IPv6 - New Generation Internet

There may be a pending ‘IPcalypse’ about to hit the internet as we prepare to run out of addresses for new connections.
The internet address shortage is a little like addresses in city neighbourhoods, if the neighbourhood gets too large you need a new pool of addresses. Such analogies give some insight into the nature of the issue.
With the exponential growth in internet still continuing and emergence and gathering acceptance of new technologies such as VOIP it is essential to transition to an addressing scheme that can support the required number of devices.
While there is no doubt that the explosion of use of the internet has nearly exhausted the connections available under the current addressing scheme and its antecedents, plans to move to a larger addressing scheme have been around since 1995.
There is much debate about the difficulties of migration to a new internet addressing scheme and the challenges that this presents to all users of what has become arguably the most important piece of infrastructure on the planet – the internet.
The answer to the looming crisis is a large, technical migration to the next generation addressing standard – Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

6 June 2012 - World IPv6 Deployment Day

Knowing what to do with it!!!

There are so many aspects of our daily lives that are made simpler by the inventions and advancements in technology. However, technology is only as useful as the knowledge the user has of how to make the most of it. 

Spending some time in a primary school last year, I saw the many varied ways that teachers implemented the Smart Board into their program. You could tell who had explored it, who felt comfortable and confident to use it. For example, I saw some teachers really utilise all of the features of the Smart Board creating games, and demonstrating learning for the students, but also allowing and teaching the students to use the Smart Board to the best of the students’ capabilities. On the other hand I saw other teachers using their Smart Board as a display board, using blu-tac to put notices up in the classroom – the power on these ones was never turned on and being curious about this, I found out that these teachers said they didn’t know how to use it, and were not sure where to start and this is why they never used it. Over the next couple of weeks, I spent some time demonstrating different ways to use the board with one teacher who was interested and she was impressed. She realised that she would be able to incorporate the Smart Board into her program but wanted to build more confidence and so she enrolled in some day courses about using a Smart Board.

I was on YouTube yesterday and came across this video, and even though this has been set up as a gimmick, it isn’t too far from the truth for some people when technology is introduced to them when they don’t understand the real use for that product.

Music On The Go

It’s such a luxury to be able to have entertainment anywhere on the go, even on the bus to uni.

I realised this today, seeing all the headphones plugged into the ears around me, save for two old ladies at the front of the bus. There were those on their ipods, some on their phones, and others simply on the classic MP3 player. Each person was in their own zone, shaking their head to the beat of their music. It was obvious to anyone observing this phenomenon that they were enjoying themselves, all thanks to the advancement in technology.

But has this come at a cost?

Despite the melodious tunes and fancy head bobbing, most of these people sat alone, isolated and oblivious to the atmosphere within the bus. It would be a miracle if they had heard a gunshot an inch from their ears, let alone anyone saying a friendly hello. Apart from the guy at the back of the bus, whose rap music shook the bus through sheer volume, everyone else was dead quiet. Now I know, its not everyday that you find a peace of mind on public transport, but are the ipods and MP3s to blame for this unusual occurrence?

The ability to use technology anywhere has diminished social interaction, leaving people to play, listen and even talk to their own gadgets rather than meet new people and start a conversation with a friendly citizen.

It seems music is so loud that it has gone through the ears and directly to our social lives. It would be a good idea to turn down the volume.

Smart phones & Obsolescence

With the seemingly ever changing smartphone technology seen in today’s market, it seems that even after buying the most recent Apple or Android phone that in a month you will be behind the trends again. I experienced this when asking some other friends if I should buy an IPhone 3GS recently and was shut down because they insisted that I should buy the newest version as this one is two years old. Their argument was that this older version has become out dated with the newer versions available with some improved features.

This begs the question, is this obsolescence planned by the big companies to guarantee that people will upgrade to their newest models when available, just because their older product stopped working. Planned obsolescence is the idea that a product has an in built expiry so that more products are consumed. This is a concept that has bred from our consumerist society from big companies taking advantage of people wanting to be at the pinnacle of technology. But I guess each to their own, I’m still happy with my little 2+ year old Nokia for nowJ .

