Entertainment

Introduction


Fifa 12 image taken from Google Images



Over the years, entertainment has progressed from Pac Man on an arcade machine to the all new and mighty Fifa 12 on the Xbox 360/PS3. Jukebox’s are no longer used, instead we use CD players and to some extent record players. Everything entertainment wise has changed in the last century. In the 20^th century most things would be basic, for example, board games such as the infamous snakes and ladders alongside radios that could only stream up to 4 channels! Nowadays we have everything entertainment wise, we can go to the cinema, we can play on games consoles and challenge people online, we can also do this on the PC/laptop! And not to forget our radios are pretty good, but even they are still improving! We now can access DAB radios and receive better quality radio sound. And rumour has it by 2013 will be the end to analogue television, all televisions will display from digital boxes, this will be the 'digital switchover!'.



Freeview box taken form Google Images



 

D.A.B

Otherwise known as ‘Digital Audio Broadcasting’ is a form of digital radio technology used for broadcasting radio stations. DAB was a European research project that took off in the 1980s and the NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) were the very first to broadcast a DAB channel in 1995 June 1^st.  It is used in several countries, mainly in the European mainland. In 2006, 1000 stations used the DAB format to broadcast worldwide!

What can DAB do? Well it’s looked upon to be a more ‘reliable’ and ‘robust’ system… It can apparently offer more channels than a traditional analogue one, and has a better noise quality in hearing.

Advantages:

• 
  

  

  An example of a DAB radio taken from Google Images

  
  

  DAB automatically tunes into all available radio stations (offering a better list of which an analogue would produce)
• Can carry radio text from the station (a real time feature you couldn’t do with analogue)
• DAB receivers can display the time of day as it is encoded into transmissions
• Reception quality is a lot better then analogue (like a vinyl to a CD)
• Less pirating interference

Disadvantages:

•  DAB is sometimes still looked to be in BETA production still, having some minor holdbacks to some people (analogue has a better coverage)
• DAB requires digital signal processing techniques to convert from the received digitally encoded signal from the analogues audio content
• Less pirating can also be a disadvantage… (The music scene I know for a fact that some UK rappers have made it big today through playing their music on pirated stations)



Sound wave taken from Google Images



In my own experience, I haven’t yet used DAB however I rarely listen to the radio anyway! However I am a man for wanting good quality sound in my ears so as DAB is a high quality form of radio, I would definitely give it a go, also there’s a possibility that I could find a radio station that I haven’t yet come across that delivers all of my favourite types of music!  

Games on phones



Snake printscreen taken from Google Images



Every boy would have heard of a type of gaming console, fact is you can also play decent games on your phone!? Crazy as it may seem, you can, you play classics such a ‘Snake’ and ‘Tetris’ and this can be for all ages, although games are seen to be played for teenagers and young children, adults are now joining in to play their old games!

Advantages:

• Some games are free to download
• Easier to pass time by playing a game (if on the tube going to work)
• Some games are educational and can actually benefit your learning
• When you want to be entertained and there’s nothing else you can do you can get you phone out

Disadvantages:

• Drains the battery out of your phone
• Can be seen as a waste of time
• Potential chance to get addicted
• Not as good quality as a proper gaming console

In my own experience, I have had some games on my phone, but I thought they were very plain and boring with really bad graphics as I’m used to HD graphics on a big screen. They also drained my battery life down so fast so I was always charging my phone which is technically bad for its health, so I ended deleting all the games on my phone. So in my opinion I think they are a waste of time, however, others would disagree.

 

Addidcted 'gamer' skit taken from Google Images



Digital Cameras



As a whole, these have a made a massive hit on our way of seeing things through a view finder, and a lot of people use them! They can be used anywhere at anytime. Although, these cameras can produce millions of pixels to produce clear results, some professional photographers still use he old film cameras…. Why? Well, the main reason is that film cameras are perfect for end results there are no gaps of which you would encounter with on a digital one no matter how many mega pixels it has.

Advantages:

• 
  

  

  Pentax K1000 film camera

  
  

  You can see the results on the actual camera screen
• Different modes to suit specific shots
• Averagely priced, so affordable
• Most are waterproof
• Can shoot in night mode
• Total VFM (Value for Money)
• Most can video record
• Some allow you to edit images on the camera screen
• Good face detection technology

Disadvantages:

• Quite temperamental
• Batteries are known not to be the best
• Better digital cameras are really expensive
• Memory card problems are also rife
• Personal preference can also interfere with the photographer



In my own experience, take AS Photography as one of my other subjects during my A level career, I personally  own and use a Nikon D3100 this camera alone cost me a lot of money but has very specific features such as up to 7 different modes alongside 14 auto focus points and 15 mega pixels. This camera has done me wonders so far into my as photography course and I found it not to hard to learn use it, although I don’t know everything about the camera, I will learn as I carry on, learning new camera skills/techniques. But before I got this Nikon, I didn’t really like the digital cameras as I felt the quality was bad and that they were very temperamental unlike my Nikon DSLR.



