It has been an eventful few weeks since last writing a blog. I received my TMA01 result and completed TMA02, just needs a bit of polishing and I possibly need to stick some glitter on it.

I have completed the first block and have moved onto the second one. I finding this block a little more challenging, and interesting, in equal measures. Boolean algebra and comparison gates, is quite a step up from making pretty shapes in sense. The course is starting to take shape and making me feel a little bit more like a computer scientist.

I have also complete the next online test, I found it to be fairly straight forward. I will try to keep the pace up with studying and get, at least, three weeks ahead. I feel Christmas is a time for family, friends and alcohol, especially alcohol, so I will probably take a few weeks off from studying over that period.

Leaning outcome;

• Attenuation, interference and error correction
  
• Wireless network technologies
  
• GSM and cellular networks
  
• How computers use symbols and formats for data
  
• Protocols and Algorithms
  
• Transistors, and why they are so important
  
• Boolean operators and logic gates AND / OR / NOT

Looking forward to getting my teeth into more of Block two and having a look at TMA03, hopefully I will get back to writing these blogs on a more regular basis.

I won’t win this battle, but I shall still win the war. This week did not go as planned, study wise anyway. When a friend says “do you want to DJ with me on the 8^th. It will be fun, just have a few drink. Don’t worry about work on the Sunday, you will be fine.” I must remember to say no next time. A week of trying to get my set together while working all week doesn’t make much time for study. But all work and no play makes for a very boring life, and after getting 84% on the online test I thought I deserved a mini study break and some fun.

So with notepad and pen in hand it’s time to get my head down and do some study. This week I’m going to concentrate more on going over the notes I have already written as I am still a few weeks ahead. I will also finish off the TMA 01, just need to do the sense part.

Really looking forward to the tutorial on Saturday, I will bring a pen and notepad, my Barbie pink laptop and an apple for the tutor.

Learning outcomes this week are;

I’m getting too old to party till 2am then go to work in the morning

Can’t wait to get back into the books and get back on track. Will defiantly put in double the hours this week.

Business

Apple has been ordered to pay VirnetX $302.4 million in patent lawsuit

by Andrew Liptak, The Verge Online, Oct 1, 2016

This is a story about how after the huge computer giant Apple have been ordered to pay $302.4 million to tech company VirnetX. The court found in favour of VirnetX, a company founded by a group of employees from SAIC, who took Apple to court due to infringements of their patents regarding FaceTime and its secure communications.

Here is a link to the full story: http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/1/13130722/apple-been-ordered-virnetx-patent-lawsuit-facetime

Communities

Facebook’s social network for work will launch in October

by Matt Burgess, Wired Online, Sep 28, 2016

This news story by Matt Burgess from Wired online is a story I have seen on many sites. Facebook have announced they are about to roll out a new side of Facebook just for businesses. The original idea was introduced for its own use at Facebook HQ, it has now made the decision to offer the product to all companies.  

Here is a link to the full story: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/facebook-at-work-launch

Information

Commissioner: UK ‘must avoid data protection Brexit’

by BBC online news, Sep 29, 2016

This was a news article reporting the interview of Elizabeth Denham on the BBC Radio 4’s show PM programme. Ms Denham, one of the UK’s regulator told interviewer Chris Vallance how they needed to be tough on companies like WhatsApp who share their data with their parent company Facebook. She goes on to say the consumer has little confidence with data protection online, this is not surprising when you think of Yahoo admitting that 500 million users had had their accounts breached. Her main concern was that we need to be careful when we leave the EU that our laws are just as tight as the rest of Europe in protecting our online data.

Here is a link to the full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37512419

Entertainment

Pokémon Go servers were hit by 50 times higher traffic than expected

By Alex Hern, The Guardian Online, Sep 30, 2016

Here Alex Hern reveals how the creators of Pokemon Go, Niantic and Google, who provided some of the cloud server service, struggled and failed in part to keep up with the huge player demand for the game when it was first released. In the article Hern shows Niantic and Googles prediction graph of the expected, worse case and actual Cloud Datastore Transactions per second. It shows how wrong they were, with the actual figures being 50 times larger than their expectation and 10 times larger than their worst case scenario.

