Verb Patterns

Exercise 1: Complete with the verb in the correct form

1- I'm sorry I forgot to respond to your email.
2- I tried to get to the computer shop before it closed.
3- I wrote this over the summer but forgot to post it on my blog.
4- I remember hearing something about how popular the movie Titanic was in China.
5- I stopped putting my video clips on Youtube because my friends teased me.
6- She remembered to bring her video camera to the edding, so we've got a great film of it.

Exercise 2: Select the correct form

1- I'm sorry I forgot to call/calling you, but Iwas really busy.
2- I stopped in Paris for a few days to meet/meeting Henri.
3- We've stopped to meet/meeting so often. It was a waste of time
4- Learning a language means to be/being intersted in the culture as well
5- I meant to make / making some more photocopies, but i didn't have time.
6- I tried to open/ opening the window, but its too high to reach.
7- I tried to open / opening the window, but it was still too hot in the room.
8- I'll never forget to give/ giving my first presentation to the board.
9- Don't forget to look/ looking at the audience when you speak.
10- We regret to announce/ announcing the death of our founder, Mr Obuchi.
11- I regret to quit/ quiting my MBA course

Infinitive and ing + verbs

I am writing to complain about the poor service that I received when I was in your store last week. recently you decided to remove (remove) listening facilities in your stores, and your staff encouraged customers to take (take) home their CDs without hearing (hear) them first. you invited us to return (return) any CDs that we did not like, as long as we kept the receipt as proof of purchase. In my opinion this was an exellent policy as it allowed customers to risk (risk) buying (buy) things that were a little different. A consequence of your policy is that customers will buy more CDs, and this means returning (return) more that they dont like. In fact last week I brought back eight CDs, from the fourteen I had bought on the previous visit. Your salesman refused to accept (accept) such a large number, and accused me of taking (take) the CDs home just to copy (copy) them. I strongly object to be (be) treated like this.

Relative pronoun and clauses

1- The beach is a place that I go to if I am feeling a little depressed and it always makes me feel better.
2- Kamelia, who is one of my closet friends, always know how to console me.
3- Poligamy is a notion that I will never be able to accept.
4- An old ring, which is probably my most treasured possession, was given to me by my grand mother.
5- Few people have heard of Hicham Elgerouj who is a runner, but he is very famous in my country.
6- London which I've always dreamed of visiting, now seems to me like any other city.

Modal Verb Exercise

This exercise of Modal Verbs was found on the Jim's blog which is really great, I scored 72% in first attempt and could be quite useful for us in order to prepare our selves for the test on wednesday. Exercise can be found by clicking HERE

Presentation Planner

Ahhaaa!!!

Here we go... I found a very good link on Steve's blog about the presentation, how can we plan about our presentation which is going to be on tuesday. Presentation Planner is a very good site to go through in order to prepare the presentation. The other thing I would like to refer to is Jim's Guidelines for presentation which focuses on Simplicity is the key, so its worth having a look before we prepare our presentations.

Word Family

Another very useful website about word families found on Jim's blog with the number of words over 100 Million and usage of these words in different types of sentences and structures. The website is called British National Corpus. We can find any english word's family here just by typing the word and their usage in different types of sentences and structures.

Thanks to Jim for his really hard work to penetrate some really good knowledge into us this month.

Verb Tenses

I found this online exercise on Jim's blog about verb tense review, my reslut was 67% in first attempt. I still have some problem with my verb tenses. Never mind 67% is not bad enough I think. The exercise on verb tenses can be found by clicking this link, Verb Tense Exercise

Reporting Verbs

I found these reporting verbs on the internet which can be used to report anything either taken from other sources to support our argument in academic writing. These words are divided into to parts stronger reporting verbs or weaker reporting verbs.

These reporting verbs with the idea of how the can be used to express different ideas can be found HERE

First draft of Essay as it was supposed to be

‘Summarise the main effects of globalisation and discuss to what extent they are beneficial to software development industry.’

1 Introduction (198 words)

It is widely believed that international trading and communication have become the most conversed topic nearly by everyone in developed and the countries who are in their development course recently, during the last couple of decade. It is commonly assumed that globalisation has affected almost more than half of the world in various ways according to their internal and external ethics or precedence.

Before 1960s when someone hardly even knew about it, is now happened to be under the tongue of everyone in the recent years. Nor political neither educational vocalization is deemed to be as much comprehensive without merely at least a smallest indication towards globalisation. People have been seen with a variety of completely different estimations about the growth to world level, (Reith Lectures, 1999). A significant number of people claim that globalisation is not more than “just talk”. They argue that we might contract a slight amount in profits through import and export. However, a vast majority of people maintain that it can be seen albeit all over the places. In this essay, first we will look at the main effects of globalisation; secondly we’ll consider pros and cons of this on software development industry.

2 Economy

Foreign investments are opening new matter of controversy of the effects of globalisation on world economy.....

3 Environment

Another substantial apprehension may be observed as the change in environmental behaviour.....

4 Positive effects on software development

Nowadays, the world we are living in is proposed to be a global village, in which the software development industry has co-operated significantly

5 Negative effects on software development

It is becoming very common in developed countries to outsource their software to the other countries as a consequence less jobs for their own inhabitants....

