Word for the day

Trajectory.

Portal Sites Software list

This article provide an overview of some Portal/Site development solutions I’ve come across.

Trinium

SiteFinity

MOSS 2007 – Have used this on a massive 10 site project. However much of the solution needs to be .NET customisation to MOSS. For exmaple to facilitate varying site access restrictions, eCommerce capabilities.

Japan Story – Mount Fuji ‘07

I arrived home-sweet-home today, from Japan, where it’s hot and sticky.  We had a fantastic time, that just compells me to write some sort of account of some of the highlights.  Firstly, its is sooo nice to be in cool winter Sydney instead of the hummidity of Japan in summer.

Rather than wait, I managed to perform my ritual accident on the morning of day one (beat that!), resulting in a mild concussion. But thankfully I was travelling with a doctor this time so had instant attention.  You just don’t expect to find a tobogan run in a park in Japan.  Since I didn’t have a tobogan the dare devil in just had to “have a go” … “skier style” ( i.e. just using my shoes, stretching the arms out in front, stick bum out), and all before anybody could say anything about it …  “whoo-hoo”!  It was a bad idea, but it looked like I might have gotten away with it … until near the very end.  Last thing I remember was the sensation of flying and thinking 1) “ooh, how did that happen?”, and 2) ”this could be nasty”. Next thing I recall is finding myself wandering up the hill with everybody else peering down twoard me with and overhearing comments like “oh my god”, “that looks painful”, as a golf ball sized lump took possession on my left temple, and others on other parts of my anatomy.  Did you know that blood drains to the point of least resistance? So in my case, with gravity, to the eyes.  The “rancoon eyes” faded after couple of weeks.

Tokyo is great but a bit too busy and crowded for my liking.  Yokohama — where Sharon’s parents are living — is more spacious, planned, with parks, harbour and sea breezes to ease the summer hummidity.  We escaped the heat on some days during excursion to the highlands where there are traditional Japanese towns for some Temples and Forests, and perhaps some Zen if you can get it.  Heading to the beach one morning was interesting but not great: it hard to find beaches that compare Australia. Another day we all took Liam to the Zoo, where mishap No. 2 nearly happened: we were at the tiger pen when the tiger lined its bum up in my direction.  My eye’s grew wide as the tail raised and an apperture was revealed to me … it started to tighten.  It was a “fight or flight moment” … we were about to be scent blasted.  I chose “flight” and … basically … caused mayhem when I flew straight into Liam’s (empty) pram. With legs akimbo, sprawled on the and all the drinks got knocked over and I crashed on the floor. I managed to avoid a scenting but with bottles and bags rolling in various directions, me sprawled on the floor legs akmibo, I momentarily found myself the main attraction in the zoo.

Mount Fuji sits majestically in the background.  For mad-dogs it just has to be climbed.  At over 3,500M (12,000ft) it’s no picnic. Contratary to the name, it’s not a mountain: it’s a volcano, complete with lava flows to climb/clamber over, or else shale gravel in the other section that makes every step forward resulting in rolling/sliding half a step backwards (a bit like when you walk up a sand dune). We had a slim window of opportunity to climb Fuji-san.  So, we got prepared and travelled via Tokyo to base station 5.  Meantime the weather closed in on us    The conditions were terrible and had to seriously consider whether to go ahead.  There were other small groups from USA and Singapore, so we banded together. It’s probably fair to say there was some trepidation about whether we should attempt the climb under the conditions. But collectively we mustered the confidence and decision to aim to get to the next base station and decide then whether to continue or pull out – i.e. “let’s try it”.  We had decided to climb through the night so as to rendevous with the sunrise around 5am, and descend in the morning. And so belong a very long night.

We set off into the dark sporting head-torches, clad in waterproofs, with rain and cloud swirling and blasting all around us: Through the night the weather conditions were just consistently bad: driving wind, swirling cloud, constant blasts of high wind, which on a few occasions was laced with hail and sleet which really really stung.  To put it in perpsective: At one stage the wind suddently blasted my headtorch off my head! I hadn’t ducked for cover in time.  Thankfully it landed at the feet of one of the other climbers some meters below/behind me so was able to retrieve it (critical if climbing at night!).  We briefly saw the full moon rise over the horizon before we dissappeared into clound again.  Cynthia (Sharons sister) unfortantely succumbed to altitude sickness and wasn’t helped by a tummy bug she’d picked up in Tokyo that afternoon.  The only sensible thing to do for her was to pull out by checkin into sleeping digs at station 7, and agreed to meet at base station 5 next day.  The climbing just gets harder and harder the more you go on.  Er, except for Sharon that is … her gym addiction pays off at times like this, and she was able to go at a fantastic pace, hardly affected by altitude and reached the summit first.  Altitude sickness hit me quite suddenly and severely at station 9, the last station before the summit. It was horrible: The base of my head/neck just “seized” — to sit, blink, breath, and concentrate on just existing/holding-my-world -together was all I could manage. I’ve never quite experienced anything like it.  The head-pain and nausea where completely and totally debilitating.  I had entered an abyss. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t go on, I couldn’t even go back, and I couldn’t stay there. Thankfully Siong had the foresight to bring some marevellous little pills … the wonders of modern medicine … within 10 minutes I was able to talk again: and slowly within another 15mins my mental and physical faculties started to operate again.  We were well into the snow-line at that stage and saw plenty of people pulling-out at this time to sleep at various stations but at premium prices: mainly due to the freezing temperature, the extreme winds, the altititude. 

