Course Evaluation

New Communication Technologies was not exactly what I had expected. I just came out of a year and a half of doing a bachelor of psychology, so to come into a course like this, it was a dramatic change that's for sure. I was so used to having rigid and strict criteria to follow, whereby I knew exactly what was needed and what was expected by me as a student.

So to come into tutes everyweek I found it different and at first very hard to adjust to. I was so used to being lectured by a tutor, telling exactly what was needed (as psychology is more science and maths based). So there was nothing arbitrary about it. Going to class and having to 'feel out' and 'self learn' was definately something I needed to get used to. I felt so silly sometimes having to constantly ask for help in tutes as I could see everyone around me busily working away.

As for the lectures, there was a lot of content to get through and a lot of readings (which isn't a bad thing at all, I don't mind reading for some strange reason). Sometimes it seemed like it was a lot of content for one week, then it jumped to a completely new topic the next. I can understand the rationale though, as it is new communication technologies, whereby everything changes about every second. It's good to see how educational institutions, like the university, understand that things are forever changing and try to adapt to the demands from the world.

All in all, I believe I have learnt things, even though at times I just wanted to give up and delete y blog, that will remain with me for a long time. Like blogging for instances, I never thought that in a million years I would write a blog. It was just never something that I ahd been interested in. But having done it as part of the course, I have a new appreciation for people who do this type of work as a living. It is so tedious and time consuming and an easy trigger for frustration.

I believe that the teaching team really know their craft and enjoy their work. They seem passionate, which shows when they are lecturing. I have sat through so many lectures where the lecturer just reads from their slide show. So it seems these guys really know what they are on about, and it makes it so much easy to learn.

"Clean-Feed'

What is the 'Clean Feed'?

"The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and slow down Internet access.
Despite being almost universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is determined to force this filter into your home." (ref: http://nocleanfeed.com/)

From what I can gather, the govt has pretty much kept the details under wraps about how they will proceed with this notion. So it seems a lot of people feel like they are being left in the dark about the technicalities of it all. People are in uproar as there seem to be more than a few issues with clean feed. Including, technical issues (where they will draw the line), free speech concerns and its bad policy.

Honestly, I believe like most things, they have got it wrong. It might seem great on paper, but when put into action, I don't believe it will be effective. Nor will the govt be able to implement it completely (ie. hackers will get smarter and will only bypass it). It will never be 100% effective. Yes, it is a good idea, to keep children from harms way, but they are not just talking about children, more like the entire population. So where will it end? How old do you have to reach before you can fully have your freedom and the right to do so as you please?


What place does censorship have in democracy???
It has no place, democracy is the right for everyone to have a say. If the government censored the biggest information provider in the world, it would be a huge hypocracy.

I believe censorship is hard in a democratice society. I understand the reason in which some people think that it is a major benefit, in keeping children safe from what they are able to see online, but it's not really realistic. There are already parental monitoring programs available for parents to download or purchase and install on their home computers for their families safety. To me, the things that people do, write, produce for online material, is personal expression. To take aaway that right is not a democracy at all.

Cencorship has always been a problem in the past. For example books. There are a number of well written amazing books which have been banned in schools around the world as the education systems deem then to be inappropriate. But I've read the list and half the books on that list are not even that bad. Some of my favourite books I had read in my own time when I was in high school are on the list of the top100 banned books in America for the school system.

So while I do think that censorhip has its place, it only really works in theory. Like a lot of things, I mean communism, in theory, seems like the best way to run a country whereby all individuals are equal. But when applied to real life, eg. Russia and China, the theory fails dramatically. You can not account for people, their own individualism and corruption. It's just too hard and too broad. Censorship will always have its critics.

few topics

So... about your last speech...

I sent Mr Lawlor an email via his contact page on his website concerning my thoughts on his last speech.

Here's the link to his contact page which I used: http://www.peterlawlor.com.au/southport/pages/contact-peter.php

Speaking In Parliment

The last time my local representative spoke in Parliment was the 15th of September 2009 (for the 16th Sep tute).

The link: http://parlinfo.parliament.qld.gov.au/isysquery/17fa38a3-0120-4469-9ef6-1d3b926bcec2/24/doc/Peter%20Lawlor%20spk%20Southport%202009_09_15_39.pdf#xml=http://parlinfo.parliament.qld.gov.au/isysquery/17fa38a3-0120-4469-9ef6-1d3b926bcec2/24/hilite/

Government Representatives

3. Local, State & Federal representatives.

So my first instincts would have me answer this question like this: local rep: Peter Lawlor, State: Anna Bleigh and Fed: Kevin Rudd. However talking to my dad one night about this question he told me my head was up my ass and that I'm completely way off track. Obviously the guy is ancient, has lived here all his life, and is good friends with Peter Lawlor (who has been at alomost everyone of my family functions since I can remember) so I decided to go with him on this one.

Local Rep:
Councillor Dawn Crichlow, OAM
Division 6

Contact details
Phone (07) 5581 6280 Mobile 0414 180 677 Fax (07) 5581 6899 Email gbrown@goldcoast.qld.gov.au
Councillor Crichlow is available at her office 47 Nerang Street, Southport, Monday to Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm.