GPS - reliable or not?

The intention behind the GPS Navigating systems is to assist people to find locations on the go without relying on the use of a street directory – saving time as the GPS system shows you how to get to your destination without pulling over to see the next part of the journey…Great invention!!! I love them, I have a Tom Tom that I call “Tommy” (original I know…), and Tommy comes everywhere with me.

BUT…are they always reliable!?!

I was driving a friend home to a new area of the city last night and getting there was fine because she directed me there, getting home on the other hand took a lot longer than it needed to because I relied on Tommy and he let me down… I put my Tommy on and told him to take me home…it was all going well until we were in the midst of the city (which I am not so used to driving in with all the one way streets) and Tommy basically started taking me around and around the same three blocks of town…..not impressed….I then realised that where I was driving had a tunnel underneath me and a bridge over the top of me and I think that Tommy was getting confused – he couldn’t quite pinpoint my location to assist me appropriately. Thankfully I still keep a street directory in my car and I know how to use it =p
I used it until I got away from the multi-levelled position I was in and then put Tommy back into action until I was in a familiar area to complete my journey home.

Although I love my TomTom and think it is such a useful creation and a great advancement in technology, I also hold onto the value in having the skills to use a street directory or map to help me in the situation where technology can not.

The Things We Take For Granted

Source: http://al13lea.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/prehistoric-computer-2.jpg?w=640

Comparing our lives today to those of our grandparents and great grandparents it’s fair to say we have it easy.

Can you imagine having to wash the dishes without a dishwasher, or doing research through hardcopy encyclopaedias? Well, that this is how the older generations lived their lives. Now we love our dishwasher and computers, but we sometimes (read always) forget that these are all luxuries, not necessities.

How many times do we get frustrated when the internet is slow, or our phone’s battery dies? This frustration turns our love for technology into anger and is complemented by phrases such as “stupid phone”, “I hate my net” and “this is taking forever”. But it doesn’t take forever to find out what the weather will be like tomorrow, or to load a song on YouTube. In fact it takes a lot less time than it would have all those years ago.

So next time you forget your phone at home, just relax and remember that the oldies got through just fine without it.
   

Facebook - The site we hate to love

As much as I love Facebook, for me it has become my most visited site and definitely the one I spend (or waste) the most time on. Assignments and homework that needs to be done take three times as long because of getting side tracked because talking to people is that much more interesting, resulting in staying up until late the night before it’s due!

+ Allows easy connection to pretty much anyone around us

+ can be updated on anyone without the need to chat to them

- time wasted online 2.6 million minutes each day [http://www.debatewise.com/debates/678-2-6-million-minutes-spent-on-facebook-each-day-we-are-wasting-our-lives]

- business world suffers as people go online during work hours, crippling productivity

- cyber bullying and cyber stalking are major public issues

http://claudiasofia1.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/facebook-addiction2.jpg

Welcome to our BLOG!!!!

The Design Of Our Blog!

Using one of the default templates on the Blogger website, we adapted some of the design elements to suit our personal preferences. We chose blue for the colour theme as we felt it to be neutral and to be complimentary to the topic. The hope for this neutral colour is to help the user to feel comfortable expressing their opinions no matter which way they go with their contributions.

We chose the Verdana font for the blog because it is a familiar one to most computer users as it is available on most document viewing/editing software. The font size seemed appropriate because it was legible on a variety of screen sizes (tested). The white font colour was chosen as it was easier to read and blends well on the blue background.

The three column page layout was selected with the sizes shown to ensure that the middle column would be bigger as a point of focus for the reader. Also by having the “About Me” and “Followers” sections on different sides of the page, this created less clutter on either side of the main ‘Posts’ sections. The three column set-up also provides symmetry to the page which is aesthetically pleasing to the eye.