Personal Blogs

Learned about RFID (radio frequency identification) tagging as part of TU100 last year. Recently tried this out by activating a Beat the Street card for the scheme running in Milton Keynes from 1 February to 22 March.

The cards, which are free, have a unique number and an activation code. You enter both while registering on the website at https://www.beatthestreet.me/miltonkeynes and it sets you up an account. The cards are used to ‘tap’ on Beat Boxes, which have been attached e.g. to lamp posts along footpaths across the town. The idea is that if you tap two within a certain time period, it gets registered as a journey and you get points. You can walk, run or cycle between Beat Boxes (I gather driving between them isn’t considered quite the thing).

The scheme is about encouraging physical activity. The company behind Beat the Street is a Reading-based company Intelligent Health (who appear to be based on the Earley Gate side of the University of Reading's campus, near Temporary Office Building 1 where I used to work). They claim to make physical activity a way of life "through expertly delivered, measurable campaigns with long-term, community-wide benefits".

A number of my colleagues were doing this, so I decided I'd have a go. The downside has proved to be that, though it sounds a great idea, I've had very patchy success in getting the Beat Boxes to register my card. Taps on four different beat boxes one day last week only resulted in one actually lighting up, with the result that I didn't get any points. It's been reported that the MK scheme is unfortunately experiencing both technical issues and vandalism. Shame.

Probably as a displacement activity when I should be studying MST124, I’m going to have another foray into Second Life this evening. Studied ‘Virtual worlds’ in Block 4 Part 4 of TU100 last year (ah, I miss TU100).

I first heard of Second Life in around 2007-2008, when rumours were going around that my then-boss, who was on long-term sick leave, had become so addicted to the virtual world that she was spending all night on it, which wasn’t helping her already dodgy work attendance and performance.  So it’s been around for a good while – and has quite probably had its heyday by now.

Here’s what I wrote last year when starting to study this part. The instruction was: “take some time (up to 20 minutes should be about right) to jot down some of your own thoughts about virtual worlds.” As often with TU100, about 1 minute sufficed, but this is what I wrote in response to the prompt questions:

Part of me thinks I’m the type of personality who could really have enjoyed and got into this stuff if I’d been exposed to it. Part of me thinks my personality type doesn’t need any encouragement and I should just get out more.

Section 2 of this part asks the question “What do you think the average game world user looks like?” Well, I’d probably give a stereotypical answer like: Hairy; has their own tankard at the pub with runes carved on it; slightly over-intense in everyday conversation.

Section 2 notes that a survey (Yee, 2006) “concluded that players in virtual game worlds enjoy meaningful relationships and significant emotional experiences, as well as developing skills such as leadership that translate into the physical world.” Well, who wouldn’t want some of that.

Second Life began in 2003, apparently. At the time the TU100 module materials were written, the OU evidently owned several virtual islands within Second Life. An embedded video in this part says that “The Open University is a trailblazer in Second Life”. The video features (former) OU Director of Learning Innovation Niall Sclater talking about the OU’s Second Life activities.

When I first had a go at Second Life while I was actually studying TU100, I only had mobile WiFi, and though I managed to set up an account and get access, it was pretty much a no go – endless buffering and moving in an extremely jerky fashion down a virtual street. I gave up pretty quickly. Now that I’ve actually got a proper broadband connection, let’s see if it works any better.

First off: I had to download the Second Life Viewer, as I’ve bought a new (Windows 10) laptop since I last attempted this. Downloaded it from https://secondlife.com/support/downloads/. Tried to install it and got the following message:

My virtual world attempts seem destined to failure at the moment. Back to calculus.

As per Block 4 Part 1 Activity 1.

• Facebook: for keeping in touch with friends and family. I don't live close to any of my family and Facebook helps us feel in touch in the gaps between the times I can see them. I enjoy seeing the pictures of my young nieces that my brother and sister-in-law post, and the comments about funny things they've done. I'm also connected to some old school friends, whom I haven't necessarily seen in some time, but Facebook allows us to retain an interest in how each other's lives are going. I also have friends and family who don't use Facebook (though not that many!), and I obviously use other means to keep in touch with them.
  

• Twitter: I tweet occasionally, but I'm conscious that I don't feel fully up on the conventions for posting on Twitter nor how to use it most effectively. I mainly use it to follow public figures/celebrities/causes that interest me. I don't spend a lot of time on Twitter per day - usually just a quick scroll down my feed for anything that catches my eye.

Other social networking technologies that I'm aware of:

• Tumblr: I have an account but barely ever used it. Never really figured out what it's for.

• Instagram: I'm aware of this but don't have an account. It seems to be used for pictures rather than words.

• Google Plus: I'm aware this is Google's version of a social network, but I've never used it, though I do use other Google products including Gmail and Picasa Web Albums.

Update 16 Feb: and here are two I forgot (thank you Simon for the reminder that blogs count!):

• Blogger: I have a personal Blogger blog (in addition to this OU study blog). Yes, I do like writing! And I get little scope for it in my current job. Blogging gives me an outlet for creativity, both in the writing and in which images I choose to post

• LinkedIn: I forgot the business network LinkedIn, which I do have a profile on here - though looking at it I realize it's in need of some updating.

