Tuesdays Weather

Today it was forecast to be sunny intervals, unfortunately there have been no sunny intervals and just cloud.

Mondays Weather

Today it was forecast to be Sunny Intervals, this was correct.

This weeks weather forecast

Northamptons weather forecast from monday 15th September - Friday 19th September

My house to Tottenham court road, London

Car: (AA Route Planner)
Depart my house at 11:55am,
Follow the directions to Northampton train station below.


Train: (National Rail)
Arrive at the station by car at approximately 12:02pm.
Buy a ticket and get on the train for 12:07pm when it will depart.



Walking: (Google Maps)
Arrive in Euston station London at 13:12,
Walk to Tottenham court road taking approximately 21 minutes.



Arrive Tottenham Court Road at 13:33

Total Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes.
Total Cost: Petrol: Approx. £4
Train ticket: I could not find this out because of an error on the national rail website

I found the websites fairly easy to use, other than the error on the national rail website. If i was doing this journey i would use these websites.

Tsunami disaster and modern communication

Presenting information in different ways:

• Scrolls were set up along the bottom of the Sky News channel to display messages from worried relatives and survivors
• Specialist blogs were set up immediately so people could reassure others they were ok
• Bulletin boards were used to let people know what was going on
• Webpages were set up so missing people could be located

Sharing information quickly:

• E-mails were sent to other people from survivors
• Text messages were able to be sent and received as almost all fixed-line local communications systems failed or were overwhelmed.
• Bulletin boards relayed information instantly
• Blogs also instantly displayed information
• Live television feeds kept everybody updated

Greater interaction between individuals and organisations:

• Organisations set up webpages so individuals with missing relatives could try and locate them
• The BBC News website received 30,000 emails related to the disaster the day after it happened
• Sky news set up a ticker on its TV Channel to relay messages sent by text and email about the disaster

Virtual communities, where people are bought together via the internet

• A sweedish boy aged 2 was reunited with his aunty after she recognised his face on a webpage
• In a story carried by BBC news, Survivors were sending emails from an internet cafe in Thailand to reassure people at home they were alive and well.
• Hundreds of families logged on to internet bulletin boards to try and find backpackers missing in South-East Asia.

During the aftermath of this disaster modern communication services were used rather than older ones because they are alot faster and more reliable. A large ammount of todays communication methods are wireless so the Tsunami didn't have a direct effect on these. Messages could be sent and received instantly, phonecalls could be made and information was posted all over the internet immediately. All of the services used were very effective in informing relatives and the public instantly. The only service that was a let down was the fixed-line local systems as the sea washed them away or malfunctioned there computer systems.

Instant Messaging or Chat Rooms?

Instant messaging:

• Only the recipient can read what you're saying
• Only people in your contact list can converse with you
• Files can be transfered
• Images can be shared
• Webcams and microphones can be used more easily
• Emoticons can be used

Chat rooms:

• You can meet new people
• In some cases webcams & microphones can be used
• Who you're talking to may not be who they say they are

Newsgroups

I Found the groups very hard to understrand.
All i could find out is that the digital divide is the divide between people who use ICT and the people who dont.
I think newsgroups are quite unreliable as the information could be out of date or wrong.
On the other hand though they are quite useful.

Source: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.dcom.telecom/browse_thread/thread/79e657de8aa67e28/f68a000266b0e92d?lnk=st&q=digital+divide#f68a000266b0e92d

Communicating Electronically

Today communication via text, instant messaging and chat rooms is very popular.

The advantages of these services are:

• Instant contact
• Easy to write
• Mobile
• Cheap
• Easily understood

The disadvantages of these are:

• Can be talking to someone who is not who they say they are
• The language used can be used inconveniently in the wrong places
• They are bringing the quality of the english language down
• Can be less reliable than having a face to face conversation with someone

Email summary

There are many good points to emails. These include:
-Instant communication
-Reliable
-Fast
-Secure
-Simple to use
-Can see date and time it was sent
-Can compose messages with subject headings
-Can be sent to more than one recipient
-Attachments can be added
-Drafts can be saved
-Can be received when the recipient is offline
-Can be sent directly to a mobile device

There are also many bad points. These include:
-Has to be sent to someone with a computer
-Requires an internet connection
-Spam can be received
-Viruses can be received

This is a very basic diagram of how it works:

The purpose of this blog :]

This is where i will record my findings on my research of the following communication methods:
-Email
-Newsgroups
-Instant Messaging
-Online Confrencing
-Blogs