Hiatus… I will miss you Brandon R.I.P (10/11/80 – 02/28/08)

As everyone can see that I had been in Hiatus since January. Its not that I have abandon my blogging or anything, but at that time I was busy with a couple of wedding invitations that I had to go to and a couple of Veterans Affair appointment that I had to go do for my disabilities.

Also, I had lost some one dear to me, My brother Brandon. Brandon died in Iraq on February 28th and I was just to stressed about the whole thing that I had to drop a class for my own good. Though I still am in mourning, I thought that it is best for me to continue on my regular activities, which Brandon probably would have me do.

So, I hope that everyone understand where my state of mind is.

I hate Time Warner Cable!

I have Time Warner Cable in my apartment since April 07, and I fucking Hate it! If only I can get other internet service, but it is impossible since I don’t have land lines phone.

Anyway, let this be a lesson for you guys out there that are thinking about getting Time Warner Cable for internet service and cable Tv, don’t get it from them.

What had happened was that I have been having service interruption from their network since the day I got the damn service. The bad part is that I called them several times and the problem never got resolved. First they told me maybe it was the router than they came here and change it, but that didn’t solve the problem since I always get dropped from the network. Then they say it was because they were updating their network connection, yet I don’t see any of them mofo around here doing anything to any cable outlets or underground system, WTF!!! Then this time around, they told me maybe it is my computer, so I got pissed off and tell them that it can’t be my fucking computer or my PS3 or the Xbox 360 or the Wii, because I built my own computer with way better peripherals that manufactured computers, also the fucking problem is that all off my electronics can connect to my neighbor’s wireless internet but it can not connect to my damn wireless connection, because everytime I’m on it a couple of minutes or hours later that I got dropped from the damn connection that I paid over $100 a month to get.

So, I fucking called them and told them that I need a technician to come over here and fucking take care of it and fix it or fucking take the router back and fuckin return my fuckin money!

Lets just see what happens next wednesday when they come over here and tell me another stupid lame ass excuse why the internet kept dropping me from my damn wireless connection.

Fucking assholes!

Information Architecture.

I know that I have not been up to speed lately with my blogging, it seems that as if time flies through very quickly.

This upcoming tuesday is my third week in Information Architecture class with Ms. Esther Kibby as the instructor. Let me cut to the chase, this class is pretty dry and what I mean by that is that the instructor gives you what you need to know and you are put into groups of at least three the most five people and we were given instruction that we are making a blue print for a website for a company that we are to make. Most people think that this class is boring and that is stupid, but to me, I think its what you make out of it. If you are not interested in learning than most of the time you will think that every class is boring for the most part.

In this class you will need a book by Jesse James Garrett titled ,”The Elements of User Experience.” This book is pretty dry too, but it gets the message done by the amount of information that is given to understand it, even if you have a low user level experience (not much computer knowledge but to use the internet for watching youtube or reading your email and myspace).

Anyway, my group originally consist of four people, but this one girl think that the class is way too boring that she changed her stupid major to something else that doesn’t include or require this class to be taken. So, here I am having three people in my group including me and we had to pick up the slack since I know that it is already in the third week of school and there will be no more students added to the class. Pretty much we are screwed, but like I said its what you make of it. So far my group had been pretty consistent going to the group meeting assisting me in our need to make the steps to make this company happen.

I will be posting some pictures later on as the class progresses and that we are requires to present what we have in our group.

Jansen.

Happy New Year, CES ’08 and many more to come!

This is a later posting,

Happy New Year Everyone,

This year it will be better than it would last year. The year 2007 was a really bad year for me, death in the family, my best friend died in an accident, I got discharge from the military and everything else in between. Fortunately as an Asian, I don’t believe the number 7 is a lucky number. To most Asians, the number 8 is a lucky number when said and written resembles that of the word “Prosper” or “Wealth.” In the muslim culture, the number 8 is the number of angels that carries the throne of God, in arabic is “Allah” the God who created Adam and Eve. In the Hindu religion, it is the number of wealth and abundance.

This year also the start of my third quarter at The Art Institute of Dallas. Followed by the 2008 Consumer Electronic Show (CES ’08) from the 7th to 10th of January, which I followed vigorously by watching G4TV Attack of The Show, hosted by Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn (she’s hot for a NERD!).

The main thing that I notice was the introduction of Apple computer’s new Mac Pro, with an outrageous component specs, that would make any gaming pro drools with envy and for art students in AID kill themselves with spending too much money. However, if money is no issue to you, I suggest you nerds, geeks, and the likes to get one.

One of the most anticipated gadget that I have been waiting for is the new Sony OLED (Video – Organic Liquid Emitting Diode) TV. It is so thin that it is only 3mm thick, contrast ration 1,000,000: 1, they don’t need backlighting and it is surely an amazing piece of gadget. Though this is the first time that it had been shown, the price sure is pretty damn expensive, however; with the developing technology around us, I’m quite sure within a couple of years if not months that this all will be affordable for us students at AID.

Check this one out Bug (Video).

 Jansen.

Podcasting/Vodcasting.