Nikon D3100 DSLR camera



Education

Education

Within the information age education has blossomed to be one of the many fast and ever growing topics. As you can see the vast technology leaps of main frame computers to wireless laptops alone to help in an everyday average school. In today’s lessons some of us may find instead of using a traditional book, we will be given a hyperlink instead which would lead to an ‘e-book’ to learn yesterday’s lesson of by heart…

But with all this technology growing rapidly in our information age, we are slowly cutting out our normal things to do like note taking and communicational skills towards others. I will be talking about how education is used within the classroom and at home.

Books taken from Google Images

E-Book

An E-Book, otherwise known as an electronic book is basically an online book. Viewed as a webpage, enabling the decoder to flick too and thro from various pages. They can hold all the information that a book would hold and also you have the benefit of crisp/clear pictures within an e – book allowing you to zoom in/out on anything, you wouldn’t be able to do this with a book now would you?

Amazon Kindle 

E – Books first started out in the early 1990s. E – Book readers became apparent, as for today’s most famous electronic reader would be Amazons ‘Kindle’. These Kindles have done amazing with many households owning one. Now in the educational world an E-Book would be perfect for a student/pupil… The user would be able to download certain types of text and books to help them learn/revise. Here are some advantages/disadvantages for an E-Book:

Advantages:

• You can take an E-Book home
• Cuts costs of paper
• They are fairly reliable
• Could save teachers some time
• It’s a new fun way to learn
• Everyone would be in the same position/vote

Disadvantages:

• Battery life can run out when needed (whereas a paper - based system this would be eliminated)
• Very expensive (school would have to pay a lot to ensure that every student had one)
• E-Book formats are not really that contemporary (meaning upgrades would be regular, this could be seen as time wasting)
• What would happen if stolen (not likely for someone to want to still an exercise book)
• They would have to be protected from things that would damage it e.g. water, hot surfaces, snow etc…)

In my own experience, I have actually never lost one of my school revision/exercise books, and although the information may be on a book it isn’t to hard to correct mistakes, whereas if a mistake was made on an E-Book the whole class could be held back a lesson to actually fix the problem, although this may be a rarity it is still in the equation to happen…

Although I am used to paper based systems I would be happy to transfer to an E-Book to learn as its fun exciting and it’s a lot harder to lose. Some students would find it a lot more beneficial towards them and their learning. I would personally back and support the idea if the change were to happen to my school.

SIMS

This is actually a form of technology made to help ease the life of a teacher. SIMS actually stands for (School Information Management System) and is used by more than 21,000 schools in 150 local authorities across the UK. In the sense of education a lot of schools use this to make everything organised and easy to carry out. SIMS can do many things, and can check the following;

SIMS print screen taken from Google Images

Personal details – Having everyone’s personal details means that it is very easy for the teacher/substitute teacher to know how able their students are allowing to make more precise decisions and what is best avoided.

Attendance/Registration – This allows teachers and the school itself to keep an accurate track of whose attending and who isn’t. Having software that keeps up with attendance means you can find gaps and work to improve the statistics of the school attendance. It would also allow you to find who may be skiving or an unreasoned absence, this does happen, and by finding out the school is able to help and try to fix why those matters might be.

Academic performance – Like I mentioned above, this could be simply help a student progress to higher levels as it may also find a student struggling that may need help or moved to a more able class for him/her to benefit.  

Behaviour logs – One of the more beneficial parts of SIMS. As we all know, disruptive pupils can have an effect on a working class. Nipping it in the bud not only means you’ve helped the class itself not to be lured into misbehaving but for them to carry on achieving, and allowing a contract for the misbehaved student means they may pull their socks up too.

Photo – This is a very simple but very beneficial thing for a teacher, having new students and new classes, having pictures for every one of your student’s means that you are then able to see whose who!

Timetable – Not everyone always knows where there going, this isn’t just for students but it can also be for teachers too. Especially cover teachers who don’t really know their way around the school.

