Blog Reflections (Practical 10)

The metaphor i would use to describe the most important lesson i've learnt in my eir journey is: The internet is like a hidden pool of wealth. It is up to us to discover it. Without learning how to effectively search the internet, all we do is walking on dirt with the treasure right beneath our feet. However with dedicated learning and research on how to search effectively , we can uncoverd the hidden treasure beneath whereas others will continue to tread pass this wealth, while we who learnt EIR can enjoy the fruits of our labour through the willingness to learn.
Indeed in the truest form, knowledge = wealth.

To sum up my research topic of "Development of cancer research" i found out many developments however due to the use of very technical/scientific word E.G. "1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine", i decided to go for another approach for my audience; To educate the audience on the latest news of food with cancer prevention properties. This i believe will be more welcome by my peers because there is not much technical stuff to know.

Blog Reflections (Practical 8/9) My dream holiday.

My dream holiday is a place where i can get away from the hustles and bustles of a city life. Away from the places where there are more auto mobiles than people and breathing in exhaust fumes from the cars.

It is a place where i can feel nature but at the same time enjoy the smell of sea from under the canopy of palm trees. Walk under the sun if i have to but with crystal clear sea water at my feet.

This dream holiday is : Kewara beach resort Australia


Location:
Located 20 mins transfer north of Cairns Airport — Cairns pristine northern beaches.



Why i like this place: It is near the great barrier reef, it has a great beach stretching for miles and the sea is very clear. It also has various facility that i can use. There are also ponds and parks in the resort that makes me feel like i am living right next to a forrest and sea side at the same time. As i'm a nature lover and i don't like going holiday in cities like tokyo or any cities you can find in the world since they are usually full with people. Urg.


How i evaluate this site: With it's clear and concise information on their facility. I use the "Coverage criteria". The site has info about the resort, how to get there, the facilities available and the most important a gallery of the resorts which is certainly very interesting and make me want to go there more.

Website of my dream holiday: http://www.kewarra.com/index.html

Blog Reflections (Practical 7)

Today i learnt about evaluation of internet resources. There are 9 different criteria :

Purpose
Coverage
Authority
Accuracy
Currency
Accessibility
Presentation and arrangement
Usability
Overall Quality

So i will be evaluating this website called "Stomp". It is a citizen's journalism site where users can post latest / weird news in singapore. It can be from a serious news to some not really appropriate news E.G. on models accidently showing their pubic area.


So how do i evaluate this site? I am not new to this site as i enjoy reading news that our local news paper seldom publish especially on public transport commuters not giving up their sits for a pregnant lady, sleeping on the floor of mrt train.

Note: The below is on how i evaluate "Stomp.sg" and by no means a representative view on how other people think.

My criteria is: Coverage, Currency, Accuracy.

Coverage: Knowing that there are latest interesting news of every kind make this site a good place to read on latest gossips and non mainstream news.

Curency: From first hand experience, some news that are on local newspaper actually appears in stomp first before our local newspaper reports on it and further generating more visitors to the site.

Accuracy: On the famous "Girl groped by 4men in sentosa beach" , From the new paper i read about it and though to myself "Oh shyt how can this happen and yet nobody do anything to stop them"

When i visted stomp, i scan through the comments from the first page to the last page and i actually found out something that the news paper did not report. The supposedly "Girl" is actually in fact a transvite and "she" actually taunted/teased the party gooers at the beach before the "groping" happen. From this particular comments i roughly know what happen:

Before the party started, "she" tauted the male party gooers and when the party started, "she" allow them the "groping" till one of the male went overboard touching her in some extremely private area. The reason why nobody stop them was because she was a willing party at the first place thus nobody stand up to the 4 men.

Also from the comments at stomp, people are saying that singaporean (men) are really useless not daring to stand up to the 4 guys who did the act however that was not true. As from one guy who posted said "Yes there was a group of guys later who approached the 4men to stop but whoever took the vid did not film that part." So from this i know that singapore guys can really be trusted on phew.

All these behind the scene was not in the local newspaper as far as i know and yup stomp showed me the reality of how things happen and i can judge for myself if this news is valid.

Summary: From this lesson i learnt about how to evaluate website using the different search criteria.

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How i feel sharing my views about stomp on wiki

I feel that sharing my views on wiki allows me to present myself better as i can take the time to think how i want to post instead of having to come up with an amazing speech at the tip of my fingers while speaking in front of an audience.

Blog Reflections (Practical 6)

In this week's EIR lesson, i learnt about another type of search - The invisible web database.

For the uninitiated, invisible web means

World Wide Web content that is not part of the surface Web, which is indexed by standard search engines.

Studies show that the invisible contains approximately 91000 terrabytes while the surface web which are searchable using search engines contains only a not so impressive 167 terrabytes.

So how do i search the invisible web? Using CompletePlanet and Academic Gateway.

For this blog reflection, i will be using completeplanet as a comparison between an invisible web database search facility vs Meta search and subject directory search.

First to compare, we need to know exactly what each search engine search for, the results that it generated and see if is is better or worst that it's peers.

For meta search engine , it searched from the common web surface using multiple search engines and gets the most relevant results from each search engine.