Siong also started to feel the effects of the altitude, the shortness of breath, the headache, so we established a similar pace (i.e. 20-30 paces then stop to catch breath for 2-3mins), we climbed together to the summit.  We didn’t make it to the summit for the sunrise, but instead saw it from 150m below the summit where a gap emerged in the weather: between the cloud line below, and the cloud line above: providing some nice photography opportunities.  Meanwhile, those on the summit were at the confluence of the weather and had to take cover as hurricane strength winds and cloud swirled up the other side of the mountain and across the top, and they saw only the mist of the clouds. They seemed keen to get getting outta there and descend … we crossed paths and swapped tips and equipment.  During one of these brief encounters I saw a distracted climber get blown by the wind 6m along a path — way too close to the edge.  The conversation was halted and we all re-focussed on priorities again — safety. 

Reaching the summit seemed like it was never going to happen, we keep turning a corner expecting to see it … only to find yet another vista to climb.  It tedious and draining. When we finally got there the wind was roaring around us. We took a couple of minutes to try walking over the summit-lip to look into the volcano caldera, but nothing was visible in the cloud, and it was apparent we where risking being blown off the top. It was also freezing cold with wind chill factor.  A hasty descent off the summit followed.  Feeling the effects of the altitude diminish was pure relief, but to descend sensibly/safely takes nearly as long as the ascent.  By the time we reached rendevouz with Cynthia at station 5 we’d been climbing non-stop 17-hours (up and down). We were absolutely exhausted.  A green-tea ice-cream provided a momentary energy boost, and within 30 minutes we were wisked away on a bus to Tokyo, and everybody blissfully slept in their heavenly cushioned bus seat (comfort is entirely relative).  On arrival in Tokyo the heat and hummidity was suddenly very welcome again, at least initially  :)

Next day we jumped on the bullet train and were wisked off to Kyoto — the ancient capital of Japan and the cultural centre of Japan.  Having been there before and visited zillions of Shinto temples and shrines … we opted for its other great alternatives: Shopping (i was a bit grumpy about that option), eating (happy), and rehabilitating our legs and feet at the Onsen (extatic about that one).  Onsen is the famous Japanese art of bathing in volcanic hot springs.  Oh, the sheer ecstasy of easing aching limbs into perfectly hot water (42deg – the point just before you start to cook).  And then into the freezing-cold plunge-pool, and then back into the hot pool.  Not sure I’ve got the hang of the Japanese “modesty towel” (judging from some of the looks I recieved), but thankfully Japanese are very accomodating and tolerant.

And now we’re back in Sydney. The cold weather is welcome, but its raining as hard and continuosly as it did the previous 4-weeks before I left.  Was there even an interlude???  It’s hard to believe there’s a drought in Australia.  Its back to work tommorrow, where meantime a project team has arrived from India (I organised this before I went away) ready to commence my next systems development project: A monster of a project to replace 13 systems around Asia Pacific with a single system, including 200 functional requirements spanning content management, multi-lingual requirements, ecommerce, search functions, security, systems integration, software porting, data migration etc … This promises to be its own kind of Mount Fuji    I have been now been conditioned for it well, grasshopper.

LC_MOO vs SL

Throughout ITC213 we’ve used LC_MOO as the primary synchronous communication tool.  Once set up it is clearly a pragamatic, effective and powerful communication tool for groups.  On the downstide, it is perhaps somewhat dated now, 2d, and a standalone platform.

Comparing MOO to contemporary alternatives is somewhat unfair due to the age difference. Like, comparing the legendary Model T ford to a modern car perhaps.  However is is useful because for most comparisons MOO still stands out as an emitentely suitable and effective tool.

However, SecondLife (SL) possibily starts to be a contending alternative now. For example, some of the educational activities available in SL are discussed here: http://edumuve.com/tour/, and here http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki

Put the 3d elements aside, is the chat as effective in SL as MOO?  I suspect that with further evaluation the chat capability could be found to be as effective, or enhanced.  SL supports Audio, e.g. from lecturer.  Additionally physical gestures can be added to conversations, adding to the immersive experience.