Advantages:

• Helps schools manage the whole student construction circle
• Allows you to keep a constant track on students
• Saves paper
• Teachers can access information easily
• Maintains real time information (teachers can edit the information keeping it all up to date)
• SIMS can be accessed from home this means teachers/parents can still be updated

Disadvantages:

• SIMS can fail to work, for example a power cut (this is when a paper based registration could be seen as a better thing)
• If the information got into the wrong hands that could be a big problem as well as a reputational one…
• Very expensive to up keep

In my own experience, my school itself runs SIMS and so far it hasn’t really failed at all, keeping all information intact and up to date. And another thing for me to witness, is for a new teacher to learn its class pretty quickly due to the functions that SIMS can perform. Without SIMS how long would it of taken the teacher to learn the class? This then concludes that it save a lot of precious school learning time. A lot of students complain about situations like these as do the parents, so by having SIMS this could be eliminated down by quite a fair amount.

SIMS logo

Interactive Whiteboards

Whiteboard taken from Google Images

Now this is a very interesting peace of technology allowing the blackboard/chalk boards to come to an end. But on a serious note, these things are incredible, for teaching these are very much a perk to a teacher, why? Simple, having a projected screen of what you want to show to a class means that everyone in the class can see it, and as its interactive, the students can also come up and interact with it teaching others as well as themselves, it’s a real fun way of learning.

Advantages:

• Everyone can interact with it
• Very easy to use
• Very easy for students to decode information from it
• Allows everyone to work together

Disadvantages:

• A very expensive piece of technology, not all schools can afford to have a few let alone one of them.
• Some teachers take more focus on the new technology rather than the students
• Over activity can occur and can then become a downhill pass rather than a successful one
• Lower ability groups can sometimes slow down the process of the whole class trying to learn

Not everyone knows how to use them, and some students would be scared to use them

In my own experience my school again is fortunate enough to have some whiteboards dotted around most of the classrooms, they are very easy to use and make a fun turn to learning. Many presentations are done on these and we also display the work on there to learn by writing all over it. The one thing I’m not to sure about is the calibration, this can be quite a pain sometimes, taking time off lessons by recalibrating it.

Pupils interacting with the whiteboard taken from Google Images

Life In The Information Age: Introduction

Internet interpretation taken from Google Images

The Information Age

The information age, commonly known as the ‘Digital Age’ or the ‘Computer Age’ this is the idea that has a concept to be related to a ‘Digital Revolution’ otherwise known as an ‘Era’. As the era’s have changed so has the information, what started off to be a creation for calculating numbers faster than that ability of a human advanced at a phenomenal rate to now being in most peoples house holds allowing them to do their weekly shop online!

What does a computer even do? It’s a piece of technology that calculates switches to either be on or off at a pace so fast using the binary code to aid/guide it through. The information age properly took of in the late 1970s when personal computer systems were accessible and by the early 1990s the internet took off too, allowing communications across the globe progressing to networks to secure a technological lifestyle with the perks of educational lifestyle too. As technology is increasing it is never contemporary, this meaning that you are always learning within this technology ‘new becomes old’ pretty fast.

What is the difference between offices from the 1980s to present?

An office 30years ago (in the 1980s) would still be very slow and substantial, but for people on those times would think that this would be quite a fast system, in the 1980s operating systems like 86 DOS were very popular within these times, and printers weren’t around at this time, but type writers were popular and up coming. By the 1990s a typical office had been upgraded slightly, printers were now in action and typewriters were on their way out. Operating systems like 86 DOS were not really used operating systems like Windows 3.0 and Linux had entered the scene making a faster way to communicate with the computer, mouse’s were also making a name for themselves creating new wacky designs for them, at the end of the 1990s, Windows 98 was brought into the scene to, one of the many operating systems still used today. At the present time we now have made a vast improvement, with operating systems like Windows 7 and MAC Lion, making most things user friendly and easy to complete allowing multiple windows to be open at any given time.



Windows 7 print screen taken from Google Images



In the last 30years offices have changed so rapidly, an office back at the beginning would be tiny with a few computers and masses of filing cabinets to fie information. A typical office now would have multiple computers alongside many peripherals, and filing cabinets replaced with excel smart database systems.  

Entertainment

This is possibly the broadest section within 'Online Services'. Mostly preferred to as everyone wants to be entertained, if you weren't you would feel bored and have a low sanity level! some of the major hits within electronic entertainment have been the likes of 'YouTube' & 'Call of Duty (COD)'.

To date there are approximately 117million online gamers with this on the increase 24/7... With such an enormous figure almost every household would have a games console/PC. And to date YouTube there are almost 510 million views on Jeniffer Lopez's new single 'On The Floor (Ft. Pitbull)'.



