My Last Rant!!

The last week has been totality stressful. I actually feel like pulling my hair out at times. There is simply not enough hours in the day to STUDY, never mind eating, or sleeping. The exams are upon me again and just like every year, I’m a total stress ball and I’ve the tendency to be very contagious. So you’ve been warned!

All I have to keep saying to myself is, it’s the last exams I’ll be doing for a while. I’ll be finished my add on degree and will be extremely hireable. I wish, I feel like I’m leaving college after 5 years with a piece of paper that means nothing to employers. Every job, I’ve apply for has a requirement of a million years experience. I’ll be a call centre agent for the foreseeable future, unless they promote me to HR manager. I can only wish!

Travelling seems like the next best thing to do, I’ve been to Florida already for a while and really enjoyed the time away, meeting new people and working in a different environment. Where to next, Australia, where everyone goes. It would feel probably like a sunny Dundalk. Canada could be an option, heard they are crying out for people, probably with experience.

One thing does feel great, and that is it’s my last blog I’ve to write. To be completely honest, I found them to be a pain in the neck. I can’t wait to copy it for this word document, format it, save it and hit that red “X” on the top right hand corner. Finally my blog are finished. But one thing is for sure, I’ve a hell of a lot more study to do before the night is over.

Royal Wedding

Since the announcement of the royal engagement in November 2010, HRH Prince William (2nd in line to the throne) and Kate Middleton have become media frenzy all over the UK’s and worldwide press. The forth coming days see’s the build up to the big day which falls on Friday 29^th April when they wed in Westminster Abbey which was also the place of Diana’s funeral in 1997. They’ll be surrounded by the English royal family and a wealth of celebrities all there to celebrate the future King and Queen of the United kingdoms big day.

Already online are pictures of the wedding flowers and downloadable seating plans. Today was the start of members of the general public congregating on the streets of London with camping equipment so they can get that one glimpse of William and Kate. Security will be high in the city on the day as many have announced to demonstrate against the Monarchy and the money been spent of such a lavish wedding as England has just came out of a recession.  Kate Middleton will be the first commoner to marry an expected future king in 350 years.

My life in DkIT

It all started way back in 2006 when I enrolled in DkIT, after completing a FETAC in Tourism next door in O Fiaich College of Further Education. I got the course that I wanted, Event Management. I was really ecstatic that I had got into the course. The first day was really exciting, I had already known my way around the college from been in O fiaich, so I didn’t go on any of those tours about the college.

 Which looking back on now, I really should have. I think I took a library tour in third year, and by that stage I had been in DkIT four years (Failed 1st Year Opps!). My overall experience of been a student at DkIT is a brilliant one. I grew up in Dundalk and have live here or quite close to it for the last 23 years. I’m really proud to be from Dundalk and proud that I choose DkIT to better my education. The criac is mighty is Kit and the people whom I’ve met through the year in DkIT, have changed my life in so many different ways. DkIT has opened up numerous opportunities for me, for example: Living and working in Florida for nearly 9 months.

There has been up’s and down’s but that comes along with everything. I would never look back and think I should have gone to UCD or DCU. I would gladly recommend DkIT to anyone for third level education.

Censorship on the Web (Should there be free speech online?)

In my personal opinion I don’t believe there should be free speech online in certain circumstances, for example “wikileaks”. This site is drip feeding the public with confidential documents/ discussions that have taken place in western embassies, mainly United States embassies in an attempt to make transparent all government dealings.  When it comes to matters such as expenses scandal which took place in the United Kingdom during the last labour government, I can sympathise with Julian Assagnes’ reasoning. However when it comes to matters of international diplomacy the need to be able meet or liaise in private is essential. Both for the openness of both parties involved to say what they feel or what they need to get across without fear of being criticised by the general public. I believe the publicising of these conversations would be counterproductive in the long run.

However, on the other hand, with the explosion of social networking sites (i.e. Facebook & twitter) over the last decade, lay people have suddenly been given a voice on a global scale. Through the use of these platforms I believe freedom of speech online is not only crucial but fundamental. It is through this domain that the recent upheaval of the Egyptian government came about. With average civilians ‘tweeting’ their unrest with the current administration, Egyptian freedom of speech was given a global platform and brought about the fall of the Egyptian government, dubbed the so called ‘Twitter Wars’. Here, freedom of speech online gave democracy to the undemocratically led people and that can only be seen as a good thing.

