Anyway, check out the questions and my answers below. If you do notice something is wrong let me know and I’ll try to fix it up. If you haven’t picked up on it yet, my answers are highlighted in the question already.

Lecture 1

1. The automatic connection between various Bluetooth devices creates a(n) piconet, also called a wireless personal area network (WPAN).
2. A WLAN is an extension of a wired LAN, connecting to it through a device called a(n) wireless access point.
3. Wireless Application Protocol version 2.0 (WAP2) provides a standard way to transmit, format, and display Internet data for small wireless devices such as cell phones.
4. Digital Convergence refers to the power of digital devices to combine voice, video, and text processing capabilities, as well as to be connected to business and home networks and the Internet.
5. A(n) Universal Handset is a 1.5-pound device that allows military personnel in the field to communicate through a variety of methods using wireless technologies.
6. Industrial control motes are remote sensors that can connect to a WLAN, then collect data and transmit it to a central location.
7. True or False: Bluetooth and WLAN 802.11b/g devices both operate in the same radio frequency, potentially resulting in interference between such devices.
8. True or False: Wireless devices emit high levels of RF while being used.

Lecture 2

1. The number of times a cycle occurs within one second equals the frequency of a wave.
2. A signal unit that represents two bits is known as a dibit.
3. The height of a carrier wave is known as the amplitude and can be measured in volts (electrical pressure).
4. Phase modulation (PM) changes the starting point of the cycle, while the amplitude and frequency of the carrier remain constant.
5. Phase shift keying (PSK) is a binary modulation technique, similar to phase modulation, in which the transmitter varies the starting point of the wave.
6. Spread spectrum is a technique that takes a narrow band signal and spreads it over a broader portion of the radio frequency band.
7. In FHSS, the sequence of changing frequencies is called the hopping code.
8. A(n) Barker code (or chipping code) is a particular sequence of 1s and 0s that has properties that make it ideal for modulating radio waves, as well as for being detected correctly by the receiver.

Lecture 3

1. A(n) amplifier essentially increases the amplitude of an RF sign.
2. Half-duplex transmission sends data in both directions, but only one way at a time.
3. True or False: Telephone systems use a type of switching known as packet switching.
4. Packet switching requires that the data transmission be broken into small units called packets.
5. A(n) directional antenna radiates the electromagnetic waves in one direction only, and can help reduce or eliminate the effect of multipath distortion if there is a clear line of sight between the two antennas.
6. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) serves as the primary regulatory agency for telecommunications.
7. The radio frequency spectrum is the entire range of all radio frequencies that exist.
8. Adaptive array processing replaces a traditional antenna with an array of antenna elements.

Lecture 4

1. A(n) isotropic radiator is a theoretical perfect sphere that radiates power equally in all directions.
2. Directional antennas are used when you need to transmit a signal in one direction only.
3. In free space loss, RF waves tend to spread away from the source of the signal (the antenna).
4. The length of a single RF sine wave, or the wavelength, is what determines the size of an antenna.
5. Smart antennas “know” where the mobile receiver is, and can track it and focus the RF energy in that particular direction to avoid wasting energy and to prevent interference with other antennas.
6. In most wireless communications applications, one transmitter communicates with several mobile clients. This is called a(n) point-to-multipoint wireless link.
7. The space between two antennas would be more accurately represented by something similar to an ellipse. This elliptical region is called the Fresnel zone.
8. A(n) Spectrum analyzer displays the signal amplitude and frequency, and can also detect interference in a particular frequency or channel.

Lecture 5

1. FIR uses a modulation scheme called  4-pulse position modulation (4-PPM), in which information is conveyed by the position of a pulse within a time slot.
2. At the heart of the Bluetooth RF layer is a single radio transmitter/receiver (transceiver). This single tiny chip is called a Bluetooth radio module.
3. A group of piconets in which connections exist between different piconets is called a(n) scatternet.
4. In sniff mode, a slave device listens to the piconet master at a reduced rate so that it uses less power.
5. The upper ZigBee layers include mechanisms used by the devices to join a network, which is called association.
6. The superframe is a mechanism for managing transmission time in a piconet.
7. Encryption is the process of encoding communications, and ensures that the transmissions cannot be easily intercepted and decoded.
8. Sequential freshness is a security service used by the receiving device that ensures that the same frames will not be transmitted more than once.

