Blog Five: Using Common Internet Tools

Firstly, before i start off, let me show you a collection of the friends i have since my first semester at UB. However, some people are not in this collage as i have rarely taken pictures with them, but it does not mean that you guys are forgotten or not missed by me. THANKS to all of you, that my life in UB seems much more fun, enjoyable and meaningful.. i certainly hope the friendship will last and that these pictures will be good memories when all of us have graduated and look back to our time in SIM and how much we have all grown and changed..

"A big thank you to each and everyone of you"

In addition i have learnt how to make use of windows media player and enable it to help me create easy videos like the one i just made. I am sure most of you would be able to create a much better and interesting video clip, being the noob that i am. Since Poly days i have never liked doing all this kind of animation and stuff. It was never my favorite subject. Hence, when Mr Choy requested each of us to go and od a short little clip, i felt alittle overwhelmed. But with the help of my friend and fiddling around with the tools, i managed to create something pretty decent and nice. I was also fascinated with the types of effects we could actually create for the pictures. Compared to Adobe Premier or Final Cut Pro , this is WAY MUCH EASIER! However, i still had some difficulties with the text and placement of them. Overall, the experience was still pretty good and i am proud of the result i got.

With this, let's now move on to something else. Initially this week's lecture seemed pretty boring to me, however, after watching the clip shown to us in class a bout Microsoft surface, wouldnt it be great if in the near future everyone of us are linving in a dynamic web era? How cool would that be if all of us can be like Tom Cruise in Minority Report and touch the air , moving objects around as and when. Having such high technology.....after much researching i decided to focus more on dynamic web interatcions which i strongly feel will be a big evolution that will come in the future.


Before further going on, let me just provide you a deeper understanding of WHAT EXACTLY IS A DYNAMIC WEB INTERATION?

Firstly, dynamic web sites like electronic commerce, dynamic links to local databases, interactive conference lines are available thanks to Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology.

WHAT DOES ASP DO?
-Active Server Pages are interactive web pages that permit information exchange between company database and web surfers. Ranging from simple on-line order processing to multi-level financial portfolios and stock updates.
- Active Server Web Pages provide members of global community with powerful means of interaction.
-ASP provides a framework for building dynamic HTML pages. ASP's are implemented using server side scripting that can be performed in any language such as Visual Basic, C++ Microsoft's JScript, Java or C.
-It allows interaction with ODBC compliant databases on the web server, such as; Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, or Sybase.

Hence, perhaps some of you may question WHY SHOULD WE HAVE A DYNAMIC WEBSITE?

1)Dramatically reduce the amount of hard copy marketing materials that have to be mailed out, making them available for potential customer from your server database.

2)Make updated marketing or technical information immediately available to prospects or customers at a fraction of the cost of printing and mailing.

3)Target potential customers in each market segment. Additional sections of a web site can be set up to address specific needs of specific client groups at low cost to you.

4)Speed up the sales cycle. Advertisements, promotional pamphlets, newsletters and catalogue updates could be posted directly on your site, eliminating time and money required for an information package to reach a potential customer directly.

5)Deliver frequently required technical or business information in an interactive, concise format.

6)Allow your clients to give feedback to a survey or other type of questionnaire without the phone time and the delay time caused by numerous back and forth voice mails.

7)Allow an order for a product to be placed in an e-commerce enabled site. Customers can pay for the product, re-order necessary parts, inquire about available items and check out your return or exchange policies.


After all that is being said, this video certainly amazed me and i await the day whereby....