Jlo Picture taken from Goolge Images



And although Steve Jobs has passed away Apple are still increasing with popularity and well thought products... there is now an App for literally everything! From how to cook a bakewell tart to managing your bank account/accounts!


YouTube

YouTube logo



YouTube is an infamous video sharing website, actually its the largest in the world! With around 51 languages to choose from too. It was created in Febuary 14th 2005 by, Chad Hurley/Steve Chen/Jawed Karim. YouTube actually makes most of its revenue through Google Adsense, this allows thier free space to be used to advertise say the new D&G aftershave for men.

Advantages of YouTube:

• You can upload any video
• All formats are supported
• You can watch what you want to watch
• You are able to access the site at any time
• You can make money from this site by 'Monetizing'
• Movies/TV episodes are avaliable

Disadvantages:

• People can upload replicas this can be fustrating
• Your only allowed to upload 15minutes worth of video unless your a senoir YouTube user
• Advertisments can be a bit annoying at times



In my own expirence, I always use YouTube to check out my favourite artists music videos, I also use it to catch up with some TV that I may of missed. I also have a friend who makes videos around the technology/gaming side and get paid for it! Although it may not be much he is getting paid for something he enjoys. I was thinking of creating my own YouTube to promote Kent artists by making music videos for them and putting them up on YouTube for all to see!



4oD

4oD logo

4oD is a service that allows the user to catch up with TV from channel 4. what makes it unique is that unlike BBC iPlayer, 40D is just for channel 4, no one else. 4oD also make their money via monetizing just like YouTube do. This way, fans who have missed their TV channel can view it on 4oD and they will also make some money out of it too.

Advantages:

• Can catch up with channel 4 programs whenever you want
• It's free to do
• Most channel 4 episodes are up to view

Disadvantages:

• On YouTube you can view everything, on 4oD your restricted to channel 4 programs only
• Adverts can be off putting
• Some people have complained about the layout of the site
• There are better sites at times to watch specific stuff

In my own experience I have used 4oD and I did find it easy to use, however, I did feel that the adverts lingered more than other sites adverts would go on for but that was 4oD for me. Without being to hard on critizing it, I would be more likely to use sites like YouTube and BBC iPlayer to view/catch up with my TV programs. However for what 4oD is and for what it is I would say that this service is very good but it very restricted.

4oD printscreen taken from Google Images

RPGs

WOW logo

RPG other wise known as a role playing game, a good example for this would be WOW (World of Warcraft) this an online game created by Blizzard, WOW currently has 10.3 million subscribers. It is actually the largest online game in the world at the moment which is a massive achievement. WOW is also viewed as a 'MMORPG' this is a game that is secured by a server leaching out to all its users.

Within the game you can choose a character, then on you explore the WOW universe making friends joining groups and leveling up to become the most notorious character. Along the way there are challenges, imaginary weapons/animals to collect, and lots more!

Advantages of a RPG:

• Great gaming experience 
• Can create a lot of imagery stuff 
• Meet new people
• Play against people globally 
• Enter championship ranks to earn some money from it

Disadvantages:

• Can be time wasting
• RPGs are all very similar so they can get boring after a while 
• Gaming has been statistically proven to be unhealthy 
• If it's online it could get laggy at times

In my own experience I only played one RPG from what I played I liked it, but I knew that if I got it I would have to spend a lot of time on the game to actually enjoy it... other than that I used to play a lot of games when I was younger, these days I've seemed to of grown out of that stage and focused on more better/beneficial things like sports/mates/school grades. 

WOW random game play print screen taken from Google Images

I do have a few mates who are still drawn into these games., and to be truthful they get obsessed, and all they want to do is play more and more, for example, kids skive school to play the latest game out! I just don't see the point, but that is just my own opinion, and of course there will be people out there that will argue against my views.

Download Services

Download Services



In the word of ICT you are constantly around downloading types of software that being at home to school to work! All this downloading is completed by the use of the internet... it is most commonly known as 'file - sharing'. There are so many sites now online that will allow you to illegally and legally download files such as music/films/videos/books/video games/documents.



Napster logo



The most famous file sharing site of the time would most definately have to be Napster. This site started off actually between a few friends wanting to share thier music files for free, little did they know what the internet could do! Napster naturally blew up! Getting to literally everyone, but unforunately they got sued and were now going thorugh bankrupcy... although it got sued by musicians, some musicains thought it was a really good invention/idea! However due to losing it's battle in court now Napster is an illegal music download site, one of many! And yes, there are illegal music downloading sites still out there trying to seek cover.

