to pay for it, there is still a huge divide between 2G and 4G.
Entertainment Timeline
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| Taken and cropped from: http://excognitare.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/graphic-cyberspace--policyreview.jpg
Technological advances were quite expensive when they were first invented so the only people who really had these forms of technology was the rich. Most of these forms of entertainment that I will talk about were actually new which means not a lot of people would have had them when they first invented.
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1900-1949
In 1901 the radio was a new idea back then and was state of the art so not many people had them. Radio technology began as wireless telegraph, later radio was developed when the discovery of radio waves was made. hese electromagnetic waves they discovered were able to transmit music, speech, pictures and other data as well. This meant that it could do other stuff as well as transmit music, this is where many years later the TV was put into practise.
In 1911 the first electronic ignition system was first installed in a Cadillac, it was invented by Charles Kettering. He was an engineer that worked for General Motors and this was the reason the first radio was installed in a Cadillac. In 1923 a Scottish engineer was the inventor of the world's first working television system in Hastings, England. This mans name was John Logie Baird, this system was successful enough to become commercialised. In 1929 the BBC began the world's first regular television broadcasts using this exact system.
Another technological advance between the 1900 and 1950 was the invention of the drive in theatre, this was first thought of in 1933 when a Mr. Richard M. Hollingshead opened the first of a chain. Richard mounted a 1928 Kodak projector on the hood of his car, he used it to
project onto a screen he had nailed to trees in his backyard. He placed a radio
behind the screen for sound, then started allowing customers in. Information taken from:
In 1942 the first mini digital computer was invented, they are very different to the computers that we have today. They were created by John Vincent Atanasoff and Cliff Berry, they used to be huge pieces of apparatus that used to fill a room. Even though this was a mini computer it still took up a big part of a room. Also they could only used to be able to perform simple tasks. Computers have come a long way from when they were first created, they are a lot more compact and advanced in the way that it can perform so many different tasks. Information taken from: http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/twentieth.htmhttp://inertz.org/2008/01/a-brief-history-of-the-radio/
Picture 2 was taken from:
http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/HistoryPt3.htm
In 1958 the first Video-game was invented by a physicist called Willy Higinbotham in Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. This table tennis like game was played on something called a oscilloscope. the reason he created it was to entertain visitors that came to his laboratory. Information taken from: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/gamestimeline1.html Picture taken from: http://thepolybiuseffect.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/weekly-history-lesson-tennis-for-two.htmlThe compact cassette was invented and released in the Netherlands in 1962 by the Philips. This was a huge technological advance in the way that this was what started bands from getting blank tapes and recording their music onto it and selling it. This was the beginning of the advances in forms or music stores.
In 1965 the compact disk was invented in by a man called James Russel. It only became popular in the 1980's when it was put into mass production by Philips. This was the first form of digital storage, it use to store pictures, music and programme files.
1970-1989
In 1971 the LCD screen was invented by a man called James Fergason. It was most commonly used in devices like digital clocks and appliance displays. Nowadays it is used to in things like televisions and many computing devices both portable and stationary.
The first cell phone was invented in 1979. It was called a cellular the system uses many base stations to divide a service area into multiple cells. A cell phone is a type of two-way radio. Along with the invention of cellular phones the same year in 1979 the first ever SONY Walkman is invented. It came in the form of a cassette player compacted small enough for it to be portable and this is also why it was called a Walkman.
In 1981 the first IBM computer was invented. It was called the IBM PC, PC still exists today and it stands for personal computer. It was a complete secret until it was released in 1981. IBM had paired with Microsoft's Bill Gates and he was responsible for constructing an operating system for IBM's new state of the art computer. This operating system was called MS-DOS 1.0. The starting price of the computer with the operating system on was $1,500, this would equate to $4,000 of today's money!