6 Conclusion

Contrary to expectation, it can be clearly seen that globalisation is taking over our world in almost every aspect of life.....

References:

Reith Lectures (1999: Lecture1), BBC Radio4, ‘RUNAWAY WORLD’, viewed 19/08/08, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith1999/lecture1.shtml

Essay on globalisation

‘Summarise the main effects of globalisation and discuss to what extent they are beneficial to global software development.’

It is widely believed that the globalisation has become the most conversed topic nearly by everyone in developed and the countries who are in their development course recently, during the last decade. It is commonly assumed that it has affected the nations of almost more than half of the world in various ways according to their internal and external ethics or precedence.
Before 1960s when someone hardly even knew about it, is now happened to be under the tongue of everyone in the recent years. Nor political neither educational vocalization is deemed to be as much comprehensive without merely at least a smallest indication towards globalisation. It could be known as different terms in different countries as it is likely to be due to the diverse languages but the expression is about the same everywhere.

First of all we need to know actually, what is globalisation? According to Reith Lectures (1999) people have been seen with a variety of completely different estimations about globalisation. A significant number of people claim that globalisation is not more than “just talk”. They argue that the global economy is about the same as it was years ago as we might contract a slight amount in profits through import and export. However, a vast majority of people declare that it can be seen albeit all over the places. In this essay we will carry out two main topics. First we will look on to the main effects of globalisation; secondly we’ll consider pros and cons of this on software development industry.

Globalisation may be affecting almost all of the aspects of the global age around humans such as traditions (Asian traditional dishes could be found widely available in Britain and elsewhere), culture (we normally don’t wear our cultural clothing in the UK), environment (greenhouse gases), economy (some countries are getting more affluent. Conversely, some are getting down-and-out) etc. Reith Lectures (1999), for example, noted:

"When Scots get together to celebrate their national identity, they do so in ways steeped in tradition. Men wear the kilt, with each clan having its own tartan - and their ceremonials are accompanied by the wail of the bagpipes. By means of these symbols, they show their loyalty to ancient rituals - rituals whose origins go far back into antiquity. "

Exemplified by the text above it can be clearly seen how Scots are putting off their minds from their traditional and cultural costumes just due to adopting different origins’ outfits moreover they only have them on when they get in concert to commemorate their ancient identity, which could be argued as one of the enormous losses of so called “globalisation”, as this is a universal truth “You get something, you lose something.”

Another substantial apprehension may be observed as the change in environmental behaviour. Environmental mutation is likely to be a trendy word in scientific questions on long-range structural change in the world’s natural balance. Various researchers have published their ideologies on the relationship of global trade and its effect on environment and a generally perceived idea is that it effects the environment in the same way as the economic growth does, adversely in some stage and favourably in others. As Theodore Panayotou (2000) suggests, globalisation is highly driven and articulated by the free trade, trading liberty and its outcomes. In the modern world these are tend to be the major feed through which globalization collide the natural environment and affects its quality i.e. ‘ozone layer’. The more use of trading channels i.e. shipping, transportation and more pollution as a direct result.

As it was expected, international trading should be used in order to pull off individual aspirations, to pick up standards of living and to improve worth of life. Contrary to expectations, the reality is may be completely poles apart.

Foreign investments are opening new matter of controversy of the effects of globalisation on global economy and this may pick up the pace of the structural change. Thus, shifting or moving industrial structure of the state and consequently resource use from the beginning to the end prologue to foreign investment, results in rise of labour. Globalization may diffuse capital depending on their financial characteristics or circumstances relative to existing assets. The environment may improve or deteriorate but, it can predict the economic growth worldwide and increases overall global output, globalization could implausibly reduce or amplify economic projections in individual countries, sectors and industries, exemplified by China, Uganda, Vietnam and India. Such improvements may restore public’s confidence on the rulers and feel their selves safe and secured in their nation. In opposition, humiliation of economies and people may result in induce poverty and deficiency.

Nowadays, the world we are living in is proposed to be a global village, in which the computer industry has co-operated significantly. For instance, the money can be transferred throughout the planet right away. Similarly, messages can be sent through emails or texts instantaneously across the borders. Previously, it was never thought to be possible unless someone goes personally to deliver. All of these achievements are honoured only owing the radical software development.

Technology is changing on overnight basis relentlessly in the world of machines. As a result of this, soaring dexterities are greeted always by the software development firms. Some of the current pinnacle list of skills are as follows: object-oriented programming (web-based, client-server applications, desktop and mobile applications), graphic and web designing, .NET, Oracle, SQL Server, Java, Flash, Director, Dreamweaver etc. this leads the companies to explore for the endowment broadly with the exceptional aptitude.

References:

Reith Lectures (1999: Lecture1), BBC Radio4, ‘RUNAWAY WORLD’, viewed 19/08/08, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith1999/lecture1.shtml
Reith Lectures (1999: Lecture3), BBC Radio4, ‘RUNAWAY WORLD’, viewed 21/08/08, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith1999/lecture3.shtml
Theodore Panayotou (2000), Working papers: Centre of International development at Harvard University, ‘Globalisation and Environment’, viewed 25/08/08, http://www.unu.edu/interlink/papers/WG1/Panayotou.pdf

Opening sentences of the paragraphs

I tried to some sentences about the globalisation which we are going to write this month. I hope these are making some sence.


