David Eales: PI:T7777644: T171 02: TMA01

Question 1:  Evaluate the three sites.    Apple.com   Woz.org   and   Apple-history.com

Question 2: Choose two messages.


Apple.com

What information did the site cover?
The information covered on this site is immense and up to date as regards to Apple products, there is information for : -
Hardware.
    Power Mac G4       high end dual processor desktop computer
    The iMac                standard Apple computer
    I book                    standard portable
    PowerBook            high end portable
    ipod                        mp3 player
    Airport                    wireless networking technology

    Accessories            keyboard, mouse, displays etc.

Software. (To name but a few)
    Mac OS X             Mac operating system both domestic and server
    Apple Word          document creator
    QuickTime             show video streams

Support for both hardware and software is available on the site in the form of.
    Specifications
    Manuals
    Downloads
    Knowledge base

And there is the inevitable store were you can buy any or all of the Apple and Apple related products.

Did the site present a balanced view? No.
This site and to be fair any manufacturers site is never going to give a balanced view, its aim is to firstly sell and then support its products, hardware, software and Adonis. This it does very well.

Was the site easy to navigate? Yes.
Navigation is easy as it is equipped and clearly marked with all the necessary tabs, menus, links,

What is your overall opinion? Very good.
The Apple.com web site is expertly done, as you would expect from a major manufactures site.

How could the site could be improved?
The over all look and feel of the site is excellent it is full but not cluttered there is a lot of graphics but it still loads reasonably quick. But (there is always a but) for a site built by Apple there are some annoying faults: -
It reloads the navigation bar for every page, wasting time.
On the store page if you place the cursor on an image the co-ordinates of the cursor are shown at the bottom of the screen.
The icard navigation button links to itools and not itools/icard.

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Woz.org


What information did the site cover?
This site contains a great deal of up to date information, in fact there is 777 individual web pages  (last up dated March 8 2002). Areas covered are: -
WozScape
    Biography    a very short biography
    Articles        from News Week and People magazine
    Letters         a vast collection of questions (all answered personally)
    Friends        Links to Woz ‘s friends
    Education     schools that are using Apple computers
    Mac links    Links to many other Apple sites
    Festivals       pictures of Woz at festivals

Did the site present a balanced view? No.
This site is designed, looked after and contributed to by people who think that Steve Wozniak is just the best (He is brilliant). The site is filled with comments like "the head nerd in whose shadow all others dwell" and  “Hi Woz. First, thanks for inventing the PC industry.” If you would  like Woz banners or photos for your site this is the place to get them.

Was the site easy to navigate? Yes
The site is well laid out and as all of the usual click able links that take you very quickly to any of the 777 pages,

What is your overall opinion of the site and why? Fair.
Because technically and visually the site is well laid out and works well, there is just a little too much self praise.

How could the site could be improved?
For me a little less of “I wrote all the code for this in two days” and “I wrote the code for that in a week” and a little more about the trials and tribulations along the way. Or is that just me wanting to know that it's not just me that struggles.

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Apple-history.com


What information did the site cover?
This site covers Apple's history from when Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs were friends in 1976 up until the present day. (The site is updated almost weekly)
It is divided into two sections.
    History        a good description of Apples main events.
    Gallery        gives pictures and comprehensive details of Apple products.
 

Did the site present a balanced view? Yes
Even though the author Glen Sanford is a self confessed Mac fanatic the site is presented in a well balanced straightforward manner.

Was the site easy to navigate? Yes
It uses a plain format that is easy on the eye, well laid out with simple links to all the pages. Frames are only used to facilitate the reading of lists.

What is your overall opinion of the site and why? Excellent.
 This site does what it sets out to do and does it very well. It is easy to navigate and as all the information you might need.
 

How could the site could be improved?
The only improvement that comes to mind would be to move what is now index.html (home page) and replace it with either the intro page or a new page that is a little more welcoming .

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Question 2:  Choose two messages that you have sent to your T171 Tutor Group conference which you felt were

                        successful but which could be improved.

    message 1:


  10 March 2002 13:05:08
T171 bld4 TG
From:  David Eales
Subject: Re(3): Section 2.7: Intel
To:  T171 bld4 TG

I agree moore's law is the amount of components on a chip, but if people did not keep buying small increases in speed, chip manufactures would not have money to carry on.
If they waited five years and brought out 6X more functions etc. (because of the price of manufacture) someone would copy it or some of the functions will already be available, in effect they have to keep going to stand still.

  Dave.
  http://oufcnt5.open.ac.uk/~david_eales

With reference to the principles of netiquette I think this message was successful because I acknowledge before differing as in PCP2 and briefly stated what had been said, before putting my own perspective on the subject.
How could I have improved? There are many ways, a  IMHO after the "but" and a :-) at the end would not go a miss, but after rereading the main improvement  is to make the message not come across as a statement of fact but as an opinion.
 

message 2:


  22 February 2002 20:29:18
T171 bld4 Orientation
From:  David Eales
Subject: Daves Sites
To:  T171 bld4 Orientation

Hi everyone.
 A.  One of my favourite web sites is the site for the Lincolnshire wild life trust http://www.lincstrust.co.uk  it loads quickly it looks crisp and clean and if like me you like getting out and about there's plenty of ideas.

B. The one I hate is the one I have to go to find out what is happening to my connection http:www.btopenworld it takes an age to load (often it never does) its cluttered and has a mass of adverts. then I'm probably biased because BT keeps dropping my line.

dave.
 

With reference to the principles of netiquette I think this message was successful because I started by stating what the message was about, put in links to the relevant sites and put my views across in a clear and precise manner.
How could I have improved? The link to http:www.btopenworld should have been one that worked http://www.btopenworld.com
 

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