Bill Gates then went on to inventing Microsoft Windows in 1985, it was a 'next-generation operating system' that would provide a graphical user interface (GUI) and a multitasking environment for IBM computers. All information on technological advances on entertainment from:
http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/modern_5.htm
1990-2009
In 1990 the World Wide Web was invented, Tim Berners-Lee was the man leading a group that developed the World Wide Web, the defining of HTML (hypertext markup language) used to create web pages, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) and URLs (Universal Resource Locators).
In 2001 Apple computers publicly announced their portable music digital player the iPod. The iPod was announced several months after the release of iTunes. One man that could be named the father of the iPod, he is Tony Fadell. Leading a team of thirty people at Apple they set out on developing the new MP3 player.In 2005 YouTube was invented by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, these inventors became millionaires when they sold their invention for 1.65 billion dollars to the search engine Google. Amazingly all 3 of these inventor met and befriended at the company PayPal. Steve Chen serves as the Chief Technology Officer at YouTube whereas Chad Hurley serves as the Chief Executive Officer at YouTube. Hurley was also responsible for designing PayPal's trademarked logo. Karim however has pursued an advanced degree at Stanford University.
http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/ModernInvention.htm
Present DayAll of the technology we see today has come from some kind of invention that was made back in the 19th century. This old technology was taken by someone and was developed, this happened a few times for the technology and entertainment we have today to come about. Some examples of fairly new technology that has come about recently is super-fast 4G Internet, 3D/LED Televisions, Blue-ray players and disks, highly advanced small computers/Laptops and smart-phones.
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
E-Learning
In this post I will be talking about how there are so many different websites that allows students of today to learn through different methods or websites that are on the Internet. E-Learning is the factor that all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching falls under. This sort of learning usually benefits the young as they are more into using technology than the older generation. E-learning enables students to have skills and knowledge to be picked up through the website or Internet.
Net Frog Website - http://frog.edschool.virginia.edu/Frog2/
This website is teaching anyone who wants to learn how to dissect a frog. The reason they teach you this is because they say on their website that 'dissecting a frog helps you learn human anatomy'. This website does do what it says in the sense that it teaches you how to dissect a frog, however different people learn in different ways. Some people can read up on how to do it and then they can remember it but others need to practise it over and over again to remember how to do it. The website tells you that you need certain instruments to be able to cut the frog and dissect it, the website explains all the parts of the frog and what all the instruments are but they don't tell you where you can get these certain instruments from. If someone wanted to explore at home then they would find it hard because they would not know where to get the correct instruments from.
Lynda Website - http://www.lynda.com/
This website offers online video tutorials which can be beneficial for some people but not for others, this is because a lot of people learn in different ways because they have different techniques of how to remember things. video tutorials can also sometimes be known as virtual learning, I have watched one of the video tutorials and I believe with my learning techniques that I would be able to learn from things I get told. It is also good in the way that you are theoretically receiving one-to-one tuition which means you tend to focus on yourself more, this is good for shyer children because they don't have peers around them to tease or laugh at them if they get something wrong.
Macro-media Tutorial - http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Flash/1
This website offers in-detail descriptions of how to use Adobe Flash Player to enable you to understand how the programme works and also what you can do with the programme. Written descriptions and pictures are sometimes the best way for some people to learn, however some people can learn just from looking at pictures or just reading information. Some people would benefit more from watching videos of walk-through talk-throughs. With all of this set a side over all this website definitely achieves it aim on teaching people how to use Adobe Flash, it provides in depth tutorials of how to and also has its own forum where you can ask questions if you need help with anything.
Net Frog Website - http://frog.edschool.virginia.edu/Frog2/
This website is teaching anyone who wants to learn how to dissect a frog. The reason they teach you this is because they say on their website that 'dissecting a frog helps you learn human anatomy'. This website does do what it says in the sense that it teaches you how to dissect a frog, however different people learn in different ways. Some people can read up on how to do it and then they can remember it but others need to practise it over and over again to remember how to do it. The website tells you that you need certain instruments to be able to cut the frog and dissect it, the website explains all the parts of the frog and what all the instruments are but they don't tell you where you can get these certain instruments from. If someone wanted to explore at home then they would find it hard because they would not know where to get the correct instruments from.