Statistically, about 1.67m people download illegally with that increasing in the future years. Making a loss of 45m in thier revenue, whereas, stastically, 5% out of 100% download files legally. Although figures are increasing for illegal downloads, legal downloads are on the increase too!

PDF Files



PDF File logo



PDF file otherwise known as a 'Portable Document File' is an open standard file created in 2003 by the Adobe Systems. It's mainly used to represent the documents of operating systems/software/hardware in a smaller but exact matching file! PDFs are often used on the internet as they are very easy for the decoder to get too and to extract information from the file.

Two types of PDFs exist: native PDFs and scanned PDFs. A native PDF is a PDF that is made from a document that was electronically processed. A scanned PDF is one by scanning a  paper document using a scanner.

Advantages of a PDF file:

• You don't need a certain software to use/open it - therefore it is accessable to everyone
• A PDF is a 'read only' file, so it cannot be altered without leaving an electronic footprint
• PDF files offer Document Level Security
• They open quicker than a word document
• It is under FreeWare
• you can scan compressed images into a PDF File

Disadvantages:

• Difficult to edit
• Quite a fair few types of PDFs... That can confuse people
• the two types of PDF can also be hard to edit into a wordable format - however, there are sites that can work thier way around this problem

In my own expirence, I haven't really used PDF files as I have never really needed too! However if i wanted a compressed word file to be on the internet and to be downloadable I would use a PDF file to do this. In hindsight, some video games now have a PDF manuel to use the game online on thier website so they save money by printing out all these manuels. Only downside to this is that not every 'gamer' has access to be online to view this!

Patches

A patch is a piece of software completely designed to help aid a user to fix their computer problems… this could be from updating a computer program or its supporting data to bugs/viruses other wise known as ‘security vulnerabilities’ as well as the general up keep of a computers life, so things like the usability and the actual performance.



PS3 system upadate print screen



There are also patches for computer games so I could say that most boys would know what I’m going on about when I say ‘the new map in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare needs an update due to glitches’. And without a doubt these patches happen very regularly within computer games.



Although a patch is meant to fix problems, some are poorly designed and can actually but on a load more problems other wise known as ‘software regressions’. To have a successful patch you need a sturdy/reliable patch management, so basically that means the actual process of using a plan of what they should be specifically applied to at a spot on time.

Advantages of Patches:

• Upgrades your game/computer
• Makes your software more reliable/faster
• Newer software means newer perks
• Updates are normally fast and virus free

Disadvantages:

• Software regressions are rare, but do happen…
• Can be time consuming to go through with
• You may actually prefer the older software to the new installed one



I do have some background within patching, as I have an Xbox 360, their games are always getting patched, epically gun games with big party maps. Also sometimes the whole layout of the Xbox 360 gets changed around so you have to download that to play online with your friends. Most updates are relatively quick, but the better bandwidth you have the quicker it will install/download.

Xbox 360 Elite

Software

A collection of data that guides the computer what to do as a task is what software is. Software is intangible unlike hardware where it can altered ad edited to what you want it to do, software you can’t do that. Obviously there are many types of software that are up for grabs within the internet… some will be free to download like ‘Open Office & Anti Virus AVG’ two of the many examples of free software, and some you have to pay for such as ‘Norton’s Security & Adobe Photoshop CS5’.

Software 'user friendly skit' taken from Google images

You can also use software to improve your computers hardware otherwise known as ‘device drivers’ these are very common within businesses/organisations/small companies, because whether it be web designing to photography editing there will be a device driver to enhance these!

Advantages of Software:

• Freeware is available
• Easy to handle
• User friendly
• Can be very beneficial to the user

Disadvantages:

• Malware can sometimes be accidentally downloaded with software
• It’s hard to edit software
• Needs to be regularly updated



Open Office logo



In my own experience I know a fair bit about software. I know trust worthy software as well as malicious software. Before we had Microsoft Office, we actually downloaded the free ware Open Office, this was basically the same as Microsoft Office, but didn’t have as much of the perks and wasn’t as neat, however it did the job, and I could save it to a file where I could open it up at school to work further more on it. Another example me of using software would be using iTunes, within this software I can keep all my music for free, however I also have the capability to purchase new music/books/videos on that software etc…

Without software, I can firmly say that we would struggle and we would definitely not have any device drivers to enhance our hardware, so it’s quite an interesting thought. And new software is been designed all the time, it’s hard for it to be contemporary.