Lecture 6

1. The WiMedia Alliance was formed to support the development of any necessary higher-layer protocols and software specifications for 802.15.3 and to perform various other administrative functions.
2. Quality-of-service (QOS) capabilities allow devices to request more channel access time in order to prioritize high-volume, time-sensitive traffic, such as voice stream.
3. The piconet coordinator (PNC) is the device that provides all of the basic communications timing in a piconet.
4. The frame check sequence (FCS) is a 32-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field, a common technique for detecting data transmission errors.
5. Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks flood a Bluetooth device with so many frames that it is unable to communicate.
6. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a symmetric key encryption mechanism introduced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States.
7. Hand-off is the ability of a device to move from one master or PNC to another without getting disconnected from the network in a network that extends beyond the communications range of each device that controls the communications.
8. Spectrum conflict is the potential for technologies using the same frequency bands to interfere with each other to the extent that they sometimes perform poorly when used within close range of each other.

Lecture 7

1. A(n) Mini PCI is a small card that is functionally equivalent to a standard PCI expansion card.
2. The AP will automatically select the highest possible data rate for transmission, depending on the strength and quality of the signal. This process is called dynamic rate selection.
3. The 802.11 standard defines a local area network that provides cable-free data access for clients that are either mobile or in a fixed location at a rate of either 1 or 2 Mbps, using either diffused infrared or RF transmission.
4. Even though it contains data, a 802.11 frame’s size is not measured in bits but in time slots.
5. One type of channel access method is polling. With this method, each computer is sequentially polled, or asked if it wants to transmit.
6. 802.11b standard power management allows the mobile client’s NIC to be off as much as possible to conserve battery life but still not miss out on data transmissions.
7. In the 802.11b standard, management frames are used to set up the initial communications between a client and the AP.
8. The Distributed coordination function interframe space (DIFS) is a standard time interval during which all clients must wait between transmissions of data frames.

Lecture 8

1. IEEE 802.11a uses the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) band.
2. With an 802.11a WLAN, each AP can use one of 8 available channels.
3. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) primary function is to split a high-speed digital signal into several slower signals running in parallel.
4. True or False: The IEEE 802.11g standard specifies that it operates in the same frequency band as 802.11b
5. Wireless bridges are designed to connect two wired networks or to extend the range of a WLAN.
6. Authentication is a process that verifies that the client device has permission to access the network.
7. WPA2 is the version of WPA that has been certified by the IEEE to be compatible with IEEE 802.11i.
8. Virtual private networks (VPNs) use an encrypted connection to create a virtual tunnel between two points across a public or corporate network.

Lecture 9

1. A(n) broadband transmission sends multiple signals at different frequencies.
2. Scintillation is defined as the temporal and spatial variations in light intensity caused by atmospheric turbulence.
3. Local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) is a fixed broadband technology that can provide a wide variety of wireless services.
4. True or False: Multichannel multipoint distribution service (MMDS) is a fixed broadband wireless technology that has many similarities to LMDS.
5. A data transmission to or from a single device is called a(n) burst in the 802.16 standard.
6. Latency is the amount of time delay that it takes a packet to travel from source to destination device.
7. Jitter is the maximum delay variation between two consecutive packets over a period of time.
8. RSA is an algorithm developed in 1977 by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman.

Lecture 10

1. Short Message Services (SMS) allows for the delivery of short, text-based messages between wireless devices, such as cellular telephones and pagers.
2. The mobile telecommunications switching office (MTSO) is the link between the cellular network and the wired telephone world, and controls all transmitters and base stations in the cellular network.
3. 1G technology is based on the Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS).
4. True or False: W-CDMA adds a packet-switched data channel to a circuit-switched voice channel.
5. A WML document is called a deck that contains one or more blocks, known as cards.
6. The Java programming language was developed by Sun Microsystems as an object-oriented language used for general-purpose business programming, as well as interactive Web sites.
7. The single largest factor limiting the development of 3G is spectrum.
8. Low earth orbit (LEO) satellites circle the Earth at an altitude of 200 to 900 miles (321 to 1,448 kilometers).