Lynda Website - http://www.lynda.com/
This website offers online video tutorials which can be beneficial for some people but not for others, this is because a lot of people learn in different ways because they have different techniques of how to remember things. video tutorials can also sometimes be known as virtual learning, I have watched one of the video tutorials and I believe with my learning techniques that I would be able to learn from things I get told. It is also good in the way that you are theoretically receiving one-to-one tuition which means you tend to focus on yourself more, this is good for shyer children because they don't have peers around them to tease or laugh at them if they get something wrong.
This website offers in-detail descriptions of how to use Adobe Flash Player to enable you to understand how the programme works and also what you can do with the programme. Written descriptions and pictures are sometimes the best way for some people to learn, however some people can learn just from looking at pictures or just reading information. Some people would benefit more from watching videos of walk-through talk-throughs. With all of this set a side over all this website definitely achieves it aim on teaching people how to use Adobe Flash, it provides in depth tutorials of how to and also has its own forum where you can ask questions if you need help with anything.
Monday, 15 October 2012
E-Government
E-Government is good for the majority of the population because it allows people to air their opinions about the government and their view is looked at more quickly if we to use the old fashioned way.
http://www.number10.gov.uk/
This being said, the website is where the views of people can be aired and the government will constantly look at it and any subject that is bought up more than once will be addressed by the government of even the Prime Minister. The decision that the website was set up to be able to do this function is an advance in the right direction so to speak. This is because it makes a more efficient service on the governments behalf and puts the Prime Minister closer to the public to better understand what we want as a society. Also they have got on their website what roles and responsibilities they have as a government. What they are currently focusing on in this current time, at the moment is the war effort in Afghanistan, business innovation and skills, defence, HM treasury and much more. Compared to the old way that people's opinions were aired and the roles and responsibilities were known. It is a lot different because before you have to go out and research the information about the government and now all that information is just a couple of clicks away. Same applies to getting an opinion across, you used to write a letter to the prime minister or to local parliament and send it but now you just type your issue in and it can be seen by any member of parliament and Prime Minister and is more likely to get answered.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla/
The DVLA has in many ways advanced the way in which crime has been enforced for motorists on the road today. In the past the DVLA found that fraud was a very frequent activity within the car industry due to counterfeit documents to do with tax and MOT of a car. However, they have advanced to putting all information about every car on the DVLA special database. This in turn reduces the likelihood of producing counterfeit documents, the reason for this is a car cannot be insured unless the car is taxed and passed an MOT. The mechanics who perform it have to give a document to the person and this document can only be presented by the a garage, once this document has been given then the results get put on the DVLA database. This record of the MOT will allow the car to be taxable and then after it can be insured. All this information is put on the DVLA database and the police traffic unit cars have the Automatic Number Plate Reader (ANPR) which runs off the DVLA database. This will scan a number plate and check it has been taxed insured and MOT'd. This is good because it cracks down on people who drive without insurance but also cracks down on people who used to use counterfeit documents. The best part of 10 years ago this technology didn't exist and it was almost impossible for the police to pick up fake drivers, this is also a good way to get dangerous and 'unworthy' drivers off the road.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/
This website provides a good online service and it appears easy to use. When you register as a user you will be able to sign up for online HMRC services. This will give you access to all areas of the website and it will give you more information about business tax. It will also send you a users email to help you better understand to use HMRC's online services and also how you can file documents online. They also have a dedicated part of the website where it shows you how to use the online services efficiently. It shows you how filing and using electronic payments online can benefit the person/business. It also has a part on the website where you can see frequently asked questions and also it allows you to ask a question yourself if you are unsure. How it has been bought along with technology is that now people can pay different types of tax and so forth without worrying about it getting lost in the post or someone getting hold of the letter and taking whatever confidential documents are in there. However you can now make payment from the comfort of your own home without any worry. There is just one worry that there could be spy ware on your computer that get your account details, this is usually very rare because this website is very strict on confidentiality.