To me the word podcasting is nothing new. I usually go to http://www.npr.org/ at times to listen to their programs and usually download stuff on “Cartalk” or “All Things considered” sometimes even other news and music programs that they offered.

One thing about podcasting, though it is not new to me, the process and tools that are involved can be quite expensive and also that when trying on podcasting, I have to think of what issues or thing that I want to use as materials. Vodcasting, that’s another story. I’ve heard about it but never use it. I read that article and it seems that the equipments are quite expensive if you want to have vodcasting to be something to do, let alone the time that you have to spare to do so.

One interesting thing that I read in the article is that vodcasting is very helpful for students and teacher in the classroom. I think that this is a good idea, since sometimes students can’t make it to class because of an illness, they can download vodcasts that had been uploaded to the school’s site and not missed what the professor or the teacher discussed with other students that day. I’ve heard something about Harvard and Yale are starting to do this, aside to them having online classes last year, but I can’t remember as to when they started this.

With the development of technology and mobile computing, I think that more and more people would be able to do podcasting and vodcasting, specially with the prices of technology are getting cheaper and cheaper by the year. I think that as an Art School, the Art Institute should do this, have their classes be vodcasted or podcasted to the school website, that way it will help students and help prospective students in the long run.
Jansen.

HTML & CSS…

At first I thought that HTML was going to be a nightmare for me, since I really don’t know anything about scripting whatsoever, let alone using CSS to do anything. However, I went to the W3 Tutorial Website and started to take the tutorials for html, I found it very easy to work with.

I started to write my tutorials and every once in a while I open it and try to see if it will work. I think that it work pretty well for me as a beginner. The information given on the tutorials are pretty simple and self explanatory, however; I still find my self a little edgy about using it. Like I said, that this is my first time trying on scripting.

Then I went to another tutorial for CSS at the HTML dog website. I try to see how CSS implement HTML so that it work as a whole, html is the content while css is how to present it on the webpage, as it was said in the the tutorial page.

I tried to take on myself with the tutorial and I find it a little harder than trying to write html itself. So far I’m only able to understand on a couple of things that I can do with it. I guess with a little more practice I can learn a little more, as every one would say it, baby steps one at a time.

Jansen

My PLE.

Man!! It has been one hell of a semester and the last couple of weeks had been hell for me. I can’t even get enough sleep with all the stuff that is going on.

Anyway… at first I was introduce to Google reader and I thought that it was an interesting tool to used for aggregating some blogs and other important things that I can use for school. However, I later found out that I’m not only subscribing to that one particular blog, but I was subscribing to the author’s ENTIRE BLOG, which I thought is a nuisance. I mean I can see that the author is blogging about PLE or Communities of Learning, however; I also realised that some of the blog that I was subscribing was also a personal blogs about many other stuff that is not related to what I was looking for. In a short, it was to general and redundant and I was not able to read all of them to update what I need and what I don’t need. Phew…

So, then I go and work on Netvibes and I realized that it was a handy tool and I can work with it. However, I later realized that the only way for me to use netvibes is for me to sign in to the service, which to me is a hassle! I don’t like having to sign in to what I am subscribing to read blogs about something. It is still a cool tool to use and have a very good user interface that people can tinker with, I find that most people in the class likes to use it.

So, here I am and from all those tools that I have mentioned, I found another tool that I found interesting that is Yahoo Pipes. I started reading what it is and what it is all about and I learn a few things here and there. I found out that it is an aggregator service, combined with mash up service, search engine and many many more. As for right now all I can say is that this is an interesting piece of tool to play with.

Syndicated RSS Crime!

No, No, I’m not talking literally about syndicated crime. Just the meaning and use of RSS in today’s webpage and how it has develop in today’s technology.

RSS is a data format used to to provide users with frequently updated content. This data is widely used in providing upadated blog entries, news feed, podcasts and many more, it exist as a document called feed, webfeed, or channel that contains what the blog, news or podcast is about, literally it is a summary of the document. It is designed to help people keeping up with their favorite websites easier.

The history of RSS  started as an attempt to syndicate formats, which didn’t do pretty well with Netscape as a portal, later it was picked up by UserLand  Software where it was used as a publishing tools that could read and write RSS.

Other companies also release newer version of RSS software and that they came out with different icon to represent the RSS icon which was debatable who has the right to do so. In 2005 Microsoft finally adopted the the feed icon that was used in Mozilla Firefox and since then the RSS icon has been the orange box with white radio waves enclosed in it.

Communities of Practice.

This is one lengthy article!

First, I understand that on this assignment that we only need to pick one either Communities of Practice Brief Introduction, Learning as a Social System or Communities of Practice by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger. However, when I read the first article, I have to admit that I am so confused about the article. Then I thought, I’ll try to read the other ones, maybe I’ll understand it better. Unfortunately, after I read the second article I became somewhat aware what the article is, but I still sat on a bunch of blank thoughts, so I decided to read the third article and by gosh! I got it. At least to what I think that I got it. I will also put it some questions throughout this posting and I would appreciate the comments and answers.

Ok, going back to the article.

