Week10: Computer Ethics

I believe the list is flawed, for example, a police forensic examiner may need to snoop around in a persons’ files to identify any illegal materials that may exist. Likewise the 8th commandment does not allow exceptions if attribution is given (and allowed under the associated license). Mainly these are simple omissions for exceptional circumstances, but any legal equivalent of these commandments must make mention of them lest it be consigned to the rubbish bin for being overly vague and useless. Alternatively, any computer tied into a military application is ultimately breaking the very first commandment regardless of any others.

Intellectual property rights are mentioned in the list, but more effort must be made to differentiate between strict copyright laws, copyleft laws and those that lie in between. For example, number would not allow the Linux operating system as large sections are often licensed under the General Public License and as other people can appropriate licensed materials.

I think an eleventh commandment, or perhaps just a general rule of thumb, would be to think before you click. A humorous email may sound funny to your own ears but others may take offence and it can land you in trouble. Once you’ve hit the send button there is no way to un-send that email, so think beforehand.

Week9: Disability and Websites

Under the Section 21 of the UK Disability Discrimination Act 1995, any UK business website must make reasonable adjustments to its site such that disabled visitors can still access their services. In 2003 the Sydney Olympics website was sued under a similar law for failing to provide reasonable access to disabled visitors with an eventual payout of $20,000. This highlights the seriousness to which these new laws can be taken.

If a blind visitor found a site they were unable to access they have several choices. Firstly they can contact the site itself, noting the failings they’ve found within the website and asking them to update it. Failing that they can contact one of several groups who try and fight on behalf of disabled web users, the RNIB is particularly voiceful against non-standards compliant websites. Finally they can contact a lawyer and prosecute the site for not providing reasonable access, however this can be costly for both parties.

Many companies would rather choose to pay for a new, W3C standards compliant website, than having to face the alternative; a lengthy court battle with mounting legal fees at the end. Nowadays there is no reason not to make an accessible site, with not only the legal but moral implications that follow it.

Week8: Three-Tier Internet Model

A three-tier architecture, used in web application development, can provide numerous benefits. It has a high degree of flexibility, scalability and performance all of which can save a business from problems down the line as their website traffic grows. For example new machines can be added or operating systems changed without causing disruption to the other levels.

Problems however can be caused by the stateless nature of the system, particularly in sharing data between machines. You have to ensure that data shared between machines is up-to-date, usually by some form of locking mechanism. Systems designed to run on multi-tier systems must also be designed differently with an emphasis on limiting dependencies such that code can later be changed with the minimum number of changes necessary elsewhere.

Week7: Presentation Notes

They say hindsight is 20/20, so here are some pointers on how to do your first A1W, or any other module, presentation just that bit better.

1. Rehearse. This should come as a no brainer but with each iteration over your presentation it becomes more fluent and natural, so when you finally stand up and perform it you should not constantly glance at your notes.
2. Do not write your presentation on screen. There's the temptation to write out all of the information you've found on screen and then just stand back and read it. What the hell is the point of you been there then? Each slide should contain a few key words or images with you providing the meat of the information. If necessary put your script in the notes section so that if someone wants to view the presentation later they can get your input alongside.
3. Be confident. For those few minutes you're the boss, you're in control. Speak clearly, making eye contact with each member of your audience. If you want to go off on a tangent (at least somewhat related to the topic at hand), do so. Just don't get sidetracked.
4. Tag team. If you're not going it alone make sure you've decided who's going to stand where, how you'll transition between speakers and how you can get out of the next persons way when they come to speak. It fits in with the rehearsal aspect, having a dry run in the chosen location (or similar setting) can save many a problem later on. And while you're awaiting your turn, or have already finished, don't shake your head, start chatting or otherwise draw attention to yourself. Stand back, watch the screen and await the end quietly.
5. Pause, compose, resume. It happens to every speaker, you get lost in your own words, floundering like a fish out of water. Take a step back, look at your notes, think what you're going to say next and say it. It may seem like an eternal pause in your mind but realise the audience is most likely still digesting what you've just said anyway. Flapping your arms about, shuffling through papers and making noises like a toddler is not going to impress your listeners, so just take a breath, ignore the pressure momentarily, and get back on track.
6. Question time. You can expect a grilling on your chosen topic, so there's no excuse not to read up. Find out recent happenings, important dates and other points which you may have omitted from your presentation but that could come in handy. A sheet full of dates, locations, people and names may seem overkill but can save your skin later on. Read up and test each other with example questions.

Hopefully the next people to stand before an audience can be forewarned and forearmed. Best of luck.

Week6: Apache

Apache is the most popular choice for web servers on the Net with almost 50% of all machines running it. Released under its own license, the Apache HTTP Server software is released freely.

Uses

Apaches main usage is to handle incoming requests and pass them on to the relevant handle, this is typically a URI mapped to a file location. However it can also use various rewrite directives, typically mod_rewrite, to map a location to different locations to aid in the production of SEO amongst other things.

Apache can also handle a large array of dynamic scripting languages through the use of various libraries. Typically Apache can run PHP, Python, Perl and Ruby on Rails amongst others.

Finally, virtual hosting allows one installation of Apache to serve multiple websites which is used by shared hosting providers. With virtual hosting a single machine running Apache can provide the web serving capabilities for www.example.com, www.example2.co.uk and www.subdomian.example.com simultaneously.

Static & Dynamic

Web pages fall under two categories when served. A static page (normally HTML) is a file which contains plain text and does not change between requests. These pages are small and quickly served as no further action needs to be taken by the web server.

Dynamic pages are pretty much what they sound like, the content they display changes. This can be based on user input i.e. search terms, database content or even something as simple as time of day. Depending upon the complexity of the script the time needed to generate a dynamic page can range from a few milliseconds to several seconds (typically web servers have a timeout limit to prevent pages running for excessive amounts of time). Dynamic pages are intrinsically slower than static pages however through the use of caching this difference can be reduced.