http://www.bedford.gov.uk/
This website allows you to do many different operations, making a person life who lives in Bedford Borough simple. The way in which they do this is by allowing them to pay for different sections of life through the website. Sections such as mortgage payments, council tax, non domestic payments and more. They also allow you to request report and book stuff online. You can request a waste permit, assisted waste collection and much more. Also report various petty crimes that have happened in the area in which you live and you can do it anonymously as well.
http://www.number10.gov.uk/
This being said, the website is where the views of people can be aired and the government will constantly look at it and any subject that is bought up more than once will be addressed by the government of even the Prime Minister. The decision that the website was set up to be able to do this function is an advance in the right direction so to speak. This is because it makes a more efficient service on the governments behalf and puts the Prime Minister closer to the public to better understand what we want as a society. Also they have got on their website what roles and responsibilities they have as a government. What they are currently focusing on in this current time, at the moment is the war effort in Afghanistan, business innovation and skills, defence, HM treasury and much more. Compared to the old way that people's opinions were aired and the roles and responsibilities were known. It is a lot different because before you have to go out and research the information about the government and now all that information is just a couple of clicks away. Same applies to getting an opinion across, you used to write a letter to the prime minister or to local parliament and send it but now you just type your issue in and it can be seen by any member of parliament and Prime Minister and is more likely to get answered.http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla/
The DVLA has in many ways advanced the way in which crime has been enforced for motorists on the road today. In the past the DVLA found that fraud was a very frequent activity within the car industry due to counterfeit documents to do with tax and MOT of a car. However, they have advanced to putting all information about every car on the DVLA special database. This in turn reduces the likelihood of producing counterfeit documents, the reason for this is a car cannot be insured unless the car is taxed and passed an MOT. The mechanics who perform it have to give a document to the person and this document can only be presented by the a garage, once this document has been given then the results get put on the DVLA database. This record of the MOT will allow the car to be taxable and then after it can be insured. All this information is put on the DVLA database and the police traffic unit cars have the Automatic Number Plate Reader (ANPR) which runs off the DVLA database. This will scan a number plate and check it has been taxed insured and MOT'd. This is good because it cracks down on people who drive without insurance but also cracks down on people who used to use counterfeit documents. The best part of 10 years ago this technology didn't exist and it was almost impossible for the police to pick up fake drivers, this is also a good way to get dangerous and 'unworthy' drivers off the road.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/
This website provides a good online service and it appears easy to use. When you register as a user you will be able to sign up for online HMRC services. This will give you access to all areas of the website and it will give you more information about business tax. It will also send you a users email to help you better understand to use HMRC's online services and also how you can file documents online. They also have a dedicated part of the website where it shows you how to use the online services efficiently. It shows you how filing and using electronic payments online can benefit the person/business. It also has a part on the website where you can see frequently asked questions and also it allows you to ask a question yourself if you are unsure. How it has been bought along with technology is that now people can pay different types of tax and so forth without worrying about it getting lost in the post or someone getting hold of the letter and taking whatever confidential documents are in there. However you can now make payment from the comfort of your own home without any worry. There is just one worry that there could be spy ware on your computer that get your account details, this is usually very rare because this website is very strict on confidentiality. http://www.bedford.gov.uk/
This website allows you to do many different operations, making a person life who lives in Bedford Borough simple. The way in which they do this is by allowing them to pay for different sections of life through the website. Sections such as mortgage payments, council tax, non domestic payments and more. They also allow you to request report and book stuff online. You can request a waste permit, assisted waste collection and much more. Also report various petty crimes that have happened in the area in which you live and you can do it anonymously as well.
All of these services that this website offers are really helpful in the way that it is a more efficient way to keep the government more in touch and close to the people of bedford, opposed to the old way of reporting a crime or paying for your council tax it is a lot more easy to do as well. It is more convenient for the person in Bedford because before you had to go to your local police station to report a crime, now you can do it in your own house. Also paying for different things is good as well because that can be done in your home but also you are less likely to miss a payment on various demanding finances.