It is widely believed that the globalisation has become the most conversed topic nearly by everyone...

Before 1960s when someone hardly even knew about it, is now happened to be under the tongue of everyone in the recent years...

First of all we need to know actually, what is globalisation?....

Globalisation may be affecting almost all of the aspects of the global age around humans...

Another substantial apprehension may be observed as the change in environmental behaviour.

As it was expected, international trading should be used in order to pull off individual aspirations....

Foreign investments are opening new matter of controversy of the effects of globalisation on global economy....

Nowadays, the world we are living in is proposed to be a global village, in which the computer industry has co-operated significantly....

My Essay plan

First of all I'll provide a breif overview about the globalisation very generally. I am looking about 2 or 3 paragraphs for introduction pointing out some researchs already done about globalisation. After introduction I'll explicate about the effects of globalisation in different areas of life giving some good examples from some research I've already done. After summarising all of these effects I'll write about the pros and cons of globalisation regarding my subject area which is Software Engineering and then finally I'll try to write a small conclusion about my essay.

Some stuff for the essay

Very Interesting!!!!

Actually I found this documentary on our great educator's (Steve Wasserman) blog which I found it really nice to prepare us for the main essay for this month, the documentary is called The new rulers of the world, please have a look. And another article I found on the other teacher's blog, who I think hardly stops working for the sake of good grades of his students (Jim) the article can be found here No cheers for globalisation.

So far these both I found really interesting, I'll update my blog very soon if I find some other good stuff :)

c'mon Leeds lets attack globalisation, together :)

I heard and read some of these lectures and found some information in some of these related to our main topic globalisation specially in the Lecture 1 which is obviously on globalisation :) please find the links below to jump directly on the lectures.

Lecture 1: Globalisation - London
Lecture 2: Risk - Hong Kong
Lecture 3: Tradition - Delhi
Lecture 4: Family - Washington DC
Lecture 5: Democracy - London

Get ready guys - Too much self study to do this month

hmm... after the class today it seems like we are going to do the self study most of the time this month, so guys please get ready as this is the last month and we need to get most out of this month. We need to help each other as much as we can as it seems we need to do the most of the work by our selves, I am always here by myself if anyone needs me any time just give me a shout and you'll find me just next to you.

At the end...

Best of luck to all of the class.

Here are some answers of the questions raised in the class today.
What is globalisation? - The gaurdian

What is globalisation? - Wikipedia (A very good explanation of globalisation in different ways can be found here)

When did the globalisation begin?

New Month - Catching the time

Hi guys I hope all of my friends had a good month-ending long weekend :) lets get back to work now please :) I visited some of the links given by Steve in the class on thursday and found them really helpful in writing essays next month. I am pasting these links here for my friends to save the typing time.

University of Essex - Writing
UEFAP - Writing
What makes a good academic writing
University of Essex - Referencing
Constructing the paragraph
Coping with academic writing
Uni Learning - Essay writing
Academic writing module - Paragraphs
Uni Learning - Body of the essay

Some other useful links

How to structure an essay (A good explanation of Horizontal and Vertical patterns)

Try this exercise
Exercise of Topic Sentences (My score was 97% 7 out of 8 at first attempt)

Introduction and one paragraph - Draft

‘Increased use of science and technology to fight crime is an infringement on personal privacy.’ To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

It is widely believed as a whole society that the most encouraging act carried out by the law enforcement agencies is considered to be the prevention of crime. If these agencies deal with the offences before they even take place, the costs we pay in result of the effects of crime may be entirely evaded. Police play a big role in crime deterrence but it doesn’t mean they are the only people to help us fight misdeeds. In this modern era we have different sorts of technologies helping us to tackle the problems we face to make our environment safe and sound. However, according to Barry Steinhardt (1999) Associate Director of The American Civil Liberties Union, CCTVs could be seen as "intrusive" and do not need to have a warrant, a probable cause or individual suspicion to search anyone. In addition, these technologies are considered not to have much effect on the crime rate as previously thought. In this essay we will undertake two main topics. First we will discuss the available technology to help us fight offensive society; secondly we will come across the consequences of this on personal privacy.

Getting in to the modern age provides us with the whole lot of extraordinary opportunities, as we can communicate around the globe in several ways using the fastest ways ever invented by the human minds in the history so far such as email, mobile phones etc. We probably fall into the most sophisticated age bracket technologically, while speaking in the favour of the other side of the argument. Even this cosmopolitan style of civilization doesn’t help lessen crime ratio. According to the Kervin Harry (2008) the percentage of crime we face now is less than it was 30 years ago but, it is still not acceptable. Thus, here we need to receive the help from up to date technology to experience living in a better environment.