As stated by Jean and Etienne, that Communities of Practice “are everywhere and that many of us generally are involved in it,… and furthermore we often assume learning has a beginning and an end.” When I read the article presented, I realized that it is true that many of us assume that learning has an end. Don’t believe me? Okay, how many of you right now thinking of graduation? You, know you are! Because with graduation, you think that you will not have to worry about studying, tests, midterms, or even final exams. I remember the very first day in this class Mr. Batchelder says this, “You all have been thought about learning something or a subject in school that you all think when you’ve learned it, that is it. However, in this class you have to have an open mind because in this area of learning you have to know where this thing will grow and evolve and take it to the next step, whether you will move forward in this business or stay behind and you need to make a decision if this is the area you want to be in or you need to go with something else.” So spoken minus stuff here and there. Sorry I quoted you Mr. Batchelder.!

Lave and Wenger pointed out that we learn by interacting with each other and those around the world and that our relationship with one another is what brings us together, the community that we learn from are a community of learners where we practice what we learn and teach it to others.

According to Wenger, a “community of practice defines itself along three dimensions:

1. What is it about – a joint enterprise as understood and continually renegotiated by its members.

2. How it functions – mutual engagement that binds members together into a social entity.

3. What capability it has produced – the shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artifacts, vocabulary, styles etc.) that members has develop over time.”

What I learn from this article also, is that a person’s intention on learning is influenced by his or her social and cultural background. Which to me reminds me of how I learn everything. Being a person with multicultural backgrounds and that I have been fortunate being able to visit many places around the world and learn about other culture, I realized that the way I think, act, and my motivation on learning something new had been influenced by my background and the way I was brought up by my community and the people that surrounds me.

People who are involved in community of practice engaged in different activities ranging from discussions, helping each other with solving problems, sharing information, and learning from one another. In this computer era, the interaction between the members of the community that share the same interest to learn from one another is considered as the community of practice itself.

This all comes down to one one question that I kept pondering, it might misconstrued, but there is no wrong answer to this, however; I would really like for all of you to ponder it and give me your opinions too. So here is the question…

Does Community of Practice related to Personal Learning Environment? Or is it the next step of PLE? Or is it both?

How to be heard – Stephen Downes…

First listen than be heard!

Holy Crap, can you believe what this guy is saying? First of all, I think that this is one of the best article that I have read so far that I didn’t have a brain fart! For real! I thought I was gonna have another migraine headaches from reading this article, aside to the length of the blog itself.

In life as much as it is in blogs, we all have to plan for something, have a purpose for and what the plan is for, have a way to support the plan and execute the plan accordingly and make sure that the plan is progressive enough to undergo a change in the future.

As is the same with blogs. According to Downes, writing a blog needs a well thought and well excised plan. It also needs a purpose for that blog to exist, be it may serve personal or social agenda or benefits these. If the blog doesn’t have any purpose nor it benefits anyone, than it is nothing but something that some one wrote to complain or just bitch about something. Usually when you write a blog, aside to talk about an issue, you should address or promote some solutions or a question of something of value. For instance the interests that represents the blogger or the reader and the general community as a whole. Your blog also should have content that can be meaningful to the readers and that it should present future purpose and gives explanation to what is important. This content could be anything to everything, the best way to get a good content is to look at what you are reading, listening, watching or anything that involves you that other people can connects to or have a similar experience that people wants to relate and read about. Collect the info that you have and link all the hobbies and interest to websites that have a similar blogging and write about them too. Focus on something educational or something that can teach some one while the same time emphasize on more important things. That way the content will not be too boring. Hello!!! YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT!!!

First of all… any one who wants to start a blog should know what he or she wants to write about, if not then don’t blog at all, because not only that you are wasting your time, you also wasted my freakin time. Basically that’s what it said for the first couple of paragraphs. But here’s the interesting thing that Downes points out… There are many people out there that have other blogs that are probably the same that you are thinking…so, link these blogs to yours, this way you have a support network of what you are writing, and it guarantees you to readers. However, pick what you link to your blog very well otherwise you are just linking bullcrap to your blog and there for what you write will in turn be nothing but a pile of steaming manure. Look for sources that can support your ideas in your blog, when you find them, give them credits to what they wrote and make sure that you comment on their page and vice versa, this will ensure the readers that you know what you are blogging and that there are a community out there that are interested to what you have to blog about.

Stimulate your sense of knowledge, open your mind to ideas that are different than yours. As a blogger, you should have different ideas that can be related to what you are blogging. Also, you need to know how to design a website that way your blog can be as much as enticing to those who reads it and make them know that you are knowledgeable and make the blog easier to read for your reader whom ever they may be. Make your blog as creative as you can be, show your blog that your ideas in the blog represent who you are, represent what you stand for, be meaningful, understanding and be assertive while being resourceful. Aside to that, the design of your blog is as much as important to your blog as it is to the content of your blog. An eye appealing design to your blog, readable fonts, neutral colors that is easy to the eye for reader to read, different color scheme, inclusion of pictures and videos would make sure that your blog have a cult of followers and readers. Use all the resources that are available to you and most important thing about blogging – set aside a time for you to blog about what you are passionate about.

Jansen