Lecture 11

1. One class of active tags is called beacons because they transmit on a periodic basis, without receiving an interrogation from a reader.
2. The mobile telecommunications switching office (MTSO) is the link between the cellular network and the wired telephone world and controls all transmitters and base stations in the cellular network.
3. Sensory tags, as their name indicates, can be equipped with thermal, gas, smoke, pressure, and a variety of other kinds of sensors to monitor and record environmental conditions, liquid volume levels, or attempts to tamper with a product.
4. With EPCs, companies will be able to acquire the manufacturer’s name over the Internet using a service from EPCglobal Inc. called Object Name Service (ONS).
5. HF RFID transmission uses a protocol called slotted terminating adaptive protocol (STAC), in which the tags reply within randomly selected positions or time intervals, referred to as slots.
6. After the destroy password is transmitted by the reader, the tag is permanently disabled and can never be read or written to again.
7. True or False: In hospitals, RFID tags in a patient’s identification bracelet can provide vital information that cannot be easily misplaced.
8. A(n) blocker tag is a device that can be used to simulate the presence of a virtually infinite number of tags.

Lecture 12

1. True or False: Industry experts agree that access to corporate data from almost anywhere is the greatest advantage of wireless technology.
2. Wireless VoIP phones, the telephone handsets that connect to a WLAN’s access point (AP), enable you to use the WLAN for regular telephone calls.
3. Wireless VoIP SOHO routers can be connected to a DSL or cable modem and provide both a WLAN and telephone services through the user’s Internet connection.
4. True or False: The human factor in implementing wireless technology is sometimes a significant obstacle.
5. Upfront costs are costs that are necessary to start a project.
6. A(n) Upfront is a detailed planning document that is sent to potential vendors with precise specifications for the products and services that the organization intends to buy.
7. A(n) wireless application service provider (WASP) can design and create a wireless application to run on a specific range of devices.
8. A(n) help desk is a central point of contact for users who need assistance using technology.

Direct YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peYSjTxnzK0
Direct Vimeo Link: http://www.vimeo.com/12230792

Cost-Effective Scalability, Oh-my!

Lightweight Models & Cost-Effective Scalability, Oh-my!

Lightweight Models & Cost-Effective Scalability, Oh-my!

It might seem like a quest to have the best of everything but Lightweight Models & Cost-Effective Scalability isn’t that mythical. You don’t have to battle the the wicked witches, but that doesn’t say it is a simple path to take either.

So lets talk about an example that exists out there already:

Wikipedia – www.wikipedia.org

We all know what Wikipedia is but in case you missed it (perhaps your just starting to use a computer?), Wikipedia is a free-content encyclopedia that is based on an openly=editable model. It allows users to add articles/pages and also edit existing ones in a self organising way.

So lets take a look at some stats and see how large Wikipedia is, bear in mind this is only the English side of Wikipedia and doesn’t count for other languages.

I’ve also put together a more visual representation taken from the wiki stats page, Click to enlarge the view!

So there is no doubt that Wikipedia is large, and they have use an Open Source, Scalable solution across multiple servers, multiple countries, etc. All with less than 30 staff members dedicated staff members. Of course you don’t have to be as large as wikipedia to use the software and there are in fact many smaller sites that use the same software. You might not have the large economies of scale either, and that doesn’t matter because there are effective solutions out there.

Enter LAMP, a solution stack of open source software that is ready to take on your needs. LAMP is actually an acronym (not a light stand) that represents the key open source software packages.

Linux – An operating system
Apache – A HTTP web server
MySQL – Database software
PHP – A language in which you can code web pages

LAMP allows you set up and host your own site with ease, it is scalable and as for the cost effect side – it is Open Source. I’ve heard lots of rumours but I haven’t been able to find any ‘hard facts’, but major sites like Facebook and Flicr are based on LAMP, or at least were at some stage. I could say my site is based on a LAMP distro to also make a point (but it isn’t), however there is nothing stopping you from starting your own site and doing so.

