I have decided to download the Copernic application because it sounded interesting, I have heard of this type of application before but never tried one. I also downloaded Apple Quicktime and installed it.

So based on the topics for reviewing these tools, here are my results:

Apple Quicktime

An application that plays Apple Quicktime format movies and other movies, very simple application in it’s free mode, but obviously has lots more features on the non-free version.

Cost - downloading the free version, is free of course, Apple is hoping that you can’t live without it and purchase the full version, I have not done this, nor do I intend to.

Ease of use - Apple’s interface for this tool is very basic and definitely needs a makeover

Functionality - It’s pretty good when it comes to the amount of media types it can play, with the exception of some of the *.wmf (Windows Media File) files, obviously Apple didn’t spend a lot of time getting their application to play a Windows centric format.

Utility - Not really that applicable in this case, but if I had to put something down here, then I would say it does not save me any time at all because the user interface is weak

Commonality - Yes Quicktime movies are a standard, however it is not as widespread as MP4 or AVI is, mainly because of the backing of these formats by Microsoft and other large companies

Copernic

Before I downloaded this tool I was under the impression it was an advanced Internet search tool that would do deep searches of the Internet, however. It seems that this tools main function is to index all the files on my computer and allow me to search these for content. This is not what I expected and a bit of a disappointment, especially since I already have this feature with Windows Vista, I think I will be deleting this application fairly soon, unless it begins to wow me.

Cost - bit disappointed that the installation program for this application asked me if I was using this for home, or corporate or educational. I chose educational but the installation program then asked me to pay a fee for download, so I reverted to the home version, which was free. I am surprised that the educational version was not free also.

Ease of use - Interface has a nice look and feel, but the layout of this is a little dated compared to more modern user interfaces.

Functionality - disappointing when it comes to searching the Internet, but seems ok at finding information on my computer.

Utility - could be pretty handy when you have to find an important email or presentation that contained a certain phrase or phrases.

Commonality - with the new search tools in Windows Vista then I don’t see a huge future for applications like this, I don’t get the impression that this application is setting any standards.

Search Engine Task

I have decided to use for this task and compare the results against a standard Google search.

Google Results

I searched for the words “eckhart tolle” (including the “”), since he is my favourite author and I know that he has a lot of hits on the web. Incidentally I was surprised to find that I now got nearly 2 million results compared to the same search that I did earlier on in this course and got 1.6 million results, he is becoming more popular every day! I did noticed that the search became a lot quicker each time I did it, it looks like a certain amount of caching tool place that made the search quicker each time I did it, the first search tool 0.19 seconds and the last search tool 0.07 seconds.

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,940,000 for "eckhart tolle". (0.19 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,940,000 for "eckhart tolle". (0.20 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,940,000 for "eckhart tolle". (0.17 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,940,000 for "eckhart tolle". (0.08 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,940,000 for "eckhart tolle". (0.07 seconds)

Copernic Results

I used the Copernic web search feature to do a search for the “eckhart tolle” phrase again and got a very disappointing, almost funny, result of 82 hits on average.

Results: 1 - 20 of 81

Results: 1 - 20 of 79

Results: 1 - 20 of 82

Results: 1 - 20 of 86

Results: 1 - 20 of 84

Analysis

I can’t understand why the Copernic search engine only got an average of 82 hits for the same search terms as Google. I was under the impression that Copernic would search multiple search engines for my phrase and end up giving me more results than Google. From what I can gather the Copernic search web feature is almost useless for finding information on the web.

Boolean Search Task

I am aware of Boolean logic and use it every day when I search the web. My initial searches for “eckhart tolle” utilise the “” around the words to tell the search engine that I want to search for this exact phrase and not a combination of both words. This is good for searching for peoples names, I could have put “eckhart tolle” OR “tolle eckhart” into the browser and this would have delivered me more hits, because some people may write the name with the surname first. For this task it seems that I have to try to get different results from this search, by trying the following.

The biggest number of hits relating to these key words

The biggest number of hits relating to these key-words are achieved by simply change the search to read eckhart OR tolle and yes I got the biggest amount of hits that I think are possible for this name.

Results 1 - 10 of about 28,300,000 for eckhart OR tolle. (0.21 seconds)

Information most relevant to what you ACTUALLY wanted to look for!

In this case, because this guys name is so unique, then by simply using the “eckhart tolle” (with “”) I am already getting what I am looking for. I could put “eckhart tolle” OR “tolle eckhart” into the browser and this would give me more hits, but that may not improve the chances of me finding what I am looking for, more hits may just decrease the chance of me finding what I am looking for. Of course I could take it to another lever and start using bolean like this +eckhart +tolle in this case it will give me all pages with those words in them and they don’t have to be beside each other. Let’s show some results here (all results were from Google).

Using “eckhart tolle” OR “tolle eckhart” I got the following results: Results 1 - 10 of about 1,880,000 for “eckhart tolle” OR “tolle eckhart”. (0.29 seconds)

Using +eckhart +tolle I got the following results: Results 1 - 10 of about 1,810,000 for +eckhart +tolle. (0.08 seconds)

It is not surprising that these both results give similar enough amount of hits, this is because people will normally only ever say this name with either the surname and the beginning or at the end of his name.

