Number 271 - December 2005

What is all this? Blogs and Things
by Grant Fuller, Big Blue and Cousins: The Greater Victoria PC Users' Association , Sept 2005
At the very basic level there is not a great deal of distinction between the various techniques used to share information on the internet. If all you want to do is tell your friends you had toast and jam for breakfast, you can send an email. If you want to tell the world, put it on a web page. When the content begins to get more sophisticated, such as regular daily entries similar to a diary, and the subject takes on a more serious quality, it will want to have its own name.    If you want to tell the world, put it on a web page. When the content begins to get more sophisticated, such as regular daily entries similar to a diary, and the subject takes on a more serious quality, it will want to have its own name.    Blog: It is hard not to think that the first person referring to their diary as a web log and writing it as one word would have been asked What is WE BLOG? and the obvious answer, Not WE BLOG, WEB LOG! It is now referred to as a blog. Information is posted to a web site, usually with the help of a simple program interface that allows people with little or no experience in web design to keep the story continuing on their web space. Some of the more important ones at present are being written by soldiers in Iraq, but in addition to informative ones, there are millions of mindless blogs being kept by people for their own amusement.    Wiki: stands for what I know is. This is a piece of server software that allows users to edit web pages. You can, in your own browser, change the content of a web page. In most cases you can correct other peoples work and add your own work. At the time of printing the largest wiki is Wikipedia, a live and ever evolving type of encyclopedia that allows people to add their knowledge to the collection. A simple paragraph will have several links from words that want a more expanded definition, more in the form of encyclopedic explanation than a dictionary definition but both are possible. This seemed like a crazy idea at first because what is to stop irresponsible individuals from loading it with false and unconfirmed ideas that claim to be fact? The truth is, there is nothing to prevent this sort of vandalism. In reality, this totally unrestricted invitation to plaster your own graffiti over the wiki walls has left the vandals without a challenge. The result being, there is a lot more fact than fiction contained in Wikipedia, although we must remember the content is not approved by any authority.    This is a fascinating idea and an interesting commentary on human nature to see something being built by a random collection of strangers. You may want to chip in with some of your own unique knowledge, just go to Wikipedia and read the instructions.    Newsgroups: Formally Usenet Newsgroups was originally a BBS function. Bulletin Board System is a computer software program that provides a meeting place for users to post messages. In order to access these groups one must first subscribe to them. This is done through an email program and an account is set up much the way your original email account is configured. The public newsgroups, those found on the internet are not moderated and any kind of content can be posted, unlike the BB&C newsgroups which are shielded by our passwords. Our newsgroups also display the members name as being the source of the post.    Newsgroups that are accessed by a mail program can only read at the computer station where the account has been set up. However, since Google has acquired the archives of Deja, the holder of the original Newsnet Newsgroup empire, we can now access newsgroups using a browser and they have taken on a form similar to Forums. If you go to groups.google.com/ you can begin the search for newsgroups that discuss most of the subjects that are of interest to you.    Forums: yet another format for discussion. The software is installed on the web site and is accessed with a browser. Usually, a forum will ask you to register by providing a legitimate email address and will confirm it by sending an email link which takes you back to the source and away you go.    A message is posted, usually a question, and left for the other participants to read and reply. You can subscribe to a topic so you will receive email notification when someone answers your question or adds to the topic.    Forums have become well established on the internet and if you type a technical question into a search engine, you will often be led back to a forum where the subject was discussed. Forums are searchable, so if you were to go to a forum that discusses Windows XP and type in firewall, it would	produce a list of topics which include the term firewall. When you reply to a topic being discussed, the header is brought to the top of the forum list so everyone can see that it has been revived. Forums can become a great store of knowledge if they are used to exchange useful information but like all other methods of communication, the value of the output is equal to the quality of input.    Chat: this is a form of discussion which is live. It is mostly casual and it is a text-based real time method where several computers may be connected via a network, often hosted by outfits like AOL and Yahoo. There are countless others but those are currently the most popular. The typed-in messages are displayed on all the computers that are logged on at the time.    Conferencing: the next level. This is in various stages of disarray. There are some very good free voice over internet systems which provide the same or better quality audio as our familiar telephones. The one I have had greatest success with is called Skype. It has been reliable and was easy to install and operate. There is also a fee-based system which allows you to call from your computer to the recipients telephone, but so far my only experience has been with the free PC to PC.    There are video conferencing systems available but they have not evolved as far as the audio systems. I have explored the commercial methods which involve installing complex software and paying an annual fee to be served from a central location that delivers the rather large bandwidth to the group of participants. You can see that video will use a much greater bandwidth than audio and if you want twenty or so participants, it requires a server and fairly sophisticated software to deliver it.    As for sharing web cam images with friends and family, that is a much simpler undertaking. If the camera does not come with software to do the job, there is one free program called iVisit which is one of the most advanced I have encountered to date. The computers involved do need to install the free program in order to communicate. Routers need to be directed to keep a specific port open and there will need to be an exemption in the firewall.    There are other programs which deliver web cam images over a browser and they might be all you want, but if you need more bells and whistles, iVisit is my suggestion.    File sharing: this is a controversial area if you are thinking of the file sharing systems that have become famous for allowing free download of music. This is not the subject of discussion here. The file sharing that interests me is provided by a program that acts as an FTP server on your computer and allows another computer to access and transfer large files. This is useful for people who work on projects such as this newsletter, although we use an intermediate server where large files are placed and later retrieved by other members. The more direct form of file sharing, from one PC to another PC will be important for many who do not have access to an FTP server.    Screen sharing: a method of delivering tutorials or receiving assistance with computer problems. Some of the video conferencing systems have screen sharing capabilities which let a moderator display their own screen on the monitors of the students. The software that works directly from the moderators computer requires installation of viewing software at the receiving end. Those systems that use browsers as viewers require delivery of the signal from a central server and there is a fee structure for that service. This technology is getting very close to being efficient but so far all the ones I have tried have some limitations. The ideal end product will provide smooth motion which needs at least twenty-four frames per second. It will also carry clear audio and allow for transfer of images and files. It should be possible to view with a browser or a minimum of installation if a special viewer is needed. Bandwidth is still an issue but this world is moving fast and it may be resolved soon.    There are many new programs that are good at most of the above features and if you are looking for a program that allows you to help someone by accessing their screen or doing a demo on your own that they can learn and later reproduce, just type screen sharing into a search engine and start reading.    Copyright (c) 1990-2005 by Big Blue and Cousins: The Greater Victoria Personal Computer Users' Association. www.bbc.org
Number 271 - December 2005