Blackberry frenzy...

Ola guys and girls! Do hope you all had a successful exam and that you all will enjoy your holiday.

I am a Blackberry seeker, I am not an owner of one yet, but I do hope to be soon! I think a Blackberry is very suited for a student's needs. It is in my opinion much cheaper to have then any other phone, because of its service.

Imagine unlimited browsing, chatting on various social networks for only R60 a month! It provides you with access to your e-mail, you can even send pictures of notes, etc to your friends.

The cheapest Blackberry is going for a mere R1839, wow! It is really a smart phone and I need one in my life!

Training with Brad

Good day all of you!

I am quite interested in meeting regularly on a Wednesday during lunch to gather practical experience on the various tasks we are required to be able to do.

Having more practical exposure is exactly what I need for purposes of work. The training looked at various terms which we will be exposed to during shoots, most of it I have heard during the very first training session I had when I started working at DMS.

For me its fine to learn the terminology used, but I am more interested in the practical aspect. In a general sense the training was fun, quite informative and pulled at my interests for more!

Television

My time in front of the TV has definitely decreased from when I attended High School to When I started Varsity. At this point in time the only TV i watch is about a half an hour of 7de Laan if I'm lucky.

I don't TV is dying. Many people still watch TV, my family at home for example, they are avid TV watchers. However, the intake of TV differs for each person. Some work, some work longer hours, a few are scholars and a few pensioners and infants.

Those who are at home during the day sit in front of the TV more than those who work or go to school. I unfortunately, do not get to watch TV as I am constantly plowed with work, although I want to.

People will always have TV in their lives, watching something on your laptop, PC or cellphone is not as fun as a TV, in my opinion.

What are concept maps?

The theory underlying Concept Maps and how to construct and use them

Introduction

Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge.

Concept is defined as a perceived regularity in events or objects, or records of events or objects, designated by a label.

Propositions are statements about some object or event in the universe, either naturally occurring or constructed. Propositions contain two or more concepts connected using linking words or phrases to form a meaningful statement.

Figure 1 shows an example of a concept map that describes the structure of concept maps and illustrates the above characteristics.

Figure 1. A concept map showing the key features of concept maps. Concept maps tend to be read progressing from the top downward.

Another important characteristic of concept maps is the inclusion of cross-links.

The fundamental idea in Ausubel's cognitive psychology is that learning takes place by the assimilation of new concepts and propositions into existing concept and propositional frameworks held by the learner. this knowledge structure as held by a learner is also referred to as the individual's cognitive structure.

Psychological foundations of Concept maps

The question sometimes arises as to the origin of our first concepts.

This early learning of concepts is primarily a discovery learning process, where the individual discerns patterns or regularities in events or objects and recognizes these as the same regularities labeled by older persons with words or symbols.

After age 3, new concept and propositional learning is mediated heavily by language, and takes place primarily by a reception learning process where new meanings are obtained by asking questions and getting clarification of relationships between old concepts and propositions and new concepts and propositions. This acquisition is mediated in a very important way when concrete experiences or props are available; hence the importance of "hands-on" activity for science learning with young children, but this is also true with learners of any age and in any subject matter domain.

In addition to the distinction between the discovery learning process, where the attributes of concepts are identified autonomously by the learner, and the reception learning process, where attributes of concepts are described using language and transmitted to the learner, Ausubel made the very important distinction between rote learning and meaningful learning.

Widgets

So what are widgets?

A widget is a fancy new defined term, referring to a mini internet application that is offered by a 3rd party. Widgets can easily be integrated in a web page, blog or profile by inserting a small chunk of code that will be offered you at the site of your chosen Widget. This is not a new development, webmasters have been using widgets on things like, placing scripts and banners on webpages since the beginning of the worldwide web.

The benefits of widgets is that, everybody can use content without knowing anything of programming such as D HTML, Java, Flash or software programming.

Web Widgets

Web widgets can easily be used on webpages, blogs or profile pages by simply copying a code. Most Widgets have a button option, so you can place a widget by a click of a button on your content page.

Desktop Widgets

Desktop widgets are basically the same as web widgets, the difference is that you can download it on your desktop.

Widgets are downloadable interactive virtual tools, that provide services such as showing the user the latest news, the current weather, the time, a calendar, a dictionary, a map program, a calculator, desktop notes, photo viewers, or even a language translator, among other things.

Mobile Widgets

Mobile widgets are specially made to fit on a screen of a mobile phone. Mobile users can use widgets exactly the same way as web and desktop widgets, for example weather widgets, game widgets, news widgets, chat widgets and many, many more.

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web, abbreviated as WWW and commonly known as the Web, is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a Web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos and other multimedia and navigate between them via hyper links.

Use hypertext, to link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will.

The World Wide Web (W3), was developed to be a pool of human knowledge, and human culture, which would allow collaborators in remote sites to share their ideas and all aspects of a common project.

The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used in every-day speech without much distinction. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks. In contrast, the Web is one of the services that runs on the Internet. It's a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyper links and URLs. In short, the Web is an application running on the Internet.

Viewing a web page on the World Wide Web normally begins by either typing the URL of the page into a web browser, or by following a hyper link to that page or resource. The web browser then initiates a series of communication messages, behind the scenes, in order to fetch and display it.