Banking

Online Banking

One important perk of e – commerce is online banking, this has slowly been evolving to be something great. This basically means that you can access your bank as exactly how you would do it in person. You can do all the same things, and you can transfer money to other accounts and create branch accounts with step – to – step guides. However there are people who would argue ‘is it safe?’ in answer to this FAQ, I would say that a vast majority are very safe, yes you have all your details on there, but so does your high street branch… there’s no real difference apart from you can access your bank online. You can make it more secure by adding questions that only ‘you’ would know, a lot of people do this, yet loads don’t bother as they feel more trust for the online banking systems.

Egg logo

There is actually an online bank that is only accessible online… this online bank is called ‘Egg’. Egg banking PLC is a British internet bank owned by Citigroup, and was established in 1996, it was properly launched in 1998 and is now the largest online bank system. They specialize in savings, credit cards & general insurance. Although it used to offer loans and mortgages it now longer does not.

The key to online banking is simple, its trust, without these the  systems simply wouldn’t function as no one would want to use them, luckily for us security is always improving. Without security these banks wouldn’t exist...

Advantages of Online Banking:

• Having an online bank means you don’t have to travel to the high street
• Can check your statements whenever you wish
• Accessible 24/7 unlike high street banks
• You can save the actual business itself from printing costs as they can send you information direct to your e – mail or bank account itself

Disadvantages:

• Hackers are always trying to break into online banks
• Security checks can be off putting and can be time consuming
• As it is a fairly new thing not everyone really trusts it
• Unlike a high street bank you can ask away, with an online bank it’s very hard to seek help

I myself don't use online banking, why? I'm not the biggest fan of it, although I would trust the service, I prefer face - to - face communication, where as if I do get in a sticky situation I know that help is only down the road. However I can see why others would use online banking, especially those who don't have access to a local bank.

Contemporary IT News

The BlackBerry Outage

BlackBerry logo

This outage hit us BlackBerry users in October 10^th 2011, literally a week ago.  It started off with people complaining about their BlackBerry’s not being able to send messages and their internet being really slow if not that not working at all... people then started getting angry and expressing their issues on social network sites such as Twitter. However RIM, said that all the services were operating normally, not for long though... on the 11^th, people all over EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) started complaining about the same thing! 

RIM then posted on Twitter that they were experiencing problems with the main server and that the problem would be resolved soon... for a day it was fixed but then fell back down again! And this time even America had issues with the server experiencing all the same problems as EMEA.

Apples 'iPhone' with BlackBerrys 'Bold' taken form Google images

By October 13/14^th BlackBerry were now working again! Overall, this situation had left millions of users annoyed and statistics showed that 1 in 5 BlackBerry users went and got an iPhone... amazing! This shows that one little network breakdown can cost you so much!  And from what’s happened it’s obviously hit BlackBerry hard. The cause was believed to be due to sever problems within RIM’s slough data centre.

RIM & BlackBerry received some very harsh criticism though this was that many of the ‘Corporate’ customers had not lost any signal at all. Obviously this caused a massive up roar and may have been the reason why people left for Apple, as they thought they would get treated better as a customer.

I actually own a BlackBerry so I have a personal experience within this dilemma, at first I thought it was my phone playing up, not noticing other people complaining. However, when I queried it with some friends they said the same thing, that’s when we realised it was BlackBerry themselves! Although I had stable connection for a few days, I was able to complete a lot more school work without my phone buzzing every minute! And it has been heard that all BlackBerry users are getting a free £60 to spend in the BlackBerry app store, so not a bad result.

BlackBerry App World logo

London Riots 2011

Mark Duggan fatally shot by MET police

This was a world wide event, making headline news for days on end, as well as reaching international news. It started on the 6th August as a peaceful march for the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan throughout the Tottenham district. This then lead to rioting that was the catalyst of what had happened to Mark... the rioting then spread to several other districts including Merseyside/Birmingham/Bristol/Greater Manchester/West Midlands. 



These riots had taken place throughout the 6th till the 10th August. Through these tough times 5 people had died, 16+ members of the public were injured (including, muggings, assault, arson) and a further 186 police injuries were endured... A whole nation was but to a stand still for 4 days and 4 nights, the damage was incredible adding up to an estimated £200 million pounds worth of damage was created! Family's home were burnt to nothing, businesses were robbed and trashed, even cars were stolen.

Bus as a result of arson in the London 2011 riots

In an overview, 3,100 people were arrested of which 1,000 had been charged, a total of 3,443 crimes were committed and unfortunately there were 5 people who had died in a result of this result...