The next biggest craze though is cloud-computing and business creating their sites of API’s, and renting CPU power from Google, while hosting data on Amazon S3, etc. The reason I avoided this is because it is very much on the hype cycle and I don’t feel comfortable not having that much control. This might be changing (and it looks so), but it is hard to recommend outsourcing a solution when you can get started yourself easily with LAMP!

Perpetual – perpetually – In a perpetual manner; Seeming to never end; endlessly; constantly
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perpetually

Beta – A software release is the distribution (whether public or private) of an initial or upgraded version of a computer software product. The software engineers and company doing the work decide on how to distribute the program or system, or changes to that pre downloads and compact discs.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_(software_development)

Perpetual Beta – Perpetual beta is a term used to describe software or a system which remains at the beta development stage for an extended or even indefinite period of time. It is often used by developers in order to allow them to constantly release new features that might not be fully tested.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_beta

Perpetual Beta in Web 2.0 is used to describe an online service which remains under constant development. At great example of this was Gmail.

Google’s Gmail service launched on the 1st of April, 2004 as an invite only service. I remained as an invite only service for nearly 3 years before becoming open to the public (7th of February, 2007). It was still labeled a Beta for another 2 years until the lifted the Beta labelled along with the rest of the Google Apps Suite on the 7th of July, 2009.

During its time in Beta Google constantly introduced new features and changed its services. Introducing new languages, enabled IMAP support, increasing the mailbox size, integration with Google Docs, custom themes, Google labs and many more. Click here for a history of Gmail.

So why label something a Beta? Generally if something is in Beta you can expect some things not to work, and problems arise. This is all part of harnessing the collective intelligence to develop the product, find bugs and provided feedback to make a better product. Without having a web 2.0 application or service you will be stuck in the traditional software life cycle which can cost more, take longer and not be as effective.

So why take the Beta label off after so many years? From an Infrastructure perspective you don’t deploy products that are in Beta. You deploy products that a ready that have no expected bugs or problems. Google understood this concept so after around 5 years the finally took the Beta label of. This changes how a business can look at a product and it will allow business to evaluate Gmail and related apps as a potential solution. Previously this would have been ruled out straight away because it wasn’t ready, it was in ‘beta’ and a business can’t afford to have systems that are un-reliable.

So while the main service of Gmail isn’t in Beta anymore there are still more features on going. Google introduced Google Labs which is an opt-in only service that lest to add features and functionality that are in a ‘Beta’ phase. I actually use some of these myself such as multiple inboxes, offline synchronisation, youtube preview in e-mails just to name a few. Once these have been tested enough they might make it to the core functionality of Gmail. So this is an example of a Web 2.0 service that is on a constant Perpetual Beta.

• Blackboard @ QUT
• Facebook Community
• Book a consultation slot with Jason
• Lecture Audio / Podcast Feed (you can subscribe to the podcast stream or right click and save individual files)
• Blog index for INB Undergraduate students
• Blog index for INN Postgraduate students
• Aggregated / Blog Feed? *need to find or create one from all blogs*

I would like to welcome everyone who is studying Web 2.0 this semester. Due to doing this subject I’ve create a new category (web 2.0) which I shall be using to post my Web 2.0 subject material. As most of the work was done in setting up the blog last semester, I’m hoping to spend a bit more time on tweaking the site and adding in more detailed information in the static pages.

– stay tuned

If you can’t find the information on the QUT Site (which strangely I haven’t been able to do until right now – perhaps it got update since the release of the results), you can use this as a basis:

• 7 – High Distinction: 85%-100%
  Provides evidence of deep and critical understanding in relation to the unit learning outcomes, competence in using the discourse/s of the relevant knowledge community/ies, and ingenuity, creativity and entrepreneurship in application.
  
• 6 – Distinction: 75%-84%
  Provides evidence of the integration and evaluation of critical ideas, principles and theories in relation to unit learning outcomes and the application of knowledge in new professional situations in flexible combinations to produce a novel, calculated effect.
  
• 5 – Credit: 65%-74%
  Provides evidence of learning going beyond mere replication of content knowledge or skill to show understanding of key ideas, awareness of their relevance, some use of synthesising and analytical skills and the ability to apply fundamental concepts and skills of the unit with some originality or insight.
  