Bibliography:

Harry, K. Net News (2008), ‘Letter: The recent murder and crime in St Vincent’, 25/07/08, viewed 07/08/2008, http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-9374--7-7--.html

Steinhardt, B. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (1999), ‘Law Enforcement Should Support Privacy Laws for Public Video Surveillance’ 04/08/1999, viewed 06/08/2008, http://www.aclu.org/safefree/resources/16782res19990408.html

Note: Due to some restriction of HTML these links are not appearing in less than "<" and greater than ">" tags for this reason just typing them as it is.

Practising arguments and counter arguments

The following examples show one side of the argument only. Continue the sentences with a counter argument.

1. It is often said that the paparazzi are too intrusive when pursuing famous people for front page photographs, and to a certain extent this is true. However, a significant number of people believe that this type of behaviour is in their own favour, to keep them in the public’s eyes.
2. Some people consider that murderers face capital punishment rather than imprisonment, and in some ways it may be possible to argue this case. However, in the developed countries like Britain this sort of punishment is considered to be a breach of human rights.
3. It is generally agreed that youth crime is rising and that the police need to take action of some kind to tackle the problem. Nevertheless, it could be handled by educating the youngsters through the different kind of teaching activities interesting enough for them to acquire their attention easily.
4. A common viewpoint is that young people are eating increasingly unhealthy diet ant that schools should therefore take measures such as banning junk food from their canteen menus. Whilst this may be a sensible idea in some ways, we should not forget that the fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King contribute a big role in the economy and the job market.
5. It is widely believed that education is a universal right and that universities should therefore be open to all those who wish to undertake higher education studies. On the other hand, this seems not to be possible because of the high fees, which is directly connected to the educators’ salaries and the government might not possibly be able to afford their wages.
6. Recent research has suggested that the planet is heating up at a faster than expected rate and there have been calls for politicians to do more to address the problem. We should, however, bear in mind that we cannot leave all of the responsibility to the politicians only. We as a responsible citizen should take our part to undertake the problem standing side by side to the rulers.
7. It is often argued that ‘a glass ceiling’ makes it more difficult for women to have the same opportunities and rewards in business as their male counterparts. This may be true in some ways, but
8. Although many people say that there are risks involved in using the internet, because each and every information is available not only to the adolescents but to the kids as well whatever they want to look for. However, it all depends on individuals what type of information they need to take out of this striving technology. Whether they want to go for the good purpose or the bad reason.

Steve's Homework - 05/08/08

The following paragraphs are all mixed up see if you can put them together.

TS = Topic Sentence
SS = Supporting Sentences

Paragraph1
A. SS1
B. SS3
C. TS
D. SS2

Paragraph 2
A. SS2
B. TS
C. SS4
D. SS3
E. SS5
F. SS1

Paragraph 3
A. SS3
B. SS2
C. SS5
D. TS
E. SS1
F. SS4

Paragraph 3
A. SS5
B. TS
C. SS4
D. SS6
E. SS2
F. SS3
G. SS7

Reflections on Seminar

Had I done enough research and preparation?	I think yes I had done enough preparation to participate in the seminar. Because it is clearly shown through my blog posts the links I posted for the articles I read and the documentries I watched.
Did I speak enough during the seminar?	Actually I spoke enough during the seminar and I tried to involve all of the members into the seminar by asking them their opinion.
Was I a good listener?	I tried to listen every one very attentively when the other members were speaking and tried to took some notes for myself to help me to in writing the introduction.
Did I argue my opinion clearly?	I tried to make some very clear arguments by explaining them through the help of different examples.
Did I give reasons, examples and evidence to support my opinions?	I tried to provide different examples and evidences to support my dialogues according to my preparation for the seminar.
Did I ask relevant questions to other people?	To some extent, yes I did ask a few members a few questions by picking up some points from their part of speech.
Was the language I used accurate?	Somewhere it was accurate but somewhere as I think I mumbled but I asked the other participants if they were unclear about anything, I could explain that again.
Had I prepared the language I needed before the seminar?	Actually I prepared the vocabulary for the seminar because I found that necessary while I tried to use seminar language somewhere, where ever I thought it is needed.
Did I direct the discussion or help keep the discussion moving in the right direction?	At some points yes, when I realized the discussion is going somewhere else instead of the actual topic, I tried to turn the other members’ attention very politely towards the topic we were discussing.
Could other people clearly understand what I was saying?	Yes of course, because when I saw some blank faces I immediately stoped my self there and asked them as if they were getting my point of view or not.
Did I work well with the other people in my group?	Yes I think because I tried many times to get every member attending the seminar involved in the discussion, just to let them express their ideas.

At the end I would like to say this seminar was much better than the previous one because everyone performed so well and at some points I experienced as if we were going to have a fight with each other and on the other hand the environment was really friendly sometimes. The arguments were strong and argumentative.

That’s all your honour

wi-fi CCTV on its way

Another interseting article was found on the BBC News website in which they claim it as a solution for the cables all around for the CCTV cameras. Westminister council has installed these cameras in Soho Square on experiment basis and plans to extend in near future.

