UQ Students should read the Disclaimer & Warning
Note: This page dates from 2005, and is kept for historical purposes.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>COMP1800 - English Report Results</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<style type="text/css">
<!--
div.center, div.center p {
text-align: center;
line-height: normal;
text-indent: 0em;
}
div.content p span {
width: 100%;
color: #999999;
text-align: right;
line-height: normal;
margin: 0 0 0 -2em;
page-break-after: always;
border-bottom: 1px solid #999999;
padding-right: 2em;
display: block;
}
div.content p {
line-height: 2em;
margin-left: 2em;
text-indent: 2em;
}
h2 {
font-style: italic;
}
p.refs {
line-height: normal;
text-indent: 0em;
}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>COMP1800 – English Report Results</h1>
<p>I achieved 12 out of 15 possible marks for the report below.</p>
<hr />
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<div class="center">
<h1>Privacy and the Internet</h1>
<p> A report for <strong>COMP1800</strong> authored by <strong>Ned Martin</strong><br />
<strong>Student Number 40529927</strong><br />
9<sup>th</sup> October 2003 </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><span> </span></p>
</div>
<h2> Contents</h2>
<table width="80%" border="0">
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td>Page</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td><a href="#summ">Summary</a></td>
<td>1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td><a href="#intr">Introduction</a></td>
<td>1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td><a href="#reas">Reasoning</a></td>
<td>1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td><a href="#desn">Site Design</a></td>
<td>2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td><a href="#rsch">Research</a></td>
<td>2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td><a href="#comp">Composition</a></td>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7</td>
<td><a href="#impl">Implementation</a></td>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>8</td>
<td><a href="#diff">Difficulties</a></td>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>9</td>
<td><a href="#conc">Conclusion</a></td>
<td>4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10</td>
<td><a href="#ref">References</a></td>
<td>4</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h2 id="summ">1. Summary</h2>
<p> Privacy concerns us all, especially in this modern age. This document describes
the creation of a web-based report on Privacy and the Internet. A suitable
site structure was first created and tested. Information was then gathered
from the Internet, collated, sorted and edited. This information was inserted
into the pre-created site structure and the entire site uploaded to a server.
Final testing was carried out to ensure all aims had been met. Some minor
problems were encountered, but quickly solved.</p>
<h2 id="intr"> 2. Introduction</h2>
<p> Privacy has been an issue that has always concerned people. With the recent
introduction of the Internet and anonymous real-time electronic communications
methods, this issue has taken on a completely new and global scope. This report
documents the steps taken and methods used in the creation of an in-depth,
web-based report on privacy and the Internet.</p>
<h2 id="reas"> 3. Reasoning</h2>
<p> There are numerous resources available that deal with the issues of privacy
and the Internet, many of which are in a web-based format. However, many of
<span>Page 1</span> these are either incomplete or jumbled, and it is often
difficult to find a single concise point of reference. It was felt that the
information dispersed throughout the Internet dealing with this subject could
be collated into a single resource – providing an easy point of reference.</p>
<h2 id="desn"> 4. Site Design</h2>
<p> A suitable web site design was expected to be simple, clear, concise, and
accessible to all people. With this in mind, several site designs were prototyped
until a design that was both appealing and functional was achieved. The structure
and background code was then formulated to provide a stable framework to implement
the site design. Several test scenarios were then enacted to ensure the stability
and accessibility of the site. Prototyping typically involved a small semi-functional
mock-up of a particular page or feature of the site, often designed using
the semi-automated Dreamweaver<sup><a href="#ref">[1]</a></sup> web design
tool. The final code was hand-coded using the EditPlus<sup><a href="#ref">[2]</a></sup>
multi-purpose text editor, and tested in all current versions of major browsers
to ensure stability, useability and accessibility.</p>
<h2 id="rsch"> 5. Research</h2>
<p> The primary sources of research were other web-based resources dealing with
privacy. The popular online Google<sup><a href="#ref">[3]</a></sup> search
engine was fundamental in locating these web-based resources. Several searches
were made with Google using different search criteria, and a selection of
potentially useful resources was chosen from the results. These were numerous
and often contained duplicated, unreliable or unverifiable information and
were discarded. From the still numerous remainder, several summaries were
constructed, and the main points highlighted. When an issue was discovered
but insufficient information was found within the available resources, another
Google search would be performed using specific search-terms in order to return
more resources <span>Page 2</span> relating to the specific issues. This recursive
process continued until a large amount of suitable information had been collected.</p>
<h2 id="comp"> 6. Composition</h2>
<p> The large amounts of information generated from the research phase of development
had to be carefully verified, crosschecked and logically organised into a
semi-coherent mass. This was manipulated until it fit the desired document
structure. The information, now in a rationally ordered form, was then paraphrased
and edited where necessary and often totally rewritten to form a single consistent
document. This was then subdivided into appropriate sections and the resulting
document was again edited, having its grammar and sentence structure checked.
One of the aims of this process was to ensure that the resulting composition
was not a direct copy of any existing works.</p>
<h2 id="impl"> 7. Implementation</h2>
<p> Having designed the site and its content, the ensuing files had to be transmitted
to the student web server, and a small amount of configuration involving connecting
to the web server and executing a few commands had to be carried out. A final
check to ensure that the site was operational and running as expected was
carried out and the site then declared to be successfully created.</p>
<h2 id="diff"> 8. Difficulties</h2>
<p> The gathering of information involved in the research phase of site development
caused the most problems, with the vast amount of varying and often contradictory
information requiring careful analysis and verification. Several difficulties
were also encountered during the site design phase, mainly concerning the
implementation of the site on the remote server, and the lack of control that
we had over this server. Fortunately, all of these difficulties were <span>Page
3</span> overcome with relative ease by the slight modification of certain
aspects of the site.</p>
<h2 id="conc"> 9. Conclusion</h2>
<p> Research was by far the largest, most difficult and most time-consuming part
of creating the site on privacy and the Internet. The editing and compilation
of the research results comprised the next most significant part in the creation
of the site, and the most subjective. The site implementation and design was
relatively straightforward and the easiest part of the creation. Overall,
no major problems were encountered, with the few minor problems being quickly
resolved. The resulting site is a good, concise consolidation of many of the
more popular opinions and facts regarding privacy and the Internet.</p>
<h2 id="ref"> 10. References</h2>
<p class="refs"> [1] Dreamweaver – http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/<br />
[2] EditPlus – http://www.editplus.com/<br />
[3] Google – http://www.google.com/ <span>Page 4</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>21-Oct-2003</p>
</body>
</html>