Got Word press running

Well finally got Word Press running now so hopefully should start to modify it to look a little more like my website, albeit after I have revamped the site. Also been having a thought about what to do for my website as I think sometimes its easier to think of theme for a website that actually does something instead of just another website, so my website is going to be a bit about me but also a bit like a tutorial website in how I did things and what I found out about certain packages.

First Group Presentation

Well today was the first group presentation for this module, I didn't really know what was expected of us from the start but after seeing the first group presentation I now have a better understanding and have a few ideas that I think might work then again might not work as well so time to become Mr Motivator and get my ass into gear.

Oh for those of you who cant remember Mr Motivator here he is: Love the moves

Presentation

Just got an email through stating that we have got a presentation to do over the following weeks (mines in 3 weeks time 15-12-2009). The presentation is to be based on the PechaKucha Night,
presentations. We have to contextualise our blogs for the presentation and show it in 20 images that last for 20 seconds (if I'm understanding it correctly) so should be good fun maybe do some on psycho cat.

My PDP

So you might be looking at this post and thinking what the hell is a PDP well its my Personal Development Plan. I havnt really gone to far ahead as I feal that if you plan to far ahead it can cloud what you need to do to get there. Well here is my PDP.

Freedom of Information: Manifesto

This is a manifesto for the freedom of information. I chose to do this manifesto in that I think it’s kind of funny how there is a freedom of information act and basically it tells you how you are not allowed information from given sources but I feel that maybe if information was widely distributed and free then there would possibly be a breakthrough in how computer programs are created and even system and maybe we as a human race might evolve and better ourselves.

1. Information Will be Free
All Information will be considered free, No person or Persons will be held responsible for their actions in gaining unlawfully restricted information.

2. Intellectual Property
Information that is created on or after November 30th 2009 will fall under the New Freedom of Information Act 2009 and therefore there will be no cost to be expected from the person or persons within the general public domain that wish to obtain the desired information.

3. Governing bodies
Governing bodies will place down guide lines for individuals or companies to conform to the New Freedom of Information act 2009. Whereas there will be no governing bodies regulating information that is considered to be out of the public view and therefore in breach of the New Freedom Of information Act 2009.

4. No Boundaries
There will be no boundaries that a person or persons will encounter whilst trying to source the information they desire, if any boundaries are encountered then the individual or companies that hold the desired information will be held accountable in a court of law.

5. The Cost
Any individual or companies that do not adhere to these rules will be in breach of the New Freedom of Information Act 2009, in doing so they will also be held accountable in a court of law and will pay a minimum of £100,000 to the person or persons involved.


Well I hope you enjoyed my little manifesto and if you thought it was a bit to deep then maybe you might want to look at my Psycho Cat manifesto under my general tag.

Manifesto Continued:

Hello again - I know been a long time since I've been on here but I have been so busy lately with so many things to do and not enough time in the day. Well I have been giving this some more thought and I have decided to go ahead with my manifesto on Freedom of Information as like the lecturer said its something that would happen in an idyllic world, So off to work I go with a very strong coffee.

Manifesto

We have been asked to write a manifesto of something that we believe in, I didn't realise just how hard it can be to find something you are passionate about me its been computers but then I have to ask myself what within computers. I started to think about freedom of information and in a idyllic word all information would be free but then you look at the flip side and if all information is free then what about the value of intellectual property and if information is free then where is the incentive for people to create the information? well I suppose it is one I am going to have to think a bit more on.

Rhetoric

Didn't really know what Rhetoric meant, I have heard it so many times before but like most things in life you just disregard it. So I did some research into what was Rhetoric and have included some info about what Rhetoric is, and hopefully to shed some light.

Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing. And the art of persuasion. And many other things.

In its long and vigorous history rhetoric has enjoyed many definitions, accommodated differing purposes, and varied widely in what it included. And yet, for most of its history it has maintained its fundamental character as a discipline for training students to perceive how language is at work orally and in writing, and to become proficient in applying the resources of language in their own speaking and writing.

Discerning how language is working in others' or one's own writing and speaking, one must (artificially) divide form and content, what is being said and how this is said. Because rhetoric examines so attentively the how of language, the methods and means of communication, it has sometimes been discounted as something only concerned with style or appearances, and not with the quality or content of communication. For many (such as Plato) rhetoric deals with the superficial at best, the deceptive at worst ("mere rhetoric"), when one might better attend to matters of substance, truth, or reason as attempted in dialectic or philosophy or religion.