CCTV goes wi-fi to fight crime

Suspect Nation - The loop holes of surveillance age

Preparation for the seminar

Very informative documentary about the surveillance cameras and other technologies monitoring us all the times as if we are living in a suspect nation. Good to watch you’ll learn many things regarding the seminar on Monday. The major questions I got in my mind after watching this documentary are, are they trying to fight with the criminals using these advanced technologies or are they trying to make their nation suspect? And the most surprising thing in the documentary was, the representative of Channel 4 who is presenting the documentary was bugged. Even the secure means of determining identity what they call is RFID so called revolutionary chip could be cloned. This is the same technology which is going to be used in upcoming British passports and British ID cards, not really secure.

I found it originally on Jim’s blog but copying it here for my friends who visit my blog. Please click the link below to access the documentary.

Suspect Nation

Please feel free to leave me some comments if you like it. :)

Fighting crime with science seminar - Preparation

DNA - Genetic material contained in every cell and unique to the individual
DNA profiling - Identifying people by visual representations of unique regions of their DNA
Frye standard of admissibility - Scientific evidence may only be considered in court if the type of evidence is generally accepted by the scientific community.
Gel electrophoresis - Technique used to separate pieces of DNA by size
Multiplication rule - Method used to obtain likelihood of more than one event occurring simultaneously
Restriction enzyme - Protein that cuts DNA at specific base sequences


-This is an exercise on crime vocabulary with answers but, please do the exercise first before checking the answers.

Crime vocabulary exercise


-I read this article and found very interesting about the CCTV systems at present and some future plans expected to be implemented in near future to cut the crime rate and help police to do their job as its best.

CCTV System in use and some future plans

Steve's Homework 31/07/08

CCTV Frequently asked questions

Definition of DNA

Definition of Biometrics

Finally, First piece of Introduction

‘We live in a world in which we are dangerously influenced by media images.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?

A common viewpoint in our society is that the media presents harmful stereotypes to us in several ways every day. Different kinds of media exist which manipulate all of us. News papers, TV, Radio etc. are the prominent media at present. However, this also has the power to educate people through documentaries, visuals, news papers, and movies. The propagation of ideas become very easy since it directly induces comprehensive knowledge to us. Looking at the other side of the picture spending too much time on TV or playing games leads us to develop indolence, violent behaviour and unhealthy diet. In recent years when media and technology are surrounding all over we have started relying on media more than it deserves. Commercials these days don’t even attempt to inform about the product and instead rely entirely on gimmicks. Truthfully, it all depends on individuals how they react against what they see or hear on TV, news papers, magazines or radio. According to Joan Langham and Warren Stewart (1981), children who were found with more aggression in their nature were more likely to watch really different variety of programs to non-aggressive children. Their priority was to focus their attention more towards violent stereotypes and characters, and they had the extensive choice of TV channels. This essay will examine that to what extent our society is influenced by the media specifically whether this consequence is constructive or destructive.

Word count 235

References:

Langham, J. and Stewart, W. 1981 ‘Television viewing habits, and other characteristics of normally aggressive and non-aggressive children’ Australian Psychologist, viewed 30^th July 2008,

First four sentences of Introduction

'We live in a world in which we are dangerously influenced by media images.' To what extent do you agree with the statement.

1. Different kinds of Media are there which manipulate common people, News paper, T.V, Radio etc are the prominent Media at present.
   
2. The propagation of ideas become very easy since it directly induces comprehensive knowledge in common people.
   
3. Certainly, media have the power to educate people through advertisement, visuals, clippings and film slides.
   
4. The news paper is useful only to literate people whereas T.V and radio covers all the human flock irrespective of literate or illiterate. This essay will examine that to what extent our society is prejudiced by media specifically whether this consequence is constructive or destructive.

Phrasal verbs in academic English

An exercise of Phrasal verbs and one-word synonyms....

Phrasal Verb	Synonym	Example
put forward (an idea/view/opinion)	Present	In her latest article Kaufmann puts forward a theory which is likely to prove controversial.
carry out ( an experiment/research)	Conduct	I intend to carry out a series of experiments.
make up	Constitute	Children under the age of 15 make up nearly half of the country’s population.
be made up of	Consist of	Parliament is made up of two houses.
point out	Observe	Grenne points out that the increase in life expectancy has led to some economic problems.
point up	Highlight	The study points up the weaknesses in the current school system.
set out (to do something)	Aim	In his article Losanov sets out to prove that...
go into	Discuss	In this book Sergeant goes into the causes of the Civil War in some depth
Go/Look back over	Revise, review	Please go/look back over this term’s notes.

A Chapter from a book connected to my course

I managed to find a book in the library connected directly to my subject. The book's name is "ASP.NET in VB.NET". I read few chapters from the book and found them quite interesting and useful in future for me. Here I am writing the summary of the chapter I liked most so far.


The Evolution of VB.NET

Traditional ASP development was restricted to the VBScript programming language, which was first developed as a basic scripting language for writing macros and other simple code that would be used by another application. VBScript was never intended for sophisticated, interactive web applications and for that reason expert programmers had to strain the language to its limit to create first-rate ASP pages. To get around many limitations in VBScript, advanced pages needed to rely on separate components written in other languages, which generally had to be installed and configured separately on the web server. In the end even though VBScript was intended to be easier to use than ordinary Visual Basic writing advanced ASP pages actually became much more complicated because of the additional effort needed to circumvent VBScript’s limitations.