What is more surprising is that when I just use the simple “eckhart tolle” I actually get more hits than thw two entries above, see the results below.

Using “eckhart tolle” I got the following results: Results 1 - 10 of about 1,940,000 for “eckhart tolle”. (0.18 seconds)

I am not sure why this happens, it may be something to do with a database timeout, if the transaction starts taking nearly have a second, then the search engine may decide that’s enough data and return, so on the more complex searches this may happen. I am sure there is lots of other optimization logic going on inside Google that I couldn’t even speculate about.

Information coming only from university sources

Ok this is an interesting question, I guess if it was me just doing a casual search I would just include the word +university in the search criteria but this would just bring me up pages that have the word university and may miss other university related information that doesn’t include the word university.

Next thought that I had was: ‘maybe I could search the databases of Universities?’ So I had a look at this page at the Griffith University. It looks like I can search the database at this University, but not all universities, and I have to pay for the privilege with Griffith University.

So I am looking for a way to search all university databases, but I have a feeling that this may not be possible, may be to do with information privacy and security. I will update this Blog if I find a way.

Organising Search Information Task

I decided to use Zotero for this because it looked the most appropriate for using with academic type bookmarks. The way you can use it to add citations to your Word documents is looks good, although I haven’t ventured down that path yet. The interface is a little complicated at first, and it only works with Mozilla for the moment.

I have created a subcategory below my NET11 folder in Zotero to store three of the best sites that were found in the previous task. One of the great advantages I can see to using this tool is the automatic way it can create a bibliography, I have put this bibliography at the end of this section to show how nice this feature is, and I will not modify the bibliography after it is automatically generated.

My Zotero library exported to Citeline

I used Zotero to create a library of the three most useful search results, I then installed the addition to Zotero called Zotz and used this to publish the library to Citeline. The following screenshot shows this library exported to Citeline, but it doesn’t look like I can show the snapshot of each webpage in the Citeline list, this is a shame because it would help me to easily identify each webpage from the list.

Evaluating the Web

I shall evaluate the previous Zotero entries based on the tutorial provided here Ohio SU net.Tutor as part of this task.

A New Earth on Time with Mayan Calendar Prophecy link

Purpose

“Determine whether the main purpose of the site is to inform or to persuade (advocate for a cause. This might include any apparent external interest, intellectual motivation or contextual information”

The main reason is to inform, the writer claims that Eckhart’s two recent books are in line with the Mayan Calendar and the spiritual development of man. There is a little bit of persuasion involved, but not much,

Author

“The best sites are produced by those who have appropriate education, training, or experience to write with authority on the topic. Check site documents or external sources to find out more about the author“

The author Shellie Enteen is an established holistic health and astrology practitioner ,educator and writer, she writes in multiple places, including a monthly newsletter here.

Content

“Consider whether content seems biased. Does the author have a "vested interest" in the topic? Look for documentation of claims and a balanced point of view”

The content is a little biased towards the writer’s expertise. I don’t think there is any vested interest in the article and the books that it writes about.

Coverage

“Shop around for the best source. You can compare the page to others on the same topic to see which provides better coverage”

I have compared the article to similar articles on the Internet, for instance there is a very similar article here that explains it in a more simple way, but /I like the technical way Shellie has written her article.

Currency

“If you are looking for the most current information on a topic, be sure to determine when information was added”

This article was published on Feb 28, 2008 which is pretty recent, in this case, the date of the article isn’t that relevant because the ideas put forward are not going to change in a year.

Recognition

“Try to determine whether the site has been recognised as exemplary by others linking to it, tagging or citing it”

I am not sure if the writer’s theories could be considered exemplary, but this article has been inked to in lots of different paces, including here.

Reliability

“The reliability and authority of the site / source / article”

With the topic and information covered in this site, it is hard to say wether this article is reliable or not, because it’s a persons opinion. The internet site suite101.com is a quite well respected online magazine written by writers for writers, so I am happy that the overall reliability is good in this case.

Subjects & Ideas

“The main ideas or subjects discussed in the article“

The main subject is that the writer is comparing the new wave of consciousness that is being generated throughout the world with the ancient Mayan Calender that seems to match up with the timing for this wave of consciousness. The writer thinks that the big interest and popularity of the Eckhart Tolle books coincide with the calendar.

Automatically Created Zotero Bibliography

I must say I wish I had found this utility before now, because this feature is great. I will check out the different APA styles at a later date, this is using the default APA style.

Shelly Enteen, Eckhart Tolle and 2012: A New Earth on Time with Mayan Calendar Prophecy, Writer Network, suite101.com, February 29, 2008, http://philosophy.suite101.com/article.cfm/eckhart_tolle_and_2012
MKinley Jesse, Eckhart Tolle: America's guru of the moment - International Herald Tribune, International Online Newspaper, International Herald Tribune, March 25, 2008, http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/24/arts/tolle.php.
Eckhart Tolle: This man could change your life - Profiles, People - The Independent,” Newspaper, England, independent.co.uk, June 21, 2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/eckhart-tolle-this-man-could-change-your-life-850872.html.

Keith's NET11 - Student Log

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Module 4

Downloading tools / plug-ins Task