Saturday, 29 September 2012
Investigating Online Banking
Purpose, Target Audience and Advantages of Online Banking
Internet banking is the option that a bank offers. This is all done from the convenience of their own homes. Normally the customer would have to make a trip to the bank to do these transactions, but with the beginning of internet banking the ease of account operations for customers has increased dramatically.
Online banking was made for business men and business related people and also to make the banks job easier, however the younger half of the generation use it more than most people. The older generation tends mostly not to use it because the prefer to physically take the money to the bank and bank it. Use of internet banking has increased and a lot of the peopulation use it. 81% of people managed household finances using online banking at least once in the past 12 months. This statistic was taken from this site.
I am going to look at 2 banks and how they help their customers by allowing them to use online banking. The 2 banks I am going to look at are Barclays and Lloyds TSB:
Barclays
You will need a valid account that has been set up with the Barclays bank. Barclays set up an online service for their business customers but discovered it would be easier for the bank and the customer if online banking was available to everyone. Focusing mainly on their customers, they introduced it to their everyday customers which was a good idea because a lot of people were extremely happy with the new service provided. So barclays decided to carry it on and is has been very successful. They sent questionnaires to their customers by email and the majority of the results say that the factor that was most liked about internet banking is that it was so quick and easy to do and that it was really convenient.
Advantages
Some of the Advantages of internet banking barclays state is as follows:
24 hour services means that at any time of the day that a customer may need access to their account and they cant wait until the next day then they can transfer money to any place they want.
Online banking allows the bank to be greener because they will not use as much paper, instead their clients can check their statements in their online account.
There is a factor of geographical convenience because you can check your account statements anytime anywhere in the world as long as you have access to internet. You dont need to go to or be anywhere near a branch to check it.
Lloyds TSB
Like Barclays you need a valid and current account to be able to access it via the internet. Lloyds were one of the last banks to introduce internet banking, however they introduced it to both their business customers and also general customers at the same time. Lloyds saw it be popular amongst other banks and thought it to be a good idea to offer the same king of service to their customers.
Advantages
The advatages that Lloyds claim that online banking applies to are:
Funds are transferable and you dont even need to go into a Lloyds branch. You can do it from the comfort of your own home and you can use your own home computer or laptop. Also you can schedule automatic monthley payments from your online account.
You can make loan applications from your online account as well. With this the account will work out wether you are elligable to be given a loan or mortgage. You can buy and sell stocks and shares or even open or close with minimal effort on the customers behalf.
Weather In My Area
Today I will be looking at the weather for this weeks worth of week days. I will also be looking at the BBC website's weather forecast and also I will be contrasting the actual weather for each day with the forecast. Tuesdays Forecast was:
The forecast for Wednesday was more accurate then it was for Tuesday. It was raining lightly around 10:00 however the sun didnt come out at 12:00 like it was forecasted. It was raining with cloud but there was no sign of the sun at all. Also at the time of 16:00 there was not even a spit of rain in sight. The evening of the forecast was the opposite way round, the white clouds came out at 16:00 and then at 18:00 all heavens opened at it was litterally terrential rain. Then it slowed down and eventually stopped at 19:30.
Thursdays Forecast was:
The forecast for thursday was almost spot on with the weather that actually happened. The only difference that occured was the fact that during 21:00 and 22:00 there was a small period of rain that was only light.
Fridays Forecast was:
The forecast for friday was not very accurate. It was not raining all morning there were clouds. Then at about 12:00 there was a short light spell of rain and then from 13:00 onwards there was clouds with sun, until 19:00 when there was another shower of rain (this one being more heavy). It lasted for an hour and a half then it was a fairly clear sky.
Overall the weather forecast for the week was pritty accurate bearing in mind the country's weather is usually unpredictable and it does what no-one can predict perfectly. This is a view that comes from a person that has lived in another country. In other countries their weather is inevitable depending on what time of year it is. I am not convinced however that if I was to pay for weather forecast that they would be anymore accurate, considering that money has no direct link to what the weather does.