Today I visited: Sydney opera house, Various Shops for Avatar clothes/jewerelly, and SL weapons (yikes), freebie island to get some bits and bobs for my avatar, but the best was the trip to NASA Epcot Centre and JPL Laboratories where I flew around in one of the moon landers.  The ability to stream media on a cinema screen (quicktime projection) is really quite remarkable — whilst watching the movie I can, if a i want to, spin around to look at and talk to others, whilst keeping an eye on the movie screen.  The behaviour supported in this regard is quite realistic. 

And if you’ll excuse me I have more exploring to do … Bye!

LC_MOO avatar updated

I’m reaching the end of ITC213, in fact, it is the end and the next LC_MOO session is the last

I figure i’d get my LC_MOO avatar dressed-up for the occasion to the extent possible in LC_MOO (er, Ascii art).  A copy for posterity:

                               “”"

                 "   "                 """""""      ""        "       "         ""       """""""""""""""""""""""""""               ~~~ | ~~~                 (.)  (.)           [         Let's party!                  ___           /                   ~

Comment: Ian[213] is specially dressed for the party tonite. Sporting torns bleached jeans, thai-dye tee shirt, and a sombrero with a 2ft rim which brushes people that get too close. (He's having a night off the pirate theme). With a habit of getting drunk at some party most people are relieved to know he's the type to fall asleep (rather than get rowdy or amorous ... but don't tempt him).

POD work 28 Oct 2008

POD group 4 dialogue for POD task 3 attached here.

POD task 3: Blogging

Early in the course in one of our MOO sessions we were discussing Blogging tools, and preferred/selected sites and tools people were using.  Somebody came out with the statement “all blog sites/tools are the same”, which was a bit of a convesation stopper.

At the time, I recognised that there was something I didn’t agree with in that statement, but didn’t know exactly what it was at the time and couldn’t articulate it in the time available and everything else that was going on in the group dialogue.  From a functional perspective: sure, all blog site tools largely have the same objective – ability to keep something like an online log or diary, and then some. 

However, now I’m at the end of the course and having built up a body of experience in the use of Blogging tools (WordPress, Blogger, CSU Interact, ISPG Moodle) and that comment is still bugging me.  Because I have to say that they’re not all the same.  Whilst they may share largely the same purpose … their usability (ease of use, consistency, ease of learning), capabilities, flexibilities are VERY different. 

WordPress has been a joy to use. 

Blogger, not so impressed.

ISPG Moodle fairly rudimentary but relative simple and therefore easy to use.  The use and appearance of a “Tag cloud” within the Site is very good.

CSU Interact … frankly, I found this one to be bloody hard work.  I can’t seem to add the requisite three entries.  Just one is appearing.  Functionally it seems to attempt/support more capability andmore structure in the content (titles, absract, body, tags, etc) but since I can’t publish some entries that seems of little use.  Perhaps there is a limit to the number of entries I can submit and reached that limit … but if so surely it would notify me in some way. 

So in conclusion, not all Blogging tools are the same.  The user of the blog site needs to be comfortable with how to use it, and importantly … enJOY using it if the blog site is to alive and active with regular updates.  Anything which gets in the way will discourage use.  For commercial businesses those considerations on blogs are probably pushed aside as employee’s as remunarated to forego those expectations and simply use the blog tool provided but I would contend that there are side effects to productivity and quality.

iPod and PodCasting

Today was my birthday (yay).  The celebrations occurred at the weekend … and I’m allowed to because my actual birthdate is somewhat of a mystery (long story, way off topic).

Gifts comprised: clothes, which are

Topic 10 exercise 1: Social Networks Case Study

Patterns of people interactions within the weekly POD sessions:

The social network matrix and diagrams illustrate some recurring patterns:

1. Hopper who announces the agenda has (implicit) interaction with everybody else.
2. Some people interact (respond) more than others
3. Most people interact with Hopper, i.e. respond to a question or prompt.
4. Some people interact with some specific others, a pattern within this appears to be a) people within the same POD group in regard to some related task b) some shared experience, c) humour/rapport d) and other incidental purposes.
5. Some people don’t interact with some specific others within the dialogue.
6. Some peoples interaction contains significantly more use of emoting than others.

5.1  If the analysis were performed on another topic extract the same patterns could generally be found. However there could also be significant variation depending on the following observed conditions:

• Attendence (non attendance, attendance of other session, lateness)
• Participation (there but doing something else, connection drop out, illness)
• Delegation (assigning tasks, e.g. running a section/agenda to somebody else)
• Mood (wide range: low spirited DE students with flu [low level and reluctant participation], jovial high sprited DE student about to graduate [won't shutup], etc)

5.2 Referencing – Pending

5.3 I contend that the CSCW MOO session logs are an example of a complex system in social network analysis.  Because it contains the hallmarks such as recurring patterns of interactions but which can vary signifinicantly subject to too many variables to truly track or control.

Topic 9 exercise 1: Research & Evaluation in Social Computing

Hmmm, unsure what to do with this one.  Will first tackle POD task 4 (heuristic evaluation and come backt to this next week).