Just replacing VBScript with Visual Basic would have been a significant advantage. Some of the features Visual Basic 6 offers that VBScript lacks include the following.

· Access to the platform services: VBScript on the other hand is automatically isolated by the scripting host and has many security-related restrictions.
· Typed programming. VBScript doesn’t allow us to strict control over data types, and works with special ‘variant’ variables instead. Which are supposed to be easier to use. Unfortunately, they also introduce data type conversion problems and difficult-to-detect errors.
· Event-driven programming. Unlike Visual Basic, VBScript is notoriously disorganized and has little flexibility to group or organize code so that code can be easily debugged and reused.
· Support for objects. Visual Basic doesn’t have perfect object-oriented features, but they are still light years over what VBScript can accomplish.

However, ASP.NET has completely skipped over this stage in evolution and moved directly to the advanced capabilities of Visual Bacis.NET. This latest version of Visual Basic is a complete redesign that answers years of unmet complaints and extends the VB Language into new territory. Some of the new features include the following.

· Structured error handling. The end of the aggravating “On Error Goto” construct has finally arrived. VB.NET introduces .NET’s new standard: clean, concise, structured exception handling. We can see in chapter 11
· Language refinements. Every aspect of the VB language has been tweaked and refined. We can now overload functions, declare and assign variables on the same line, and use shortened assignment syntax.
· Strong typing. Even Visual Basic 6 performed some automatic variable conversions that could cause unusual bugs. VB.NET allows us to rein in our program and prevent possible errors with strict type checking
· True object-oriented programming. Inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism, constructors, shared members and abstract classes and the list goes on, and Visual Basic.NET integrates them all into the one language.

The list of new words

Strain
Part of Speech: verb
Synonyms: filter, puree, screen, separate, sieve, sift

First-rate
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms: a-one, classy, dandy, excellent, first-class, super, topnotch, tops

Circumvent
Part of Speech: verb
Synonyms: avoid, baffle, balk, bypass, cheat, check, deceive, defraud, detour, dupe, elude, encompass, entrap, evade, foil, fool, frustrate, mislead

Isolated
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms: alone, apart, hidden, insular, insulated, lone, lonely, private, random

Notorious
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: Known widely and unfavorably.
Synonyms: common, infamous

MSc Software Engineering

I found this link on the London Met website for my postgraduation MSc. Software Engineering which is I am going to start studying in September 2008/09 session. This course is really useful for me because first of all this is related to my previous studies and secondly I would love to study this course actually I really love this profession and want to play with these tiny machines in various ways. This course consists of 2 semesters of six months each and a dissertation containing 12-15K words as a final written assignment. In each semester I'll have to study 3 courses in which 2 are core modules and 1 is optional means I can select from 2 or 3 different courses. The primary aim of the course is to produce graduates who are equipped to both work in the software industry and pursue research in Software Engineering. Applying concepts from the capability curriculum to the disciplines concerned facilitates these aims. Particular aims include: a) To provide an understanding and role of Software Engineering in IT dependent operations. b) To develop and enhance students’ capabilities in the analysis, evaluation and implementation of Software Engineering principles in IT system development.

Some thoughts about Steve's questions

Talking about the Diagnostic Test I would say I had or may be most of the class (because I spoke to most of the class about it) had the problem with the verb patterns and we would like to do some work in the class this week on verb patterns hopefully.

-Which of the grammar points you have problems with are more important for a) writing b) speaking c) both?
I think I have more problem with speaking as compare to writing because I would like to speak more fluently to do some better arguments, I'm really not argumentative type of person but just to have an ability to speak with anyone or everyone whether they come from Australia or England or Scotland my main focus is on speaking in different accents. About writing I would like to say I have problem with articles (where to put them or where not to put them), punctuation etc.

-Do you think that doing lots and lots of grammar exercises is the best way to improve your grammar?
I don't think doing lots and lots of excersices will improve my grammer skills because on the other hand they will take time which is already short.

-Can you think of any other activities that you could do without having to pick up a grammar book?
No idea, except of finding people from different origins who speaks different accent than British (London) which is quite difficult in current circumstances.

-How do you think you've learnt the grammar you already know well?
I think I learnt from my schooling because since my childhood I'm having all of the books in english medium.

-Can you find some online exercises to help you with your grammar weaknesses. Please put a link to anything you find, then do the exercise, and paste into your blog any sentences/phrases you got wrong or would like to remember.

Strong And Weak Points in Seminar

First of all thiking about the given time, before the seminar we all were thinking that 40 minutes are too much to speak about these topics. Surprisingly, most of the seminar members found the given time was less after the seminar. Overall I felt it alright and a bit more confident about doing arguments. Top of that getting to know how to convince people with my point of view giving them different examples.

Now about the contribution to the seminar (as I think) I would like to say, it was ok I was speaking properly taking my time and giving others the time to speak.

Most of the times when I used to start the sentences I was using seminar language like, To a degree yes, but...., At that point you are right, but... etc. In addition I tried to use the body language as much as I could sitting on the chair in a round.

I was listening very carefully by paying full attention to the speaker and continuing the argument by picking up some points from their part of speach. And the pronounciation was (I think) ok because in the whole seminar no body asked me to repeat something or they didn't catch anything I said.