The forecast compared to the actual weather is quite accurate, it was sunny with imminant clouds from the start of the day until about 15:00. However, then there was a sudden terrencial downpoor of rain that lasted for 15-20 minutes. Lastly it cleared up but there was still a few light clouds. During the evening it was clear for the majority of time.
Wednesdays Forecast was:
Thursdays Forecast was:
The forecast for thursday was almost spot on with the weather that actually happened. The only difference that occured was the fact that during 21:00 and 22:00 there was a small period of rain that was only light.
Fridays Forecast was:
Overall the weather forecast for the week was pritty accurate bearing in mind the country's weather is usually unpredictable and it does what no-one can predict perfectly. This is a view that comes from a person that has lived in another country. In other countries their weather is inevitable depending on what time of year it is. I am not convinced however that if I was to pay for weather forecast that they would be anymore accurate, considering that money has no direct link to what the weather does.
Monday, 24 September 2012
Planning A Route
I am going to plan a route from my house to Tottenham Court Road in London. The first route planned is by car and the second route planned is by train.
Car
If I was to go by car then I would have to taker into account the costs such as autogas and congestion charges. Also I will be taking down a record of how long it will take and the source of where I planned the route. If I fill my gas tank up it will cost £35.25 and the congestion charge will be £10. So for the whole journey will cost just under £50. But the full tank of autogas will also get me from my house to tottenham road in london and back without stopping for gas. This is because my car can do 440miles on a full tank of gas and the journey there is almost 58miles. This journey should take me 1 hour and 29 minutes assuming the roads are clear and you abide by the speed limits. The route follows:
1 - I will follow the A4280 east until it meets the A6 when I will travel south along the A6.
2 - Then when I come to a junction that meets the A421 I will take that travelling southbound.
3 - I will then turn onto the M1 travelling southbound, until I get to the end of the M1 and I will take the exit heading onto the A406.
4 - Then take the A41 southbound and then at the end of that, turn onto the A501 then get off at the exit at the A400. Where I will need to pay congestion charges.
5 - Travelling south on the A400, I will eventually get to the end where I will turn right onto the first A40 turning.
6 - This will then lead me to a third turning on the right which will be the turning onto Tottenham Court Road. This journey should take me 1 hour and 29 minutes assuming the roads are clear and you abide by the speed limits.
http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/index.jsp#fromNode=18260040031663%7CMK40%203EB,%20Bedford%7CSTREET%7C506319%7C250256%7CtoNode=18260063383877%7CTottenham%20Court%20Road%20Underground%20Station,%20London%7CSTREET%7C529825%7C181374
Train
Contrasting this journey is if I take a train to Tottenham Court Road in London. The whole train journey will cost £26 for a train ticket there and a rail card of unlimited use on off-peak times. This journey will take in total 1 hour and 40 minutes assuming that there are no delays, this includes all the train stops and journeys.
1 - I will need to go to the Bedford St Johns station, it would take 6 mintues to get to another station in bedford.
2 - Then I will need to get off and get onto another train that goes to Farringdon this will take the longest part of my journey at 1 hour 5 minutes.
3 - I will then need to get off and get onto another train at the underground station in Farringdon. This next journey will take me to Tottenham Court Road underground station with the last journey lasting 20 minutes.
http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/BSJ/Tottenham_Court_Road/tomorrow/1030/dep
The sources I have used have given me accurate routes and directions for getting from Bedford to Tottenham Court Road. But the real time information was not very accurate and it didnt give me much real time information. Most of the time it was based on the assumption that there would be cirtain circumstances (eg. assuming there is no traffic/assuming there is no delays)
Car
If I was to go by car then I would have to taker into account the costs such as autogas and congestion charges. Also I will be taking down a record of how long it will take and the source of where I planned the route. If I fill my gas tank up it will cost £35.25 and the congestion charge will be £10. So for the whole journey will cost just under £50. But the full tank of autogas will also get me from my house to tottenham road in london and back without stopping for gas. This is because my car can do 440miles on a full tank of gas and the journey there is almost 58miles. This journey should take me 1 hour and 29 minutes assuming the roads are clear and you abide by the speed limits. The route follows:
1 - I will follow the A4280 east until it meets the A6 when I will travel south along the A6.