Another student on the TU100 Facebook group alerted me to this YouTube video, featuring a clean-cut looking American family talking about how they’ve recently got the internet for their home, and how much the kids are enjoying it. Aside from the US-type cheesiness – and a slight scepticism that surfing timetables are likely to be all that son Peter tries to look up – I didn’t find too much to wonder at in it (and it served to remind me of the one-time existence of Netscape Navigator).

This video though - Teens React to 90s Internet - featuring contemporary teenagers watching and commenting on the earlier video, shows how integrated the internet has become that it’s no longer viewed as ‘a thing’. One girl comments at time 0:56, “This is a commercial for the internet?”. As one who can remember the early 1990s, this seems reasonable in context – though it doesn’t need to be as cheesy as it is – but presumably to these young people, seeing what’s essentially an ad for the internet is a bit like seeing an advertisement for electricity. (“Hey, Dad recently got electricity for our house, and we just can’t stop switching the lights on and off. It’s so much better than the oil lamp …”).

One, presumably young, YouTube commenter left the following, which seems to have got a large number of likes:

But of course email in the early 1990s wasn't like that. Even if people had an email address they didn't check it all the time and you didn't get emails on your mobile. You probably would need to call to let someone know you were on email.

By the time one of the teens in the question time at the end comments “It was SO old!” about the video’s production, I’m losing patience with them a bit, but that no doubt just reflects my age (loosely, mid-40s ...). One of the lads comments “The internet is self-explanatory” – but when it first started to come into homes, it wasn’t. Towards the end, one of the girls is asked “Do you remember the first time you used the internet?” She responds “I actually don’t, cause I’ve been using it my whole life.”

But then it turns out these kids don’t actually know what a modem is. So in a way, were the 90s kids actually more clued up about the mechanics of how you get connected to the net? Today’s teens just expect to be connected and don’t give a thought to how. That's not really a criticism; I don't give a thought to how electric light works either, or hot water - I just expect to have them.

Working through session 4.3 in Block 1 Part 2 made me think about cloud computing services.

Like a lot of people I use Dropbox, a file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc., with headquarters in San Francisco.

What are some other recommended cloud services? How many are out there? I found this PC Advisor article on ‘Best cloud storage services 2015’.

Services they review:

• Dropbox
• Microsoft OneDrive
• Google Drive
• Mega (this is a New Zealand-based company I’d never heard of. But the article reckons it’s very good security-wise. Might look into it.)
• Copy
• Tresorit (also v. secure apparently, but no free package)
• Box (mainly a business service)
• Knowhow
• MediaFire
• Apple iCloud
• Mozy
• Spideroak
• Amazon Cloud Drive

Really interesting material on this module so far. Just watched the video 'Computers through the generations' as part of Block 1 Part 2.

I hadn’t realised all the Colossus machines were destroyed after World War II - how sad, and what an amazing achievement to build a replica. Loved the bit about the Wrens drying their smalls over the top of Colossus because it emitted so much heat.

Looks like there are lots of video clips available on YouTube about the history of computing, e.g. this one. The woman at about 0:36 in seems to be demonstrating the very real possibility of drowning in punched tape.

A very short post to note that having flicked through some of the next bit of Block 1 Part 2 last night, I can see binary numbers coming up, and I remember never understanding them at school. Hopefully it'll be second time lucky though.

Tried out the 'Google yourself' Activity 13 in Part 1 section 4.5.

What was revealed about me?

Expectations before doing this: I’m expecting to have some difficulty finding references to myself, as I imagine there may be a lot of other Emma Thomases out there.

How far down did I have to go before finding a reference to myself?

I scrolled down the first 20 pages of Google hits and couldn’t find a single reference to myself. I gave up after that. I suppose I can at least conclude that I’m reasonably anonymous.

Adding the keyword ‘Essex’ (I did my postgrad degrees at the University of Essex) did bring up my LinkedIn profile page on the first page of hits. Adding the keyword ‘Open’ (I work at The Open University) again brought up my LinkedIn profile page, as the first hit.

What was revealed about other people with the same name as me?

Mainly, that there are a lot of them.

Of the top 10 hits on ‘Emma Thomas’:

• Eight – including the first four – relate to Emma Thomas the British film producer
• One is a link to Facebook profiles of people called Emma Thomas, though it only lists five. Mine isn’t among them (I'm fairly sure I've set it as private).
• One seems to be the website of an Emma Thomas who’s Interiors Editor of Homes and Gardens magazine.

Other Emma Thomases seemingly more famous than me

• Emma Thomas, Muay Thai Fighter
• Emma Thomas, a PCSO for Pembroke (https://www.police.uk/dyfed-powys/136/team/pcso-emma-thomas/)
• Emma Thomas, an injury lawyer at Sacca Law Group in Canada http://www.saccalawgroup.com/staff/emma-thomas/
• a Mrs Emma Thomas on the staff at UWE Bristol
• Emma Thomas, a Welsh netball player

I used to wish I had a less common name (and still do sometimes), but I suppose my name has some advantages.

Relates to Part 1: 1.1 The telephone.