There must be some grammar mistakes but I am not sure and I have a problem memorising new vocabulary words as I have already mentioned to Steve.

Feedback on Firday's Seminar

In our seminar held on friday on Television viewing habits around the world with the Jim's class I discovered different types of things for example "how much TV people watch around the world", "The kind of programmes people watch" etc.

The key points we discovered were like in China people watch the TV about 30 hours a week which is about 75% of the working week time in the UK. It was quite surprising for me because, how can people spare so much time only for Television? one reason I can understand is if they are related to media somehow they can watch the TV even for more than 30 hours because it is the part of their job.

Secondly in Japan and Iran the percentage of the young people watching TV is decreasing now a days. Which is higher among men as compare to women, which could possilbly be because of other technologies (like internet and video games) are taking over the TV industry and they have to struggle hard to get the people tune in the TV.

Speaking about the Television Images we found that most of the TV images are not quite correct. They show us the other side of the picture, the media doesn't mirror the society actually. One of the reason we discussed is may possibly be the most of the TV channels in most countries are under the government control and they just do what ever they are told to do. Even in the reality TV shows its just not reality. Most of the stereotypes really reinforce the society like some of the action heros for adolescents, superman for young children etc.

We found another interesting thing while The future of television and viewers was under discussion that the Media Literacy is quite important and it should be taught in the schools, interestingly all of the seminar members agreed on that point. Talking about the future of television we were uncertain like what could it be. This seems to be a result of the growth of different technologies such as computers and gaming industries.

Importance of Media Literacy and Knowledge

Because it makes you a better citizen

Media literate people understand that media are constructed to convey ideas, information and news from someone else's perspective. They understand that specific techniques are used to create emotional effects. They can identify those techniques and their intended and actual effects. They are aware that the media benefit some people, but leave others out. They can (pose and sometimes answer) questions about who benefits, who is left out, and why. Media literate people seek alternative sources of information and entertainment. Media literate people use the media for their own advantage and enjoyment. Media literate people know how to act, rather than being acted upon. In this way, media literate people are better citizens.

Why study the media?

1. Media saturation
2. Media influence
3. The manufacture and management of information
4. Media education and democracy
5. The increasing importance of visual communication and information
6. The growing privatization of information
7. Educating for the future

How much TV do you really watch

How much TV do you really watch?

"I don't watch that much TV," this is the sentence we hear most commonly when we ask someone about thier viewing habit. Unfortunately, the reality is really different. According to the most recent figures from Nielsen Media Research Inc., average person watches TV for 4 hours and 35 minutes every single day. Worse, the average household has a TV playing for 8 hours 14 minutes every day.

TV's Effectes on Academic Achievements

I found this article on the "National Institute on Media and the Family" website and found really intersting, in this article the effects of TV are divided by the age groups, like what age groups are more influenced by the TV programmes.

This article can be found HERE

Key principles of Media Literacy

Key principles of Media Literacy

1. The ability to distinguish fact from fiction.


2. The ability to identify and appreciate different levels of realism.


3. A better understanding of the actual mechanisms of production and distribution of TV programmes, CD-ROM games, films, interactive software, websites etc...


4. The ability to differentiate reportage from advocacy.


5. Awareness and assessment of commercial messages within programmes (product placement etc) and a critical approach to advertising.


6. An awareness of the economic and presentational imperatives that underlie news management.


7. The ability consciously to explain and justify media preferences.

Media Literacy

Definition of Media Literacy

Understanding the Word Literacy

1. the quality or state of being literate, esp. the ability to read and write.
2. possession of education: to question someone's literacy.
3. a person's knowledge of a particular subject or field: to acquire computer literacy.

The Kind of programmes people watch

Violence in Media Entertainment

This article can be found here Violence in Media Entertainment


In this article the writer talks about how our society is influenced by the media violence in the name of entertainment. A research was done in between 1993 and 2001, in which and increment of indecency by 378 per cent was reported. TV shows in 2001 averaged 40 acts of violence per hour most of them was before 8 pm which is the prime time for children to watch TV.

Other research indicates that media violence has not just increased in quantity; it has also become much more graphic, much more sexual, and much more sadistic. In 2001, only a quarter of the most violent television shows, and two-fifths of the most violent movies, were rated R. The majority were rated PG or PG-13. The description of the rating of movies can be found HERE.

According to UNESCO's research in 1998 conducted in 23 countries around the world including U.S., Canada, Europe, Arab states, Latin America, Asia and Africa they found that, More than half (51%) of boys living in war zones and high-crime areas chose action heroes as role models, ahead of any other images; and a remarkable 88% of the children surveyed could identify the Arnold Schwarzenegger character from the film Terminator. UNESCO reported that the Terminator "seems to represent the characteristics that children think are necessary to cope with difficult situations."