Subject directory search is not really a search results but it contains links to website that are related to a topic that is chosen.

Since i'm new to search the invisible web, i'll post one of my search results on it here.

Search: development of cancer research

1. Cancer Research Initiatives, National Cancer Institute
Summary: and Prognosis Cancer Control, Survivorship and Outcomes Biology Etiology Scientific Model Systems Cancer Research Training, Career ... Type of Cancer Bladder Cancer Brain Tumor Breast Cancer Cervical Cancer Colorectal Cancer Endometrial Cancer Esophageal ... Cancer Kidney Cancer Leukemia Liver Cancer Lung Cancer Lymphoma Melanoma Myeloma Ovarian Cancer Pancreatic Cancer Prostate ... Cancer Sarcoma Stomach Cancer Other Cancers All Cancers Most of NCI'S initiatives are intentionally defined in ... Science Planning Assessment Cancer Research Portfolio Progress Review Groups Plans Priorities for Cancer Research NCI Research ...
http://cri.nci.nih.gov/archives/archive.cfm
Relevance: Size: 18k Harvested: Fri Mar 05 12:52:03 CST 2004
Top of Page

2. Center for Cancer Research - Home
Summary: stories and research briefs News Center Home Clinical Trials For Patients For Physicians Clinical Director's Office ... Medical Oncology Clinical Research Unit Molecular Targets Development Program Molecular Therapeutics Program Translational Research Initiative Tumor ... Clinical Trials Research Employment Featured Initiatives News Events Site Privacy Policy Accessibility 2000-2001 Center for Cancer ... at the National Cancer Institute Link to FIRSTGOV ...
http://ccr.nci.nih.gov/
Relevance: Size: 25k Harvested: Wed Mar 10 13:56:40 CST 2004
Top of Page

Upon clicking on the links, i am utterly disappointed the 1st links brings me to an error page about query page not found, the 2nd link brings me to the MAIN page of a cancer related website instead of some latest news on cancer development that i wanted.

Simply clicking on this 2 links is enough to prevent me from further clicking on the 3rd and later links.

Really it doesn't take much time for me to actually decide which search facility is the better one. Infact my answer doesn't include "CompletePlanet".

Meta search is still the better search facility because i can get some real results instead of going to the main page of a website. Subject directory is also not far behide the ratings because it is actually a good way to search if i am not sure of the topic that i am looking for, still for this post i'll have to search meta search wins handsdown.

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I will not use invisible web for research on project/reports for my own diploma. Seeing how bad the search results are really puts me off and i believe from first hand experience i can search better and get more relevant results using other search facility.

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What i learn from my wiki experience this week

Just like my previous blog entry, wiki is definitely a convenient way to collaborate and share information. For my info refer to my previous blog entry.

Blog Reflections (Practical 4/5)

Today i got to find out what is meta search and a subject directory search.

I decided to put metasearch against a normal search engine.

So what is metasearch?

A meta-search engine is a search tool[1] that sends user requests to several other search engines and/or databases and aggregates the results into a single list or displays them according to their source. Metasearch engines enable users to enter search criteria once and access several search engines simultaneously

So which one is better? . First i went to search for the word "Dota" a game.

So google search results: 1 - 10 of about 20,100,000 for dota

metacrawler search results: All Search Engines 1 - 20 of 41

Natural instincts tell me "WOW only 41 results" they must be very related to what i'm finding. Ok so i proceed to scan through the search results and i was not satisfied with metacrawler's search results. Yes although it did search what i wanted , but it listed it as the 4th result. For google, it listed the site i wanted to find in the 2nd result. Also metacrawler gives me a link to an advertisement site: which was blocked by my HOSTS file. The advertisement was ranked 2nd in metacrawlers's search result.

Lastly what i wanted to prove is: Even though google returns me 20million results but nobody will actually scan through all of them, most will only browse through the 1st/2nd page. So even though goggle gives 20million results and metacrawler 41 results, google is still the search engine which returns very relevant results. Who cares if i have 1 trillion results as long as i get what i wanted in the first page.

My very bias and unfair conclusion? Google 1 : Metacrawler 0
Note: This is just a personal opinion of mine. Also i only did about 3 searches but i was still unsatisfied with metacrawler.

Subject directory:
Is good as it gives results depending on the category you choose. Good for someone who have no idea what they are looking for. However being a guy who is into "web design and web accessibility" yahoo's subject directory is definitely not where i will go if i wanted to search for something.

Rules: Let user access what they want in As few clicks as possible

Subject directory breaks this very important rule.
However subject directory has its merits too. I found many links that i wanted from a topic that i was not familiar with "lung cancer" so it is not entirely bad.

Conclusion: Subject directory can be that additional thing you can use to search for subjects that you are not very familiar with but not really for your everyday search.

So what about meta vs subject directory search?

My opinion: meta search can be for general or specialized search. You can search for games (generalized) or "world of warcraft"(Specialized) , however if you are looking for something you are not very familiar with, you can start looking at subject directory because they are organized by humans which could be more relevant however it only represents a small fraction of the web's database. So knowing how to search and where to search is still the most important things to know if you are going to search for something.

