We began the lesson by talking about writing good blogs which should include graphics, examples, etc. To put images onto the blog you must first download them, and then upload them directly from your PC and do not use URL’s as if the source website changes that image your blog post will also change. Another improvement to blogging is to re enter your blog and tag it so other users will be able to find relative information to their query. We got told that the documentation is very important in software development and that we need to write about every stage in detail as it is needed to gain a good mark. All the course notes were given out last week and if you didn’t receive them you should contact your computing teacher. These are also needed to have good preparation for the upcoming prelim after the Christmas break. Also the course work task is coming up in about 3 week’s time. We finished off interfacing but will come back to it at any opportunity as it is touched on in many SQA Higher Papers. We also discussed the USB and USB2 interfacing in addition to this. This relates to Apples FireWire which is a copyrighted part of their business. We then started on wireless networking, talking about mobile networking in the past, blue tooth (a personal area network that works within 10 meters of the device) and Infrared etc. A wired network is much more secure than a wireless network as hackers can simply connect to a wireless network easily if it is not password protected whereas a wired network would require a cable into the system. Different devices operate on different frequencies to stop interference thus radio stations need to buy their frequency to stop two stations being the same so you can select which one you want to listen to without hearing the rest. As many people have Bluetooth the two devices that are wanted to interact with each other must be synced. Since they are synced they can change their frequency often (lots of times a second) to avoid interference with other devices. Notes on advantages of blue tooth can be found in topic 4.6.8 on page 100. There is a chance of interference in devices connected wirelessly so keyboards, mouse’s, etc are more secure if wired especially if in use in schools, offices and other crowded places with lots of computers. After this we searched the internet for wireless devices that uses clever interfacing and ways of connecting. Some found were wireless headphones, keyboards, mouse’s, phones and various devices.
Homework was issued and is available on the Glow Scotland website.