State Rep:

Peter Lawlor

MP for Southport & Minister for Tourism and Fair Trading

Peter Lawlor

PO Box 340

Chirn Park

Queensland 4215

Tel: 5532 5068

Fax: 5532 0394

email: southport@parliament.qld.gov.au

Federal Rep:

Mr Stuart Robert MP

Electoral Division of Fadden (QLD)

Parliament House Contact

PO Box 6022

House of Representatives Parliament House

Canberra ACT 2600

Tel: (02) 6277 2106

Fax: (02) 6277 8441

Online: Contact Form

Week8: Political Participation via the Internet

1. E-petition
I decided to sign a petition to save the koalas from extinction in Southeast QLD on the Queensland Parliament Petitions website. If anyone would like to sign as well, it can be found on this site: http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/EPetitions_qld/CurrentEPetition.aspx?PetNum=1260

Here is the confirmation page:
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/EPetitions_qld/Confirmation.aspx?PetNum=1260&lIndex=-1

2. Respond to a professional blogger
I often read the blogs at Ask Sam on the Sydney Morning Herald.com (she does a weekly feature in the print paper).

I responded to this blog story as I found it to be a very interesting debate: http://blogs.smh.com.au/lifestyle/asksam/archives/2009/09/high_heels_turn_on_or_turn_off.html

However, I am still awaiting my commect approval from the site. But here's the link anyway: http://blogs.smh.com.au/movabletype/mt-comments.cgi

3. What is Barak Obama upto...?
For the most up-to-date information on the American President, I'd suggest checking out his official twitter page: http://twitter.com/BARACKOBAMA

However, today 16th September but the 15th in America (as we are a day ahead) the President did about 8 000 different things. So I limited it down to about 3.

1- Obama to AFL-CIO: Remember where we came from economically
In promoting his economic record today, President Obama is stressing something we'll probably hear more about as election time approaches in the months ahead: The economic record he inherited. "Let's just take a stroll down memory lane," the president said...

2- Obama: Economy and car companies are coming back
President Obama continued his latest campaign today, stumping to persuade Americans that the embattled economy and the government-run car companies are turning around. "Now, we still have a long way to go," Obama told autoworkers at a General Motors plant...

3- Obama and Kanye West: It's hard for presidents to be 'off the record'
Today brings another reminder of how hard it is for presidents to be truly "off the record" -- not in this media-saturated world, not when he describes controversial singer Kanye West as "a jackass." Obama thought he was speaking privately...


For all the details and more information about the President and everything thing he completes in his day head to this site: http://www.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/archive/2009/9/1

Week7: Review of Freeware Apps

For this tasks I chose to download and use the free Sudoku Portable application available from: http://portableapps.com/apps/games/sudoku_portable

I’ve never really been into playing games like this, but a lot of people seem to be really into it so I decided to give it a go. My dad used to do Sudoku in the newspaper and my sister sometimes mucks around with it.

I found it really hard. I didn't understand half the time what I was actually meant to be doing. But I guess that’s just my own ignorance (I'm not really good with crosswords either). But the application was really fast and easy to use when I actually knew what I was doing. I can see why it is so addictive to people, because once you get started you just really want to find a way to finish it.

Fictitious News Report for: 'ireport'

I filmed a friend for this task. As you can see he is a great actor (excuse the sarcasim), but I'd rather him than me.

I uploaded the video to ireport.com. Heres the link: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-332447

Furthermore, I tried to upload my ireport to the class blog (newsuploader2@gmail.com) but for some reason the settings where completely different on my home computer and I couldn't access the blog to upload it.

Week6 Polyvore

I've actually used Polyvore before when updateing my myspace. They have good images. You can search for absolutely anything. You can mix and match and put them with backgrounds. So when I had more time on my hands I used to put together a whole bunch of my favourtite products, clothes and accessories and then upload them onto my myspace because it was cute, well it was to me at the time. So here's an example:







I like plain white backgrounds, just makes it look fresh. So above was a set I made ages ago. and below is one I made today. My style hasn't chnaged that much, which is good to see.

Week6: Google Map

View

I absolutely love cupcakes for some strange reason. So here's some locations of my favourite 3 desinger cupcake stores on the Gold Coast. My number one store would have to be Cupcake Parlour in Broadbeach. You can't go past their fairfloss and green apple cupcakes. Check them out: http://www.thecupcakeparlour.com.au/

Week5 Internet Short Film -3

This silent film attempts to depict the old school silent films. It incorporates the music, and language on the screen, even the lines which run up and down in the film.

It’s kind of quirky, in that it has a twist, whereby the male lead makes a mistake and sends an email to that of a new widowed lady. She believes that the message is from her husband, which she buried earlier that day. As a result, she dies herself, as she truly thinks her husband has gone to hell and that she will be joining him the next day.

Even the end credits as in the old film format.

Week5 Internet Short Film -2

This short film is really cool in that it is based on the genre of n0ir (which we learnt in the week 4 lecture as being stylish Hollywood crime dramas of the 40’s). I like how it is in black and white and captures that 40’s vibe, with the use of costumes and design. It makes it look old school chic.


The use of close-ups in the beginning of the film depicts the male lead in internal conflict with himself. There are a lot of varied shots which it cuts to, with the lead remembering certain events of war. It shows his struggle with adapting as his past experiences still hunt him.

To express his emotions, he turns to dance.

The music again, keeps with the time of the 40’s, using old school big band music.

Week5 Internet Short Film -1

This short film is directed by Herbert Midgley, who is said to be a short film internet legend.
His story is about a whirl wind romance, whereby the character Katy finds it hard to find love. By chance, she meets her ‘dream guy’ and falls instantly in love.

However, it is not to be, as Jess (the dream guy) has an affair.

Katy is heartbroken. This is where she turns to her philosophy college professor. He offers her peace with German philosopher's Arthur Schopenhauer theory about 'The Will of Life'.

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After watching the short film, I decided to look up Arthur Schopenhauer. He was an amazing man, who wrote numerous essays on love, sex and reproduction. A huge intellectual in his time. I read his biography which is available on: http://www.egs.edu/resources/schopenhauer.html