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My thoughts on using site feed in my blog

I think using site feed in my blog is a great idea. Users can get to know about my friend's blogs and subcribe to it using a feed aggregator like google reader and learn of any updates that my friend made to his blog. It is an amazing technology as it allows you to follow any updates or new post that a blog has and you do not have to visit the blog everyday. It saves on time and helps you to keep track of new post that you have not read. Personally i use google reader to save site feeds of tech reviews website. I am subcribed to about 4-5 such sites from famous webdesigner and developer and i can read their new post just by logging into my google reader.

I definitely recommend using site feed in your blog.

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What do I like best about collaborating on Wiki with other students who share similar research topic as me?

The main reason that i think wiki is a really great place to collabrate with people who are doing the similar research is the time saved by meeting face to face. As we are from different class with different timetables, it will be impractical to meet face to face and do our research together. Instead we can just post our findings and help each other to edit and correct any mistakes.

For example i have a picture to add to the research topic and if there is no wiki , i would have to meet with my friend from another course to pass him the picture if our document is in his laptop. With wiki, i can just add the image online to our wiki discussion and when he logs in , it will be there for him to use.

Another reason is the ease of editing and always having the "Latest" copy. Usually when i do any research with my classmates, i always ask for the latest copy so i can input my research in the microsoft word file then i'll send him back the file and he will then use the latest copy and edit further. This process will go on till we completed our project report and in the process, we sent the file to and from each other multiple time.

With wiki collabration, we can just edit and my friend from another course / school can see the latest update/edit and do further editing from online wiki.

All in all, i thing that it is a really great tool as it saves on time as we do not have to meet, trouble of obtaining the latest copy of a report and lastly we can track who edited what from the
"Complete history".

Well this will be the end of this week's blog reflection. Once again thanks for reading and do post a comment if you agree or disagree with me.

Blog Reflections (Practical 3)

Today i learnt about google's various search functions.

Although i am not a new user to google search, i had never used any of the advance search functions before. Yes my homepage of firefox at my home desktop is set to google but shame on me how can i miss such a good feature of google? That is what EIR is for; enables me to learn more about searching technique and various features/functions that i would never have used.

After trying out the "advance search" feature of google, i must say i'm very impressed.
I can search for exact word/phrase, exclude any word, by file type and even search by domain. Of course there are more to advance search like search by date, usage rights, region but in this blog post i will only touch on the more basic and usefull , search by word and by file type.

Search by exact word/phrase :

This is simple, you can search by word, phrase and make sure that your phrase appears exactly as it is in the search result. This is give you a more concise search result.

Tips: You do not have to go to advance search to use this feature. You can just simply use
+"My search phrase" (exclude the double quotations). The plus sign is equals to search by exact words of phrase.

Search by file type :

I've have not seen this feature before and this is the holy grail (for students) of search amongst the many search features that google has. With this i can search for a particular assignment and just copy the whole chunck off the .doc or .pdf file and hand in. Ok don't take me for real, i don't copy and i have my own writing styles and principles. Even if i really do, i will improve on it and make it better.

Google Scholar

Besides google's advance search, i also learn about google scholar. Google scholar is for search of more acadamic/technical related articles/patent/e journals. In my honest opinion, this could be a good search feature for people(me) who wanted to look for "Latest development in cancer research" however upon further searching and testing of this Google Scholar, i came to another conclusion;

It is not for users who do not like to look at boring walls of text in extremely scientific language. In the case of my research topic "Latest development in cancer research", the search results give me the impression of "What am i looking at???"

Here is a real quote from the search result

His research focuses on the molecular and environmental causes of cancer. ... in hormonal
carcinogenesis and the mechanisms of cell transformation by oestrogens, and studies the role
of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) in mediating dietary effects on cancer development. ...

Definitely not something that i can understand unless i get a degree in medical science.

Another major problem with google scholar, for some search results you click on it expecting to find what you wanted since the search results give you a preview of the article...for some results, when i clicked on it, it brings me to a page and says

Access

To read this article in full you may need to log in, make a payment or gain access through a site license (see right).

Now this is a waste of time and a put of for users. I don't know about others but i will definitely not use this feature.

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Participation in discussion forum.

I feel that by participating in a discussion forum, i can learn more things as there will be real human correcting any errors i made E.G. Wrong information. I do not feel anxious talking to people expecially when discussing online. Why would i be? Nobody can do anything to me just by talking online in a discussion forum.

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Why must i do citation and biblography.

I certainly understand the importance of citation and biblography. When i'm doing a research, i want my research to be more correct in terms of my sources and i need to convince the users that i had indeed done my due research on that particular topic before i present it. A well written biblography will let readers know at a glance where i obtain my source, from which website or article , the date and the author. This can also allows the reader to obtain my information if they decided to know more.

For citation, the reason it is important is because we need to give the original author his due credits for any quotes we make or paragraphy that i quote and present it in my research. This is defintely a right thing to do since i do not want others to take any original materials from me and take it as their own.


Ok that will be the end of my blog reflections. Thank you for reading. Do give some comments if you agree or disagree with me.