Yes, for you to access the World Wide Web on the internet, various procedures need to take place, yet we remain impatient with our computer systems, forgetting the time it takes to process our commands. Just because a computer is seen to be like a robot, does not mean it can do everything. We people still control what our systems do and we are obligated to maintain our systems in order to keep up with technological developments.

Computers, the Internet and the World Wide Web are complex creatures and most of us do not know what happens behind the scenes, but we can always learn the basics.

Do hope that you picked up something interesting.

What is Android?

Hi there peeps, I own an Android cellphone, but I am extremely clueless about what Android means with regards to my cellphone and other technology . This led me to do a bit of research to get informed on the readiness of Android.

What is Android?

Android is the name of the software that an increasing number of today’s phones run on. It’s developed by Google and comes with a range of Google features, most notably Search and Maps, installed as standard.

This means you can easily search for information on the web and for directions from your phone, as you would on your computer. This is handy for checking up on things like train times and getting directions when out and about.

You can also access other Google services, like Gmail, Google Earth, YouTube and Google Calendar on an Android phone.

What can an Android phone do?

Android phones are highly customisable and as such can be altered to suit your tastes and needs. You can check your Facebook and Twitter profiles through a variety of apps making it ideal for social networking. Through the calendar you can set reminders from your desktop or your phone and on the latest version of Android you can send links to and from your computer and vice versa.

Another neat feature of Android is that it automatically backs up your contacts for you. When you set up an Android phone you’ll need to create a Google Account or sign in with an existing one. Every time you save a number to the address book of your Android phone it will be synced to your Google Account.

The benefit of this is if you lose your phone all of your numbers will be saved. The next time you get an Android phone and sign in with your Google Account, all of your contacts and friends numbers will be displayed in your new phone’s address book.

What apps can I get on an Android phone?

There is a huge range of apps and games available to download from the Android Market. There are camera apps that allow you to take pictures with artistic effects and filters on them and music players which allow you to import MP3s from your and create playlists.

You can customise the appearance of your Android phone with a number of wallpapers based on pictures you’ve taken yourself or downloaded from the web.

There are also various on screen widgets to download which allow you to access and reconfigure the settings of your phone. You can pretty much create your own system of shortcuts and menus to suit you.

Popular games available for Android phones now include Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Wordfeud and Drop 7.

What apps can I get on an Android phone?

There is a huge range of apps and games available to download from the Android Market. There are camera apps that allow you to take pictures with artistic effects and filters on them and music players which allow you to import MP3s from your and create playlists.

You can customise the appearance of your Android phone with a number of wallpapers based on pictures you’ve taken yourself or downloaded from the web.

There are also various on screen widgets to download which allow you to access and reconfigure the settings of your phone. You can pretty much create your own system of shortcuts and menus to suit you.

Popular games available for Android phones now include Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Wordfeud and Drop 7.

What does an Android phone look like?

Android phones come in many different shapes, colours and sizes. Some have super-fast processors, some have powerful cameras and some have slide-out Qwerty keypads.

All Android phones prominently feature a large touchscreens. The size of the screen varies, but most of them measure at least 3-inches diagonally.

Popular Android phones include the HTC Desire (3.7-inch screen), Motorola Milestone (3.7-inch screen),Samsung Galaxy S (4-inch screen) and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 (4-inch screen). The Dell Streak has a huge 5-inch touchscreen and is currently the biggest Android phone in terms of dimensions and screen size.

So who makes Android phones?

Every handset maker is free to make an Android phone if they want to. As well as the aforementioned HTC,Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, LG, Acer, Dell and Huawei have all made Android phones. There isn’t however a Nokia or a BlackBerry Android phone and there probably won’t be.

Does Google make any Android phones?

Google makes the software not the hardware. One phone - the Google Nexus One - is branded as “the Google Phone” but is actually made by HTC, who make other Android phones such as the HTC Desire andHTC Legend. It is considered to be the flagship Android phone, even though some Android phones have bigger screens and better cameras.

Of all of the Android phones, the Google Nexus One is currently always the first to receive new Android updates.

The latest such “Google Phone” to be announced is the Google Nexus S, which is made by Samsung

Android updates?

Google is constantly working on new versions of the Android software. These releases are infrequent; at the moment they normally come out every six months or so, but Google is looking to slow this down to once a year.

Versions usually come with a numerical code and a codename that’s so far been named after a type of dessert; e.g. Android 1.5/Cupcake, Android 2.1/Eclair and the most recent edition Android 2.2/Froyo.

The next expected edition of Android is version 2.3 and is codenamed Gingerbread. The dessert names of the releases are in alphabetical order. The next update is expected to be called Honeycomb and the one after that Ice Cream.

What do these updates do? Do they cost anything?

Android updates are free. The updates bring a number of new features and changes to Android each time. Generally with each update the speed and performance of Android is improved upon.

Most of the high-end Android phones are scheduled to receive updates first. Most Android phones will have at least one update during their life cycle, with some having two.

Phew, that is a lot of information to take in, but I am already looking forward to make use of my cellphone's endless potential. Really hope I have answered the question sufficiently.