Semester Review

Hmmm lets see... I believe the question is what I haven't learnt this semester. MPI 104 has been a bit of a blur actually. Looking back at all of the things we've covered in class this semester is insane; there's a lot to absorb there. I have to say that some things came more easily than other things; doing Athene for one thing and then uploading the webpage, that was a particular "AHHHHHHHH!!!!" thing for me; for some reason I couldn't get my head around it until much later in the game, with some much appreciated guidance. I particularly enjoyed doing Blogger, Flickr and Del.icio.us, they were by far my favourites. I use Flickr all the time; it came in handy when doing forum posts for VFX 101. Del.icio.us was a surprise because I didn't think that I'd use it very much, but I've ended up using it quite frequently since I first created my account. HTML was generally a freaksome subject to learn at first, but I took some time outside of class to research it and really firmly get my head around it, which was awesome because it meant that I could put some amazing backgrounds on my blog page YAY!!! It's difficult to sum everything up, because the "everything" is "a lot" to sum up. However, one of the more recent topics that we covered was RSS or "Really Simple Syndication" (I think the simple part is a bit of a stretch but hey) I was pleasantly surprised to learn this topic because it means now that I never miss out on what's happening in Anime News, it's a great way to keep on top of things I have to say. I think it's fair that I've learnt a lot in this subject and been exposed to a wide variety of crafty computer savvy things, which I'm glad that I know about now!!! I think, however, that there is definitely room for improvement; I've got to learn to not get so freaked out about potentially meticulous technical computer jargon because it comes with time.

My Counter

Yay!!! I have a counter, it's a little pitiful at the moment I have to say, but it's there. I just need some more people to come and say hi!!

FTP

FTP or File Transfer Protocol, is used to transfer files from one computer to another over a TCP/IP based network and allows the files to be manipulated on another computer regardless of the operating system. The objectives of FTP as stated by Wikipedia are as follows:

- To promote the sharing of files

- To encourage indirect or implicit use of remote computers

- To shield a user from variations in file storage systems among different hosts.

- To transfer data reliably and efficiently

While FTP does have its appraisals, it has also incurred a fair share of criticisms. Below are a few of them again as stated by wikipedia:

- Passwords and file contents can be intercepted by eavesdroppers

- while data is being transfered, the control stream sits idle, which poses a problem for larger file downloads because the session times out after lengthy periods of inactiveness.

- while FTP does support the resuming of downloads it is potentially very difficult. One can do this through the REST command.

RSS - Really Simple Syndication

RSS Feeds are a great way to keep updated with things such as news headlines, blogs and podcasts etc. It's a fantastic way to ensure that you're always in the loop. RSS feeds can summarize what's on that specific webpage so you can always check what's going on. A lot of sites will have RSS feeds. I found my Anime News Network Feed from rssfeeds.com:

RSS Feeds

Technorati

Technorati from what I can gather is potentially a very interesting and useful application. It is essentially described as a search engine for Blogs. It allows you to monitor what sort of authority you have compared to other blog users, keep track of your favourite blogs etc. It is the leading authority on what's happening on the World Live Web as stated by "Technorati", the Live Web is the portion, which is constantly changing an updating itself. 

My Blog Background

Hey guys, anyone who views my blog, can you tell me of you can actually see what the background is? It's an image of Sailor Moon. I've been having some issues with the background just showing up as plain pink. So just leave a comment and tell me if you can see my background or if it just shows up plain pink for you.

Thanx Guys!!! xx

MPI-104 Review

To be frank, I was wondering if I was ever going to understand this subject at all. Recently I've been researching quite a few things, in particular the HTML stuff. I've developed a kind of morbid fascination with it; it consumed me for a while. I finally got the general gist of it and was able to do some pretty cool aesthetic re-vamping to my blog, which I'm fairly proud of because even though I like computers, they don't necessarily have a tendency to like me. So to learn the technical side of things, I think has been really beneficial in the long run, even if it felt something more akin to running head first into a brick wall at times. I initially fiddled with the colours and fonts, which procured some pleasing, if not generic results, which was cool for a time but I wanted to do more. So I began researching HTML backgrounds and eventually after much deliberation managed to place what is on my blog now. I also started messing around with the fonts and changed my blog title to "French Script", which is one of my favourite fonts, and added random artsy images because that's just how I am. There are a total of 5 posts on my blog, so ok here is a link to my favourite post:

Best Post

I've commented on a few class members blogs as well, here is my most recent one:

My Comment

Del.icio.us was a new one for me, one that I actually wasn't that interested in but actually turned out to be pretty useful. I've now bookmarked 25 pages; a lot of them are to do with anime, manga and fantasy art but that's because I'm a nut and I use them for whenever my head gets a bit foggy and I need inspiration. So here are a few of my bookmarked webpages:

Elfwood

Fine Fantasy Gallery

Tokyo Pop

And then there was Flickr, which was my all time favourite, and that wasn't just because of the new anime

and manga image resource. I also found that it was an awesome place to post the scans of my work for VFX.

I have 191 uploaded images and here are some of my chosen images:

Moon Goddess

Victoria Frances

Chobits