Here is a link to the full story: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/30/pokemon-go-traffic-google

Public Services

Top health tech awards go to Birmingham GP and Salford Royal NHS Trust

By Rebecca Hill, Sep 30, 2016

Rebecca Hill’s report for www.publictechnology.net showcases some of the winners of the EHI Healthcare IT awards in London. Winners included Masood Nazir, a GP in Birmingham and David Dalton of the Salford Royal NHS Trust.

Here is a link to the full story http://www.publictechnology.net/articles/news/top-health-tech-awards-go-birmingham-gp-and-salford-royal-nhs-trust

Communicating on the move

50% of parents knowingly text their teens while teens are driving

By Chris Matyszczyk, CNet.com, Sep 30, 2016

In this report the writer is highlighting the large percentage of parents that knowingly text their children who maybe driving. In some cases, text the children demanding a reply. 50% of the 1000 parents surveyed admitted to doing this, with only 29% of the drivers admitting to texting back.

Here is a link to the full story https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/50-percent-of-parents-admit-to-knowingly-texting-their-teens-while-theyre-driving/

Now into week two and still very excited and motivated. Although a lot of the study content seems familiar, I’m still putting in one hundred percent into my learning and note taking. I have settled into a comfortable pattern of reading, taking notes on paper then when the session is done, converting those notes into mind maps.

Once again I really enjoyed the weekly live event on Monday. I think my highlight was HJ’s impression of mission impossible, only with cake!

As well as working through the book, I’ve started to read the sense instruction manual. I have created games on ‘Scratch’ in the past, with my eight-year-old son, so most commands are familiar. I’m a self-taught user of ‘Scratch’ so I’m hoping by working through the manuals tasks one by one, I will shake off any bad habits I may have learnt.

This week main learning outcomes for me have been;

• ·         History of computers, First, Second, Third and Fourth Generation.
  
• ·         Power consumption's of differing computers through the last 70 years.
  
• ·         How computers, in a short period of time, have gone from been owned by large organisations to most people having a personal computer.
  
• ·         Moore’s Law.
  
• ·         How to make pretty patterns in Sense.
  
• ·         Sharping up my maths skills.
  

So, so far so good, can’t wait for October to come around and for the course to start for real. Also looking forward to seeing who my tutor is and who is in my tutor group. Next week I’m going to concentrate on reading and understanding the sense guide, and get more familiar with my sense board.  

Here we go, my first blog of many. I have decided to do this once a week as a reflection on how I'm finding studying. I was going to do them every day, but I think I'd bore myself, let alone anyone else reading them.

It's been a busy week in the world of OU learning. I really enjoyed the 'Live Event' on Monday, lots of lovely people sharing their tips and advice, and cake recipes! Followed by the site going live and being able to see what this first module is all about. Then receiving my eagerly awaited parcel, with sense board.....Oh yeah and some books of course.

Once I had everything ready, pens, pencils, rubbers, sticky notes, highlighters, blockbuster style mascot, calculator and bar of chocolate. I read the guide, then started on Block 1. Although there hasn’t been anything that has really challenged me yet, I must say, I have really enjoyed it so far. I have been making notes in one of my many exercise books, then transferring them into ‘mind maps’. I have realised that I need to make lots of smaller mind maps, rather than the colossal one I first did (not sure my printer even prints on paper that big!).

I’ve started to watch the BBC/Open University DVD’s on the train, they seem well produced and very interesting. I also managed to set up my sense board and do all the relevant tests.

The main learning achievements I have taken away from this week’s studying are;

• Introduction to the fast paced development of computers

• The difference between the Internet and the Web

• We live in an increasing information society.

• We need to protect ourselves, with the information we share and from malicious people.

• We all need to think about our online image, not only to the people we know, but the people we have not even met yet.

• Always think about the ethical and legal side of online behaviour.  

Looking forward to this weeks ‘Live Event’ and also getting stuck into the first TMA. I really didn’t know how I’d feel about studying when I started, but so far I really enjoy it and I’m hungry to learn more