If you look at the question from both angles, there are pros and cons to freedom of speech online. Inevitably, there will be arguments for both. Whether it leads to a breach in national security or helps to liberate a people, there is no denying that it will continue as an integral part of life in the 21^st century world.

Web Usability

Web usability is an approach to make web sites easy to use for an end user, without requiring them to undergo any specialised training. Some of the goals of web usability are to present the information to the user in a clear and concise way and also to give the correct choices to the user in a very obvious way. It also helps to put the most important thing in the right place on a web page.

Expert’s estimate that on average electronic commerce websites frustrates up to 70% of their customers to the point that they leave without buying anything. Even the best sites lose half of their customers because the sites are confusing and difficult to use. Simple changes in site usability can increase customer satisfaction and sales.

For example some website do not include a telephone contact information in the belief that not staffing a call centre will save the business money, however if your customers cannot reach you, they will not continue to do business with you.

There are many way in which you can make you site more useable. If you website has lots of web pages, having a search box will most defiantly make you site more usable allowing the user to search for the particular information instead of scroll through stream of content. The user of the site should be able to identify what the site is about straight away through a medium of images and texts. Don’t over format the navigation areas, as many users may become confused and view them as advertisements.
On first entrance to the site users will normally view the homepage, but this is not always the way user may enter the site. A homepage link should be incorporated onto each page for the user to view other content of the site.

The following video shows best practise principles of web usability

Mobile Commerce

Mobile e-commerce or m- commerce is a subset of electronic commerce. It refers to online activities similar to those mentioned in the electronic commerce category. The under lying technology is different since mobile commerce is limited to mobile telecommunications networks. These are accessed through wireless handheld devices such as mobile phones, hand held computer and personal digital assistances (PDA’s)

Compared with wired e-commerce, mobile commerce had a unique value adding attributes.When formulating new business strategy managers should beware of the attributes they have. One attributes that stands a mile out from the rest is the ubiquity of mobile commerce. The edge of been able to use your device at any time and in any location to obtain information or perform a transaction is a major attribute in the increased use of mobile technologies. Convenience has become a major factor in when it comes to business been able to do business where and when you want.

The whole concept of mobile commerce has become a huge. When Alexander graham bell invented the telephone, there could have been no way that he could have predicted his invention would grow to become the most important and significant devices used by virtually every human on earth.

In recent years the Smartphone has grown a portfolio of power and capabilities. Not only do they give you the ability to communicate from any point to any other point and access nearly the sum of all human knowledge, but now you can record events as a movie in full colour and sound within a few second and it can be edited and uploaded to the internet for the whole world to view.

GPS is being added to more and more phones so that every phone can be tagged with its exact location. Searches and requests can also be tailored to specific locations, for example: where the closest Mc Donald’s is and the direction to get to it.

Smartphone’s incorporate a whole range of features, mainly geared towards the internet. For such a new device on the market the Smartphone is now exceeding the wildest predication with its success.

Web Standards

Web Standards, what are they, and why do we need them.  Basically they are used to help ensure that everyone have access to the same information on the internet. Web standards also help to develop the internet and make it faster and more enjoyable to the end user.  I myself personally do believe that web standards are good in that the development it has done, in assuring everyone can have access to information that we are providing. The set of rules that web standards provides make website development  a much more accessible to the world of web re-development in terms on how it can allow another website developer pick up where another developer had left off. As times are changing so are websites, as they need to be more imaginative to pull in its targeted audience. HTML, XML XHTML all have aided this making changes and updates easy to achieve.

Web standards have many benefits in which have great end results for anyone who implements them to their WebPages. Using web standards can give a web site more hits as the pages becomes structured allowing it to be selected during a search. The standards have been shaped in such a creative way that even the oldest of browsers are able to read and pick up on and in addition its becoming more important that as new mobile phone browser within mobile commerce to join in, therefore making the web accessible now to everyone at anytime.