People now ask who was to blame? A lot of people blamed it on the 'younger generation' however statistics show that those who have been arrested are all ages and combine a staggering 41 different nationalities. Even school helpers were charged. The thing is we all know how they communicated, and BlackBerry Messenger is the answer to this. A very smart move of those gang leaders, as for 'BBM' connections cannot be traced so they had a 'safe' way to communicate to their youngsters to hit certain places at certain times. People also believe that 'Twitter' was used as well in a similar process.

Jamie Waylett one of many to be charged

It just goes to show that everyone one of all 'classes' were involved. Jamie Waylett otherwise know as a bully in the 'Harry Potter' chronicles has been charged for arson involving petrol bombs to cars, although you didn't think matters could get worse, he was also charged with planting/growing Cannabis in his bedroom, a total of 15 plants were taken from his bedroom. Jamie's actions have left him with next to nothing with disgusted friends and family surrounding him. How did the police catch offenders like Jamie? Well, CCTV played the biggest role, as the riots progressed well so did CCTV cameras... They were planted all over London to catch offenders like Jamie.

All we know is that the debates are endless and those who are getting charged are increasing slowly showing the public that these actions are simply not allowed and that these ruthless acts have left those who did act inappropriately have been left with such a guilty/sickening conscience.

E - Government

E – Government abbreviated to the terms ‘Electronic Government/e – gov/online government/digital government/connected government’. Basically means the relationship of the government itself and its citizens that surround or follow it.

The whole point of having a digital government is so that everyone is able to access it and its news feeds online… You can virtually have every question answered within the subject matter. The e – government deals with a heavy amount of internet applications daily that try to aid in governments , but they also cover a number of non – internet forms. Moreover, e – government can be portrayed through all sorts of multi – media including ‘television & radio etc…’

Sites like ‘Direct Gov & YouGov’ allow you too many things! The public are now even able to participate in electronic voting! And if you’re ill you could check online at NHS using their expert system to check if your symptoms are worth troubling about over your local GP or doctor…



NHS Direct



NHS Direct logo



NHS Direct is an online expert system created by the government for all the public to use. It is a free service which on top of everything has correspondents to aid 24/7 daily! You can also receive medial diagnosis over the phone. It gives that little bit extra security for people to tell them just in case your local doctors has closed and your worried about your health you can double check on the NHS direct ‘check your symptoms’ to find out if something is actually wrong. A lot of people do rely on this service, and if it wasn’t there and someone was in trouble, ask your self… what would happen?

For many people think services like these don’t really work and are a waste of time. Well, there has been many stories on many occasions were citizens of the public have used this to find out that they have a serious health problem/issue or to find out that they were to paranoid and then they were able to rest with it not on their mind anymore.

Advantages of NHS Direct:

• Saves the Government a huge sum of money
• Easy to use
• Someone’s always there (24/7 around the clock)
• You get fast responses to your questions
• Can get diagnosed over the phone
• It’s a free health service
• It’s a polite service
• Loads of information (caters for everyone!)

Disadvantages:

• Nurses/doctors can take a while to ring you back if it is a busy day in NHS Direct
•  Nothing beats face – to – face communication, especially when it is your health in hand
• The answers to your questions are not always right (for example, there was story on the news were a 5 year old boy had been diagnosed incorrectly and told not to come in to see a doctor… 5 days later he died of bacterial meningitis… NHS blamed it on software problems/issues)
• Not everyone knows how to use it the interface layout could be portrayed to be quite off putting or hard to use to some of the public users.



Computer/Doctor skit taken from Google images



In my own experience, I’ve been quite lucky to be a healthy guy, although in the past I’ve managed to break a few bones I have never had to use NHS direct, and that’s being honest. However, I have been on the website to try it out for myself and in conclusion to this, I generally thought it was an easy site to navigate through, and help was always at hand. But, I didn’t like the fact about the overwhelming questions and information; I guess these questions and informational text have to be made clear to us for it to actually have any success.

Job Centre Plus 

Job Centre Plus logo

This organisation is one of the biggest organisations in the global industry that searches for jobs. As it is an international site, it allows literally everyone to use it with access to the internet. Not only is it online Job Centre Plus has been so successful it also has a public site so the citizens can also use the organisation without using the internet... It gives an opportunity to all those who are signed up with Job Centre Plus an opportunity to find the ‘Mr/Mrs. Right’ for the employer.

This site is best for both the employer and the job seeker. Why? Here are some benefits of Job Centre Plus...

