Lecture Discussions

Hello there fellow blogers,

After I wasn't able to make Jason's week five lecture, week seven was the first time I had been introduced to this lively American character. After providing us with his knowledge and expert advice on technology, in specific to downloads (with much of this information being completely foreign and new to me)he again took this week's lecture (week 9) to inform us on operating/interacting with software. To re-cap the information and understandings I gathered from his week 7 lecture on downloading, see the dot points below:

Mini Nova: This is able to download Microsoft and adobe files (something which is said to normally cost thousands of dollars to purchase legitamtely).

-Jason advised Microsoft operates under a code

-Portableapps.com, provides free dowloads.

-When you try to delete a file off your hard drive, it hasn't actually been properly erased. Instead you have only delted files name and not the actual file.

-But there is a way you can erase the whole file so it no longer exists on the hard drive.

-"Eraser portable" is a program which can be dowloaded from portableapps.com (mentioned above) and it fully erases these unwanted files from the hard drive.


-An application called 'openoffice.org' is fomred by volunteer workers and provides all that Microsoft office does..but it is free of charge. The only down fall is that because this software does not operate to automatically update itself, this means it has no protection against viruses.

-We were quickly informed of 'blender portable', a site where 3D animations can be downloaded

-Another site which provides software for free public consumption is Sourceforge.net

-However, many of these softwares are not automatically ready for Mac computers

-On a further note re Mac's (which i had no idea about)is that Macs actually can get viruses, but they're pretty small and isn't many of them-definitely on a much smaller level the what PC's can get.

-Additioanlly, we were introduced to the concept of 'Micro-charging'. What i took from this is that micro-charging is where people create applications and then charge a small fee to each person that downloads and uses these applications. In the long run if we can download applications that will save money, whilst providing these people with a small profit then this benefits everyone

-Finally something that we don't normally think much about too much is that the majoriy of things are driven by software- examples being air conditioning systems, cars and so forth. In our everyday lives we don't think twice about how or why a light turns out, the ice maker works or how we can flick the TV on with a remote, we all just used to wanting these things quickly and expecting them as part of our daily routine.

These ideas led us into Jason's week 9 lecture.

This lecture (which he advised would be his last lecture to us for the semester) guided us through the steps you should think about when learning/understanding a new program.

Adobe flash was used as the guiding example, and although he advised many of us may find the content pretty basic-it is important to undersand the simple steps and founding ideas of operation in order to apply the process when using other programs.


Jason advised of the following information when trying to learn a new program:

1: Find out what it is that needs to be done and discover the best software to do it.

2: Make sure you have searched around for different software.

3: Once you've decided on a progam you now need to start finding out how to operate it.

4: It's important to remember you won't be able to learn everything striaght away. This is because good software is meant to have 'deep levels'that you learn over time. Therefore it can take years in order to be able to know and understand all of the tools/aspects.

5: Make sure you don't approach the program being scared. By Playing with it you'll most likely be able to do simple things.

6: Therefore by starting with the simple functions you are already familar with, you'll generaly find you can already use about 20% of tools/features through knowledge from using other softwares.

7: You MUST continually save your work so you don't end up screwed. Jason quoted "Save your work damnit!". You shouldn't ever save on top of the same file. Therefore through multiple saving/different versions under seperately named files you will have far less risk of loosing you work. Remember to name the file something you'll be able to recognise and recall.

8: You can definitely try search the help area for your questions, but Jason said the help section normally "sucks". Alot of them are made for advanced users of the software and are always much help to first time users.

9: Try not to get caught up with one problem, go onto something else or navigate in other areas. You can search google for tutorials that explain the software's functions (but never pay for any of them, keep searching until you find a free site).

10: If you become a member of online forums, you'll be able to find discussions where people have posted answers to many common questions (which may help you with your queries).

11: If you need futher help, you can use tutorial books or videos-but again, don't buy them!

12: You really shouldn't need to take a learning course for the software (Jason advised, dont!)because you can source al the information on the web for free.

13: A downside to learning a new software is that because it may take considerable time, in this time a new update of the software may come out and you'll have to learn these new functions as well.

14: Finally, software is 'all about content'.If you're able to make something that you felt was pretty simple to do, then this generally means alot people will be able to as well. In order to avoid making cliche things (e.g picture changes in photoshop) it is important to keep searching, trying new things and doing some in depth research.

Therefore the key is to keep trying, searching and practising and you will find what you need!