New words from the article

Main Entry: elude
Part of Speech: verb
Synonyms: avoid, baffle, ditch, dodge, duce, escape, evade, flee, foil, frustrate, hide, outwit, sidestep, slip

Main Entry: dominate
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: To occupy the preeminent position in.
Synonyms: predominate, preponderate, prevail, reign, rule
Idioms: have the ascendancy, reign supreme

Main Entry: societal
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: Of or relating to the structure, organization, or functioning of society.
Synonyms: social

Main Entry: notion
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms: imaginary, notional, theoretical, unreal, visionary, whimsical

Media Vocabulary Exercise

Turn on the TV! There is live coverage of the cricket match between England and Australia.

Those were today's headlines. And now it's Angela McCarthy with her weather forecast.

I can't stand that stupid comedy. Can you switch to another transmission, please?

A soap opera is some kind of TV drama in parts based on inter-human relationships.

We're just getting some breaking news, that a tidal wave has destroyed much of the city of Atlanta.

I like the new presenter introducing and reviewing progammes on our local TV.

'The Weakest Link' is a very popular quiz based on general knowledge, broadcast daily on BBC television.

The time of day when most people are watching television is known as prime time

Many TV viewers were shocked when late-night presenter John Smith's face started puffing up horribly while on air.

"Welcome to another live TV debate. Our host is as usual Simon Bainbridge, and his guests today are some of Poland's most prominent politicians".

Steve's Homework - 22/07/08

George Dyson: The birth of the computer


I listened to this talk on TED.COM and took some notes for some note-taking practice, the talk can be found HERE


last year I told u a story in 7 mins of proect implausible technology
this year i m gonna tell u about the birth of digital computer
this technology is inevitable
including changing biology
first atomic bomb at trinity which ws the manhaton project
3 of the smartest people
thomas hobbes 1656
wanoymen said he was thinking something more important than bomb, he was thinking abt the computer
addition and subtraction
u can do the whole thing with addition in 1679
1945 reinvents the whole same thing
June 1945
just reading a tape in and translating out
controlled input and the output
programing has to be perfect or it wont work
essentials were all there for these machines to work
I m trying to revise history nd give these guys some more credit than they had
each of these machines has billions of transistors
every step of the way
women did the most of the programming as very first programmer
this machine was cloned about 50 other places in around the world
very sensitive electro magnatic disturbances
begineng of the computer grapics was in 1954
those guys drink all the tea with sugar in it
runing time 2 mints
impossible to follow the damn thing where is the directory
found the trouble in code
code error but the machine is not guilty
wts the use Good Night!
smell of burning the v belt
high speed was 16 MHZ
we duplicate the errors
all it happens is machine is runing
they were actualy desinging the bomb
Bils Aal Barricelli
he went around the countery after that
exactaly wt happens is now basically
he claimed machine is wrong code is right
nemirical testing of evolution theories
this was life like or a new kind of life another birth of computer
the memory sizes were really small in the beginng my laptop is 1000 million times more than the beginer computer
theory of self-reproducing thoery
4 million built every 24 hours
he explained in a very generous way
last entry in the log book in 1958

New words I learnt fron the talk

Main Entry: Implausible
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: Not plausible or believable.
Synonyms: flimsy, improbable, inconceivable, incredible, shaky, thin, unbelievable, unconceivable, unconvincing, unsubstantial, weak

Main Entry: Inevitable
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms: assured, certain, decided, destined, doomed, fatal, fated, fateful, imminent, impending, ineluctable, inescapable, in the cards, necessary, sure, unavoidable, unpreventable

Steve's Homework - 21/07/08

1. Speaking in the favour of the environmental perspective we'd like to say that, this development won't be good for our island. The foreigners will ruin the beauty of the island.


2. Looking at the economic side of the argument the development could create a lot of resources for the upcoming generations, but from an environmental viewpoint the pollution created by the development will put current resources of income in trouble such as fishing, boating etc.


3. Economically speaking this development can bring fortune in the history of the island.


4. From our point of view this development won’t bring a big change in the history of the island.


5. From an environmental standpoint this development will create tonnes of emissions during and after the build-up.

Research Conclusion and Citation

Conclusion

This assignment has explained us the sorts of problems international students have prioritized by the importance for them. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether there was any difference between the male and female international students. The study has proven that there are differences between the male and female students’ problems. It is clearly shown (Figure i) that female students are really struggling with their finances whereas male respondents’ ratio is quite low. The second major finding was the visa problem which was about the double in percentage in females than the male interviewees. This research will serve as a base for the future studies for example why the students are having difficulties to get the visa to come and study in the UK, significantly female students. The study has gone some way towards enhancing our understanding about the problems of international students in the UK. This research has thrown up many questions in need of further investigation. More information on why is getting the visa for the international student is so difficult would help us to establish greater degree of accuracy on this matter. These findings suggest several courses of action for both the universities and the British government which could possibly be in favor of international students, for example universities can offer student loans to international students similar to their home students. And the British government can reconsider their rules of the visa for the international students.

References

The Independent 2006-07
The Independent 2008, Education, 04/07/08, [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/universities-too-reliant-on-foreign-student-fees-853522.html ]

Tuition Fee for 2008-09
London Metropolitan University 2008, International, 08/07/08,
[http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/international/howtoapply/tuitionfees.cfm]

International Students Problems
High Beam Research 2008, Education, 08/07/08, [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-177361675.html]

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