• 4 – Pass: 50% -64%
  Provides sufficient evidence of learning, such as demonstrations of knowledge of fundamental concepts and basic skills and some attempt at application, to be considered satisfactory or adequate or competent or capable in relation to unit learning outcomes.
  
• 3 – Fail: 47%-49%
  Provides evidence of limited and unconnected learning which falls short of demonstrating all unit learning outcomes.
  Students who receive a grade of 3 in a unit may be eligible to apply for supplementary assessment (see E/6.4).
  
• 2 – Fail: 25%-46%
  Provides minimal evidence of learning in relation to unit learning outcomes.
  
• 1 – Low Fail: 1%-24%
  Provides little or no evidence of learning in relation to unit learning outcomes.

* Sources: http://www.mopp.qut.edu.au/C/C_05_02.jsp

Now even those this is what the QUT Standard Grades are, they don’t apply to all subjects. For example I have one subject in which the lecture felt it should be the following (I’m guessing this was changed so that around 36 students, or 32% of students would pass the subject rather than failing and look bad on the teaching staff):

Grade Awarded – Percentage Needed – Amount of Students – Percentage of Students

• Grade 7 (>=80): 6, 5%
• Grade 6 (70-79): 25, 22%
• Grade 5 (60-69): 33, 29%
• Grade 4 (45-59): 36: 32%
• Likely to Fail: (<42): 6, 5%
• Others (didn’t sit for final exam): 8, 7%

As you can see getting a bell curve is important. Also another point I would like to make is that your overall GPA is calculated by your average grade point for all your subjects (what you are awarded at the end of the semester for the subject), instead of your actual grade for each subject (the percentage you obtained for the subject and then averaged out).  I wasn’t aware of this myself until I saw this post at dearqut.com – http://dearqut.com/messages/160 which I agree with.

So this semester is over, exams are all done and we now are waiting to get results which should be made available by the end of the month. Personally I think I’ve done fairly well managing full time uni / full time work and at the moment I feel like I’m on holiday (even though I’m still going to work).

I’ll be wrapping up the blog and looking in ways to make it more ‘me’ based, I dare say I will continue to keep posting but they wont be as frequent.

So whats new? Well I’ve purchased my first Apple computer – 27inch – i7 – iMac. I haven’t had to much time to spend on it but I’ve set up an VMWare Fusion 3 – Windows XP Virtual machine just in case. I’ve imported all my photos over into iPhoto, just need to sort through them and start using the ‘Faces’ feature which seems really cool. Then I’ll need to copy over documents and I’ll be set. (Installed CISCO VPN – which hasn’t been updated in years, and Windows Remote Desktop Tool).

Anyway, let me know how you went with the subject!

Ronald Azuma in 1997 gave the following definitions on Augmented Reality:

combines real and virtual

is interactive in real time

is registered in 3D

With this in mind and wanting to use information available on the net, I was surprised at how many applications where available on the iPhone. The first one I used was called NearestWiki.

NearestWiki once open finds out where you are located, and then searches for all wikipedia articles that have been geo-tagged with a location in a 20 mile radius (roughly 32 kilometers). Once it has this locations loaded you can then navigate 360 degrees to find out what articles around you and how far they are.

NearestWiki being used outside a QUT lecture room.

As you can see from my example standing outside a lecture room at QUT. You can see that it has picked up an article about QUT itself, which is 190M away. Yes I was at QUT but it was fairly accurate in saying that the heart of QUT was a little bit away.

It also picked up the GABBA as we know it, but officially know as the Brisbane Cricket Ground. Having just drove past this I could say that I had driven further than 1.54 Km. If your wondering why there is a difference it is because it directly 1.54 Km away and doesn’t take into account how you would actually need to get there (and I’m okay with that).

As you scan around you can pick up on the Roma Street Parklands in the opposite directions, Parliament House which is next door to QUT and so on. So how can you use this to help you out?

Well provided you had phone reception, and could get a data connection on your phone. If you were close to a ‘tourist attraction’ or something that has a wikipedia article you could turn on this application and identify things yourself. You could locate nearby interesting things you may not have come across and if something caught your interest you can simple tap on article and it loads up the full wikipedia article for you to read.