2 - Then when I come to a junction that meets the A421 I will take that travelling southbound.
3 - I will then turn onto the M1 travelling southbound, until I get to the end of the M1 and I will take the exit heading onto the A406.
4 - Then take the A41 southbound and then at the end of that, turn onto the A501 then get off at the exit at the A400. Where I will need to pay congestion charges.
5 - Travelling south on the A400, I will eventually get to the end where I will turn right onto the first A40 turning.
6 - This will then lead me to a third turning on the right which will be the turning onto Tottenham Court Road. This journey should take me 1 hour and 29 minutes assuming the roads are clear and you abide by the speed limits.
http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/index.jsp#fromNode=18260040031663%7CMK40%203EB,%20Bedford%7CSTREET%7C506319%7C250256%7CtoNode=18260063383877%7CTottenham%20Court%20Road%20Underground%20Station,%20London%7CSTREET%7C529825%7C181374
Train
Contrasting this journey is if I take a train to Tottenham Court Road in London. The whole train journey will cost £26 for a train ticket there and a rail card of unlimited use on off-peak times. This journey will take in total 1 hour and 40 minutes assuming that there are no delays, this includes all the train stops and journeys.
1 - I will need to go to the Bedford St Johns station, it would take 6 mintues to get to another station in bedford.
2 - Then I will need to get off and get onto another train that goes to Farringdon this will take the longest part of my journey at 1 hour 5 minutes.
3 - I will then need to get off and get onto another train at the underground station in Farringdon. This next journey will take me to Tottenham Court Road underground station with the last journey lasting 20 minutes.
http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/BSJ/Tottenham_Court_Road/tomorrow/1030/dep
The sources I have used have given me accurate routes and directions for getting from Bedford to Tottenham Court Road. But the real time information was not very accurate and it didnt give me much real time information. Most of the time it was based on the assumption that there would be cirtain circumstances (eg. assuming there is no traffic/assuming there is no delays)
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Electronic Mail and Risks
Electronic Mail (Email)
This was very early online technology. To use email you need to have a connection to an email server also you will require an email client. An email client is a program that is on your computer that is connected to the internet, such a program called Outlook Express. However these clients can also be run through the internet aswell, sites such as hotmail or yahoo. Email is also readily available on all smartphones nowadays, it can even be used through smart TV's have internet capabilities. Email systems allow you to see who has sent you mail and also what the content of the email is. It can also allow you to compose mail and send it tro anyone that you want if you have their email address. Another useful perk is that you can attatch documents and media files for the person your sending it to see.
The message is started in an editing view. messages are ususally sent using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol-port 25(SMTP). Ususally they are recieved using post office protocol-port 110 (POP3) or an Internet Mail Access Protocol-port 143 (IMAP) server. With advantages it comes with disadvantages like email is often misused and even at a simple level people send inapproriate messages. Viruses, trojans and worms can easily be attatched.
Risks
Spoofing and Spamming - It is fairly easy for an ordinary person to create a program that is given a fake address in the 'form' of an email. This makes the reciever to believe it is trusted and a decent source. Spoofing is sending mail that is someone of the incorrect identity and Spamming is using email to conduct a junk mail campaigne.
Virus - This is different to spamming and spoofing, this is actually a harmful piece of code that can damage a computer because it attaches itself to programs and files. e.g. When a file is opened it can be spread further because it can replicate itself in that file like a biological virus.
Worm - Unlike a virus this piece of coding can actually spread itself with out the assistance of the computers user. A result of this being their creaters can possibly control your computer remotely.