Advantages:

• Various amount of search options
• You can block your resume access (Job Seeker)
• You have the global scale itself to look for your perfect job
• It attracts the both the job seeker & the Employer to search
• Jobs are put into categories
• So many online facilities that again both the job seeker and the employer can use
• The site can provide personal service
• The job seekers resume/CV can reach a lot of people... quickly!
• It has a flexible package system too

Disadvantages:

• Not everyone sees everything that is promoted (therefore everyone can miss out)
• Statistically, only 18% use the site on an average scale
• Many people who use it are unemployed and don’t really have a good resume to boost themselves for a job!
• The staff who work at Job Centre Plus can’t always focus on the job seeker they have to average it out so its all fair
• Not many people have the confidence to ‘upload’ their CV/Resume as they either think it’s simply time wasting or... they feel they will get negative feedback which will throw them off even more

Happy working team - taken from Google images

In my own personal experience I have not yet used this service as I already have a job and I am not currently seeking to find a new one. However, I do remember talking to my neighbour who had subjected it to me as it would be a good idea for me to use it if I were to seek for a job. She then went on to tell me that by uploading her CV/Resume she had got numerous amounts of offers. Even if this was luck or coincidence, it still happened. And therefore it gave me a positive attitude to me that there is a job out there for you, you just have to look hard enough to find it! 

Overall, the site has been a very successful part of e - government put I do feel that this site is aimed at the target audience of 18yrs - 49-50years. So being my age at this moment of time I would personally wait till I was a bit older to then go on to use this service.

Direct Gov & YouGov

Direct Gov logo

Direct Gov

Direct Gov is a site that gives you easy access to government information... It uses simple language so that every one of all social classes can understand it. And according to their website it gets 29million hits a month! So it must be trustworthy and very helpful with those statistics! It is a UK site so it’s only any use to those who live in Great Britain (GB). It is also available through your mobile phone! Direct Gov works very closely to the government itself, why? Because it wants to get out every bit of information out to the public so that they know what’s going on and also it allows newest advice to be given out too. It’s aim is to ‘bring the government and the public together in one place’.

Direct Gov can help the public with literally anything; here are some examples of what its site has to offer:

1. Finding a job
2. Paying Tax
3. Booking your 1^st driving test
4. Finding out other local services such as: NHS clinics/Nurseries/Solicitors etc...
5. Reviews on which school is the right school for your children
6. Passport renewal

Advantages of Direct Gov:

• Has a wide spectrum of information
• It’s all legitimate
• The public have an input on what’s to be said as it is effectively a community between the two
• Not very expensive to run
• Peoples wish’s can be seen to as well
• Disadvantages:
• Decision making can be quite hard at times
• Not everyone is appeased
• Disinterest can be common within sites like these
• Not everyone is willing or able to participate in this site
• Some people can be manipulative to some of the information given out!

YouGov

YouGov on the other hand is practically the US version of Direct Gov, however, they have expanded to Europe, the Middle East and Scandanvia.iso with this information I would say it is on a much larger scale to that of which Direct Gov is at... It gives out similar information and its aims are also very similar, their aim as it stands is to ‘deliver a live stream of continuous, accurate data and insight into what people are thinking and doing all over the world’.

For that aim to happen they must have a constant relationship/feed with the governments and the public as well. But seeing as YouGov covers such a vast majority I would say it wouldn’t be as effective and useful as Direct Gov. Why? Well, Direct Gov is only aimed at the GB citizens, whereas, YouGov simply wouldn’t be able to grab all the information as it has to cover so much.

YouGov logo

Advantages of YouGov:

• Again, there’s a wide range of subjects to choose from
• You can get involved
• Has a constant RSS feed
• You can see whats happening globally
• ‘TellYourGov’ is a way to express your thoughts to YouGov by Twitter/SMS/e-mail etc. I see this as a very good advantage, as you can actually interact through social network sites this means that more of the younger generation would be more likely to take interest!)
• The results of their surveys are regularly revealed on media forms such as newspapers etc... (this can help shape your ideal future’

Disadvantages:

• Having information for everyone can be a disadvantage as you have to know everything if you are going to be reliable and successful
• Can be biased to other countries
• The site is hard to navigate as there is so much information
• Not everybody’s interested in it

Overall, Direct  Gov and YouGov are very similar, they both offer very important government information, it allows the public to see what is actually happening, Ini my own experience, I have actually used Direct Gov, I used it to find out where to get Driving lessons, and after that search it gave me some very good results on where to go locally and the cheapest prices! I was very pleased with the results and i would be very keen to share this with other people who are also looking for similar results!

And as the subjects are very wide spread you can find out all the information you want to find out, as well as keeping up to date with the recent government decisions. I think there are going to involve surveys for what should be debated within the house of parliament and this is all down to those who vote, so in hindsight the public actually know that their say is 100% genuine.

Open to all ears picture taken from Google images