You are now your own tourist guide? You are empowered with information instantly and easily. You are using information in ‘Real Time’ to interact with the ‘Real World’ and this is just the start.

This application only provided data on wikipedia articles so I thought I would see if I could find another application to find a place to eat or drink.

The first one I’ve tried and just briefly (no more than 5 minutes) demonstrates potential was called buUuk.

With a similar interface and concept as I said before, this locates places that have been added to the database (unsure if it is is buUuk’s or a shared one) and displays them in a similar fashion.

The buUuk application being used (spinning around) to locate the nearest palces to eat or drink.

One thing that looks nice is that not only do you get a list of places you see user ratings. Not only that you can rate the places yourself which really empowers you with data in real time.

With a click of a button you can see details of the place (even a button to make a phone call to them), user reviews you can read, prices, address and a whole lot more information.

So what are its downfalls?

• There are a lot of places that don’t turn up as they haven’t been added.
• User participation is fairly low from what I can tell.
• Heavily relies on the ‘Network Effect’
• With small participation reviews could be skewed or biased made by owners
• You need an device that has this enabled (are there any others besides the iPhone 3Gs)?
• Internet connectivity on your mobile device (often expense)

The nearest places to eat or drink that buUuk has found. A lot of places missing at the moment, but over time will this improve?

Well this checkpoint will be a subjective one taken by your personal impression. Before I get you let me know what you think, I would like to tell you how I’m feeling so far.

Practical ability to leverage off web 2.0 to enhance personal branding.

• Bought a domain (jason-v.com) and found hosting within Australia (Sydney)
• Established the site using a leading open source solution (WordPress)
• Created a Twitter account (jasonvandyk) and integrated into my site
• Made available RSS feeds for users to subscribe to
• Established a Facebook account
• Regular two way feedback on both my site and other blogs through various commenting systems

Manner and consistency of participation in weekly workshops activities and your contribution.

• Regular posts on Enterprise 2.0 topics based on workshop activities and self inspired topics
• Regular feedback on workshop activities, through digitalorgs.net and student blogs
• The using of trackbacks to highlight relative posts and relation to workshop activities (only student so far)

Ability to appraise Web2.0 strategies and solutions for organisational and personal success.

• Continuous engagement in self improvement of my personal brand
• Ensured Andrew McAfee’s SLATES has been used and applied to my site
• Used critical thinking to post on the effects of “negative web presence” when most of the focus has been on creating a positive
• Created topics / posts which are relative and trending (above post) which has become a page 1 ranking using basic / common key words

Ability to engage successfully with the wider community (including  people outside of QUT) using Web 2.0 tools and techniques.

• The use of twitter to raise an issue with the font colour of the comment box which received feedback and highlighted additional fields the needed to be modified
• Posting feedback on other blogs, which has been constructive – ie: http://brendanread.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/wiki-at-worki
• Received feedback on most posts on my site (finding various styles/ posts enabled greater engagement than others – ie: long posts/ no images = less engagement)

Leadership via the ability to contribute to the structure and format of the workshop activities, and the smooth running of the online community.

• Provided feedback to surveys posted by the lecture
• Identified problems / hurdles students are having and created posts to aid – Your blog – Getting over the first hurdles
• Suggesting ideas to improve or expand on the current activities – http://www.digitalorgs.net/wp/?p=97#comments
• Comments on student blogs to give additional value on their posts – http://benmccallum.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/to-twitter-or-not-to-twitter/
• Creating posts, that help inspire others. The result in similar topics or mentions – http://enterprise.anotherbyte.net/2009/08/ways-i-promote-my-blogs/
• Posting this checkpoint post early and allowing students to read this. Providing a baseline and example.

There are many posts, which address the criteria and I find it hard to highlight each one. I’ve categories all relevant posts in the “Study” category. A lot which have already received feedback from Jason Watson and students.

Overall I’m making good progress and my site/posts as a whole is an example of this. I’m using existing web 2.0 technologies whilst exploring new ones constantly. I would appreciate any comments or feedback as I’ve taken the steps in making this publicly accessible for everyone. (let me know if you want me to comment on your reflective post!).