Rhetoric has sometimes lived down to its critics, but as set forth from antiquity, rhetoric was a comprehensive art just as much concerned with what one could say as how one might say it. Indeed, a basic premise for rhetoric is the indivisibility of means from meaning; how one says something conveys meaning as much as what one says. Rhetoric studies the effectiveness of language comprehensively, including its emotional impact, as much as its propositional content. To see how language and thought worked together, however, it has first been necessary to artificially divide content and form.

Least now I have a better understanding what it means.

Biographical statements with links

My full name is Thomas Kenneth Smith, I was born on the 7th of July 1979 which makes me old 30 to be precised. I was born in Huddersfield and lived there until I was about 28, I went to Royds Hall School and finished there in 1995 which then I went straight into work starting as an apprentice mechanic which I did for a couple of years, I then went on to do work on to do bigger and better things well OK went to work on bigger machines as a service engineer I did this for a number of years working in different companies until the point I decided it wasn't really for me and went back to night college to do a HNC/HND in computer Software Engineering and then well as you can probably tell I am upto the point where I am today in Plymouth Uni I know not a lot can be said in one paragraph.

A Networked World

In today's lesson we were talking about networks and how they work, so I thought I would give you a quick insight on what networks are about and how they are used in today's society.

What are networks:

There are many different types of networks that we as humans use on a daily basis, these can run from a simple family structure network through to a full society network which includes a certain infrastructure such as governments.

Networks within computers:

This is mainly what we think of when we mention networks, networks within computers are as the name suggests just a connection of computers communicating with each other to create networks, but networks are a bit more complex than that and there are different variants of networks.

There is the Centralised Network in which there is a central computer that distributes information to the requesting computers the problem with this kind of network is there is a single point of failure in that if the central computer goes down so does the entire network.

Then there is the Decentralised Network this works in a similar way to the Central network system but instead of having just one central computer distributing information there is a number of these systems combined together so that if one system goes down there will still be other systems able to communicate with each other.

The other and most widely used network system is the Distributed system this is where every computer within the system is connected with at least two other computers this eliminates any single point of failure as information will still be able to get to the desired system albeit maybe not in the most direct route.

So now that I have given a very very brief description of what networks are, how do they work within the media industry.

Well in the television media we can say that they are working on a Central Network basis in that they distribute information out from one location this can also be known as a one-to-many relationship. There are many other examples of different networks we as humans use on a daily basis, but for now I'm sure you have read enough and want to have a nice long drink... I know I do so go on get your self a drink.


Oh one last thing here is an image of the talked about networks, maybe you might find it interesting:

Blogs

So here is a good one for you, your on my Blog just looking through, obviously you know what a blog is and what you are doing but guess what... I'm going to explain to you what a Blog is. Told you its a good one.

So what is a Blog, well a blog is like an online diary in that you can jot down things that may have happened to you through out the day/week an in doing so communicating your feelings and thoughts to the rest of the world.

Maping Media

Me and Kathleen worked together to come up with a mind map of what we understand about Media and what types there are etc. As you can see with have picked out the main areas of media such as TV, Music, Paper Form and Media that is primarily on the Internet. We have broken these down into sub categories and have illustrated this within our mind map.

Media Mind Map:

The Social Media

Hello I again have not really got a clue what I am supposed to do here due to not actually starting the course until after this lecture had taken place so let me get started with what I think social is in a media sense.

How I see it social in the media sense is a collection of different types of media formats such as video (YouTube) where people can share their thoughts with other people around the world and in a sense have a social connection with someone maybe sitting 3000 miles away.

There are many different platforms that we can use to be sociable with other people such as Facebook and as previously mentioned YouTube, these are just different platforms in promoting social media.

I myself am not a great fan of social media, I feel that we are loosing our own identities within the realms of Facebook and Myspace, as we can become who we desire to be and also what is sociable about been sat in front of a computer by yourself?

Here is a Mind Map of Social Media:

Mind Map of Myself

We were asked to do a mind map of our selves, after deciding what makes me tick I drew out a quick sketch but decided to do my map in some software easier to look at. Well the image is attached below and hopefully you can see what makes me tick in life well OK only some of as I like to keep some things a secret.

Subjectivity and Writing

Subjectivity and Writing was apparently one of the lectures I didn't have due to not actually starting the course. So not actually knowing where to start I thought I would do some research into these two meanings... So out with the coffee AGAIN.

So subjectivity as I understand (or maybe not) is a way to express your self with words in that people can get an understanding of who you are and how you operate and do things in your life some people refer to this as "voice" in writing i.e. you write with emotion to get your point or opinions across.

So I hope I got the right Idea of what Subjectivity means if not please leave me a comment.

An illustration of somebodies view on Subjectivity: