Evaluation of a Free Weather Report

For this task we had to evaluate the accuracy and usability of a free weather forecasting service.

Evaluation of the free weather forecast

Over the past week I have compared the information from a free weather forecast for 7 days from the BBC website to what the weather was actually like.

On the whole the free weather report from the BBC was accurate enough to be able to plan your activities for the week by it.
Generally if the forecast said that it would be Sunny in the morning and wet in the afternoon then that would be what happened. There were variations to the forecast given, but generally it was very accurate.

The forecast gives the user the general weather report, e.g. Sunny, Rain etc but it also gives more detailed information such as minimum and maximum temperatures, wind speed, visibility, humidity and pollution reports.

The site offers a clear view of the forecast in the form of a picture representing the weather and also an easy to understand table of the other information given.
Overall the BBC weather forecasting service offers a accurate easy to use service.
Providing that the BBC site is a free service I don’t feel that I would have gotten better information from a pay site.

Review of www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk

For this task I had to write a short review of the Making the modern world site.
Here is the review that I wrote:

Review of Makingthemodernworld.org.uk

According to the “About Us” section of the Making the modern world site, it is a “groundbreaking initiative in web learning, based on the Science Museum’s landmark gallery Making the Modern World.”[1]

They go on to say what they aim to do by providing the site:
“National Museum of Science and Industry aims to engage people in a dialogue to create meanings from the past, present and future of human ingenuity, including science, technology, medicine, transport and media.
It aims to inspire, educate and involve visitors. NMSI's active programme to develop a strong and comprehensive online presence supports these objectives and serves to broaden access to the museum's many wonderful objects.”[2]

The website is presented in a aesthetically pleasing way, it is colourful, easy to navigate with some nice transition effects and good sized photographs and other images.
The site also boasts good interactivity for the user in the form of an interactive timeline on the home page with links to other pages within the site.
This is good for the user because while it is practically good for easy navigation of the site but it is also interesting and involving to use.

The site also offers links to outside sources that are interesting, informative and feature large amounts of interesting pictures and articles related to the subject.

The site is primarily a learning resource. The site is designed to engage the user so that the subject they are studying will appeal to them and this means that the user is more likely to stay interested in the subject they are studying and therefore learn more.

[1] From the “about us” section of www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk
[2] From the “About Us” section of www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk

Online Banking Presentation

So in this lesson I've researched and put together a short Powerpoint presentation about online banking.

Here is my presentation:

Slide 1

Slide 2

Slide 3

Slide 4

Slide 5

Slide 6

Planning A Route

So for this lesson we have to use the internet to plan a route, by train and by car, to Tottenham Court Road in London.

Firstly to plan the journey by car i went to the AA route planner website and entered the details of my trip.
This gave me directions to the destination and the following information:
Distance: 85.3 miles
Time: 1 hr 57 min

The cost of taking this trip by car would be no more than the cost of the petrol used as the site is free to use.

The AA's Route Planner site was exrtremely easy to use for this task as all you need to enter is the postcode or name of the startinf location and where you want to end up. The Route Planner does all the work and gives you easy to understand directions and information about your journey.

To plan this journey by train to Tottenham Court Road firstly I went to www.nationalrail.co.uk/ to find the train that I would have to take. However I found that there was no direct train to Tottenham Court Road.
I found out that Euston train station was an 8 minute walk from Tottenham Court road. Therefore I planned the journey to this station.

The journey by train from Peterborough to Euston station takes 1 hour 16 minutes.
The cost of this journey is £27.50 for an adult.

This journey was significantly harder to plan than the car journey.
Firstly the national rail site offered no options when there was no direct train to Tottenham Court Road and I had to find the nearest station myself.

Other than this the site was fairly easy to use, simply inputting starting and end destionation and time you want to leave.

Overall both sites were easy to use providing you had all the correct information, however the AA's Route Planner was more helpful in offering up options to you.

SMS Haiku's

Last lesson we had to either find or write a Japanese Haiku poem and then traslate it in SMS "language".

Here are my two attempts:
Windoz XP Crashd.
Im d blu Screen of deth.
No1 hears yr screams.



Haikus r ez
bt sumtyms dey dont mke senz
Refrigerator

First Post!

So I have made the first post. This blog is going to be all about my ICT A level course over the next year.