Trojan - This is like a virus in the way that it has a code but it is named after a Tojan Horse. The reason for this is because it is ususally disguised as an innocent document or an attractive attachment but really it contains a nasty surprise when you open it. When it has finished installing it can cause serious damage to a users computer but also it will almost definately take control of the users machine.
The message is started in an editing view. messages are ususally sent using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol-port 25(SMTP). Ususally they are recieved using post office protocol-port 110 (POP3) or an Internet Mail Access Protocol-port 143 (IMAP) server. With advantages it comes with disadvantages like email is often misused and even at a simple level people send inapproriate messages. Viruses, trojans and worms can easily be attatched.
Risks
Spoofing and Spamming - It is fairly easy for an ordinary person to create a program that is given a fake address in the 'form' of an email. This makes the reciever to believe it is trusted and a decent source. Spoofing is sending mail that is someone of the incorrect identity and Spamming is using email to conduct a junk mail campaigne.
Virus - This is different to spamming and spoofing, this is actually a harmful piece of code that can damage a computer because it attaches itself to programs and files. e.g. When a file is opened it can be spread further because it can replicate itself in that file like a biological virus.
Worm - Unlike a virus this piece of coding can actually spread itself with out the assistance of the computers user. A result of this being their creaters can possibly control your computer remotely.
Trojan - This is like a virus in the way that it has a code but it is named after a Tojan Horse. The reason for this is because it is ususally disguised as an innocent document or an attractive attachment but really it contains a nasty surprise when you open it. When it has finished installing it can cause serious damage to a users computer but also it will almost definately take control of the users machine.
Monday, 17 September 2012
AS ICT Course and Statistics
ICT AS
We started the AS ICT course and also created a blog. The reason we created a blog is so that we can record everything we do in ICT to enable us to refer back to what happened in the past. http://www.blogger.com
We used different search enigines to search subjects and found that google gave the most results, and other search engines had some of the same content meaning that the search engines could be related in some way. (eg. MSN uses Bing)
Statistics
For home study i need to look at Office of National Statistics' website and look at internet useage by different age groups. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html - internet usage.
In 2010, 77% of the uk's adult population had used the internet in the 3 months prior to the survey. 18% had never used a computer before and 60% of adults included in the same survey had used it every day or almost everyday down from 21% in the previous year of 2009. Internet use is closely related to age: 60% of adults aged 65 and over said that they have never used a computer opposed to the age group of 16-25 which 100% of the people claim they had used a computer.
London was the highest place for usage of the internet with 87% of adults using it. 97% of adults who were educated up to degree level or higher had used more of the internet than the much lower 45% of adults who didnt really hold any formal qualifications.
Internet Mobile Usage
For the adults that used mobile devices to use the internet (eg. laptops, phones or palmtops), this statistic shows that from 2009 to 2010 there was a 5% increase from 40% to 45%. At the time the mobile phone was the most popular device with 31% of adults connecting this way. The use of mobile internet is being led by the age group 16-24, this accounts for 44% of users of internet.
We started the AS ICT course and also created a blog. The reason we created a blog is so that we can record everything we do in ICT to enable us to refer back to what happened in the past. http://www.blogger.com
We used different search enigines to search subjects and found that google gave the most results, and other search engines had some of the same content meaning that the search engines could be related in some way. (eg. MSN uses Bing)
Statistics
For home study i need to look at Office of National Statistics' website and look at internet useage by different age groups. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html - internet usage.
London was the highest place for usage of the internet with 87% of adults using it. 97% of adults who were educated up to degree level or higher had used more of the internet than the much lower 45% of adults who didnt really hold any formal qualifications.
Internet Mobile Usage
For the adults that used mobile devices to use the internet (eg. laptops, phones or palmtops), this statistic shows that from 2009 to 2010 there was a 5% increase from 40% to 45%. At the time the mobile phone was the most popular device with 31% of adults connecting this way. The use of mobile internet is being led by the age group 16-24, this accounts for 44% of users of internet.
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